<Archive Obituaries> Paul Rothchild (March 30th 1995)
Bill Schenley
Rothchild; from the LA Times, The Hollywood Reporter and Billboard.
It's not that these obituaries are especially bad ... it's just that
they are so ... lacking.
Paul Rothchild was one of the best record producers ... ever. He was
a large part of the most creative and expressive time in Rock N' Roll
history. To some ... he *was* The Doors ... To others he was the guy
who produced and promoted the very best of The Paul Butterfield Blues
Band ... and to another generation he was just a movie credit in an
Oliver Stone movie (besides producing the soundtrack ... he also
played the character of "Music manager's sidekick")
With The Doors and Paul Butterfield's band ... Rothchild became the
forerunner in developing longer Rock N' Roll tracks that showcased
*more* than just a frontman ... For example: "Light My Fire" and
"East/West."
But to me ... Paul Rothchild was much more. He was a huge part of a
defining moment in popular American music. He shocked the audience at
a legendary folk festival when he brought an electrified Paul
Butterfield Blues Band to perform. As if that wasn't bad enough ...
Butterfield's band then backed a young New York folk singer ... who
put down his acoustic guitar and picked up an electric one. Newport
'65. Pacifist Pete Seeger tried to sever electrical cords with an
axe. And while Theo Bikel was doing his best to calm the insanity
backstage ... no one was trying to sooth the thousands of angry folk
enthusiasts on the *other* side of the stage. Fistfights were
breaking out between an outraged but divided crowd ... when sound
engineer Paul Rothchild turned up the music ... and Bob Dylan changed
the music of my generation forever.
Rothchild produced records for, among others, Janis Joplin, Arthur Lee
& Love, Tom Rush, Joshua Rifkin, Mark Spoelstra, Dave Van Ronk, Geoff
Muldaur, Maria Muldaur, Fred Neil, Tom Paxton, Lovin' Spoonful, Al
Kooper, Clear Light, Eric Clapton, Tim Buckley and Mike Bloomfield.
At the end of these three obituaries there is a terrific interview
with Jac Holzman, Theo Bikel, Dave Gahr, Jonathan Taplin and Paul
Rothchild ... about Newport '65.
Photo of Bob Dylan at Newport '65:
http://www.bobgruen.com/files/bobdylan/files/R.069%20BOB%20DYLAN%20-NEWPORT'65.gif
Paul Rothchild; Record Producer
FROM: The Los Angeles Times (April 2nd 1995) ~
Paul Rothchild, producer of more than 150 albums
featuring such rock stars as the Doors, Janis Joplin and
Bonnie Raitt and whose credits include the soundtracks for
the Joplin-inspired film "The Rose" and the Jim Morrison
biopic "The Doors," is dead.
Jac Holzman of Discovery Records, who first teamed
with Rothchild in 1963 to produce the first six Doors albums
for Elektra Records, said his longtime friend and colleague
was 59 when he died Thursday at his Hollywood Hills home. He
lost a five-year struggle with lung cancer, Holzman added.
Rothchild's most public acknowledgment probably came
with the 1991 release of "The Doors," Oliver Stone's film
about Morrison, his band and his era.
Rothchild portrayed the band manager's sidekick in the
controversial film, which many criticized for dwelling too
heavily on Morrison's darker side. (The troubled singer and
guitarist, considered a forerunner of the leather-clad,
brooding rock stars who were to follow him, died in Paris in
1971 at age 27 of a drug overdose.)
Stone cast Val Kilmer as Morrison and Rothchild worked
with the baritone for the movie's score. Kilmer's voice was
used in conjunction with some of Morrison's recordings.
After the picture's release, Rothchild was sought by
interviewers seeking insight into Morrison's life and
attitudes.
Rothchild became known early in his career for
recordings by the Paul Butterfield Blues Band and the West
Coast rock group Love.
FROM: The Hollywood Reporter (April 3rd 1995) ~
Paul Rothchild, a record producer known for his breakthrough
work of the 1960s with the Doors, Janis Joplin, Love and
many others, has died of lung cancer at his home in the
Hollywood Hills. He was 59.
Rothchild started producing records for the Prestige label
in the early '60s and was a charter member of the Boston
folk scene then. Among his earliest recordings were Tom Rush
and the Charles River Valley Boys.
In 1963, he joined Elektra Records as senior staff producer.
Three years later, the label's Jac Holzman signed the Doors,
a literate but hard-rocking bar band working the Sunset
Strip. Rothchild produced the band's self-titled first
album, a commercial and critical smash that was to help
change the direction of rock music for decades to come.
Rothchild went on to produce five more albums with the Jim
Morrison-fronted band, including the classic "Strange Days"
(1967), "Waiting for the Sun" (1968) and "Morrison Hotel"
(1970).
