Jimmy Miller

born on 23/3/1942 in Brooklyn, NY, United States

died on 22/10/1994 in Denver, CO, United States

Jimmy Miller

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

James 'Jimmy' Miller (23 March 1942 - 22 October 1994)[1] was a Brooklyn born record producer and musician. Best known for his long running relationship with The Rolling Stones, Miller produced several of their most highly regarded albums,Beggars Banquet, Let it Bleed, Sticky Fingers and Exile on Main Street.

Professional Life

In addition to working with The Rolling Stones, Jimmy Miller produced albums for The Spencer Davis Group and co-wrote one of their hits, "I'm A Man" with Steve Winwood, as well as the lyrics for the Traffic song, "Medicated Goo"). Nirvana, Blind Faith, Bobby Whitlock, Kracker, The Plasmatics and Motörhead.

One of Miller's signature techniques was a certain equilibrium in the mix, which essentially buried the vocals among the guitars and horns.

A percussionist, Miller was known for a distinctive drum sound, especially with the Rolling Stones and he occasionally played percussion on their recordings, including the famous opening cowbell on "Honky Tonk Women," the drums on "You Can't Always Get What You Want," "Happy" and "Shine a Light." The Stones stopped working with Miller after 1973's Goats Head Soup.

In the Rolling Stone's song "You Can't Always Get What You Want", the line "I sang my song to Mr Jimmy" is a reference to Jimmy Miller, not Jimi Hendrix. The rest of the line says "and he said one word to me and that was dead"; at this time the Stones and Miller used "dead" to refer to something they really liked, so when Mick sang the original song idea to Miller, his response was "dead"!

Additionally, Steve Winwood gives Miller credit for playing the percussive piano parts in a few of Traffic's live shows, particularly those in the compilation album, The Last Traffic Jam.

Among his last productions were three tracks on the 1992 Wedding Present project, Hit Parade 2. He also worked with Primal Scream and William Topley's band The Blessing (with whom he appears on their DVD Sugar Train in the song Soul Love). His work with Primal Scream is quite commendable, as Miller and the band endeavoured, successfully, to recall the classic Rolling Stones' sound. In the 80's, Miller produced some acts such as Johnny Thunders [1], Matrix and Jo Jo Laine (Wife of Denny Lane: "Moody Blues & Wings").

Personal Life

Miller's father, Bill Miller, was a Las Vegas entertainment director and the man who booked Elvis Presley into the International Hotel for his 1969 return to live performance.

Miller had a daughter, rock singer Deena Miller, with Gayle Shepherd, a member of the singing group the Shepherd Sisters, a son Michael with second wife Geri, who died at age 33 and a step son Steven who is a news photographer living in Connecticut. His second wife Geri died of breast cancer three years before his death of liver failure in October 1994, at the age of 52.

Judith Miller, who spent time in jail for not revealing her sources in the infamous Plame-Wilson CIA affair, is Miller's half-sister. She is also a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist for the New York Times.

Jimmy Miller died October 1994 of liver failure [2] in Denver, CO. He went to Exmouth District High School and lived on learmonth in Exmouth.

References

  1. The Dead Rock Stars Club 1994 - 1995

Discography (Incomplete)

Year Artist Album details
1968 Rolling Stones Beggars Banquet
1969 Rolling Stones Let It Bleed
This page was last modified 18.11.2009 09:01:38

This article uses material from the article Jimmy Miller from the free encyclopedia Wikipedia and it is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License.