“So much music that has moved me”: What artist did Rick Rubin call the greatest living songwriter?
Not everyone gets into the music business strictly for playing with their friends. Most people like to see if they can make a quick buck by making some mushy ballads, and others might try to see how far they can take a gimmick when they first get signed, but the true artists are the ones truly in love with songcrafting and will do anything to make sure they get the sounds they hear in their head on a recording. And despite not being the most musical producer in the world, Rick Rubin has been the mastermind that have helped exorcise some of the best songs of the past 40 years.
Which is strange considering how much of Rubin’s resume does not include playing any instruments. He can certainly find his way around something like a guitar, but when looking at his production credits, every session involves him typically sitting down with the band, listening to the songs, and then telling them which songs have that emotional resonance they should be looking for.
Because, above all else, Rubin always looked at his music from a fan’s perspective. Any artist can find themselves lost inside their head when they’ve been in the studio for too long, but the minute that Rubin starts spouting his musical wisdom, he almost starts to look like a musical shaman, whether that was working with Slayer to produce their first masterpieces or masterminding music for Public Enemy.
There was a bit of a punk-rock attitude to Rubin’s work, but it was never in the service of deliberately going against the grain. Seeing Aerosmith and Run-DMC collaborate may have been a strange choice for most listeners at the time, but Rubin knew that rap and rock were speaking the same language, and most people only needed the right song to introduce them to the other side of the musical spectrum.
Then again, Rubin wasn’t thinking any differently from how the old guard of rock and roll was. The Rolling Stones never had any inclination to stay a blues band for the rest of their lives, and Pink Floyd always wanted to see what they could on every record, but out of all the music he listened to, Rubin wanted to have as much as Paul McCartney seemed to be having when making their masterpieces with The Beatles.
Before he eventually worked with him on the McCartney I, II, III documentary, Rubin said that he considered Macca to be one of the finest composers that he had ever heard, saying, “He has made so much music that has moved me for so long, and he’s maybe the greatest songwriter alive today. It would be great to be able to talk about music with him.”
But part of the magic behind McCartney’s music is that it comes so second-nature to him. Most people could spend yars studying theory and trying to get their songs to be absolutely perfect, but despite never learning how to read sheet music, Macca has always relied on his ear to get what he wants to hear out of his instrument, whether that’s something raucous like ‘Helter Skelter’ or some of the sweetest melodies ever created like ‘Yesterday’ and ‘Hey Jude’.
While it’s up in the air as to whether Rubin will ever be able to commit to a whole project with McCartney, his production style would certainly be a great way for the former Beatle to switch things up. After all, Rubin’s style always involved stripping something down to the basic way of making records, so if he had the chance to direct him, chances are we would be looking at something a bit more off-the-wall like he did for The Fireman years ago.
