From:   "Dik de Heer" 
Date:  Sat Nov 30, 2002  7:14 am
Subject:  Born To Be With You : Jimmy Bowen

JIMMY BOWEN (By Alain Dormoy)

Born James Allen Bowen, Santa Rita, New Mexico, 30 November 1937.

In 1956 Bowen was playing bass for the Orchids (later to be called the
Rhythm Orchids) with Buddy Knox, in Dumas, TX, about 200 miles north
of Lubbock where he also was a DJ on K-triple-D. They recorded "Party
Doll" at Norman Petty's studio in Clovis, New Mexico. According to
Waylon Jennings, who mentioned Bowen at length in his autobiography,
the success of Party Doll inspired Buddy Holly and the Crickets to
take the trip to Clovis. Knox was the lead vocalist on Party Doll,
while on the B-side, Bowen sang "I'm Sticking With You". The record
was later leased to the Roulette label who released it as two separate
singles which both went into the charts.

Bowen soon gave up performing and moved to Los Angeles in 1959
where he produced a number of very successful albums for Frank
Sinatra, Sammy Davis, Jr and Dean Martin, including his famous
"Everybody Loves Somebody" (number one pop 1964).

After relocating to Nashville in 1977, he worked for about three years
at Tompall Glaser's studio, then known as "Outlaw Central" from where
he had several major hits with Mel Tillis. He also helped launch Hank
Williams Jr into a new, more commercial career.

Bowen was among the first if not the first to use the latest digital
technology to record country music, which at the time only pop and
rock producers did.
He had a profound dislike for what he called the "honk factor" of
country music, that way of "singing through the nose" that was the
distinctive tone of country ("and western" as it was called until his
time). If there was a hint that someone he produced was singing that
way he would use his electronics all he could to hide it. His critics
argued that he destroyed country music to save it.

In the 1980s he produced an enormous variety of country artists such
as Conway Twitty, George Strait, Reba McEntire, the Bellamy Brothers,
Crystal Gayle, John Anderson and Waylon Jennings.

When he took control of a label, which happened a considerable number
of times, the first thing he did was "letting go" a huge part of the roster:
arriving at Elektra/Warner in 1984, he fired 29 out of the 53 existing acts.

Bowen was also famous for never giving anyone creative control or
artistic freedom. But contrary to his usual habit, he let Waylon try
anything, albeit persuading him to record the album "Will The Wolf
Survive?" in 1986, and "Hanging Tough" the following year, without his
band (except for Jerry Bridges on bass). Accepting this had been
unheard of from Waylon for years. "Rose In Paradise", from the latter
album, reached number one on the country charts.

Waylon acknowledged the positive part in Bowen's action. In his
opinion, country music "would have stayed in the Stone Age if it had
not been for Bowen".

At the turn of the 90's, Bowen moved to Capitol Records, taking along
most of the roster of Universal which he had just left, and renaming
the Nashville division of Capitol "Liberty Records".

Along came Garth Brooks, a "country" singer who by 1996 was to become
one of the biggest sellers in history, not only of country records but
in all categories. He and Bowen were both equally reaching out for
more and more power. In 1991, Michael Jackson had what was supposed
to be the biggest contract in history with a record company. As Laurence
Leamer tells it in his book "Three Chords And The Truth" (1997), Garth
went to see Bowen and demanded the same.
"You are not Michael Jackson" replied Bowen "You're just not going to
get a Michael Jackson deal". Infuriated, Brooks, reached over Bowen's
head to the executives of Capitol-EMI, Liberty's mother company, and
got a mega-buck deal that left Liberty holding the bag.

The titanic fight went on until 1994: Garth Brooks told the EMI
executives that he would not record another album until Bowen left.
Jimmy Bowen would have stood his ground but he was diagnosed with
thyroid cancer and shortly after decided to throw in the sponge. He
went to live in Maui to play 18 holes of golf a day and write his
memoirs.

He had proved one of the most influential producers in the musical
history of Nashville, for the best or the worst highly contributing to
making the "Nashville sound" what it is today. As of 1995 his
production had scored a total of 227 top 20 singles, out of which 197
in the top 10 with 67 number 1s (figures from the New York Oxford
University Press Encyclopedia of Country Music).

Further reading: "Rough Mix". Bowen tells his side of the story (publ.
by Simon & Schuster, New York, 1997)
His complete Roulette recordings are on Disc 2 of the 2 CD-set "Buddy
Knox, Jimmy Bowen and the Rhythm Orchids" (Sequel NED CD 278).