The Beatles: Recording Sessions

The book contains a vivid, precise and descritive text about the way The Beatles record. The author researched in the papers from Abbey Road and talked with Paul McCarney to deepen the information. It's a gift!

"The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions" is a fine book, covering the recording, mixing and release of the Beatles songs, from the demos in 1962, to Phil Spector's reworking of "Let it Be" in 1970. There's a fair few photos too, which are great. This book was originally a project for John Barrett, an Abbey Road audio engineer who fell ill in the early 1980s and needed something to take his mind off things, and was commissioned to go through the Beatles tapes and catalogue them all. He died, sadly, and Mark Lewisohn (the writer of the liner notes for the Beatles "Past Masters" CDs) was asked to come in and write up Barrett's research. Together, they've put together a pretty thorough book. It lists how each song was recorded, credits for session men (where possible), and reflective comments from producer George Martin, engineers Geoff Emerick, Norman Smith, Glyn Johns and Alan Parsons, among others. There's also occaisonal bits of Beatle banter from the sessions (which is always great to hear/read), and a Paul McCartney/Mark Lewisohn interview as an introduction. After reading it I think I know the Beatles a bit better now. In particular, I definitely understand why they broke up. Their schedule was pretty hectic, recording and re-recording everything, looking at the same four walls of the Abbey Road studios. It was exhausting just reading their 1967 sessions (where they did "Sargeant Pepper's Lonely Heart's Club Band", then straight after "Magical Mystery Tour", the first, high-pressure live broadcast "All You Need is Love" and the tracks especially for the "Yellow Submarine" film). It's amazing they handled it all so well for so long. It was also interesting to read about how Abbey Road studios was in the 1960s, a rather formal sort of place, and to read about all the innovations they initiated (like automatic double tracking, etc). It was great fun going through year by year too. A bit technical for casual Beatles fans, but for fans (like me) who love every detail of Beatles songs, and still want to know more, it really is worth checking out.

"The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions: The Official Story of the Abbey Road Years 1962-1970," is EMI Records' official diary-format history of every Beatles recording session. Mark Lewisohn researched hundreds of unreleased Abbey Road archive tapes and the result features literally thousands of previously unpublished studio documents and interviews with many of the key recording personnel. The goal is to put together a definitive reference book for Beatles fans, and in light of what we say on the Beatles "Anthology" CDs, where there were alternative takes of various songs, even casual fans will have an appreciation for what Lewisohn is detailing in this 204-page oversized volume. Following a preface and an interview with Paul McCartney, which includes the revelation that "You Know My Name (Look Up My Number)" is probably his favorite Beatles track, we get to the recording sessions. These are arranged chronologically by dates, and you need to go to either the Contents (3) to find out when each year begins, or to the Index (202-03) to track down specific songs. Once you get your bearings you will find that on the top of each two-page spread the month appears on the left hand page and the year on the right. Each entry has the day of week and date, which studios were used, starting and stopping times, what was done (recording, mixing, etc.), and who the producer, engineer, and second engineer were. Lewisohn then provides details on who was doing what, and quotations from some of the people involved, both behind the controls and in from of the microphones. For example, if you are interested in "A Day in the Life," you will find a photograph of Paul and John with the alarm clock from the recording in the foreground, and the "Daily Mail" item that inspired the 4,000 holes in Blackburn, Lancashire line. After recording and mixing "Penny Lane," the first four takes of "In the Life Of..." (the working title for the song), were done on Thursday, 19 January. The following day saw tape reduction take 4 into takes 5-7 (where Lennon's song with a beginning and end but no middle was merged with McCartney's song that had a middle but no beginning or end). Ten days later the mono mixing for the song was done without the Beatles in attendance, with more overdubs being recorded on 3 February, and then on 10 February the 40 orchestra musicians showed up to record the orchestral build-up. Mono-mixing and overdubs continued on 13 and 22 February, with the stereo master completed on 23 February, with a final unused piano overdub on 1 March. So you can see how the major parts of the song came together as well as what else the Beatles were working on for their "Sgt. Pepper" album during this same period. Hopefully this brief description is enough to tell you if this is the sort of minutia that you love to pour over in your copious free time. Of course this book also allows you to see how the way the Beatles recorded music changed over the years from th

This book is addictive. The seemingly insignificant, minute details of the Beatles' day-by-day recording sessions are actually very interesting. The book goes into detail about the technology used, the recording and creative process, and the background knowledge of an insider. Armed with exclusive access into the vaults at Abbey Road, Lewisohn has produced a gem. Beatles Recording Sessions is surprising, entertaining, and always intriguing.

Anybody with even a passing interest in The Beatles must have this book. Set out in a diary format it gives details of all recording sessions by the group. Sometimes it gets fairly technical with details about recording equipment, overdubs, etc but it is still essential information. One criticism, if you can call it that - most Beatles songs have gained legendary status and it can be quite disconcerting at times to have them clinically dissected in this fashion. But that is a small criticism. The fact that the book is apparently out of print is deplorable. It would be good if it were issued free whenever anybody buys their first Beatles CD, it is that important. It isn't a book, it's a rite of passage.