Tom Wilson

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Thomas Blanchard Wilson Jr. (March 25, 1931-September 6, 1978) was an American record producer best known for his work in the 1960s with Bob Dylan, Frank Zappa, Simon and Garfunkel and The Velvet Underground. He worked for Columbia Records, then went to Verve Records.

1 Starting out
2 Columbia Records
3 Verve Records
4 Selective discography

[edit] Starting out

Wilson was born in 1931 to Tom and Fannie Wilson. He grew up in Waco, Texas, where he attended A.J. Moore High School, and was a member of New Hope Baptist Church. Tom was known by his initials, T.B. in his youth. While attending Fisk University, Wilson was invited to Harvard where he became involved with the Harvard New Jazz Society and radio station WHRB; to the latter he later credited all of his success in the music business.

He was virtually the only African-American record producer working in mainstream American popular music, and was most productive in the 1960s, though he made his first mark in the mid-50s. Having a goal in mind of setting up a record label and recording the most advanced jazz musicians of the day, he formed a label called Transition Records. The label did release several albums, including the Sun Ra's Sun Song (which was Ra's first LP, though a second LP for Transition was unreleased until 1968) and the album Jazz Advance by Cecil Taylor. However, the label eventually folded, and most of their material was sold to Delmark Records, a small Chicago-based label.

[edit] Columbia Records

As a staff producer at Columbia Records Wilson was one of the "midwives" of folk-rock.

He produced Simon & Garfunkel's 1965 debut LP Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M. which included "The Sound of Silence". Seizing on local radio interest in the song in Florida and inspired by the huge success of The Byrds' folk-rock version of Bob Dylan's "Mr Tambourine Man", Wilson took the duo's original acoustic track and, without Simon or Garfunkel's knowledge, overdubbed electric instruments, turning the track into a #1 pop hit, helping to launch the folk-rock genre. Simon and Garfunkel, who had already split, re-united after the hit and went on to greater success.

Wilson's other major achievement was his work with Bob Dylan, producing Bringing It All Back Home. Wilson is credited as one of the producers of Highway 61 Revisited, even though he only produced one song, Dylan's 1965 single "Like a Rolling Stone," where he allowed musician Al Kooper to play the signature organ part, even though up to that point he had only been a guitarist.

After working with Wilson, both Dylan and Simon & Garfunkel went on to work with another Columbia staff producer, Bob Johnston. Johnston produced several albums for both acts.

[edit] Verve Records

In 1966 he signed the Mothers of Invention to Verve records and was credited as producer on the group's seminal debut album Freak Out! although it is widely believed that Frank Zappa, the leader of the group, did most of the real production work.

For Verve Wilson also produced The Velvet Underground, featuring Lou Reed, John Cale, and Nico. Another of his Verve production credits was The Blues Project, which featured Al Kooper as vocalist and keyboardist. In fact, Kooper had met and joined the Blues Project after the band had auditioned for and been rejected by Columbia Records, where Kooper had been playing in Bob Dylan's band, which was being produced by Wilson.

Wilson was also credited with producing the first album by Soft Machine.

The actual amount of production Wilson contributed to each of the above projects is debatable. That he was involved, and often in critically supportive ways, is undeniable. But it has been the subject of much historical discussion that in many cases Wilson's most pertinent contribution was to stand out of the way and let the brilliant musicians with whom he worked do what they wanted to do.

Wilson died of a heart attack at 47 at his home in Los Angeles, California on September 6, 1978.