Obituary - NY Times, Dec. 3, 1995:
David Briggs, a record producer best known for his 26-year association with the rock artist Neil Young, died on Nov. 25 at his home in San Francisco. He was 51.
The cause was lung cancer, said Joel Bernstein, Mr. Young's archivist.
Mr. Briggs was born in Douglas, Wyoming. He hitchhiked to Los Angeles when he was 16 and soon found a job as a staff producer at Bill Cosby's Tetragrammaton Records. He went out on his own in the late 1960's, working on albums by Alice Cooper, Spirit, Jerry Williams, Nils Lofgren and Grin. He developed a reputation as a passionate and opinionated producer, placing great demands on the musicians with whom he worked to get the rawest, most direct sound he could in the least amount of time.
He met Mr. Young in 1968 when he picked him up hitchhiking in Topanga Canyon, the hippie enclave north of Los Angeles. Mr. Briggs worked on 18 of Mr. Young's albums, including "Tonight's The Night," Rust Never Sleeps" and "Ragged Glory." He also worked with more recent artists, including Nick Cave and Royal Trux.
He is survived by his wife, Bettina, of San Francisco, and a son, Lincoln, of Los Angeles.
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