Ken Nelson's Positive Prescription
Tom Roland
May 03, 2007
When Ken Nelson needs cheering up, he sings a 60-year-old song to himself: "You've got to accentuate the positive / Eliminate the negative / Latch on to the affirmative / Don't mess with Mr. In-Between."
It's an appropriate choice for three reasons: One, it lifts his spirits; two, it connects Nelson, who turned 96 in January, to the years when he was a young man; and three, "Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate The Positive" lyricist Johnny Mercer was one of three co-founders of Capitol Records, the place where Nelson built the legacy that got him enshrined in the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2001.
"The funny thing is I never met Johnny," Nelson mused at his airy home near a golf course in California's Ventura County.
Their time at Capitol certainly overlapped - Mercer founded the label in Los Angeles in 1942, and Nelson joined the firm in 1946, one year before Mercer ceded the presidency to Glenn Wallichs.
Nelson's day-to-day influence lasted much longer; he stayed with the company into the mid-1970s, signing and/or producing such acts as Roy Clark, Merle Haggard, Freddie Hart, Buck Owens, Hank Thompson and Sonny James.
"The only time I ever raised my voice to an artist was when I was recording Sonny James," Nelson chuckled. "We had made three takes of 'Young Love,' and Sonny was insisting that he wanted to do another take. I said, 'That's it! Period!' That's the only time I ever raised my voice to an artist. Of course, the record only sold a couple million."
James recalled that day in the studio a little differently.
"He didn't really raise his voice; he just said, 'No Sonny, that's the last one we're going to do,'" James said. "The longer I worked with Ken, the more liberty he would give me. He gave you that liberty to show what individuality that you had. That's one of the things that I think was the greatest thing to happen to me, because I did work with someone like Ken. You see, I love to play the guitar and it became a part of my sound. And without that, it wouldn't have been me. By him giving me the liberty to bring out my guitar, it's a style. Without that, there wouldn't have been a Sonny James sound that people are familiar with."
Nelson earned a reputation as an artist-friendly producer. His 1956 recording of Ferlin Husky's "Gone" is often cited as the beginning of the smooth, pop-flavored Nashville Sound, which helped Country weather the early years of rock 'n' roll. But it's telling that his best-selling artists, Haggard and Owens, were California-based singer-songwriters whose cutting brand of honky tonk provided an antecedent to the period's biggest trend.
"An artist has to be himself," Nelson said. "If he doesn't have the artistry and the ability to convey to people what he's feeling, he's no good. You can't tell an artist what to do."
Nelson operated in a much simpler time. James' first contract with the label was just one page. Most sessions yielded four recordings in a scant three hours. And labels sometimes signed artists sight unseen, a practice that would never be allowed today.
Nelson recalled specifically leaving Shreveport, La., radio station KWKH, where he'd conducted a session, and heard an unnamed singer on Webb Pierce's radio show. On a hunch, he headed back to town and booked a hotel, then showed up at the station the next day to ask questions about the mystery performer, who turned out to be Faron Young.
"I went to [booking agent] Hubert Long," Nelson recalled, "and said, 'Hubert, this kid Faron Young, he's pretty great, and I would like to sign him, but I can't stay, because I've got a couple of sessions back in Nashville. If he's not signed to a record label, would you sign him for Capitol and let me know?' So I went back to Nashville, and Hubert got Faron to sign with Capitol and also became his manager."
The association led to more than 25 Top 10 hits throughout the next decade, including "Hello Walls" and "If You Ain't Lovin' (You Ain't Livin')." Young would also find a place in the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2000.
Nelson remains fairly practical about it all. He knows his story cuts across multiple periods in entertainment history, so he wrote his autobiography, My First 90 Years Plus Three, released in February 2007 by Dorrance Publishing. Nelson spent $40,000 of his own funds to make sure it made it into print "before I kick the bucket."
"My book is practically a history of the music business," he said. "I saw radio come in, I saw TV."
And he saw the changes wrought by the rock era. In fact, his own glory years as a producer came during the 1960s, at the same time that Capitol hit paydirt with The Beatles and The Beach Boys. As it turned out, Nelson had a minor, but influential, role in the surfer group's emergence. A struggling songwriter, Murry Wilson, had phoned him about the band, and Nelson promised that pop A&R director Nik Venet would respond. Nelson ended up prodding Venet several times - the last one an expletive-laden tirade - before Venet finally returned the call.
The Beach Boys were, of course, signed, and A&R VP Voyle Gilmore ended up chiding his department for not being more responsive.
"At the next A&R meeting," Nelson laughed, "Voyle said, 'Let this be a lesson to you. We could've lost The Beach Boys. The next time you get a tip like Ken gave, you follow it through.' Of course, I didn't know what the group sounded like, but I just felt like the man should at least be listened to by somebody."
Whether they knew it or not, millions have listened to works that were produced by Nelson, who is still remarkable. Even in his late 90s, he still exercises 45 minutes, five times a week, and allows himself one beer around 5 PM. He still reads the newspaper with a magnifying glass, and a scrapbook contains letters to the editor he's had published in recent years.
A founding Director and former two-term President of CMA Board of Directors, he admitted that his diminished capacity frustrates him at times, but that's when Nelson starts singing the old Mercer song and accentuates the many positives he's experienced.
