DISQUS

Popdose: The Producers: Lita’s “Dangerous Curves” and the Writing on the Wall

  • ozarkmatt · 3 months ago
    "so much angst, so much discord, so little tuning…"

    Hee, good one.
  • Matt · 3 months ago
    Tom,

    What an interesting method of pitch correcting vocals! Thanks for sharing the Lita story, and all of the other great stories you share here each week! Dangerous Curves wasn't necessarily a great record in my opinion, but Shot of Poison was a great single, and I still enjoy hearing that one, even more than I enjoy hearing any of her other more well-known singles!
  • tom werman · 3 months ago
    Thanks for the note-- Shot of Poison was a strong pop song, but it's one of the few I did that I listen to years later and think "could've done a better mix on that one".
  • martinbuchanan · 3 months ago
    Thanks for the industry insight. Today's economy is all about job hunting, and the Michele Anthony lesson makes me believe that people in the position to hire, in any industry, should only tell the truth. Think of the time you wasted believing something that wasn't ever true – that she was interested in working with you. You would have been disappointed if she had expressed no interest, but then you would have walked away with no further expectation. That would have been the fair thing to do. Instead, she took the easy way out and lied to you. What a shame.
  • tom werman · 3 months ago
    Not only did she lie to me, but she did it purposefully, and so that she could demonstrate her fragile power. It would have been far easier for her to just blow me off, but she was intent on demonstrating that nobody was going to tell her whom to meet with -- Tommy should have known that it was a bad idea to arrange the meeting; instead, he should have said "Call Michele and run your idea down to her". That way, she could have taken credit for the whole concept and run with it. Most of the time it's all about ego and credit with people at the top -- it actually has little to do with what would be best for the company.
  • slappyfrog · 3 months ago
    Hi Tom: That first Babylon A.D. album was very good!
  • jrakers · 3 months ago
    I can't tell you how many times I have had the same Michele Anthony experience. I've been in the corporate sales world for 25 years. This lack of professionalism seems to run rampant now. When someone takes the time and effort to follow up as you did, you should at least receive an acknowledgement that they can't act upon your proposal. Her action pretty much sums up the corporate world today. Trust me, it's not just the music industry.

    Did you consider calling Tommy Mottola after getting the brush off from Michele?
  • tom werman · 3 months ago
    No, I wouldn't bother him. After a few months I realized that the mistake was going through Tommy's office in the first place. If Ms. Anthony had been able to say "I thought of this" instead of taking orders from Tommy to meet with me, I'd have been better off. These top executives can have extremely fragile egos and almost no ability to be real team players. Office politics is a well-known thing, but rarely do we understand how extreme things can be. Next installment discusses a similar experience, but this time with a behaviorally challenged label president.
  • jimjoanna · 3 months ago
    Tom,
    great reading about your continued escapades. Some time around 93 you produced a record that I guess nobody but me bought by a group called Hash; I thought it was terrific, and had an interesting Beatlesque sound (also, I went to high school with the lead singer, Seth Abelson, although I didn't know him at that point)...I thought it was a really interesting record, although nothing can be found on that record or band today, even in the world of the internet! Could you share some thoughts on it (or will you cover it in an upcoming journal entry?)
    Anyway, thanks for the fascinating reading!