Obtain Ted Templeman: A Platinum Producer’s Life In Music Depicted By Ted Templeman Available As Document

fun trip through rock history from Ted's youth growing up in Santa Cruz to hiss band Harper's Bizarre that had a tophit and played at Frank Sinatra's and Mia Farrow'sst wedding anniversary which after folding infound him landing at Warner Brothers to listen to demo tapes.

Finally discovering the great Doobie Brothers to put him on his way and producing all theirs hit albums,
He also produced Van Morrison and discovered Little Feat producing their early albums,
This set him up at Warners and he steadily worked through thes before discovering the best find of all in Van Halen and producing their firstalbums.

This is apart from his producing, working or collaborating with George Harrison, Eric Clapton, Nicolette Larsson and Aerosmith amongst others,
Sprinkled with great rock and roll stories and brilliance in the studio it's a difficult one to put down,
Well worth the read for fans of these bands or just as a fly on the wall for a lost time of creativeness.
At first, I hesitated about reading this book, simply because Im doing research for a rock star romance series that Im writing, and my inspiration is with Van Halen, specifically, with Eddie.
But then I realized that if I restrict myself to one band in conducting my research, that Im really limiting the scope of my knowledge on the subject.
And Im so glad that I read this engrossing, indepth biography,

From the first page, I was interested, Ted talks about his namesake, his Uncle, who went off to war and was presumed dead, and his parents decided to name their unborn child after him, as a tribute.
Then, some time later, when Uncle Ted returned from the war, he had many stories to share, some that Ted also shares in this book.


Ted had a very intriguing upbringing, growing up basically in the woods, subject to hunters, guns, and all sorts of unsafe things, but in a childs eye, were viewed as adventures.
Ted was also exposed to music, with family members that owned a record store, where he later worked, He learned to play just about every instrument imaginable, and he played well enough to start his own band, which lit the flame for his passion in the recording industry.


While watching greats like Elvis, Frank Sinatra, and a handful of others record the songs that made history, Ted discovered the way that a recording studio ticks, and he fell in love with making a song sound like its own animal, its own being, and to have its individual personality.


As we move on into the politics and how Ted climbed the corporate ladder, starting as a demo tape listener, I found it very interesting to learn the ins and outs of the industry.
Soon, Ted found his bearings with artists such as the Doobie Brothers, Van Morrison, Carly Simon, Aerosmith, and of course, Van Halen, to name a few.


Teds influence on Van Halen was pivotal, For one, he was one of the people who discovered Eddie and the band, and he truly felt that hed never heard such a high calibre of guitar playing skills.
If it werent for Teds word and passion for the band, they would have never gotten their first recording contract,

Also, its important to note, that if it hadnt been for Teds ear and serendipitous timing, Eddies infamous guitar solo, Eruption, would never have been discovered or recorded.
Ted happened to be walking into the back of the recording studio when Eddie was warming up for a session, and the solo was recorded raw, at that moment, and history was made.


After reading Teds story, I have a true appreciation for how a song sounds, and the lengths that producers and engineers whom I never knew existed until I read this book have to go to, to make a song pop, and to be successful.
The nuances of different artists and genres, as well as the industry itself,

I highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys an informative, honest, intriguing and unique story about someones life and career, or anyone who is interested in what truly happened when the story ended between Van Halen and David Lee Roth and with Ted himself, from Teds perspective.


