The one singer Rick Rubin said was touched by God: “These one-of-a-kind people”
The way Rick Rubin made records was about more than giving a great performance in the studio.
Whether he was working with the heaviest metal bands imaginable like Slipknot and Slayer or helping bring Johnny Cash’s late-career masterpieces to life, it was always about finding the best kind of song for every artist and being able to get a certain emotional across in a performance. That’s a lot easier said than done half the time, but Rubin felt that there were true innovators who were beyond anything more rockstars could do.
Then again, Rubin’s approach to production has always been a lot more hands-off than most of his colleagues. While the untrained listener would think that he doesn’t do anything but sit on the couch in the back of the room and tell the band to run through the track, his job title should really be ‘song coach’ more than anything. He’s willing to bend over backwards to get the sound that he wants out of any band, and that means looking at it from the perspective of a fan.
No matter whether he’s working with System of a Down, The Strokes, or Tom Petty, he wants to have that same sense of excitement in his stomach that he did when listening to artists like AC/DC for the first time, and that all came back around to believing in the band before anything else. Every artist needed to work their ass off to get the right tunes on tape, and for Rubin, that all came back to listening to what the greatest artists in the world could do.
After all, Rubin had already based his idea for production around The Beatles when working with every artist. He knew the Fab Four had some sort of divine power whenever they started making their tunes, but while they had each other to work off of when making some of their greatest hits, the producer was convinced that something else was going on whenever he listened to what James Brown could do with his band.
Brown’s Fabulous Flames were among the greatest backing groups of all time, but given how much he sweated onstage, you’d be forgiven for not even noticing them. ‘The Godfather of Soul’ was the one willing to give everything he could when he performed, and while every artist may have been taking notes when listening to him for the first time, Rubin was convinced he was looking at the musical version of a higher being whenever he watched him.
Rubin had a lot of love for Brown’s music in general, but the kind of energy that he brought across onstage was the work of God in his eyes, saying, “He certainly did things along the way where you can’t help wondering, ‘What’s going on?’ But the good stuff comes from these one-of-a-kind people. These people are just touched by God. They are special. And James Brown is one of them. His legend will loom large, because the rhythm of life is in there.”
Judging by how long he managed to keep performing, though, it’s not like Rubin was that far off the mark. There were rockstars that were easily half Brown’s age who didn’t have the same energy as he did, and while a lot of the biggest names could let their music do the talking, we have Brown to thank for convincing the classic rockers that it was about striking that perfect balance between songs and showmanship.
You could easily go to a concert by The Rolling Stones or Bruce Springsteen and be entertained by listening to the songs, but it was never just about the music. Anyone who gets on that stage is up there to deliver, and the performance aspect of rock and roll is practically descended from what Brown could do.
