<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Who is Bill?\u00a0 You know, Bill Szymczyk.\u00a0 Who?\u00a0 Bill Szymczyk (pronounced \u2018\/simzik\/\u2019 if you are wondering).\u00a0 Never heard of him?\u00a0 Maybe not by name, but if you have listened to recorded work by B.B. King, The James Gang, Joe Walsh, Eagles, The J.Geils Band, JoJo Gunne, Jay Ferguson, The Winter brothers (Edgar and Johnny), Rick Derringer . . . (the list goes on), then you are familiar with his work.\u00a0 Bill turned 81 on February 13 so I thought we could fill you in on one of the most prolific hit making producers whose hometown happens to be Muskegon, Michigan.\u00a0 I had seen his name on many albums in the past and always wondered what his name sounded like.\u00a0 Szymczyk hadn\u2019t crossed my mind in quite some time until his name popped up when I was researching a recent article about Joe Walsh (<\/span>FTV:\u00a0 Walk Away, <\/span><\/i>Joe 1-17-24).\u00a0 A couple of days later, a clip of him being interviewed mysteriously popped up on my phone (hmm, how does that happen?) so I took that as an omen:\u00a0 it was time to tell his story.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Born in 1943, William Frank Szymcsyk was introduced to music via the homemade crystal radio he built from a kit.\u00a0 A lot of science nerd kids got into radio building kit radios back in the 1950s.\u00a0 The exotic sounds he heard on his radio coming from Nashville, Tennessee made him a blues and R&B fan at a young age.\u00a0 His birthdate pretty much puts him in the Navy right out of high school, circa 1960, where he became a sonar technician.\u00a0 He was still in the Navy when he took his first course in radio and television production.\u00a0 With no musical training and no idea of what to do when he got out of the service in 1964, Bill matriculated to New York University\u2019s Media Arts School.\u00a0 His first job in the music biz found him working with a lot of songwriters from New York City\u2019s fabled Brill Building.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0As a producer of demo recordings for Screen Gems Records, he got to rub elbows with the likes of Carole King and Gerry Goffin.\u00a0 His work as an assistant to Quincy Jones and Jerry Ragavoy helped him move up the ladder to become the chief engineer at Ragavoy\u2019s Hit Factory.\u00a0 A Harvey Brooks solo record gave him his first opportunity to be a primary producer.\u00a0 This experience compelled him to drop out of NYU to work full time in the music industry.\u00a0 Bill would take a big pay cut to move on from the Hit Factory to ABC Records but the opportunity to elevate himself from engineer to producer was hard to pass up.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0B.B.King recorded for an ABC subsidiary label and was one of Bill\u2019s particular favorites.\u00a0 He lobbied hard to work with him arguing he could make B.B. sound better on record (and thus improve his appeal to a wider audience).\u00a0 B.B. agreed to give him a chance and for his trust, Szymczyk rewarded him with his first top-100 album, 1069\u2019s <\/span>Live & Well<\/span><\/i>.\u00a0 The formula worked well so King had him produce a follow-up studio gem (<\/span>Completely Well<\/span><\/i> – released in 1969) that scored B.B. his biggest hit and signature song <\/span>The Thrill Is Gone.<\/span><\/i>\u00a0 Bill continued to produce blues albums into the 1970s for not only King but also artists like Albert Collins.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Szymczyk told the interviewer in the clip I saw that he felt he had earned his stripes when\u00a0 approached ABC with an idea he had been pondering for a while.\u00a0 Bill said, \u201cHey, now that you know that I know what I am doing, how about letting me find some new artists to sign?\u201d\u00a0 Having been moved to Los Angeles when ABC acquired the Dunhill Records label, he took over production for that label on the West Coast.\u00a0 He eventually landed in Denver, Colorado, formed his own label (Tumbleweed Records), and worked as a DJ at radio station KFML.\u00a0 All the while, Bill continued producing records in L.A. and N.Y.C. for artists like The J.Geils Band.\u00a0 He was given a tip by a friend to check out a band in Cleveland, Ohio that might be worth signing.