The songs Rick Rubin couldn’t live without: “This groovy undercurrent that speaks to me”
Countless producers in the history of rock have provided their artists with a comforting encyclopaedia of knowledge. George Martin steered The Beatles to greatness while butch Vig encouraged Nirvana to let themselves go. To be a great producer, you have to have something. One of the greatest producers in the world, Rick Rubin‘s esteem is not built out of in-depth musical knowledge but a keen understanding of taste, and, most importantly, an ability to communicate that taste to his client.
“I’ve no technical ability. And I know nothing about music,” the producer and founder of Def Jam once famously said. It was a bold claim, but one that has had little effect on his ability to be one of the greatest producers to ever sit behind the mixing desk and put his feet up on it. Things might not be all they seem, though.
The truth is that Rubin might not have a breadth of knowledge or any kind of in-depth musical nous, but he knows when he hears a hit. Having a tastemaker in the room with you as you create a new record is one of the most fortuitous things in the world, so why not hire one as your producer? Rubin certainly has taste. Whether it is Jay-Z’s ’99 Problems’ or Johnny Cash’s reimagining of Nine Inch Nails classic ‘Hurt’, Rubin has continuously displayed an impressive command of what makes music great, even if he isn’t entirely sure how to actually make it.
It means a list of Rick Rubin’s favourite songs is guaranteed to be glittering in golden pop songs, raucous rock and roll and the kind of hard-hitting hip-hop that can please a global audience. Luckily, we’ve got just that as when Rubin spoke with the famed BBC Radio 4 show Desert Island Discs he shared the eight songs he simply couldn’t live without.
The show has been running since 1942 and allows guests from all walks of life, including authors, politicians, movie stars and preeminent thinkers, to give a selection of the songs they hold dearest. Alongside a favourite book and one luxury item, each guest can pick eight singles to take with them onto their inescapable and imaginary island. For Rubin, with such eclectic taste, this proved ot be a particularly difficult task.
It was no surprise that his first pick was from The Beatles. Having previously described the band as “proof of the existence of God,” Rubin was guaranteed to select a track from John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. It was an equally inescapable guarantee.
However, rather than lean on the band’s explosive early work, or languishing in their more experimental moments — something one might expect a producer to do — he headed for their final album Let It Be and the masterful ballad ‘Across the Universe’ about which he said: “From three years old to seven years old, The Beatles were everywhere, and everywhere in my home. It somehow imprinted what a great song is on a very deep level before I knew I was looking for what that was.”
One of the stranger picks on his list is ‘And The hour of Death’ from composer Johann Sebastian Bach, about which Rubin noted: “I don’t think we can have a conversation about music without somehow getting back to a foundational element and… including [this composer] seems necessary, There’s something about this… there’s this undercurrent, this groovy undercurrent that speaks to me. And technically it’s a very modern recording and we can hear things that we don’t hear in the traditional classical recordings [of this piece].”
For Rubin, it was;t just the sounds though: “It also tells the story of taking something old, putting it through a new filter, and creating something fresh and new and exciting all over again after hundreds of years. And I love it.”
Elsewhere, there are nods from the producer to the Ramones and their song ‘Rockaway Beach’, all about a “dump of a beach”. But for Rubin, the song represents so much more: “I was the only punk rocker in my school. There were no other punk rockers and there was no internet, so I couldn’t meet like-minded people through social media. I was the lone punk rocker… for the longest time. Yes, it was a little sad!” says Rubin.
“They were the first band to play fast that I ever heard, and I remember hearing them in junior high school and just laughing. It was really funny to me – made no sense. And it’s funny to hear them sing about Rockaway Beach in such a joyous manner!”
Later, he calls on another artist as the “sound of New York” picking LCD Soundsystem’s track ‘Us V Them’, sharing: “This song represents my time in New York, when I was going to NYU, and I was going out to Danceteria every night with the Beastie Boys and with Run DMC and with LL Cool J, and there was this incredible dance music scene going on that had groups like Liquid Liquid and ESG,” he explains. “While LCD was not yet a band, their music is the sound of New York at that period. And LCD Soundsystem are actually the best version of any of this music! They perfected it.”
Rubin also picks out Simon & Garfunkel’s song ‘The Dangling Conversation’ for a more peculiar reason: “I can relate it to a story I was told two days ago,” he said. “The person I was speaking to is from Edinburgh, and she said, ‘People from Edinburgh look outward, people from London look inward, and people in Manhattan look inward, and people from Long Island, where I come from, look outward. Growing up on Long Island, I wished I lived in Manhattan, but had I lived in Manhattan, I might have looked inward more than looking outward.”
“So in some way,” Rubin continues, “the fact that I wasn’t where I wanted to be, physically, geographically, ended up being a good thing, taste-wise, in my life.” There are also selections from Roberta Flack, Neil Young and Thomas de Hartmann to complete Rubin’s list of songs that he couldn’t live without. Find the full episode of Desert Island Discs below.
Rick Rubin’s eight favourite songs:
- ‘Across the Universe’ – The Beatles
- ‘And The Hour of Death’ – Johann Sebastian Bach
- ‘Rockaway Beach’ – Ramones
- ‘Us V Them’ – LCD Soundsystem
- ‘I Believe In You’ – Neil Young
- ‘The Dangling Conversation’ – Simon & Garfunkel
- ‘Holy Affirming’ – Thomas de Hartmann
- ‘The First Time I Ever Saw Your Face’ – Roberta Flack