A great read, And I learned a lot, too!
P gud book fam,
Decent biography and oral history so to speak ofs rock, His recording career in Sixties p interesting one hit wonder HarpersBizarre if forgettable contribution, but he produced dozens of gold and platinum rekkids, Doobie Brothers, Van Halen, Van Morrison Tupelo Honey, which is p gud Sammy Hagar etc, Seems pretty touchy about breaking up Van Halen, I mean who cares Fucking Van Halen LOL, He also calls Eddie Van Halen "Ed, " Which is weird. Who calls "Eddie Van Halen" Ed IDK was he in love have an affair with Nicolette Larson, He got really rich. Houses in Malibu, Ferraris etc, Anyhoo. All of a sudden about pagehe says, "Oh BTW I was a raging alcoholic cokehaead suicidal maniac for the pastpages or twenty years whichever comes first.
" I don't wanna judge anybody, but LOL, Page. Like you're reading four hundred pages abouts ands rock and no one is doing drugs WTF,
P gud book fam, So this book basically catches fire when he's talking about recording, That's where his passion and excitement are, And the description of his relationships with different musicians were most thorough in the practical problems of how he was going to get the best recording possible out of them.
. . not so much in themselves, The rest is fairly shallow, I'd skip it with a clean conscience,

Musicheads and the productionobsessed will enjoy this, as will Van Halen fans,

For this review, I was sent a PDF copy of the book by ECW Press, As a fan ot Ted Templeman's work for the past three decades, I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book, It fills in the blanks on lots of things that I have wondered about over the years, A very entertaining read. I would give it five but can't due to the number of copy editing errors in this first run of the book, I'm sure that these will get corrected though,

If you like Van Halen and the Doobie Brothers, you will also enjoy this book, Take your time with this one, . .
. and here's why:
Ted Templeman tells you in great detail the way many of the songs he produced came to be, then literally invites you to listen to the songs and hear exactly what he means.
And THAT is a MUST for maximum enjoyment of this book, So it's best to have YouTube cued up and a decent set of earbuds handy,

Ted and I had crossed paths many times before this publication, so I was thrilled when I learned he had written a memoir.
was my first exposure to him with Carly Simon's "Another Passenger, " This beautiful album included session work by Little Feat, soon to become my favorite band, Doobie Brothers, Dr, John, and husband James Taylor, The following year, Ted would turn up in my house once again when I discovered Little Feat themselves, as well "Living on the Fault Line" by the Doobies.


Now on to the book, Ted relates his earliest musical interests while listening to's jazz records in his grandfather's music shop, He began playing drums and together with his friends formed a band called The Tikis, eventually morphing into the sunshine pop band, Harper's Bazarre, who recorded for Warner Brothers.
After disbanding, he began working for Warners as a "tape listener" of demo recordings and before long he would not only be producing but discovering some of the biggest names in music.
Two of his longest associations were the Doobies and Van Halen, To be honest, Van Halen was never a band in which I had much interest but after learning the genesis of their songs, I really came to appreciate them for the great musicians they were.
Something that I've always felt about Ted is that while his work always has a certain degree of excellence, it never manifests itself in a way that makes one artist sound like another.
He brings out the best qualities of each artist without ever compromising their unique identity, That's true whether it's Little Feat, Carly Simon, Van Morrison, Doobies, Nicolette Larson, Van Halen or Aerosmith, and many others, Quite a range of musical styles there!

SPOILERS BEYOND THIS POINT:
I'm taking away one star and this may be a little unfair because it is after all a book about his life in music.
However, I just felt there was a missing personal component here, He shared next to nothing about his wife and children and the strain that givingto those he produced must have created, He was literally on call to these artists/and for many years only saw his family on weekends as they lived several hours away for the sake of his children's health and education.
I know there must have been problems but we never hear about that, Yet he talk sabout having Nicolette Larson and his kids out to his waterfront home at Arrowhead Lake nothing of his wife in those remembrances.
Also he does from time to time, talk about his excessive use of drugs and alcohol, After being fired from WB afteryears of dedicated service, he descended into a depression exacerbated by drugs and alcohol, while still living in his LA condo.
He tells

of being on a constant diet of cocaine and alcohol, at times not even getting out of bed for more than a quick swig and a bump, for days on end without eating or showering.
It was really sad to read but never did he talk about seeking the support of his family during this dark period, I couldn't understand why he wasn't with them full time by then, He had plenty of money, multiple homes and no real need to stay in LA, Wouldn't the support of his wife and children been beneficial in helping him get back on his emotional feet These are just some of the questions that lingered after finishing the book.
Still a most enjoyable read and highly recommended, Thank you, ECW Press, for the ARC of this excellent history of more than just Ted Templemans experience as a record producer,

I love listening to music and watching TV shows where the artists discuss making music like Dan Rathers Big Interview, Where are they Now, and those types of shows.
Ive seen the interview with Carly Simon, the biographies on the Doobie Brothers and I love learning more about how life influenced the songs.
Ive never given the record producer a second thought and had no idea what that job was about, I just thought someone wrote a song, someone played the song and then it was put onto a record for me to enjoy, Boom.