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0As Bill related the story,\u00a0 \u201cI was in Cleveland so I went to see this band my friend had told me about.\u00a0 When I walked into the lobby, I heard this massive sound they were pumping out and expected to see four or five guys making all the racket.\u00a0 I was totally surprised to see they were only a Trio and their name was The James Gang.\u201d\u00a0 Bill went on to produce their first three albums.\u00a0 When guitarist Joe Walsh quit the James Gang and moved to Colorado in 1971, he\u00a0 wanted to decompress and to be closer to Szymczyk for future collaborations.\u00a0 Joe\u2019s first record made after moving to Boulder was <\/span>Barnstorm<\/span><\/i>.\u00a0 It also happened to be the first album recorded at the new Caribou Ranch Recording Studio.\u00a0 Joe surrounded himself with great musicians (Kenny Pasarelli on bass, Joe Vitale on drums and eventually Rocky Grace on keyboards) to record <\/span>Barnstorm <\/span><\/i>(which was supposed to be the name of both the album and the band).<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0There were some rough patches when the second album was marketed as a Joe Walsh solo project (even though it was written with contributions from the Barnstrom guys).\u00a0 Walsh had told Bill they felt they knew their way around enough to self-produce the second album.\u00a0 Smart guy that he is, Joe came back a few weeks later with some bits and pieces of songs and admitted they didn\u2019t know what they were doing, They needed Szymczyk to produce once again.\u00a0 One of the partial tunes constructed (from a jam by the whole band) was a blues shuffle instrumental.\u00a0 With Bill\u2019s guidance and the scenic view from the Caribou Ranch Studio, it became Walsh\u2019s most recognized hit song up to then,<\/span> Rocky Mountain Way.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The name of the second album wasn\u2019t settled upon until Bill remembered an incident from an earlier recording session with Michael Stanley.\u00a0 Walsh had come in to add some guitar tracks and upon leaving the studio, he said something to Stanley that stuck in Szymczyk\u2019s head.\u00a0 Walsh told Stanley, \u201cThe smoker you drink, the player you get.\u201d\u00a0 No doubt the suits back in 1973 needed a little convincing that this wasn\u2019t some kind of overt drug reference, but it did indeed become the album title and the phrase stuck with record buyers as <\/span>Rocky Mountain Way <\/span><\/i>climbed the charts.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0In 1974, Szymczyk boarded the Eagles\u2019 train by taking over production of the <\/span>On the Border<\/span><\/i> album from another legendary producer, London based Glyn Johns.\u00a0 Bill would also be at the helm for <\/span>One of These Nights <\/span><\/i>(1975) and <\/span>Hotel California<\/span><\/i> (1976).\u00a0 During the recording of <\/span>Hotel California, <\/span><\/i>Bill suggested Joe Walsh be brought in to add more rock edge to the Eagles\u2019 country rock sound.\u00a0 Good producers can make great records but truly great ones seem to have a magical touch.\u00a0 Like old time alchemists, they can add a pinch of this and a pinch of that, tweak the formula a bit, and the end result just might be a hit record.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Bill was often brought in to specifically change a band\u2019s overall sound.\u00a0 He credits his ability to do this because he is a professional listener.\u00a0 With no training as a musician, he says it is his lack of musical knowledge that allows him to do what he does:\u00a0 \u201cI listen and react.\u00a0 I never was a musician, so I don\u2019t bring any preconceived prejudices to the table;\u00a0 I don\u2019t favor the guitar over the keyboard, and so forth.\u00a0 I just listen and try to figure out if I have anything I can bring to a song.\u201d\u00a0 His work with the Eagles found him meticulously placing microphones for just the right drum sound.\u00a0 Rather than record harmony vocals (an Eagles specialty) individually and then mixing them together later, Szymczyk\u00a0 liked to capture the band singing together.\u00a0 There were times when a phrase would have to be done over and over again, but he would keep at it until it was \u2018just right\u2019.