Bruce Botnick

American audio engineer

Bruce Botnick

Born| 1945 (age 79–80)

Los Angeles, California, US

Occupation(s)| Audio engineer, record producer
Years active| 1963–present
Notable work| L.A. Woman, Eddie Money, Life for the Taking, Street Talk, Let It Bleed, Pet Sounds

Bruce Botnick (born 1945) is an American audio engineer and record producer. He is best known for co-producing L.A. Woman, the sixth studio album by the Doors, after producer Paul A. Rothchild quit during production of the album. Botnick is also known for producing for Eddie Money and his platinum albums Eddie Money and Life for the Taking, as well as Steve Perry's platinum album Street Talk.[1] Botnick also engineered for the Beach Boys and their eleventh studio album Pet Sounds, as well as producing and engineering for acts such as Love, Buffalo Springfield, Dave Mason, the Supremes, Marvin Gaye, the Rolling Stones, as well as film composer Jerry Goldsmith.[1]

## Early work

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Botnick engineered Love's first two albums, and co-produced their third album, Forever Changes, with the band's singer-songwriter, Arthur Lee.[2] He also is listed as the one of two recording engineers on the 1965 Curtis Amy LP The Sounds of Broadway - The Sounds of Hollywood \- said to have been released in 1965,[3] although it also has been said to have been released earlier. The LP back cover liner notes, written by Curtis Amy, formally thank Bruce Botnick for his work on the recordings.

## The Doors

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Botnick audio engineered the Doors' studio recordings starting with their first album in 1966.

In November 1970 he took over production of The Doors' L.A. Woman album, their last with lead singer Jim Morrison, after the band's long-serving producer Paul A. Rothchild fell out with the band over the album's direction.[4] According to Robby Krieger it was Botnick's idea to record the album at the Doors rehearsal space where they were more comfortable and used to the sound, rather than at a more costly recording studio.[5]

## Additional work

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Botnick has a credit as assistant engineer on the Rolling Stones' Let It Bleed album. He later produced Eddie Money's first two albums, Eddie Money in 1977 and Life for the Taking in 1978. Botnick also produced two albums for Paul Collins' rock group The Beat, including 1979's The Beat and 1982's The Kids Are The Same. He also co-produced Kenny Loggins’ 1982 album, High Adventure.

Botnick had a long-running association with film composer Jerry Goldsmith as his scoring mixer. Botnick first met Goldsmith on 1979's Star Trek: The Motion Picture and they worked together on most of Goldsmith's film projects - numbering over 100 - from the 1980s through to Goldsmith's death in 2004.

He also engineered at least two of Lonnie Mack's late-1960s Elektra albums, and is credited as Re-Recording Mixer for the movie Gremlins.

Was the producer and mixing engineer of the 1972 album Rising by the band Mark-Almond.

## References

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1. ^ a b "About". Bruce Botnick. August 20, 2016. Retrieved May 26, 2023.
2. ^ "Love's "Forever Changes" Finally Gets Long Deserved First Class Vinyl Reissue". Analog Planet. December 26, 2012.
3. ^ "Curtis Amy – The Sounds Of Broadway / The Sounds Of Hollywood". Discogs. 1965. Retrieved June 12, 2022.
4. ^ "Bruce Botnick: The Doors, MC5, Pet Sounds". Tapeop.com. Retrieved February 16, 2021.
5. ^ staff, Goldmine (June 4, 2012). "Robby Krieger Reopens the Door to the L.A. Woman Sessions". Archived from the original on June 2, 2015.

## External links

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* Bruce Botnick at IMDb
* Interview on Forever Changes album
* Bruce Botnick Interview at NAMM Oral History Collection (2017)

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Grammy Award for Best Audio Book, Narration & Storytelling Recording

1950s|

* The Best of the Stan Freberg Shows – Stan Freberg (1958)
* Lincoln Portrait – Carl Sandburg (1959)

1960s|

* FDR Speaks – Robert Bialek (producer) (1960)
* Humor in Music – Leonard Bernstein (1961)
* The Story-Teller: A Session with Charles Laughton – Charles Laughton (1962)
* Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? – Edward Albee (playwright) (1963)
* BBC Tribute to John F. Kennedy – That Was the Week That Was (1964)
* John F. Kennedy: As We Remember Him – Goddard Lieberson (producer) (1965)
* Edward R. Murrow - A Reporter Remembers, Vol. I: The War Years – Edward R. Murrow (1966)
* Gallant Men – Everett Dirksen (1967)
* Lonesome Cities – Rod McKuen (1968)
* We Love You Call Collect – Art Linkletter & Diane Linkletter (1969)

