Roy Thomas Baker, the successful record producer behind some of the most proudly polite and proudly polished songs and albums in the rock era – including the Queen of the graph, the multi -part “Bohemian Rhapsody” – died on April 12 at his home in Lake Havasu City, Arizona. He was 78 years old.
His death was announced by a spokesperson, Bob Merlis, who said that the cause had not yet been established.
Known for his technological opinion and his discipline in the recording studio, Baker supervised the creation of the Queen's first four albums, which transformed a varied assortment of singles in the early 1970s, including the “Killer Queen”, the attempt at the call “, which passes the session of the session of the session in a hard rock section for six minutes headpiece In the film “Wayne's World” from 1992.
“'Bohemian Rhapsody' was completely crazy, but we enjoyed it every minute,” said Baker said Mix Magazine in 1999. “It was essentially a joke, but a successful joke.” The song went to n ° 1 in the classification of British singles in 1975 and then culminated at n ° 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 after the release of “Wayne's World”. In 2018, “Bohemian Rhapsody” provided the title of the successful biopic on the flamboyant singer of Queen, Freddie Mercury; On Spotify, the song was broadcast more than 2.7 billion times.
Baker had an equally close artistic relationship with carsincluding the first four albums he produced; Among the sparkling stations they created, there was “what I needed”, “The daughter of my best friend”, “Let's Go” and “Shake It Up”. The producer also worked with Journey, Cheap Trick, Alice Cooper, Devo and Ozzy Osbourneamong others. He found Queen in 1978 to do “jazz”.
Born in the Hampstead region in London on November 10, 1946, Baker made his music debut in the second engineer at the Decca Vaunted studios in London and Trident studios, where he helped producers Gus Dudgeon and Tony Visconti and worked on David Bowie records, the Who and the Rolling Stones.
He moved to Los Angeles in the late 1970s and later became an A&R representative for Elektra Records, helping to bring acts, including Metallica and 10,000 maniacs to the label. At the end of the 90s and early 2000s, he produced Local H, The Smashing Pumpkins and The Darkness albums. Baker is survived by his wife, Tere Livrano Baker, and his brother, Alan Baker.
Questioned by Mix what he thought of the artists who gave up producers to make their own files, Baker compared the decision to “someone who wants to be their own lawyer in court” and advised to do so.
“I think, even if you are a big producer who happens to be an artist and that you are great to work with other artists, you should never perform,” he said. “You always need someone else to make sure you get the most out of yourself, because you can't be in two places at the same time.”