Rothchild also produced breakthrough records by the Paul
Butterfield Blues Band and the seminal Los Angeles
psychedelic band Love, which was fronted by Arthur Lee.
With Love and the Doors, Rothchild helped establish the
extended rock song as a hippie art form. He was considered a
master of the rule-breaking studio techniques employed by
rock musicians of the era. He produced more than 150 albums
in all.
Rothchild became a celebrity in the underground world of the
late 1960s. He adopted the long hair and western hipster
look of the Los Angeles music scene, and was often profiled
in the alternative press.
He produced Joplin's posthumous "Pearl." He later produced
the soundtrack for Bette Midler's "The Rose" (1979), which
was loosely based on Joplin's life.
His most recent album was "Body Heat -- Jazz at the Movies."
At the time of his death, Rothchild was putting the
finishing touches to "The Long Lost Elektra, Paul
Butterfield tapes," which will be released by Rhino Records
later this year.
FROM: Billboard (April 15th 1995) ~
By Paul Verna
Producer Paul A. Rothchild, renowned for his
groundbreaking work for the Doors, Janis Joplin, and
other '60s icons, died March 30 in Hollywood, Calif.
He was 59.
Rothchild, who had fought a five-year battle with lung
cancer, leaves a legacy that includes the Doors' six
studio albums, Joplin's "Pearl," and breakthrough
recordings by the Paul Butterfield Blues Band and Love.
Rothchild's friends and associates remember him as a
meticulous craftsman who lent order to otherwise chaotic
recording sessions.
Elektra founder Jac Holzman, who hired Rothchild as the
label's senior staff producer in 1963, says, "Paul was an
extraordinarily fastidious producer. He took a long time
with his albums, but he was able to immerse himself in the
detail of fine production without having the album lose
heart or cohesion."
Holzman adds that he and Rothchild made ''close to 50
albums together, ranging from bluegrass and jug bands and
blues through to the classics of Love, Paul Butterfield, and,
of course, the Doors. He was ingenious and
adventuresome, adding horns to the Doors' 'Touch Me'
when late '60s sensibilities said adding horns to a rock
album just wasn't done.
Well, Paul did it, and it worked.'' Former Doors manager Bill
Siddons says, ''Without Paul Rothchild, the Doors would
have never made the quality of records that they made in the
early days. He brought a sense of professionalism and
order to a band that was more inspired by adventure than
discipline, and the mix worked perfectly for quite a while.
Paul was an extraordinary character and quite able to deal
with the unusual circumstances created by working with the
disparate personalities of the Doors.''
Ex-Doors guitarist Robby Krieger says his admiration for
Rothchild began before they started working together in
1967. ''When I was in high school,'' recalls Krieger, ''my
favorite records were some early Elektra recordings of
urban blues artists'' like Paul Butterfield.
''They were all produced by Paul Rothchild. Later, when the
Doors signed with Elektra, Paul had produced Arthur Lee &
Love, and I knew that it was meant to be that the Doors and
Rothchild would work together.''
Krieger adds that Rothchild's effect on the Doors' sound
transcended time and place. ''The longevity of the Doors
sound is largely due to his constant search for perfection,'' he
says.
The band's keyboardist, Ray Manzarek, remembers
Rothchild as ''the fifth Door. And (engineer Bruce) Botnick
was the sixth Door. So when we went into the recording
studio, there were actually six Doors: four musicians and
two technicians. And the atmosphere that Paul created as
producer was one of great trust and security.''
Prior to joining Elektra, Rothchild had produced records for
the Prestige label in the early '60s, according to a statement
from Discovery Records, Holzman's current label. Rothchild
was active in the Boston folk scene, working with such
artists as Tom Rush and the Charles River Valley Boys.
Later in his career, he worked with Bonnie Raitt and
produced the soundtracks to the Bette Midler vehicle ''The
Rose'' (inspired by Joplin's life) and Oliver Stone's ''The
Doors.''
Commenting on Rothchild's work on ''The Doors'' film,
Holzman says, ''Many people don't know that Paul coached
(film star) Val Kilmer with such exactitude that in several of
the tracks in the film both Val and Jim (Morrison) are
singing, and no one can tell the difference. Paul was
happiest when he was spending infinite hours in the studio
making a good thing better.''
Among Rothchild's recent productions were the
contemporary jazz album ''Body Heat Jazz At The Movies''
(with Holzman) and ''The Long Lost Elektra Paul Butterfield
Tapes'' the latter due later this year on Rhino Records.
A funeral service for Rothchild was held April 8 at his
Hollywood home.
