Sandy Pearlman
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Sandy Pearlman (born Samuel C. Pearlman, August 8) is an American music producer, manager, poet, and songwriter. He is best known for his work with the band Blue Öyster Cult, though he also produced bands such as The Dictators, The Clash, Pavlov's Dog, Jenifer McKitrick, and Dream Syndicate (of the Los Angeles Paisley Underground scene).
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[edit] Biography
Pearlman graduated from the State University of New York at Stony Brook in 1966, where he had been Student President. He was a Woodrow Wilson Fellow in the History of Ideas, and completed graduate work at Brandeis University. He was also a New School Fellow in Sociology and Anthropology.
During this time he wrote a series of poems called Imaginos, whose characters and lyrics would feature in his later career.
In 1967 he was one of the original rock music critics for Crawdaddy! magazine, along with Paul Williams, Jon Landau and Richard Meltzer. He is widely regarded as the originator of the term "heavy metal music". Pearlman used it to describe the sound of the Velvet Underground in a record review in 1967.[citation needed]John Cale of the Velvet Underground played in La Monte Young's ensemble the Theater of Eternal Music (also known as the Dream Syndicate, which should not be confused with the 1980s band of the same name). The heavily drone-laden music he played there proved to be a big influence in his work with his next group, the Velvet Underground. Velvet Underground cofounder Lou Reed, in the liner notes for his LP Metal Machine Music, claims to be the inventor of heavy metal music. Pearlman is also hailed (or blamed) by The Village Voice for creating "the Triumph of the Will guitar sound."
He came up with the name for the band "Blue Oyster Cult", based on a group in one of his Imaginos poems. He also originated the name of the pre-BOC band "Soft White Underbelly", taking the phrase from a speech by Winston Churchill in World War II.
In 1989 he took over as president of the alternative record company 415 Records and established a production and distribution deal for the label with MCA Records. In the late 1990s, he became one of the first 25 employees of e-music.com, serving as their vice-president. He also served as vice-president of marketing for MoodLogic.com from 2000 - 2003.
Pearlman is presently an adjunct Professor of music technology at McGill University in Montreal. He is in high demand as a public speaker, giving lectures about the future of the music industry, strategies for remonetizing music downloads, and the history of heavy metal music.
[edit] Awards
Pearlman was the recipient of more than 15 gold and platinum records.
[edit] Trivia
- Pearlman produced BÖC's "(Don't Fear) The Reaper" and a character representing Pearlman was portrayed by Christopher Walken in the Saturday Night Live parody skit of the making of the song.[1] However the name mistakenly used for the character was that of Bruce Dickinson, another record producer who later compiled B.O.C. remastered reissues but never produced any in-studio tracks and had nothing to do with the original recording.[2][3]
[edit] References
Other references
- The Village Voice, BÖC reviews by Robert Christgau
- Blue Oyster Cult FAQ
- Hot Rails: BOC Fan Site