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Guitarist Elvin Bishop is another case where the producer pushed an artist from their signature box into a more commercialized sound.\u00a0 Outside the world of guitar players, very few even knew Bishop\u2019s name until Szymcyk suggested the song <\/span>Fooled Around and Fell in Love<\/span><\/i> be included on the <\/span>Struttin\u2019 My Stuff <\/span><\/i>album.\u00a0 The song and video showcased singer Micky Thomas\u2019s voice but it was the gateway Elvin Bishop needed to experience a level of success he had not yet been able to find up to that point.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Szymcyk was so good at what he did, he was financially successful enough to back away from being so busy in the mid-1980s.\u00a0 He continued to work with Joe Walsh but for all intense purposes, Bill retired from the music industry in 1990.\u00a0 He returned to limited action producing Dishwalla\u2019s self-titled fourth album in 2005 , the 2007 Eagles album, <\/span>The Long Run<\/span><\/i>, and the debut solo album by ex-Verve Pipe singer Brian Vander Ark in 2008.\u00a0 The most recent entries on his discography added his name to work by the Tide Brothers (<\/span>High Water Mark – <\/span><\/i>2016), Michael Szymczyk\u2019s <\/span>Retro Magnetic <\/span><\/i>(2019), and <\/span>Mondays in April – Live at The Bootleg Theater <\/span><\/i>by Kona (2022).<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0As I mentioned previously, I was familiar with Bill Szymczyk\u2019s name from his work with Walsh and the Eagles.\u00a0 My third band, Sledgehammer, covered Walsh\u2019s <\/span>Rocky Mountain Way <\/span><\/i>and tracks from the Eagles <\/span>On The Border <\/span><\/i>album (<\/span>Already Gone <\/span><\/i>(a great set opener), <\/span>Ol\u2019 55<\/span><\/i>, and <\/span>Best of My Love<\/span><\/i>).\u00a0 I can see why he liked to record the vocal harmonies live because we rehearsed them with just an acoustic guitar until we got them \u2018just right\u2019.\u00a0 With a good set of stage monitors, singing harmony parts on Eagles tunes was always a thrill.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The more I read about Szymczyk\u2019s work, the more I realized how much of the music I enjoyed in the past was from the mind of Bill.\u00a0 One of the southern groups I listened to a lot was The Outlaws.\u00a0 They were often referred to as the \u2018Guitar Army\u2019 – a term coined by none other than Szymczyk.\u00a0 Edgar Winter\u2019s mega hit <\/span>Frankenstein <\/span><\/i>(which Edgar plays every night on stage with Ringo Starr\u2019s All Starr Band) was produced by Rick Derringer (of <\/span>Hang On Sloopy <\/span><\/i>fame – a song he recorded with his band, The McCoys).\u00a0 Bill worked in the studio for the <\/span>Frankenstein <\/span><\/i>sessions.\u00a0 It isn\u2019t surprising, then, to find out Derringer had Szymczyk produce his best known solo album <\/span>All American Boy <\/span><\/i>and that record\u2019s hit single <\/span>Rock and Roll, Hoochie Koo. <\/span><\/i>\u00a0Derringer had previously played with Johnny Winter And when <\/span>Rock and Roll, Hoochie Koo<\/span><\/i> was first recorded by that band in 1970.\u00a0 <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/i>When Derringer produced Johnny Winter\u2019s <\/span>Still Alive and Well <\/span><\/i>LP in 1973, he brought in Bill to act as the technical director for the sessions.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Throughout the late 1970s and into the early 1980s, Szymczyk was still helping bands put hits on the radio.\u00a0 In 1975 he oversaw albums by Derringer (<\/span>Spring Fever<\/span><\/i>) and REO Speedwagon (<\/span>This Time We Mean It<\/span><\/i>).\u00a0 Bill hooked up with Elvin Bishop again in 1976 (<\/span>Hometown Boy Makes Good!<\/span><\/i>) and again with The Outlaws in 1977 and 1978 (<\/span>Hurry Sundown <\/span><\/i>and <\/span>Bring It Back Alive – Live<\/span><\/i>).\u00a0 Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band followed in 1980 (<\/span>Against the Wind<\/span><\/i>) with The Who\u2019s album and hit single (<\/span>Face Dances <\/span><\/i>and <\/span>You Better You Bet<\/span><\/i>) rounding out 1981.