Quincy Jones is one of the best, if not the best producers in the world. He has been nominated for 75 Grammy awards and won 28 of those. He is a legend in the music industry. So, on his birthday I thought I would recount a story about an interview with the Legend where he just let rip on everyone. This week the Beat Marches On to 14th March 1933.
Quincy Jones started his journey in the music industry through Jazz in the 1950s. He played in Lionel Hampton and Dizzy Gillespie’s band. Using this experience, he toured as a leader of a jazz band in Europe and became an arranger for the likes of Ella Fitzgerald and Frank Sinatra.
In the 1960s Jones hit the pop scene producing the 1963 Lesley Gore hit “It’s My Party” which gave him his first number one. By the mid-sixties, he started to arrange film scores and became one of the most hard-working people in the music industry.
He continued working in film and producing the odd single throughout the 1970s until he met Michael Jackson on the film set of The Wiz. At this time Jackson was looking at going solo from the Jackson 5. This partnership would go on and sell over 40 million albums.
On the eve before his 85th birthday, Jones sat down for an interview with a couple of magazines, Vulture and GQ. Some of the revelations made by the producer from that interview sent ripples throughout the music industry. He didn’t hold back on what he wanted to say
There was an array of different people getting praised and criticised. Jones loved Eric Clapton and Cream, media mogul Oprah Winfrey and Microsoft co-creator Paul Allen who according to the producer sounded like Jimi Hendrix when playing guitar.
Jones wasn’t so kind to others. He described the king of pop Michael Jackson as “Machiavellian as they come” and accused the godfather Marlon Brando and Comedian Richard Pryor of sleeping together and Rock music in general describing it as “White rhythm and blues”
That’s when he started with The Beatles. When the interviewer asked Jones what he thought of the Fab Four when he first heard them the producer replied with “the worst musicians in the world” and described bass player Paul McCartney as the worst bass player had ever heard.
Then Jones decided to shift over to drummer Ringo Starr who has always been questioned about his drumming, even to the most hardcore Beatles fans. He recounted a story about a time when working on the drummer’s first solo album. They were working on the song “Love Is A Many-Splendored Thing” with George Martin. There was one part of the song Ringo couldn’t get, spending three hours trying to get the section right. It was suggested that Starr should take a break and they would come back to it later.
While Ringo was out of the studio Jones bought in jazz drummer Ronnie Verrell and managed to play it in 15 minutes. Starr came back and asked Martin to play back what was played. He heard it and said, “That didn’t sound so bad” to which Jones replied “Yeah, motherfucker because it ain’t you” He still described the drummer as a great guy.
Once the article was published the media went nuts. Within hours all major news outlets posted headlines about the Beatle’s comments. Everyone was in disbelief; this was one of the first times that a major music persona had criticised the Fab Four.
About a month after the Jones interviews, GQ magazine interviewed Sir Paul McCartney. For most people, there was only one question that they wanted to be answered: What his thoughts were on Quincy Jones’s comments about his bass playing?
McCartney answered by laughing it off and said that Jones was totally out of his tree and explained he did get a phone call from Jones explaining the situation to him the following day and buried the hatchet. He carried on saying “I don’t think I am the worst bass player he’s ever heard. Maybe he’s never heard a bad bass player”
The reaction that McCartney had to the interview is something we have come to expect. Still maybe of the old Beatles mantra of peace and love, there doesn’t seem to be much evidence of bad blood between him and anyone. Even the most famous one between Yoko Ono and him was more tabloid junk.
A few days later a statement on Twitter came out from Quincy Jones apologising for the comments he made about the different celebrities he had critiqued. Complaints from family and friends of the accused and a family intervention helped him see he had misspoken.
People judge the media for twisting stories about what people say but in this case, it was true. This was a recorded interview by the magazines. Magazines that have dignity, unlike most tabloids. It will not affect the career of Jones as some of the people who he has worked with have done a lot worse, but it was nice to get his perspective on what he thought of the industry. It’s refreshing that someone didn’t hold back and just said what he thought rather than think of the outcome.
The Beat Marches On is a music blog written by Jimmy Whitehead. Jimmy has been blogging for six years specialising in Sports (especially American Football). If you want to follow Jimmy on Twitter: @Jimmy_W1987
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Read the interviews with Quincy Jones and Paul McCartney they are:
Quincy Jones, In Conversation (vulture.com)
The Untold Stories of Paul McCartney | GQ
The apology by Quincy Jones:
Quincy Jones Is Very Sorry For Some Of The Things He Said (vulture.com)
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