The Pop-Diplomacy of Quincy Jones/ IV in New York-Times

[144,000]

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/23/ma...ones.html?_r=2

The Pop Diplomacy of Quincy Jones

Interview by ANDREW GOLDMAN

Published: September 21, 2012 Comment

You once wrote that Michael Jackson stopped working with you because he felt threatened by the credit you were getting for his music. Considering he was never able to repeat the success he had with “Off the Wall,” “Thriller” and “Bad,” how much credit do you deserve?


Well, what do you think?

I don’t know. I wasn’t in the studio.

You heard the albums, didn’t you? That’s nothing to do with any one person. That’s the combination of the two of us. You’re looking at one of the most talented kids in the history of show business. Michael was very observant and detail-oriented. You put that together with my background of big-band arranging and composing, we had no limitations.

Did he really never personally tell you he was moving on?


He didn’t, no. It’s O.K., man. It’s not like I’m gonna roll over and die. He told his manager that I was losing it, that I didn’t understand the business because I didn’t understand in 1987 that rap was dead. Rap wasn’t dead. Rap hadn’t even started yet.

You arranged and conducted for both Sinatra and the Rat Pack. A lot of the Rat Pack banter is hard to listen to now. Sammy always seems to be the butt of their jokes, like their black mascot.

Sammy was playing along with it. He used to sign his telegrams to Frank as “Smoky.” That used to be a bad name, like “darky.” But Vegas was so racist. I had no idea, man. They would not allow Nat Cole and Lena Horne in the casino. Frank by himself changed that, for Basie, for Sammy. When I went there with Frank in ’64, we weren’t allowed, but Frank put a bodyguard on each one of us. I saw it.

Sammy got a lot of grief when he married the Swedish actress May Britt in 1960. All three of your wives have been white. Have you had any trouble?

Never. What you have to understand is that a lot of the jazz guys, that was part of their revolution. Nobody can tell me who I can socialize with. Charlie Parker’s wife Chan was white. All the cats was doing that, man. The richest white ladies in America, like Nica Rothschild, who lived at the Stanhope, took care of all the jazz guys, Arthur Taylor, Thelonious Monk, everybody. She had apartments where they could have jam sessions, she carried them around in her Rolls-Royce.

Do you have a girlfriend?

A lot of girlfriends.

During the “We Are the World” session, great singers like Smokey Robinson didn’t even get solo lines. How do you tell Bette Midler, “Kim Carnes gets a solo, but you don’t”?

It was not easy. If you’ve got 46 people and only 21 solos, you’re gonna have a problem. That’s [lexicon]Why[/lexicon] we did all the background lines before I told them who would sing solos. If they did the solos first, they’d all disappear.

Your daughter Kidada was engaged to Tupac Shakur when he was killed. How does a father react to a potential son-in-law with such a dangerous reputation?

I wasn’t happy at first. He’d attacked me for having all these white wives. And my daughter Rashida, who was at Harvard, wrote a letter to The Source taking him apart. I remember one night I was dropping Rashida at Jerry’s delicatessen, and Tupac was talking to Kidada because he was falling in love with her then. Like an idiot, I went over to him, put two arms on his shoulders and said, “Pac, we gotta sit down and talk, man.” If he had had a gun, I would’ve been done. But we talked. He apologized. We became very close after that. Once, I was having a date at the Hotel Bel-Air, and he came by and told the waiter that he would be back, he was going home to put on a tie.

A tie? You’re destroying his thug legacy.

Ask my daughter! She was there!

Do you know about that conspiracy theory that says you ordered the hit on Tupac?

I know. The people who say I wanted to have sex with him. Man, this is the biggest age of haters I have ever seen in my life. I’ve been called a blonde-lover, a pedophile, gay, everything. I don’t care, man. Imagine my daughter being engaged to Tupac and me trying to make love to him? And I’m not into no men, man. I’m a hard-core lesbian. Are you kidding? All my life, all my life.

INTERVIEW HAS BEEN CONDENSED AND EDITED.

Yeah, they definitely need a diplomat. The interviewers and the media, interviewing, are as insecure as Quincy is. They need to believe that it wasn't Michael who did all those great things. They want to believe it was somebody else. And they don't want to believe that Michael was polite. That would destroy them.

[144,000]

^I googled again (and this time went further than the first page, lol) and came up with the quote from the book. This discussion with mj was in mid80s.



I read the rest of the mj extracts, yetnikoff seems more concerned in giving good anecdotes and soundbites than a serious discussion about the artists he represented. But who knows if quincy having the ego he had would believe these stories.

BTW, yetnikoff confirms what you were saying about rolling stones being overtly racist.

even if those quotes are not accurate, that sounds like the essence of Yetnikoff..he certainly doesn't know what a producer is.

[marebear]

Michael left motown with his brothers because they wanted to have more control and say in their work. To me it's no different with Quincy. Michael never forgot Berry or Quincy but he needed to move on because he wanted to grow as an artist. A lot of people maybe want to stay and do the same thing over and over again but not Michael. He wanted to do even better the next time. He had a drive that nobody could stop or contain.

I can't even imagine no Billie jean or smooth criminal. They are in my top 5 mj songs that I love. I wish Quincy would stop being bitter or wanting more credit. Enough already.

