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Jack Douglas, Producer for Aerosmith and Lennon, Dies at 80
Jack Douglas, Producer for Aerosmith and Lennon, Dies at 80
A onetime Beatlemaniac, he helped shape the sound of hits like “Walk This Way” and “(Just Like) Starting Over.”
Jack Douglas, center, the producer of Aerosmith’s 1977 album “Draw the Line,” during a recording session with the engineer Jay Messina, left, and Steven Tyler, the band’s lead singer. Ron Pownall/Getty Images
By Alex Williams
May 15, 2026, 5:48 p.m. ET
Jack Douglas, whose career as a producer of blockbuster albums by Aerosmith and John Lennon began with a cargo-ship journey to Liverpool, England, in the mid-1960s, a quixotic quest to follow the Beatles’ path to glory, died on May 11 in Paramus, N.J. He was 80. ... His death, at a hospital, was from complications of lymphoma, his daughter Sarah Douglas said.
The Bronx-born Mr. Douglas was best known for helping shepherd Aerosmith to fame, producing the band’s snarling breakthrough albums “Toys in the Attic” (1975) — featuring the enduring anthems “Walk This Way” and “Sweet Emotion” — and “Rocks” (1976), with “Back in the Saddle.” ... Mr. Douglas also produced the debut albums of the Patti Smith Group (“Radio Ethiopia,” 1976) and Cheap Trick (1977), whom he discovered at a bowling alley in Wisconsin.
In 1971, he served as an engineer during sessions for the Who’s wildly ambitious concept album “Lifehouse,” which ultimately collapsed under the weight of its own ambitions, but nevertheless yielded most of the material for the band’s tour de force “Who’s Next” the same year.
Working with such a wide range of styles, Mr. Douglas resisted the temptation to settle into any one sonic groove. With every project, he wanted “something completely different from the album I just finished,” he said in a 2012 interview with the site MusicRadar. “A band has to have something about them that makes me go, ‘Wow, that’s new.’”
{snip}
https://www.nytimes.com/by/alex-williams
A onetime Beatlemaniac, he helped shape the sound of hits like “Walk This Way” and “(Just Like) Starting Over.”
Jack Douglas, center, the producer of Aerosmith’s 1977 album “Draw the Line,” during a recording session with the engineer Jay Messina, left, and Steven Tyler, the band’s lead singer. Ron Pownall/Getty Images
By Alex Williams
May 15, 2026, 5:48 p.m. ET
Jack Douglas, whose career as a producer of blockbuster albums by Aerosmith and John Lennon began with a cargo-ship journey to Liverpool, England, in the mid-1960s, a quixotic quest to follow the Beatles’ path to glory, died on May 11 in Paramus, N.J. He was 80. ... His death, at a hospital, was from complications of lymphoma, his daughter Sarah Douglas said.
The Bronx-born Mr. Douglas was best known for helping shepherd Aerosmith to fame, producing the band’s snarling breakthrough albums “Toys in the Attic” (1975) — featuring the enduring anthems “Walk This Way” and “Sweet Emotion” — and “Rocks” (1976), with “Back in the Saddle.” ... Mr. Douglas also produced the debut albums of the Patti Smith Group (“Radio Ethiopia,” 1976) and Cheap Trick (1977), whom he discovered at a bowling alley in Wisconsin.
In 1971, he served as an engineer during sessions for the Who’s wildly ambitious concept album “Lifehouse,” which ultimately collapsed under the weight of its own ambitions, but nevertheless yielded most of the material for the band’s tour de force “Who’s Next” the same year.
Working with such a wide range of styles, Mr. Douglas resisted the temptation to settle into any one sonic groove. With every project, he wanted “something completely different from the album I just finished,” he said in a 2012 interview with the site MusicRadar. “A band has to have something about them that makes me go, ‘Wow, that’s new.’”
{snip}
https://www.nytimes.com/by/alex-williams
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