Jerry Wexler: "All I Could Do Was Sit There and Weep"

Jerry Wexler was a renowned music producer who died last week at 91. He was remembered by Jim Fusilli in today’s WSJ, a portrait of a man who considered was ‘abrasive, derisive and cynical,” by many people, but beloved by artists like Aretha Franklin and Ray Charles.

He will be remembered as the man who brought Franklin over to Atlantic Records from Columbia, where her career was faltering. Jerry would say, ‘we all feel good about it tonight, but let’s see how we feel in the morning,’ wanting to capture both carefully prepared and spontaneous moments in the studio.

The story reveals how the great R&B producer chafed after Atlantic’s new management put him under another legendary producer Ahmet Ertegun, and so he left after 22 years to work for Warner Music. He signed Dire Straits, the B-52s and other greats.

In his autobiography, Wexler talks about a transcendent musical moment in 1971. Aretha was performing at the Fillmore East with a band led by King Curtis, and Ray Charles came out and joined them onstage for a version of ‘Spirit in the Dark.’ Writing about this moment, he said he ‘witnessed two geniuses from two distinct periods in my life, merging so easily, so naturally, so inevitably. All I could do was sit there and weep.”