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0When asked how he saw his career during an interview back in 2004, Szymczyk said, \u201cIt was an ongoing series of happy accidents.\u201d\u00a0 That crystal radio he built when he was a kid?\u00a0 That was one of them.\u00a0 Sure, these kit radios worked but one could normally only get one channel – if there were any within reach.\u00a0 Bill\u2019s antenna lead accidentally came in contact with his metal bed frame which amplified his signal enough to bring in WLS in Nashville – a station known for featuring blues and R&B artists.\u00a0 \u201cOf all the stations that a white kid in the middle of the Midwest could bump into . . .\u201d he said as he trailed off at the memory.\u00a0 The foundation this accident laid gave Szymczyk\u00a0 just what he needed when the opportunity to produce B.B.King came along years later.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Another \u2018happy accident\u2019 came about when he and Walsh burned out the mixer they were using at Joe\u2019s house.\u00a0 Bill knew James William Guercio had moved to a ranch in nearby Nederland, Colorado.\u00a0 Guercio was the producer who put the band Chicago on the map and was turning the top floor of his barn into a studio.\u00a0 Bill remembered, \u201cGuercio was going to be in Hollywood for a while working on a movie so he let us use the space.\u00a0 He had installed an MCI 4-Series console but the rest of the building had no plumbing and the main floor still had a dirt floor and horse stalls.\u00a0 Upstairs where the studio was had carpeting and a nice new grand piano.\u00a0 We could make it work and thus we christened what would be called \u2018Caribou Ranch\u2019 by recording Walsh\u2019s <\/span>Barnstorm<\/span><\/i> album.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Szymczyk and his wife have lived in Little Switzerland, North Carolina since 1990. \u00a0 They are active in their local community and help raise money for charities including support for a local domestic violence shelter.\u00a0 They have two sons (Michael and Daniel) and Bill still works as a producer on a few projects that he wants to work on.\u00a0 He no longer feels the need to invest his time waiting for a band like the Eagles to get a move on.\u00a0 Recalling how long it took the band to record <\/span>The Long Run<\/span><\/i> (about 18 months if you are wondering), Bill said at the time, \u201cThere\u2019s some incredible tracks we have.\u00a0 I hope they get to see the light of day some day.\u201d\u00a0 The same could be said about a lot of the songs Bill Szymczyk had a hand in crafting and yes, we are glad they all got to \u2018see the light of day\u2019.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Top Piece Video:\u00a0 Okay – this is the ‘still touring’ Eagles from their first show in 2018 – shot from the nosebleed seats but I like it because Vince Gill’s voice reminds me a lot of my old guitar player buddy from Sledgehammer – Barry Seymour.\u00a0 I can’t say our harmonies were quite this perfect, but we sure enjoyed singing the harmony parts the Eagles and Bill Szymczyk crafted!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Who is Bill?\u00a0 You know, Bill Szymczyk.\u00a0 Who?\u00a0 Bill Szymczyk (pronounced \u2018\/simzik\/\u2019 if you are wondering).\u00a0 Never heard of him?\u00a0 Maybe not by name, but if you have listened to recorded work by B.B. King, The James Gang, Joe Walsh, Eagles, The J.Geils Band, JoJo Gunne, Jay Ferguson, The Winter brothers (Edgar and Johnny), […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,8,6,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3089","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bands-musicians","category-from-the-vaults","category-new-music","category-woas"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3089","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3089"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3089\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3092,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3089\/revisions\/3092"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3089"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3089"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3089"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}