Terry Brown (record producer)

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Terry Brown
Birth nameTerence David Brown
Genres
Occupation(s)Producer, mixing engineer
Years active1967–present
Website terrybrown.net

Terry Brown is a British record producer involved in a variety of work. He has been noted for his collaboration with the Canadian rock band Rush. Brown produced every album by the band from Fly by Night (1975) up to Signals (1982). [1] He was also involved with the English pop rock band Cutting Crew and the Canadian progressive rock band Klaatu. [2]

Contents

Career

Brown began his career at Olympic Studios in the mid-1960s, working as one of Keith Grant's tape ops. His first engineering credit was on the Who's single "Substitute". [2] He next worked at Lansdowne Studios, where he worked with Adrian Kerridge. At Lansdowne, Brown engineered such songs as Donovan's "Mellow Yellow" and Procol Harum's "Homburg". [2] In 1967, while overseeing the construction of Morgan Studios, Brown again worked at Olympic. Doug Riley came to the studio to record a commercial for Labatt 50, and the two hit it off. Brown later went to Canada to help re-record the commercial, and he and Riley decided to open a recording studio, co-founding Toronto Sound Studios in 1969. [2]

In 1973, Rush utilized Toronto Sound Studios to record portions of their debut studio album, with Brown recording "Finding My Way" and mixing the album. The band continued to work with Brown at Toronto Sound for its next three albums, Fly by Night (1975), Caress of Steel (1975), and 2112 (1976). Other albums recorded at the studio included April Wine's Electric Jewels (1973).

Faced with rising competition, Toronto Sound Studios closed in 1978, [2] but even as Rush recorded subsequent albums at other studios, they continued to work with Brown as co-producer on every album through Signals (1982). Brown's contributions on Rush albums included not only engineering and production, but also as a musician, arranger, and background harmony singer. [3]

Rush refers to Brown fondly as "Broon" in the liner notes for their albums, [4] and the nickname appears in the title of the instrumental piece "Broon's Bane" from their live album Exit...Stage Left . On this same record, Geddy Lee jokingly introduces the song "Jacob's Ladder" as having been written by "T. C. Broonsie", another reference to Brown and a pun on the name of Big Bill Broonzy.

In the 1990s while working at Metalworks Studios in Toronto, Brown recorded Fates Warning's Parallels and Voivod's Angel Rat , and again worked with Fates Warning on A Pleasant Shade of Gray . He also produced vocals on the Dream Theater album Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes from a Memory , and appears as the uncredited voice of the hypnotist on that album. [1]

Brown has also engineered, produced or mixed for many other artists, including Silent Running, Sonny and Cher, Kenny Rogers, Traffic, Joe Cocker, The Who, Procol Harum, The Troggs, Manfred Mann, Marianne Faithfull, Spencer Davis Group, Donovan, Barbra Streisand, Blue Rodeo, Max Webster, Klaatu, Thundermug, Lizzy Borden, Ray Stevens, the Bonzo Dog Band, Motherlode, Dr. Music, April Wine, The Stampeders, Michel Pagliaro, Moe Koffman, Alannah Myles, B.B. Gabor, Cirque du Soleil, Dream Theater, Lawrence Gowan, Rough Trade, The Killjoys, FM, Toronto, Ian Thomas, Moist, and Tiles. [1] [5]

Albums Brown has been involved with

YearArtistRoleAlbum
1966The WhoEngineer"Substitute"
1967Jimi Hendrix ExperienceEngineer Axis: Bold as Love [1]
1968 the Bonzo Dog Band Engineer The Doughnut in Granny's Greenhouse
1971StampedersEngineerAgainst The Grain
1971 Moe Koffman EngineerMoe Koffman Plays Bach
1972Moe KoffmanEngineerThe Four Seasons
1973 April Wine Engineer Electric Jewels
1973Moe KoffmanEngineerMaster Session
1974Moe KoffmanEngineerSolar Explorations
1975Moe KoffmanEngineerLive at George's
1975 Rush Producer Fly by Night
1975RushProducer Caress of Steel
1976RushProducer 2112
1976 Klaatu Producer 3:47 EST
1976 Max Webster Producer Max Webster
1976Moe KoffmanEngineerJungle Man
1977Max WebsterProducer High Class in Borrowed Shoes
1977KlaatuProducer Hope
1977RushProducer A Farewell to Kings
1978RushProducer Hemispheres
1978KlaatuProducer Sir Army Suit
1978Max WebsterProducer Mutiny Up My Sleeve
1979Max WebsterProducer Live Magnetic Air
1980 B.B. Gabor Producer BB Gabor
1980RushProducer Permanent Waves
1981RushProducer Moving Pictures
1981RushProducer Exit...Stage Left
1981Max WebsterProducer Diamonds Diamonds
1982RushProducer Signals
1982 Lawrence Gowan ProducerGowan [6]
1986 Cutting Crew Producer Broadcast [1]
1987 Blue Rodeo Producer Outskirts
1987 Silent Running Producer Walk on Fire
1989 IQ Producer Are You Sitting Comfortably?
1989 Lizzy Borden ProducerMaster Of Disguise
1989 Fifth Angel ProducerTime Will Tell
1990WatertownProducerNo Singing At The Dinner Table
1991 Fates Warning Producer Parallels
1991 Voivod Producer Angel Rat
1991The KiteProducerThe Kite
1994 Moist Mixing Silver [6]
1997 Fates Warning Producer A Pleasant Shade of Gray
2000Fates WarningProducer Disconnected
2004 Tiles ProducerWindow Dressing [7]
2005Cutting CrewProducerGrinning Souls
2007Puppet ShowProducerTale of Woe
2007Run With the KittensProducerCondos and lofts
2007Run With the KittensProducerBangers and Mash
2008TilesProducerFly Paper (2008) [8]
2012TilesMixingOff the Floor 01
2014Blurred VisionProducer"Organized Insanity"
2014TilesMixingOff the Floor 02
2016TilesProducerPretending 2 Run
2021DisciplineProducerUnfolded Like Staircase

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 Melchior, Al (14 March 2024). "5 Records You Didn't Know Rush Producer Terry Brown Worked On". American Songwriter. Retrieved 6 June 2025.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 Retzer, Sam (June 2025). "Terry Brown: The Working Man". Tape Op. pp. 36–38.
  3. "Terry Brown | Credits". AllMusic . Retrieved 16 November 2016.
  4. "Broon's Bane by Rush Songfacts". Songfacts.com. Retrieved 16 November 2016.
  5. "Discography". Terry Brown. 20 June 2014. Retrieved 16 November 2016.
  6. 1 2 "Music Producer". Terry Brown. 20 June 2014. Retrieved 16 November 2016.
  7. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 17 July 2011. Retrieved 18 January 2011.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  8. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 17 July 2011. Retrieved 18 January 2011.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)