Paul Samwell-Smith
Paul Granville Samwell-Smith (born Paul Smith, 8 May 1943, in Richmond, Surrey, England) is an English musician and record producer. He was a founding member and the bassist of the 1960s English rock band The Yardbirds, which launched leading guitarists Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page to fame. As a youth, Samwell-Smith attended Hampton School with The Yardbirds drummer Jim McCarty.
Paul Samwell-Smith | |
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| Birth name | Paul Smith |
| Born | 8 May 1943 |
| Origin | Richmond, Surrey, England |
| Genres | Blues rock, psychedelic rock |
| Occupation(s) | Musician, record producer |
| Instruments | Bass, vocals, guitar, keyboards, percussion |
| Years active | 1960s–present |
| Labels | Island |
| Associated acts | The Yardbirds Renaissance Box of Frogs |
While in The Yardbirds, he co-produced and engineered much of their music, working with record producers such as Mickie Most, Simon Napier-Bell and Giorgio Gomelsky. Samwell-Smith was a major contributor to the original tracks written by The Yardbirds during his tenure with the band. He left The Yardbirds in June 1966 to pursue a career as a record producer.
The Yardbirds
In late May 1963, he formed The Yardbirds with Keith Relf, Anthony Topham, Chris Dreja, and Jim McCarty. He mainly used an Epiphone Rivoli bass. He played on the UK albums, Five Live Yardbirds and Yardbirds (also known as Roger the Engineer) and on the US albums For Your Love, Having a Rave Up, and Over Under Sideways Down (which was Roger the Engineer retitled for the US market), all released on Epic Records. He provided background vocals on many songs like "Good Morning Little School Girl", "For Your Love", "Heart Full of Soul", "Evil Hearted You", and more. He composed the Gregorian chant arrangements and lyrics of the songs "Still I'm Sad" and "Turn Into Earth". While in the Yardbirds he started working on the technical side in the studio. In 1966, becoming tired of touring and wanting to focus on production, he left the Yardbirds and was replaced by Jimmy Page. The last Yardbirds album he played on was Roger the Engineer.
In the early 1980s, Samwell-Smith played in the Yardbirds reunion band Box of Frogs with original Yardbird members Chris Dreja and Jim McCarty. The Box of Frogs did not tour because Chris Dreja was busy with his photography and Samwell-Smith was busy in the recording studio.
He was inducted to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the Yardbirds in 1992.
Records and film
Producer
He went on to become a successful producer with credits including the most successful albums of Cat Stevens, and in addition, Jethro Tull, Carly Simon, Renaissance, Murray Head, Chris de Burgh, Beverley Craven, Illusion and Claire Hamill, as well as producing two of Amazing Blondel's albums for Island Records, and the first and second albums by All About Eve for Mercury. Samwell-Smith also co-produced "American Tune" with Paul Simon.
Film
Paul Samwell-Smith was the musical producer for the film Harold and Maude in 1971, with music written by Cat Stevens, which became a cult classic. In addition, two decades later, he produced Postcards from the Edge in 1990, as a music sound recording and recording supervisor.
References
Further reading
- Yardbirds (John Platt, Chris Dreja, Jim McCarty) Sidgwick & Jackson, 1983 ISBN 0-283-98982-3
- Yardbirds : The Ultimate Rave-Up (Greg Russo) Crossfire Publications 1997 ISBN 0-9648157-8-8
- The Yardbirds (Alan Clayson) Backbeat Books 2002 ISBN 0-87930-724-2
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