#osibisa

12:04 AM EDT June 17, 2026:

Osibisa - "Phallus C" From the album Osibisa (1971)

Last song scrobbled from iTunes at Last.fm

OK. This is *definitely* an Amon Duul II Reference.

Tony Visconti (w/ Richard Havers): The Autobiography: Bowie, Bolan and the Brooklyn Boy (A Nostalgic Journey Through the Golden Age of British Pop and Rock Music) (2007)

Most record producers and engineers belong behind the studio console, along with their boring stories about mixing levels and button-pushing, but Tony Visconti's exceptionally long and colorful list of superstar credits make him one of the exceptions.

As the title says, Visconti was born and raised in Brooklyn, where his love of music flourished and found its first outlet playing with small-time bands (Ricardo & The Latineers, The Crew-Cuts, etc.) and even releasing a single -- "Long Hair" as Tony and Siegrid with his first wife.

Along the way, Visconti began working for a publisher as staff engineer and met British producer Denny Cordell (The Move, Procol Harum, Joe Cocker, Leon Russell, etc.), who duly invited Visconti to work for him in London.

His first job entailed assisting on the first Tyrannosaurus Rex LP, and after producing (and playing bass for) David Bowie's The Man Who Sold the World, Visconti enjoyed a fruitful relationship with the renamed T.Rex and its leader Marc Bolan (Electric Warrior, The Slider, etc.), until the glam rock pixie scuttled his career prospects by 1974.

But one closed door opened another as Visconti reunited with the post-Ziggy Stardust Bowie for his massively influential Berlin Trilogy (alongside Brian Eno) and 1980's Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps), but these were hardly the sum of his credits.

Because, over the course of the '70s and into the '80s, Visconti built one of rock's most enviable resumes, adding the likes of Badfinger, Osibisa, Sparks, The Moody Blues, The Boomtown Rats, Thin Lizzy, Morrissey, and many others to his bulging professional ledger.

Personally, I'm especially grateful for Visconti's work on behalf of Thin Lizzy, since their albums were decidedly lacking on the production front until the 'Brooklyn Boy' helmed 1977's Bad Reputation, '78's classic Live and Dangerous, and '79's Black Rose.

Visconti's workload lightened in the '90s, so he doesn't even try to disguise his gratitude when Bowie re-engaged him to co-produce Third Millennium LPs like Heathen, Reality, and, after these memoirs' publication date, '13's The Next Day and '16's swan song, Blackstar.

It goes without saying that an updated edition of Visconti's story covering David's final works would be welcomed with open arms, since there are obviously precious few living collaborators who shared so many creative experiences with rock's great chameleon.

And there is obviously only one producer who rode a white swan with Bolan, sold the world with Bowie, and worked with as many diverse and intriguing artists as did Tony Visconti.

Featured Records:

T.Rex: The Slider (1972)

David Bowie: Low (1977)

Thin Lizzy: Bad Reputation (1977)