[8701girl]

Ok will someone please explain to me whether quincy said this or not ? :

Originally Posted by MJultimatemusiclegen
"i was in san fransisco, getting laid, when the phone rang" anyone who write's that in an official autobiography about themselves, is an attention seeking ******, i don't think we need to worry

[Ashtanga]

[bluetopez]

Ok will someone please explain to me whether quincy said this or not ? :

No, It was Walter Yetnikoff. Go back a few pages u we'll see.

Anywho, Q is old news so tired of him being so bitter.

[8701girl]

No, It was Walter Yetnikoff. Go back a few pages u we'll see.

Anywho, Q is old news so tired of him being so bitter.

Thank god for that

But it was still disgusting of yetnikoff to write that

[qbee]

Well I read the article which by the way was edited and condensed so I wonder what was left out. I didnt see anything of Quincy trying to take credit away from Michael. He more or less said it was a joint effort, not just one person. That was the correct answer. They each had something great to offer to the projects. It was the way the question was asked that was distrubing to me. Not so much Quincy's answer.

But he does seem put off or bitter over the fact MJ didnt call him back for a 4th Album. The only reason he can state for that came from a third party what someone told him. Not even from MJ's mouth. Maybe he was more upset that Michael didnt tell him personally. Why cant he understand that Michael just wanted to go with a different sound. They didnt have a life time contract. People use different producers all the time. I also wish these interviewers would ask relevant intelligent questions.

[Michael'sFedoraHat]

i always felt like quincy kind of, like he's like saying Michael was not that talented and the He(QUINCY) is wayyyy better, never liked him that much...

[Memefan]

I think it is clearer now why Quincy Jones didn't sit down for Spike Lee's BAD 25 documentary (aside from the fact that he is senile, of course).

And also, why only B Team's songs made it on the BAD 25 CD#2

SMDH


Bitterness is just ugly.

[144,000]

Well I read the article which by the way was edited and condensed so I wonder what was left out. I didnt see anything of Quincy trying to take credit away from Michael. He more or less said it was a joint effort, not just one person. That was the correct answer. They each had something great to offer to the projects. It was the way the question was asked that was distrubing to me. Not so much Quincy's answer.

But he does seem put off or bitter over the fact MJ didnt call him back for a 4th Album. The only reason he can state for that came from a third party what someone told him. Not even from MJ's mouth. Maybe he was more upset that Michael didnt tell him personally. Why cant he understand that Michael just wanted to go with a different sound. They didnt have a life time contract. People use different producers all the time. I also wish these interviewers would ask relevant intelligent questions.

it's very true that no person is an island. but someone has to make the final decision. all the money is riding on the final decision. only one person can do that. And Michael had a special talent that is rare. and a lot of people were jealous, ever since Motown, because Michael had that talent. Michael spoke of it, when he said..and i'm paraphrasing..'no matter how old you are, when a person has 'it', people should listen.' Michael also said 'i know what sounds good'. I think it's a lot easier to accept that somebody sings better than you, than to accept that somebody 'knows what sounds good' better than you. And, over time, Michael proved that he was right. Quincy doesn't have that 'it'. He railed against Billie Jean being on Thriller. Can you imagine what things would be like, today, if Michael didn't win that battle? The spirit behind the questions of those interviewers was to get Quincy to admit who made the final decisions..in effect..who was the real producer. Quincy wasn't biting, verbally, but in spirit, he bit. Bitterly. He went around in circles, but he'd love to say he had the final decisions. But..he didn't have them. He failed at diplomacy. He failed at being politically correct. He started out his answers by snapping and saying 'What do YOU think??' I wonder what his reaction would have been if the interviewer said, 'I believe Michael made the final decisions.'

[TheChosenOne]

I just found this quote on Huffington Post and thought it would be good to post it here:

"Of course, George Martin was a great help in translating our music technically when we needed it, but for the cameraman to take credit from the director is a bit much." - John Lennon in a letter to George Martin, the Beatles' producer.

It made me smile!

[respect77]

I just found this quote on Huffington Post and thought it would be good to post it here:

"Of course, George Martin was a great help in translating our music technically when we needed it, but for the cameraman to take credit from the director is a bit much." - John Lennon in a letter to George Martin, the Beatles' producer.

It made me smile!

It's funny because I have just seen Beatles fans becoming upset about a suggestion in an article that Martin made the Beatles big. It's like people saying that Quincy made Michael big.

OTOH imagine if Michael had ever written something like that about Quincy. He would be called all kinds of ungrateful egomaniac by the media...

[marebear]

Michael thanked Quincy a million times and if Michael was still here he would still thank Quincy. Quincy knows this. But to say that it was all his doing is insulting Michael and his talent and his vision. Michael wasn't a robot and he did whatever he was told. It mattered to him what he was putting out. He did that when he was with his brothers too. An album was a serious project to him and he didn't just show up and leave. He worked hours and hours on an album, on his dancing, on the shows. I am not a Beatles fan but to give all the credit to their prdoucer is insulting as well. If these producers were the masterminds then why didn't they achieve the same success with other artists? Michael after Qunicy was successful and he was successful before Quincy too. You want to give proper respect when it's due but it has to go both ways.

[Elegantly Wasted]

Lol at the "people said I wanted to have sex with Tupac" quote. Wtf.

That aside, jealousy is a curse Mr Jones