Gary Kellgren
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| Gary Kellgren | |
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 Gary Kellgren 1969
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| Background information | |
| Birth name | Gary Wayne Kellgren |
| Born | 7 April 1939 Shenandoah, Iowa |
| Died | 20 July 1977 (aged 38) Los Angeles, California, United States |
| Occupation(s) | Record Producer Recording Engineer Recording Studio Owner |
| Years active | 1967 – 1977 |
| Associated acts | B.B. King Barbra Streisand |
Gary Kellgren was the creative genius and co-founder of The Record Plant recording studios where many of the legendary top selling albums of all time were recorded. "[The Record Plant] has consistently averaged, over the years, between ten and fifteen percent of the top 100 albums having been recorded in our studios." [Chris Stone-Record Plant partner (1978)][1]
He started out as a recording engineer based in New York City and Los Angeles during the 1960s and 1970's. He worked at Apostolic Studios, Scepter Studios, Mayfair Studios, and in the world of music, he was considered a pioneer not only for his brilliant innovations in sound, such as phasing, but also for the changes he conceived of, décor wise, within the recording studios themselves. "Kellgren was the first engineer to introduce “phasing,” a technique that produces a jet-type sound. Until that point, recording had a one-dimensional quality."[2] "He is also credited with improvising with some masking tape and tape machine motors to pioneer the “flanger,” the U.S. version of the Beatles’ ATD (automatic tape doubling) for that memorable psychedelic sound."[3]
He was a very well known and respected recording engineer and producer who worked with the likes of John Lennon, Ringo Starr, George Harrison, Mick Jagger, Ron Wood, Bill Wyman, Jimi Hendrix, B.B. King, Bobby Goldsboro, The Animals, Stevie Wonder, Carole King, Frank Zappa, Sly and the Family Stone, Velvet Underground, CSNY, Rod Stewart, Ravi Shankar, Keith Moon, Barbra Streisand, Neil Diamond etc as well as well-known producers Wes Farrell, Tom Wilson, Chas Chandler, Jack Douglas, Bob Margouleff, Phil Spector, Bill Szymczyk, etc… He conceived of & was responsible for all the "Live at the Record Plant" recording sessions as well as the Jim Keltner Fan Club Hour; was sought out by George Harrison to record the Concert For Bangladesh which was recently ranked as being #9 of the 50 Greatest Moments at Madison Square Gardens; he also did the remote concert recording starring James Brown for the Muhammad Ali/George Forman fight, "Rumble in the Jungle", in Zaire, 1974. Kellgren also contributed spoken word dialog to The Mothers of Invention 1968 album We're Only in It for the Money which he recorded as well. "I was there when he recorded Barbara Streisand, Paul Anka. He recorded Anka for years. Everything he touched in the studio was a hit. Gary is remarkable in the studio. He really is." [Chris Stone] "He has engineered and produced records for Ron Wood and Bill Wyman (Stone Alone). Even if he had done nothing else in his life, Kellgren would be famous among musicians for a jam he produced in March of 1975, a never-released song called “Too Many Cooks.” Present for the session were John Lennon, Stevie Wonder, Billy Preston, Mick Jagger, Al Wilson, Harry Nilsson, Jim Keltner, Ringo Starr and Danny Kootch. The song was aptly titled."[4]
When he first began his career at the Dick Charles demo recording studios in 1964 in the legendary Brill Building in Manhattan, studios were very plain vanilla with no décor to speak of. They were bland white walled rooms with mikes, wires and equipment strewn about and a simple coffee & soda machine. "He single handedly was responsible for changing studios from what they were – fluorescent lights, white walls and hardwood floors – to the living rooms that they are today. His feeling, more than anyone else’s, was that a studio should be a comfortable place to record. He was the one who first thought of the diversions, like the Jacuzzi he built in 1969." [Chris Stone] It was his concept to bring color, artistic design, hotel-like comforts & services to the world of recording studios. So, in 1967, he, along with his business partner, Chris Stone, built the first of the three world renowned Record Plant Recording Studios in Manhattan. “The day we opened, we were booked for three months” [Chris Stone]. The very first album to come out of there was the now infamous and legendary Electric Ladyland by Jimi Hendrix. "Other people have taken credit for the record, but about ninety percent of it was done in Studio A in New York with Gary and Jimi." [Chris Stone] One of the last to record there being John Lennon, who left there to go home the night he was shot.
In 1972, Record Plant Sausalito opened, where soon another legendary album, Rumours, was recorded by Fleetwood Mac as well as Kracker Band by Kracker, and Bob Marley & the Wailers Talkin’ Blues which was recorded live in a closed session for an in-studio broadcast from San Francisco radio station KSAN.
Two years after the launch of the New York Studio, they opened up the Los Angeles Record Plant. One of the first albums recorded there was the Eagles "Hotel California".
He was a huge force in the early years of rock n' roll until his untimely death in 1977. He was a pioneer of both innovative engineering sounds that he invented & created inside the control room, as well as being the innovator of the fabulous décor, designs, appearance & services that he initiated outside of the control room. He forever changed the future appearance & ambiance of all recording studios to how we now know them today.
[edit] See Also
[edit] References
- ^ THE MIX – Chris Stone Interview – by David Schwartz – September 1978
- ^ NEW TIMES – Inside the Hotel California – by Lucian K. Truscott IV – June 1977
- ^ AUDIO RECORDING FOR PROFIT: THE SOUND OF MONEY – Appendix I – by David Goggin
- ^ NEW TIMES – Inside the Hotel California – by Lucian K. Truscott IV – June 1977
