Com-Page-riots: Engineered Gly Johns

Glyn Johns

Gly Johns is one of the most legendary music producers in the history of Rock and Roll. He has produced some of music's biggest names and worked on some of its most seminal albums including acting as an engineer on Led Zeppelin's debut. Johns got his start by working as a recording studio engineer at IBC Studios in London. He began his career as producer working with the band The Presidents. In 1969, he was hired by the Beatles to make an album from the "Get Back" sessions. He edited and mixed the album a number of times for the group, but the band never completely satisfied with his work ended up handing the project over to iconic producer Phil Spector, the result being "Let it Be".

Johns would go on to work with the California singer-songwriter group The Eagles on their first three albums; Eagles, Desperado, and On the Border. In 1971 he was called up by the rock band The Who to help mix and record the fifth album, the result was "Who's Next"; Johns is listed as Associate Producer on the album. He was paid an homage by the band The Faces in the liner notes of their album "A Nod's as Good as a Wink to a Blind Horse" after the credits the band added the note, "Thank you Glyn, you made all the difference.

Johns worked as the Associate Producer on Who's Next

Jimmy hired Johns to work as the engineer on the debut album of his new group Led Zeppelin. The two men clashed throughout the album with Johns having visons of grandeur about his contributions. Page explained later to Guitar World one of the issues that riled Jimmy the most, "Glyn Johns was the engineer on the first album, and he had a bit of an attitude problem. He tried to hustle in on a producer's credit, but I said, "No way. I put this band together, I brought them in and directed the whole recording process, I got my own guitar sound--I'll tell you, you haven't got a hope in hell."

Johns was a known quantity at the time and thought he knew better than Jimmy on how to work in the studio. When Jimmy tried to add reverse echo to the track "You Shook Me" Johns told him it couldn't be done, "When we recorded "You Shook Me", I told the engineer, Glyn Johns, that I wanted to use backwards echo on the end. He said, "Jimmy, it can't be done". I said "Yes, it can. I've already done it." Then he began arguing, so I said, "Look, I'm the producer. I'm going to tell you what to do, and just do it." So he grudgingly did everything I told him to, and when we were finished he started refusing to push the fader up so I could hear the result. Finally, I had to scream, "Push the bloody fader up!" And lo and behold, the effect worked perfectly."

Produced by Jimmy Page; Director of Engineering Glyn Johns

Despite the clashes between the two men, they managed to finish the album in only thirty six hours of studio time, a stunning achievement, and though Page was in control of the sessions, John contributions shouldn't be discounted. Through his efforts in conjunction with Jimmy, they made an album that turned heads and sounds as fresh today as it did when they worked on it over 40 years ago.