The two bands Quincy Jones hated: “No-playing motherfuckers”
Quincy Jones was undoubtedly one of the most, if not the most, celebrated producer to have ever walked this earth. From his work with superstars such as Michael Jackson, Frank Sinatra and Ray Charles to scoring soundtracks for several celebrated films, Jones boasted a career that few others could possibly come close to, and his touch can be felt not only in the music he had a hand in creating but in the countless recordings his innovation continues to inspire to this day.
Jones began his career in music as a multi-instrumentalist, playing alongside various jazz artists such as vibraphonist Lionel Hampton and as a second trumpeter to Dizzy Gillespie. As he gained notoriety by accompanying several artists on the road, he turned his hand to production during the 1950s and provided his first film score in 1965 for Sidney Lumet’s The Pawnbroker.
Having lived life to the absolute fullest, it’s understandable that the Chicagoan had plenty of stories to tell, not only about those he worked with directly but also the many individuals he encountered across his illustrious career. While Jones himself might have had a masterful sense of artistry in the way he worked, he wasn’t always gentle when it came to sharing his thoughts on the abilities of others and even went as far as to completely disparage some of his fellow greats on occasion.
While it’s probably understandable that Jones might have more than just a small distaste for modern pop music, claiming that he believes “it’s just loops, beats, rhymes and hooks,” before going on to say “there ain’t no fucking songs,” in a now infamous 2018 interview with Vulture, he was less than kind towards some of the icons from previous eras when he would have been at the peak of his career.
When asked about his thoughts on Irish rock group U2 and whether they were still making good music, his response was simply a muted shake of the head. Having worked with frontman Bono alongside Boomtown Rats singers and Live Aid co-founder Bob Geldof on humanitarian efforts in the past, Jones was quick to acknowledge the importance of the work they had done together in that capacity, but his thoughts on Bono’s musical output was not quite as savoury as those on his philanthropic ventures.
“I love Bono with all my heart,” Jones protested, But there’s too much pressure on the band.”
While this could be said of many other artists who have a huge weight of expectation placed on their shoulders to continually produce music of the highest calibre throughout their careers, this admission of U2’s waning quality from Jones suggests that the acclaim they received in the 1980s and ‘90s for albums such as The Joshua Tree and Achtung Baby would dip on subsequent releases and that the band lost a certain magic that Jones might have previously professed them to have.
Perhaps more controversially, Jones was also not a fan of the Beatles and even went as far as to completely roast a couple of members of the band for their perceived ineptitude. It might have been somewhat harsh to condemn them all as “no-playing motherfuckers,” before stating that Paul McCartney was “the worst player I ever heard,” it was a personal encounter he had with drummer Ringo Starr that infuriated him the most and shaped his opinion of Starr’s playing ability.
Speaking about the time he collaborated with Starr on his 1970 solo effort Sentimental Journey, he was quoted as having said that the drummer spent around three hours on a particular part of the song when he and co-producer George Martin suggested that the drummer should take a break. After enlisting the talents of another drummer to perform the beat that had caused Starr so much grief, Starr was surprised on his return to hear that the drumming “didn’t sound so bad,” Jones brutally laid the facts out for the former Beatle, telling him “Yeah, motherfucker because it ain’t you.”
It’s as harsh as it gets, but we are talking about the man who produced sublime pop records such as Thriller and Off The Wall, so it’s hard to argue that Jones didn’t have the authority to knock one of the greatest bands of all time for being amateurish when he had such a high bar for quality himself.
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