Terry Brown (record producer)

Terry Brown
Birth name	Terence David Brown
Genres	Rock heavy metal alternative rock blues progressive rock
Occupation(s)	Producer, mixing engineer
Years active	1967–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]

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

Year	Artist	Role	Album
1966	The Who	Engineer	"Substitute"
1967	Jimi Hendrix Experience	Engineer	Axis: Bold as Love [1]
1968	the Bonzo Dog Band	Engineer	The Doughnut in Granny's Greenhouse
1971	Stampeders	Engineer	Against The Grain
1971	Moe Koffman	Engineer	Moe Koffman Plays Bach
1972	Moe Koffman	Engineer	The Four Seasons
1973	April Wine	Engineer	Electric Jewels
1973	Moe Koffman	Engineer	Master Session
1974	Moe Koffman	Engineer	Solar Explorations
1975	Moe Koffman	Engineer	Live at George's
1975	Rush	Producer	Fly by Night
1975	Rush	Producer	Caress of Steel
1976	Rush	Producer	2112
1976	Klaatu	Producer	3:47 EST
1976	Max Webster	Producer	Max Webster
1976	Moe Koffman	Engineer	Jungle Man
1977	Max Webster	Producer	High Class in Borrowed Shoes
1977	Klaatu	Producer	Hope
1977	Rush	Producer	A Farewell to Kings
1978	Rush	Producer	Hemispheres
1978	Klaatu	Producer	Sir Army Suit
1978	Max Webster	Producer	Mutiny Up My Sleeve
1979	Max Webster	Producer	Live Magnetic Air
1980	B.B. Gabor	Producer	BB Gabor
1980	Rush	Producer	Permanent Waves
1981	Rush	Producer	Moving Pictures
1981	Rush	Producer	Exit...Stage Left
1981	Max Webster	Producer	Diamonds Diamonds
1982	Rush	Producer	Signals
1982	Lawrence Gowan	Producer	Gowan [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	Producer	Master Of Disguise
1989	Fifth Angel	Producer	Time Will Tell
1990	Watertown	Producer	No Singing At The Dinner Table
1991	Fates Warning	Producer	Parallels
1991	Voivod	Producer	Angel Rat
1991	The Kite	Producer	The Kite
1994	Moist	Mixing	Silver [6]
1997	Fates Warning	Producer	A Pleasant Shade of Gray
2000	Fates Warning	Producer	Disconnected
2004	Tiles	Producer	Window Dressing [7]
2005	Cutting Crew	Producer	Grinning Souls
2007	Puppet Show	Producer	Tale of Woe
2007	Run With the Kittens	Producer	Condos and lofts
2007	Run With the Kittens	Producer	Bangers and Mash
2008	Tiles	Producer	Fly Paper (2008) [8]
2012	Tiles	Mixing	Off the Floor 01
2014	Blurred Vision	Producer	"Organized Insanity"
2014	Tiles	Mixing	Off the Floor 02
2016	Tiles	Producer	Pretending 2 Run
2021	Discipline	Producer	Unfolded Like Staircase

References

1. Melchior, Al (14 March 2024). "5 Records You Didn't Know Rush Producer Terry Brown Worked On". American Songwriter. Retrieved 6 June 2025.
2. 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. "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.
8. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 17 July 2011. Retrieved 18 January 2011.

External links

• Terry Brown official website