"It's difficult to not keep thinking about my aging," he conceded. "I hate it, but there's nothin' you can do about it. So you just eliminate the negative."
2007 CMA Close Up News Service / Country Music Association, Inc.
It's an appropriate choice for three reasons: One, it lifts his spirits; two, it connects Nelson, who turned 96 in January, to the years when he was a young man; and three, "Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate The Positive" lyricist Johnny Mercer was one of three co-founders of Capitol Records, the place where Nelson built the legacy that got him enshrined in the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2001.
"The funny thing is I never met Johnny," Nelson mused at his airy home near a golf course in California's Ventura County.
Their time at Capitol certainly overlapped - Mercer founded the label in Los Angeles in 1942, and Nelson joined the firm in 1946, one year before Mercer ceded the presidency to Glenn Wallichs.
Nelson's day-to-day influence lasted much longer; he stayed with the company into the mid-1970s, signing and/or producing such acts as Roy Clark, Merle Haggard, Freddie Hart, Buck Owens, Hank Thompson and Sonny James.
"The only time I ever raised my voice to an artist was when I was recording Sonny James," Nelson chuckled. "We had made three takes of 'Young Love,' and Sonny was insisting that he wanted to do another take. I said, 'That's it! Period!' That's the only time I ever raised my voice to an artist. Of course, the record only sold a couple million."
James recalled that day in the studio a little differently.
"He didn't really raise his voice; he just said, 'No Sonny, that's the last one we're going to do,'" James said. "The longer I worked with Ken, the more liberty he would give me. He gave you that liberty to show what individuality that you had. That's one of the things that I think was the greatest thing to happen to me, because I did work with someone like Ken. You see, I love to play the guitar and it became a part of my sound. And without that, it wouldn't have been me. By him giving me the liberty to bring out my guitar, it's a style. Without that, there wouldn't have been a Sonny James sound that people are familiar with."
Nelson earned a reputation as an artist-friendly producer. His 1956 recording of Ferlin Husky's "Gone" is often cited as the beginning of the smooth, pop-flavored Nashville Sound, which helped Country weather the early years of rock 'n' roll. But it's telling that his best-selling artists, Haggard and Owens, were California-based singer-songwriters whose cutting brand of honky tonk provided an antecedent to the period's biggest trend.
"An artist has to be himself," Nelson said. "If he doesn't have the artistry and the ability to convey to people what he's feeling, he's no good. You can't tell an artist what to do."
Nelson operated in a much simpler time. James' first contract with the label was just one page. Most sessions yielded four recordings in a scant three hours. And labels sometimes signed artists sight unseen, a practice that would never be allowed today.
Nelson recalled specifically leaving Shreveport, La., radio station KWKH, where he'd conducted a session, and heard an unnamed singer on Webb Pierce's radio show. On a hunch, he headed back to town and booked a hotel, then showed up at the station the next day to ask questions about the mystery performer, who turned out to be Faron Young.
"I went to [booking agent] Hubert Long," Nelson recalled, "and said, 'Hubert, this kid Faron Young, he's pretty great, and I would like to sign him, but I can't stay, because I've got a couple of sessions back in Nashville. If he's not signed to a record label, would you sign him for Capitol and let me know?' So I went back to Nashville, and Hubert got Faron to sign with Capitol and also became his manager."
The association led to more than 25 Top 10 hits throughout the next decade, including "Hello Walls" and "If You Ain't Lovin' (You Ain't Livin')." Young would also find a place in the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2000.
Nelson remains fairly practical about it all. He knows his story cuts across multiple periods in entertainment history, so he wrote his autobiography, My First 90 Years Plus Three, released in February 2007 by Dorrance Publishing. Nelson spent $40,000 of his own funds to make sure it made it into print "before I kick the bucket."
"My book is practically a history of the music business," he said. "I saw radio come in, I saw TV."
And he saw the changes wrought by the rock era. In fact, his own glory years as a producer came during the 1960s, at the same time that Capitol hit paydirt with The Beatles and The Beach Boys. As it turned out, Nelson had a minor, but influential, role in the surfer group's emergence. A struggling songwriter, Murry Wilson, had phoned him about the band, and Nelson promised that pop A&R director Nik Venet would respond. Nelson ended up prodding Venet several times - the last one an expletive-laden tirade - before Venet finally returned the call.
The Beach Boys were, of course, signed, and A&R VP Voyle Gilmore ended up chiding his department for not being more responsive.
"At the next A&R meeting," Nelson laughed, "Voyle said, 'Let this be a lesson to you. We could've lost The Beach Boys. The next time you get a tip like Ken gave, you follow it through.' Of course, I didn't know what the group sounded like, but I just felt like the man should at least be listened to by somebody."
Whether they knew it or not, millions have listened to works that were produced by Nelson, who is still remarkable. Even in his late 90s, he still exercises 45 minutes, five times a week, and allows himself one beer around 5 PM. He still reads the newspaper with a magnifying glass, and a scrapbook contains letters to the editor he's had published in recent years.
A founding Director and former two-term President of CMA Board of Directors, he admitted that his diminished capacity frustrates him at times, but that's when Nelson starts singing the old Mercer song and accentuates the many positives he's experienced.
"It's difficult to not keep thinking about my aging," he conceded. "I hate it, but there's nothin' you can do about it. So you just eliminate the negative."
2007 CMA Close Up News Service / Country Music Association, Inc.
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