A wise man one told me, "it's rare an artist can write lyrics and melody, rarer still that that artist can then perform that song the way it was meant to be." How exceptional, then, the artists on this list — the writer / performer who is also the wise studio technician or executor of the recording of their music.

In this era of the home studio, "writer / performer / producer" may be how every musician defines her- or himself, but the following nine artists did it back when to be an auteur was to go against a particularly ingrained grain.

Jimmy Page
Led Zeppelin was Jimmy Page's project, all the way. No, it wouldn't be the band it was without the additional musical abilities of Bonham, Jones, and Plant, but Page was the dominant creative force behind the band. Not only did he bring the group together, not only did his guitar playing usher in the era of hard rock, but his production work on Zeppelin's studio recordings — including distance-miking amps and drums and using low-wattage amplifiers for a bigger sound — was nothing short of revolutionary. And lest you question whether it was Page or some of his famous engineers (Glyn Johns, Eddie Kramer, Andy Johns) who created Zeppelin's ambient hugeness, Page himself once declaimed "I consciously kept changing engineers because I didn't want people to think that they were responsible for our sound. I wanted people to know it was me."

Pete Anderson
Pulling double-duty on guitar and as producer on Guitars, Cadillacs, Etc, Etc, Pete Anderson helped introduce the world to Dwight Yoakum. He also helped re-introduce honky tonk to the Billboard charts, sparking a late-1980s roots-music-revival movement. Guitars, Cadillacs. . . was recorded far from Nashville both geographically (Studio City, CA) and sonically, bucking the trendy "Urban Cowboy" music of the time. Anderson's spit-clean playing and production work made the album an instant classic, and translated well to his production work with Roy Orbison, Sara Evans, The Meat Puppets, and Michelle Shocked.

J. Robbins
Quadruple-threat J. Robbins is not only a mean guitarist, deft lyricist, and commanding frontman, he's also an irreproachable producer, having garnered a reputation for capturing huge, natural drum tones and rock guitars the way they were meant to be heard. Not only has Robbins pulled production duty for all the bands he's fronted (including Jawbox, Burning Airlines, Channels, Office of Future Plans) but he's helmed the production of some of the greatest-sounding indie-rock records produced in the past fifteen years. If you're a fan of The Promise Ring, Jets To Brazil, The Dismemberment Plan, Against Me! or None More Black, then you're a fan of J. Robbins.

Nile Rogers
Think what you will about disco music, Nile Rogers and Chic are legendary. Starting his career off as a session guitarist, Rogers met bassist Bernard Edwards in 1970. The two would go on to form the band that would become Chic, and continue working together as a massively successful pop-production duo throughout the 80s, producing records with the likes of Cindy Lauper, David Bowie, Duran Druan, INXS and more. And while disco died a hard death three decades ago, the fact remains that Chic's "We are Family" and "Good Times" will be played at every wedding reception and every bar mitzvah for all eternity.

Chris Walla
One of the biggest rock acts of the past decade, Death Cab for Cutie got their start when singer Ben Gibbard recruited multi-instrumentalist and budding recording enthusiast Chris Walla to help track his debut solo album, You Can Play These Songs with Chords. Walla joined Gibbard as a guitarist and keyboardist in the band that would ensue, and he's gone on to produce (including engineering and mixing) every subsequent Death Cab album. Somehow, Walla has also found time to produce albums for Tegan and Sarah, Ra Ra Riot, Nada Surf, The Decemberists, Hot Hot Heat and Mates of State. . he's even got an engineering credit for David Cross's Shut Up, You Fucking Baby!.

Ani DiFranco
An icon not only for folkies, punks, and folk-punks, but for the DIY musical ethos (she runs her own label, too, you know), Ani DiFranco has also produced or co-produced everyone of her 20-some-odd albums. And these are no Nebraska-esque lo-fi outings. . . even her self-titled debut is polished and assured — the sound of an artist who's always known exactly what she's wanted and exactly how to get it. DiFranco could probably make a decent living producing records for other artists, but she's been too busy producing her own work and touring nearly non-stop to support it.

Andre "Dr. Dre" Young
In the early days of hip-hop, it was rare that the producer wasn't considered part of the group, and most MCs had at least rudimentary production skills. But Dre is special. His production work with N.W.A defined the gansta rap sound and made his name, but it was his solo album The Chronic that changed the face of the musical mainstream. His ability to transform samples from Parliament, Bill Withers and Led Zeppelin into pure G-Funk was matched by his groundbreaking lyrical work. Not to mention it made a star out of Snoop D. O. Double-G.

Brian Wilson
When the world watched the Beach Boys performon the Ed Sullivan show in 1964, they saw Brian Wilson as the bassist. But his real instrument was a tape recorder, and the Beach Boys were his baby. He taought his brothers how to sing harmonies, and recorded theiur earliest songs on the reel-to-reel he was given for his 16th birthday. The Beach Boys' Pet Sounds is the pinnacle of his studio work, a dreamy orchestral soundscape that sounds like nothing that came before and nothing that has come since — no matter how hard some have tried. Wilson may have bowed out of the touring incarnation of his band years before Pet Sounds was recorded, but the sound of the Beach Boys was always his.

Trent Reznor
When not on tour, Nine Inch Nails is Trent Reznor. Yes, he has collaborators in studio with him, but the music you hear on NIN recordings is primarily the manifestation of one man's creative will. Much like Dr. Dre, Reznor took a relatively niche genre — industrial — to the next level, redefining what pop music could be in the process. And NIN's live shows are the stuff of legends, Reznor adeptly leading the charge of a small platoon of hand-picked multi-instrumentalists. Reznor's production skills have also leant an unsettling modd to groundbreaking video games (Quake) and movies (The Social Network).