Tom Dowd was an engineer, a physicist, a producer, an inventor, and a friend to all musicians. He was the main engineer for Atlantic Records and worked with many other labels. Just some of the consummate artists he worked with included Ray Charles, Ruth Brown, The Coasters, Bobby Darin, John Coltrane, The Modern Jazz Quartet, Cher, Aretha Franklin, Cream, Otis Redding, Booker T. & the M.G.’s, Lynyrd Skynyrd, The Allman Brothers, and Eric Clapton. But wait, there’s more! Let’s take a look at five further fascinating facts about Tom Dowd.
Videos by American Songwriter
1. He Worked on the Manhattan Project
As a child, Dowd studied piano and violin, and eventually graduated to upright bass and tuba. His parents were involved in show business, but eventually he became more drawn to science. He studied physics at Columbia. The university was given a contract with the Office of Scientific Research and Development. After Dowd was drafted and completed basic training, he was sent back to Columbia to continue working with the physics department. His orders read United States Army Corp of Engineers, Manhattan District.
This ultimately became known to the world as the Manhattan Project. The young physicist was involved in developing the first nuclear weapons, and he was even sent to the Bikini Islands to study the effectiveness of the atomic bomb. He observed the explosion on July 1, 1946, and the underwater detonation on July 25, 1946. Upon completing his service, the plan was to return to school. However, the young scientist realized the physics Columbia was teaching was nowhere near as advanced as the confidential scientific experiments he had just witnessed in the Army. He decided to forego his education and got a job in a recording studio.
2. Dowd Was Not Just a Scientist in the Studio
In the late ’40s, recording was more of a science than an art. The recording engineer truly had to serve as an engineer. The approach was to position a single microphone and try to get as close of a reproduction of what you heard in the room to find its way onto the disc. The engineer’s primary job was to watch that the needle on the UV meter didn’t go into the red, which meant the recording was too hot, causing distortion.
[RELATED: Behind the Song: Wet Willie, “Keep on Smilin’”]
Dowd approached it differently, “I never was an advocate of one microphone in a studio. There was such a dynamic difference between the intensity of a string bass. We didn’t have amplifiers. If you’re playing a string bass or an acoustic guitar versus a drum, I didn’t need to put a mic anywhere near the drum. He’d come in on the bass mic. So, I’d put a mic on the bass, I’d put a mic on the piano, I’d put a mic in front of the singer. And then, when I got in the control room, I would selectively increase or decrease the volume, and, all of a sudden, people are saying, ‘Oh, there’s a bass on that record. How did he do that?'”
3. Dowd Became the Exclusive Engineer for Atlantic Records
In 1950, Dowd’s first big hit, “If I Knew You Were Coming, I’d Have Baked a Cake” by Eileen Barton, went to No. 1. The studio became in demand. He started recording jazz sessions by Lester Young, Charlie Parker, and Dizzy Gillespie.
Ahmet Ertegun of Atlantic Records cut a recording at the studio and requested the most experienced engineer. He was paired with a German engineer who was difficult to work with, but they got a good recording. When he returned, Dowd was assigned to work with them. Ertegun was unimpressed because of how young Dowd looked. He went to the studio manager to complain and asked for the German engineer who had worked with them previously. He was on another session for Mercury Records, so Ertegun returned to the studio and settled for Dowd. His opinion changed when he heard the recording they captured. From then on, Dowd was the go-to engineer for Atlantic Records.
4. He Invented Faders
Dowd was becoming increasingly in demand, “The music that we had been recording had become so popular, the major record companies would cover one of our songs, if it was a hit, with a white artist. Bill Haley would cover Joe Turner. Laverne Baker had been covered two times by Georgia Gibbs, and I was helping make Georgia Gibbs’ records because Mercury would call me up and hire the musicians and say, ‘Come over, we’re making the same song with a different artist, make it sound the same.’ People were using our records as demos for white artists.”
When he got an eight-track machine, the normal three-inch knobs were too hard to manipulate while mixing. Dowd utilized eight “slide wires” that could be close enough together to “play the console” like an instrument, increasing and decreasing the volume of various instruments—or “fading” it in and out.
5. Dowd Always Evolved with the Times
When Stax Records in Memphis entered into an agreement with Atlantic, Dowd was sent to Memphis to help with their equipment. While there, he recorded Otis Redding and Booker T. and the M.G.’s. During a visit to Macon, he heard a young band rehearsing. He was so impressed he encouraged the group to come to Miami, Florida, to record an album. They were called The Allman Brothers, and they recorded classics like Idlewild South, Live at Fillmore East, and Eat a Peach with Dowd as producer.
Dowd then worked with Eric Clapton as a solo act and with Derek and the Dominos. Said Clapton, “Most of my work done with Tom, the quality and success of those recordings can mainly be laid at his door. His role is making me feel comfortable and inspiring confidence in myself.”
Dowd also produced three albums with Lynyrd Skynyrd. He embraced the move from disk recording to magnetic tape. He pushed for recording in stereo. He transitioned seamlessly into the digital age and recognized the opportunities that arose from it. From Charlie Parker to Lynyrd Skynyrd, Tom Dowd was there for it all.
Photo by Don Paulsen/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
