Thread by @mmmbarclay, RIP Hal Wilner, producer of incredibly wonderful live events, albums, SNL's music, [...]

Michael Barclay

mmmbarclay

RIP Hal Wilner, producer of incredibly wonderful live events, albums, SNL's music, and the 80s TV show Night Music, which blew my mind as a teen as remains a great YouTube rabbit hole. Weird is wonderful. A 2017 profile here: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/08/nyregion/hal-willners-vanishing-weird-new-york.html

Hal Willner’s Vanishing, Weird New York

The music producer came to New York for the sleaze and the flea circus. He stayed to make the mixtapes of a city’s imagination.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/08/nyregion/hal-willners-vanishing-weird-new-york.html

This cracked my mind open in 1988: Sonic Youth w/ Daniel Lanois and Indigo Girls and David Sanborn doing Iggy & Stooges' I Wanna Be Your Dog. Thanks, Hal:

Leonard Cohen with Sonny Rollins:

Mary Margaret O'Hara in Wilner's Kurt Weill tribute:

Antony (Anohni) doing Cohen's If It Be Your Will:

First time I ever heard Yma Sumac was on Wilner's Stay Awake album:

Replacements doing "Cruella de Vil"

He also produced a live tribute to Bill Withers, featured in the 2009 documentary Still Bill. And he produced my favourite post-Broken English album by Marianne Faithfull, who also has a Covid19 diagnosis. Even in this horrible week, there are Willner connections made.

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