Malcolm Burn Walk Don't Run

 

Malcolm Burn has had a very successful career as a producer, working over the years with many artists, including Emmylou Harris (he produced her Red Dirt Girl album, which won in the Best Contemporary Folk category at the 2001 Grammys), Daniel Lanois and Iggy Pop. Prior to his career as a producer, he was active as a songwriter and musician. Hailing originally from Deep River Ontario, Malcolm moved to Toronto and in 1981 was a member of the New Wave band Boys Brigade, and was one the band's vocalists as well as playing keyboards and being a songwriter. The group was part of the Queen Street West music scene, and in 1983 released a top 40 single, "Melody" that Malcolm had helped to write. Besides receiving extensive airplay, the song's video featured prominently on the Canadian music video show, Much Music.

Before he commenced on his music production career though, in 1988 he released a solo album titled "Redemption". While the album may not necessarily have been a big seller, it has its devoted fans. In particular, the single from the album, "Walk Don't Run" stands out as a classic slice of late 1980's post new wave guitar driven rock. 

I recently spoke with John Whynot about the album. John, a successful Canadian musician, composer and producer in his own right, was very generous with his time and reminisced about the project. Concerning its genesis, (and his involvement), he said that he was hanging out with Malcolm quite a bit at the time, and they just decided to go into the studio to work on some songs that Malcolm had. I asked John about the musicians on the project. John didn't think Malcolm had an actual band at the time, although of course there a few people around he had been playing with. John asked his friend Glenn Milchem to play drums on the project, and Andy Curran played bass. (Glenn is best known as the drummer for Blue Rodeo and Andy was the original bassist and singer with Coney Hatch). John recalled that Malcolm was friends with guitarist Bill Dillon who also contributed. (And on a side note, please take a moment to check out Bill's career, it's incredible!). Basically, "it was kind of pick up, but each participant was fantastic". When it came to the actual recording of the music, John advised me that he and Malcolm "had a kind of relationship with the people who had inherited or bought Grant Avenue studio from the Lanois brothers, and so we went out to Hamilton to do some of the recording. Dan Lanois also got involved along the way, and he ended up remixing some of the songs we did, along with Malcolm. Right after all this, Malcolm went off to New Orleans to work with Dan on some other projects (some band called The Neville Brothers and some guy named Bob Dylan). I went to LA shortly after, too, so we weren't hanging out so much anymore. Still pretty good friends, though." 

The single from the album that most people will remember was "Walk Don't Run" (there were two versions, a 7" and also a 12"). This was the song that got some airplay (I specifically remember hearing it on CFNY, with Malcolm actually speaking over the intro introducing himself). It is a pretty straight forward rocker, with a catchy chorus and a great finish (or "outro" as some might put it). As one might anticipate, with Daniel Lanois involved, the song is very well recorded and mixed. 

To call Redemption a cult classic or forgotten masterpiece would be over egging the pudding. It is though an example of a good songwriter preparing, recording and producing a fine batch of songs, and to be fair, certainly has its devoted fans. The album is available for download from Apple Music (or you can just listen to it on YouTube) Also readily available for your viewing pleasure is the video made to promote the single Walk Don't Run (which John emphatically advised he was not in). The album was released on the Anthem label here in Canada.