1970s|

* Why I Oppose the War in Vietnam – Martin Luther King Jr. (1970)
* Desiderata – Les Crane (1971)
* Lenny – Bruce Botnick (producer) & the Original Broadway Cast (1972)
* Jonathan Livingston Seagull – Richard Harris (1973)
* Good Evening – Peter Cook and Dudley Moore (1974)
* Give 'em Hell, Harry! – James Whitmore (1975)
* Great American Documents – Henry Fonda, Helen Hayes, James Earl Jones, and Orson Welles (1976)
* The Belle of Amherst – Julie Harris (1977)
* Citizen Kane (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) – Orson Welles (1978)
* Ages of Man: Readings from Shakespeare – John Gielgud (1979)

1980s|

* Gertrude Stein, Gertrude Stein, Gertrude Stein – Pat Carroll (1980)
* Donovan's Brain – Orson Welles (1981)
* Raiders of the Lost Ark: The Movie on Record – Tom Voegeli (producer) and Various Artists (1982)
* Lincoln Portrait – William Warfield (1983)
* The Words of Gandhi – Ben Kingsley (1984)
* Ma Rainey's Black Bottom – Mike Berniker (producer) & the Original Broadway Cast (1985)
* Interviews from the Class of '55 Recording Sessions – Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, Chips Moman, Ricky Nelson, Roy Orbison, Carl Perkins, and Sam Phillips (1986)
* Lake Wobegon Days – Garrison Keillor (1987)
* Speech by Rev. Jesse Jackson – Jesse Jackson (1988)
* It's Always Something – Gilda Radner (1989)

1990s|

* Gracie: A Love Story – George Burns (1990)
* The Civil War – Ken Burns (1991)
* What You Can Do to Avoid AIDS – Earvin "Magic" Johnson and Robert O'Keefe (1992)
* On the Pulse of Morning – Maya Angelou (1993)
* Get in the Van – Henry Rollins (1994)
* Phenomenal Woman – Maya Angelou (1995)
* It Takes a Village – Hillary Clinton (1996)
* Charles Kuralt's Spring – Charles Kuralt (1997)
* Still Me – Christopher Reeve (1998)
* The Autobiography of Martin Luther King Jr. – LeVar Burton (1999)

2000s|

* The Measure of a Man: A Spiritual Autobiography – Sidney Poitier, Rick Harris, and John Runnette (producers) (2000)
* Q: The Autobiography of Quincy Jones – Quincy Jones, Jeffrey S. Thomas, Steven Strassman (engineers), and Elisa Shokoff (producer) (2001)
* A Song Flung Up to Heaven – Maya Angelou and Charles B. Potter (producer) (2002)
* Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them – Al Franken and Paul Ruben (producer) (2003)
* My Life – Bill Clinton (2004)
* Dreams from My Father – Barack Obama (2005)
* Our Endangered Values: America's Moral Crisis – Jimmy Carter / With Ossie and Ruby – Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee (2006)
* The Audacity of Hope – Barack Obama and Jacob Bronstein (producer) (2007)
* An Inconvenient Truth by Al Gore – Beau Bridges, Cynthia Nixon, and Blair Underwood (2008)
* Always Looking Up – Michael J. Fox (2009)

2010s|

* The Daily Show with Jon Stewart Presents Earth (The Audiobook) – Jon Stewart (2010)
* If You Ask Me (And of Course You Won't) – Betty White (2011)
* Society's Child – Janis Ian (2012)
* America Again: Re-becoming the Greatness We Never Weren't – Stephen Colbert (2013)
* Diary of a Mad Diva – Joan Rivers (2014)
* A Full Life: Reflections at 90 – Jimmy Carter (2015)
* In Such Good Company: Eleven Years of Laughter, Mayhem, and Fun in the Sandbox – Carol Burnett (2016)
* The Princess Diarist – Carrie Fisher (2017)
* Faith: A Journey for All – Jimmy Carter (2018)
* Becoming – Michelle Obama (2019)

2020s|

* Blowout: Corrupted Democracy, Rogue State Russia, and the Richest, Most Destructive Industry on Earth – Rachel Maddow (2020)
* Carry On: Reflections for a New Generation from John Lewis − Don Cheadle (2021)
* Finding Me – Viola Davis (2022)
* The Light We Carry: Overcoming in Uncertain Times – Michelle Obama (2023)
* Last Sunday in Plains: A Centennial Celebration – Jimmy Carter (2024)

Authority control databases

International|

* VIAF

National|

* United States
* Czech Republic
* Israel

Artists|

* MusicBrainz
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* Grammy Awards

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