A passing surrounded by loved ones
Jack Douglas, the producer behind some of the most influential rock albums of the 1970s and early 1980s, died on Monday the 11th at the age of 80. His daughter Sarah confirmed the news, noting that he succumbed to complications from lymphoma.
In a statement, the family paid tribute to a man devoted to his loved ones. “He loved being with his family above all else, his wife, his four children and his five grandchildren, and he died peacefully, surrounded by us,” his relatives said. They describe an exceptional storyteller, funny and quirky, passionate about his craft until the end.
New York youth
Born in the Bronx, New York, Douglas spent the 1960s trying his luck as a folk singer and wrote songs for Robert F. Kennedy’s Senate campaign in 1964. In 1965, with friends obsessed by the Beatles, he travelled to Liverpool aboard a cargo ship, without a work permit or visa. Stopped by British immigration services, they were held on board, but Douglas managed to set foot on land.
He immediately bought a copy of Rubber Soul and told his misadventure to the editor of a local newspaper. The story made enough noise that he and his friends were allowed to stay briefly in Liverpool before being expelled.
From broom to recording studio
His first professional job at Record Plant, then a brand-new studio, was not as a producer or engineer, but as a janitor. He eventually joined the mixing console and quickly worked as a sound engineer on projects for Miles Davis, James Gang, Alice Cooper, Cheap Trick, Montrose, Rough Cutt, Artful Dodger, Moxy, Flipp and Mountain.
Meeting John Lennon
A chance encounter with a band member led him to take part in the Who’s sessions at Record Plant in 1971, planned for the aborted Lifehouse project. Tracks from these sessions would appear on Who’s Next (1971). Douglas then got the opportunity to be a sound engineer on John Lennon’s Imagine album in 1971. He and Lennon forged a close bond and collaborated until the musician’s death.
The “sixth member” of Aerosmith
As a permanent engineer at Record Plant, Douglas also built professional ties with Patti Smith, Blue Öyster Cult, the New York Dolls, Cheap Trick, Starz and above all Aerosmith. It was during the recording of the New York Dolls’ first album that producer Bob Ezrin encouraged him to become a producer himself.
Douglas produced and recorded several Aerosmith albums in the 1970s, including Get Your Wings (1974), Toys in the Attic (1975), Rocks (1976) and Draw the Line (1977), all certified multi-platinum. Toys in the Attic and Rocks appear on Rolling Stone’s list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. He co-wrote the hit “Kings and Queens” in 1978 and was nicknamed “the sixth member” of the group.
Replaced for Night in the Ruts in 1979, he returned for Rock in a Hard Place (1982), then on several solo albums by guitarist Joe Perry. In the mid-2000s, the group reunited with him for Honkin’ on Bobo (2004), then for Music from Another Dimension! in 2012, on which Douglas provides the narration of the opening song “LUV XXX”.
Lawsuit against Yoko Ono
In 1980, Douglas was working with John Lennon and Yoko Ono on the Double Fantasy album, for which he shared a Grammy Award for album of the year. During the same sessions, he was also recording a follow-up album, Milk and Honey, a project interrupted by Lennon’s murder on December 8, 1980. A posthumous version was published in 1984.
That same year, Douglas filed a lawsuit against Yoko Ono for unpaid royalties. A jury ruled that Yoko Ono had wrongfully withheld payments and awarded him 2.5 million dollars on the proceeds from Double Fantasy, plus an undetermined share of the proceeds from Milk and Honey.
Subsequently, Douglas has produced albums for Supertramp, Zebra, Clutch, Local H, Slash’s Snakepit, Blackrain and, in 2006, for the New York Dolls’ comeback.