When I started reading this book I didnt know how much Id like it becausewhat the heck is a record producer anyway The story starts out literally at the beginning of Teds birth and recounts his entire life through to his last record production with the Doobie Brothers infor the World Gone Crazy album.
His career was heavy with collaboration, both with his engineers and with the artists, He cared about the artists and the relationships that developed during the making of the albums, I dont know if thats the norm in music production, but it was a large focus for Ted, Which I loved reading about,

Van Halen was a big part of this story, and I LOVE Van Halen, especially the DLR era of Van Halen, I loved DLRs screaming, his pomp, his hairy chest and his concert performance was incredible, Getting another side of the story I read Greg Renoffs book about Van Halen, which is also excellent was so cool, I was completely sucked in and am not gonna lie I LOVED reading that Templeman preferred the DLR era of Van Halen, I do enjoy any Van Halen music, but the early Van Halen remains my favorite,

This ended up being such a great read, and no musical production knowledge was necessary, This book will have me checking production credits now looking for Ted Templemans name,
I found this pretty thoroughly entertaining from beginning to end, Ted is one of rock music's most prolific producers, and yet, as any good producer does, unless you're looking for it, you might not know a lot about what he does, or for whom he does it.
I knew about his work with The Doobie Brothers before I read this, and of course, I know him as the producer of the first six Van Halen records, as well as the person responsible for getting them signed to Warner Bros.

But there's a lot of information in between those that I didn't know, including his time as a recording and touring musician, And he also does a great job in laying out a lot of the politics that can help make, or break, artists, in spite of the material they put out.

Greg Renoff, as usual, did a great job organizing all of that into a cohesive, and engaging narrative, note: I received an advance copy of this book from the publisher

I give Ted Templeman's careerand this bookstars.


Templeman is the magician who put together sonic candy like the Doobie Brothers' "Black Water" and "What a Fool Believes," as well as every song on Van Halen's good albums.
This has special significance to me personally:for some reason a short playlist of Doobies songs Ted produced powered me through writing my final torturous papers in college, andVan Halen was THE rock band to end all rock bands when I was growing up a title later ceded to Guns n' Roses.


It was immensely rewarding to learn technically how Templeman put enduring rock and pop music like this together, It was fascinating to learn what a deep education Ted had in jazz, whose high standard for musicianship surely influenced his producing work,

Templeman is a master record producer he is not a master storyteller, If this overview of his life is an indication, he doesn't know what stories are interesting and what are not,

In a way this is a plus, as it offers an unfiltered seemingly uncurated look into the life of an Alist music producer.
On the other hand, reading this book at times felt like homework, The blowbyblow chronological accounts of his career in granular detail wore me out, I wish Ted had zeroed in on the best of his material, while omitting the fat, I wish he had taken a more idiosyncratic approach to telling select stories from his career in great detail, like Bob Dylan did so masterfully in his "Chronicles" autobiography.


For this, I fault Templeman's "as told to" collaborator Greg Renoff, who has the storytelling chops to explore Ted's career in a more compelling way.
Renoff's Van Halen biography "Van Halen Rising" was a gem that transcended the usual rock biography, so I expected something better here,

This deepdive book will serve as a highly valuable piece of American music history, and I'm glad Templeman undertook this project, It is very insightful, and some of the stories are truly great, From the mindset of a general audience reader, I don't know if this book presents a captivating reading experience, .