David Axelrod 2/17

Axelrod was also influenced by the rough-and-tumble atmosphere of his family life. His father worked as a union organizer for the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), a sometimes radical organization under constant attack by businesses and the government for its militant stance on workers’ rights. Eventually, Axelrod’s father toiled as a garment worker, a low-paying occupation often accompanied by sweatshop working conditions. At home, however, Axelrod remembered that weekend jitterbug parties were the highlight of the week, with his parents clearing their living room to make room for dancing. As a teenager at Los Angeles’ Dorsey High School, Axelrod did not stay off the streets for long. Frequenting some of the clubs along Central Avenue, the young man soon earned a reputation as a brawler. “The thing was, at that time, the cops were so crooked,” he recalled of his early clubbing days to Los Angeles Magazine.  “I think if you were in diapers and you could pay cash, nobody bothered you, long as you could pay for the drinks.” Before long, Axelrod was left with a long scar on his stomach from a street fight and a damaged eye from a boxing match.

With unspecified troubles, possibly both legal and extralegal, Axelrod left Los Angeles in the early 1950s and spent a year exploring the jazz clubs in New York City. Upon returning to his native city, the burgeoning hipster dabbled in heroin as part of Los Angeles’ beatnik scene. After meeting jazz pianist Gerald Wiggins, however, Axelrod was inspired to study music composition. Before long, Axelrod’s love of music and familiarity with the Los Angeles jazz community led him to work as both a talent scout and record producer. Riding the crest of the city’s reputation as the center of the 1950s “cool jazz” movement–at its best, a mixture of precise musicianship with complex arrangements demanding a listener’s total attention– David Axelrod established a reputation as a producer with excellent live recording skills.

Although David Axelrod’s most significant productions involved saxophonist Cannonball Adderley, his work with R&B singer Lou Rawls on Capitol Records in the mid-1960s was his most commercial success. Indeed, with Rawls’ string of hits on the R&B and pop charts, Axelrod was one of the most sought-after producers at Capitol. With its signature headquarters–a building shaped like a stack of records on Hollywood and Vine in Los Angeles–and acts such as the Beach Boys and the Beatles on its roster, Capitol Records was the center of the pop music industry during the 1960s. In addition to his work with Rawls, Axelrod also produced such avant-garde efforts as the Mass in F Minor by the Electric Prunes in 1967. A psychedelic rock album with religious themes, the Mass foreshadowed Axelrod’s own musical direction. That same year, one of Axelrod’s productions, Mercy, Mercy, Mercy, won a Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Jazz Performance for the Cannonball Adderley Quintet.

With a string of commercial and artistic successes behind him, Axelrod also found an opportunity to realize his own musical vision. In 1968, David Axelrod wrote Mass in F Minor and Release of an Oath in a contemporary rock vein for the Electric Prunes; they were released under the band’s name, but because of the music’s complexity were actually recorded by other musicians. The Electric Prunes disbanded during the recording sessions and Axelrod’s team completed the albums. Axelrod’s success also encouraged Capitol to allow him to produce solo albums, the first two of which, Song of Innocence (1968) and Songs of Experience (1969), were homages to the mystical poetry and paintings of William Blake. These albums used sweeping strings, booming sound and heavy beats in a way that was unique for the time and became highly influential many years later during the hip hop rise. His third solo album, Earth Rot (1970), warned of the impact of environmental pollution and degradation.