---
Dylan Goes Electric At Newport 1965
FROM: Follow The Music ~
(The story of Elektra Records)
By Jac Holzman and Gavan Daws
http://www.followthemusic.com/60s.html
JAC HOLZMAN: The event of the folk year was the
Newport Folk Festival. It was launched in 1959 by George
Wein, who was also founder of the Newport Jazz Festival
and an accomplished jazz pianist himself. At the folk
festival, Elektra was always well represented with
performers on stage. I went every year from the first. You'd
see all the people you normally would run across in New
York or LA, but out of the city there was time for relaxation
that transcended business or party loyalties. For me it was
a mini-vacation. I loved just wandering around, catching the
workshops and the impromptu get-togethers of musicians
showing off their licks and trading songs . . .
. . . On the Saturday afternoon of the 1965 festival there was
a blues workshop. Alan Lomax was hosting the black
traditionalists. Alan was the son of John Lomax, two great
white collectors, for whom traditional music seemed to
freeze-frame about the time of the Tennessee Valley
Authority. Alan was the last protector and refuge of the
lone voice from Mutton Hollow.
The second segment of the workshop was slated to be
white urban blues, featuring the Butterfield Band. Due to
the amazing sales of 'Born In Chicago' on the Elektra
sampler, and the buzz that went with it, I had arranged for
them to perform at Newport. Albert Grossman, the manager
of Bob Dylan and Peter, Paul and Mary, was in full hover
over them as future clients.
PAUL ROTHCHILD: I had introduced Butterfield to
Grossman.
JAC: The crowd at the blues workshop was enormous.
Instead of a few hundred this one had nearly a thousand.
PAUL ROTHCHILD: Lomax was loaded for bear. After
the traditionalists and ahead of the Butterfield set, he
got up and said something like, "Today you've been
hearing music by the great blues players, guys who go
out and find themselves an old cigar box, put a stick on
it, attach some strings, sit under a tree and play great
blues for themselves. Now you're going to hear a group
of young boys from Chicago with electric instruments.
Let's see if they can play this hardware at all."
JAC: Lomax was so condescending, I was embarrassed for
him.
PAUL ROTHCHILD: Grossman took it the worst way.
Lomax comes down from this little stage and Grossman
coldcocks him. And for about the next five minutes these
two leviathans, monsters, both kings in their own right-
JAC: -Dueling behemoths. Two big growlers, overweight,
unfit, far from agile-
PAUL ROTHCHILD:-Groveling in the dusty dirt of
Newport over the Paul Butterfield Blues Band. It was
wonderful. Holzman was laughing his ass off.
JAC: Al 'If I Had A Hammer' Grossman versus Alan
'Mighty Defender of the Status Quo' Lomax. One very
short round, split decision. And this was only the
preliminary bout. The main event was the following night
when Dylan went electric-
THEODORE BIKEL:-To the delight of some, to the dismay
of most.
: Grossman, upon hearing that Bob
wanted to play electric, hastily put a band together. And
the only guys who had electric instruments were
Butterfield's band.
JAC: Albert had Al Kooper flown in by charter from New
York to play organ. Al was always a reluctant flyer, and
winging to Newport in a tiny plane with one engine was
not his preferred mode of travel.
DAVE GAHR: I knew what was coming, because in the
afternoon I was the only photographer allowed in to
shoot Dylan with Butterfield's band.
JONATHAN TAPLIN: We kicked everybody out of the
stadium and did a short sound check, which Peter Yarrow
was mixing. The problem was the rhythm section. They
were great blues players, but Dylan didn't play twelve-bar
music. He played very bizarre music in terms of its
structure. So they didn't really understand what was going
on at all. And Bob refused to do much of a rehearsal-
JAC:-Ten or fifteen minutes. Let's say that musically,
Dylan's electric set was not going to be tightly wrapped.
That evening I was standing next to Dave Gahr in the
photographer's pit, below and in front of the stage. Peter
Yarrow introduced Dylan for the very special artist that he
was, and from the moment he launched into 'Maggie's
Farm,' now fleshed out with an incredible electric
intensity, it was clarity and catharsis.
I could feel the tickler go up on the back of my neck, the
hairs rising in happy resonance. My friend Paul Nelson
of the Little Sandy Review was standing alongside, and
we just turned to each other and shit-grinned.
This was electricity married to content. We were hearing
music with lyrics that had meaning, with a rock beat,
drums and electric guitars, Mike Bloomfield keening as
if squeezing out his final note on this planet. Absolutely
stunning. All the parallel strains of music over the years
coalesced for me in that moment. It was like a sunrise
after a storm, when all is clean . . . all is known.
Then suddenly we heard booing, like pockets of wartime
flak. The audience had split into two separate and
opposing camps. It grew into an awesome barrage of
catcalls and hisses. It was very strange, because I
couldn't believe that those people weren't hearing the
wonderful stuff I was hearing.
