The one song Rick Rubin can’t live without: “A timeless time”
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 clients.
Rick Rubin’s appearance on the BBC’s Desert Island Discs made for an illuminating listen. The episode provided a fascinating insight into the record collection of the person responsible for many albums that sit on your vinyl shelf at home.
There aren’t many artists with whom Rubin would like to make an album that have evaded him. For Desert Island Discs, where guests are asked to name eight records they’d take with them for company on an inescapable deserted island, Rubin could easily have picked a healthy playlist from songs he’s produced, but chose against that tactic.
During the radio show, Rubin also opened up to host Lauren Laverne about his approach to his craft. He explained: “It’s just an experience. There are times when I’m looking for a specific thing, but in general, it starts with the general experience of ‘What am I feeling?’ and I’m both listening to what’s coming at me and paying attention to what’s going on in my body as I listen.”
Rubin added “Does something happen that makes me want to lean forward? Is there something that makes me want to laugh? Even if it’s not funny, is there something that surprises me? Or makes me want to know more. Or bores me which happens, and then I’d say, ‘That’s a problem’ – If it’s boring to me, it’ll probably be boring to someone else, or it’s likely to be.”
After picking their eight selections, the guest is required to name a book, and Rubin opted for The Red Book by Carl Jung. He also picked tarot cards as his luxury item. Furthermore, Rubin also had to select his favourite track from the eight he previously named, which is anointed as the ‘Castaway’s Favourite’.
His eight songs featured ‘Across the Universe’ by The Beatles, ‘Rockaway Beach’ by The Ramones, ‘I Believe in You’ by Neil Young, Roberta Flack’s ‘The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face’, and also ‘The Dangling Conversation’ by Simon & Garfunkel. However, none of those was the one Rubin wanted to be isolated alongside on a desert island.
Instead, Rubin opted for ‘Holy Affirming, Holy Denying, Holy Reconciling,’ a composition by the late Ukrainian Thomas De Hartmann. Explaining his choice, Rubin said: “This music not only feels like it’s from not just another time, a timeless time, and it doesn’t bring up specific memories of things to miss. I was thinking about it, and I don’t want to miss anything when I’m on the island. Most of the things I would choose would give me memories of things I would miss, this doesn’t do that.”
After picking it as his ‘Castaway’s Favourite’, Rubin commented: “If I was on a desert island, that’s what I would want the soundtrack to be.”
Listen below to the stunning composition, ‘Holy Affirming, Holy Denying, Holy Reconciling’.