PAUL ROTHCHILD: I was at the console, mixing the
set, the only one there who had ever recorded electric
music. I could barely hear Dylan because of the furor.
JAC: I looked directly into Dylan's face as he squinted
into the darkness, trying to figure out what was
happening.
PAUL ROTHCHILD: From my perspective, it seemed
like everybody on my left wanted Dylan to get off the
stage, everybody on my right wanted him to turn it up.
And I did-I turned it up.
JAC: Backstage, an un-civil war had broken out. Alan
Lomax was bellowing that this was a folk festival, you
didn't have amplified instruments. Pete Seeger was
beside himself, jumped into a car and rolled up the
windows, his hands over his ears.
PAUL ROTHCHILD: On one side you had the old
guard, George Wein, Alan Lomax, Pete Seeger. Pete,
pacifist Pete, with an ax: "I'm going to cut the cables!" The
other group is Peter Yarrow, a festival director, Albert
Grossman, not a director but on the other side. There
were about eight people on each side of the cable, and
more gathering, one group trying to defend it, the other
trying to cut it. Seeger's a tall thin guy, and Yarrow's a
short thin guy, and they are nose to nose, screaming at
each other.
JONATHAN TAPLIN: Out front it was turning into a
disaster.
JAC: Crazier and crazier.
JONATHAN TAPLIN: Bob was getting booed and he
walked off.
JAC: Dylan left the stage hurt, angry and shaken. Peter
Yarrow took the stage again, very rattled. Like a wounded
cheerleader, he attempted to rally support, urging the
audience on until there was enough positive emotion that
Dylan could return with dignity.
JONATHAN TAPLIN: I saw Dylan backstage from a
little bit of a distance, and he seemed to be crying.
Johnny Cash came up and gave him a big Gibson guitar,
a jumbo, much too big for Bob, and told him to go back
out there.
JAC: His face set with determination, Dylan walked back
onto that stage and stared down ten thousand pairs of
eyes.
JONATHAN TAPLIN: He says, "Does anybody have a
D harmonica?" And all these harmonicas were being
thrown from the audience. The audience thought they'd
won-here was Dylan, no band, back into acoustic folk
stuff. And then he sang 'It's All Over Now, Baby Blue'
and walked off.
JAC: And Dylan and folk music and Elektra were never
the same again.
JONATHAN TAPLIN: It was unbelievably dramatic. At
the party afterwards he was pretty much by himself. I
mean, all the other singers and everything were very
supportive of him, but it was clear that he didn't like
what had happened.
I ended up working with him, touring, all over the country
and then all over the world, for two years, and he was
booed everywhere. Every time. He would play the first half
folk, with just harmonica and guitar, and the second half
rock and roll, and get booed.
PAUL ROTHCHILD: To me, that night at Newport was
as clear as crystal. It's the end of one era and the
beginning of another. There's no historical precedent.
This is a folk festival, the folk festival, and you couldn't
even say it's blues and the blues has moved to an electric
format. This is a young Jewish songwriter with an electric
band that sounds like rock and roll.
There were two very big passions happening here.
And it was an election. You had to choose which team
you were going to support. I expected Peter Yarrow to
join with the future, because of his peer group and his
dedication to Dylan, whose songs had made Peter, Paul
and Mary's success so resounding. At the same time it
changed Peter's professional life. Peter, Paul and Mary
were acoustic folk singers, and Peter had to know that
their moment had passed; but personally, Peter's
commitment was to the future. Albert Grossman, that was
an obvious one. And Jac. Jac could just as easily-more
easily-have joined with the Newport board of directors,
the Weins, the Lomaxes, the Seegers, and said, "No
electric music." But he didn't. I was very proud of Jac at
that moment, watching him choose the unknown rather
than the comfort of the known.
JAC: I followed my instinct and my heart. I followed the
music.
---
Photos of artists Paul Rothchild produced:
(Theo Bikel) http://celebrateseries.com/albums/bikel/Theo.gif
(Tom Paxton) http://www.wolftrap.org/press/artists0405/paxton.jpg
(The Doors) http://imagecache2.allposters.com/images/PEPH/DS1B1.jpg
(PBBB w/Mike Bloomfield) http://www.bluespower.com/j-bbb01.jpg
(Arthur Lee) http://rocknroll.forever.free.fr/Photos/love10.JPG
(Fred Neil) http://www.malhanga.com/musicadiversa/fred_neil.jpg
(Tim Buckley)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/profiles/images/buckleytimmain.jpg
(Dave Van Ronk)
http://www.caffelena.com/who_photos/dave_van_ronk_300x300.jpg
(Janis Joplin)
http://www.gindrat.ch/janis/janis-joplin-image-447x800.jpg