MUSIC

$27.50

At last: the complete, official,inside-the-studio details of everyBeatles recording session

Suspending microphones inside water jars,recording guitar solos backward, and cutting uptape and splicing it back together in random order,the Beatles experimented tirelessly. From the rawenergy of their made-in-a-day debut LP

Please

Please Me

through the technical genius of theseminal

Sgt Pepper

to the last album they recorded,the finely crafted

Abbey Road,

the Beatles sustainedan unsurpassed level of creativity in the recordingstudio. They used the Abbey Road recording studioin ways no studio had been used before, and in theprocess they completely revolutionized popularmusic.The photos, stories, and recording details in

The

Beatles: Recording Sessions

open up this magiclaboratory where the Beatles created the sounds thatchanged the world. For every day the Beatles everlaid down a track in the recording studio, this book details what songs they were recording, who waspresent, how many takes were done, what specialeffects or techniques were employed, and anythingunusual that happened that day. Here are the Beatlesas you've never seen them before: John Lennonasking to be suspended from the ceiling with a ropearound his waist and spun over a microphone toachieve a unique vocal effect; George Harrisonrunning around the studio holding a flaming ashtrayover his head while Paul McCartney records thevocals of "Helter Skelter"; and rock-steady Ringo,after one of his rare foul-ups, grousing "We all makemistakes."EMI Records, the Beatles' British record label, hasmade available to author Mark Lewisohn itsunpublished documentation for every recordingsession the Beatles ever did, and has allowed him tolisten to the hundreds of hours of alternative takesand unreleased tracks in their archive. From thesesources, in combination with interviews with PaulMcCartney and the producers, engineers, sessionmusicians, and others who were in the studio withthe band, Lewisohn has created a thorough, fascina-ting, and definitive record of the Beatles at work.Featuring details of every recording session,more than 350 photos in color and duotone,

(Continued on back flap)

THE BEATLE

RECORDING SESSION

MARK LEWISOH

Introductory Interview with Paul McCartne

HARMONY BOOK

New York

any form or

any means,electronic or mechanical, including photocopying,recording, or by any information storage and retrievalsystem, without permission in writing from the publisher.Published by Harmony Books, a division of CrownPublishers, Inc., 225 Park Avenue South, New York,New York

10003.

Originally published in

1988

in Great Britain as

The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions

by The HamlynPublishing Group Limited a division of The OctopusPublishing Group plc, Michelin House,

Fulham Road.London

SW3

6RB.HARMONY and colophon are trademarks of CrownPublishers. Inc.Printed and bound in (treat Britainby Collins, GlasgowLibrary of Congress Number:

88-817-35

Reprinted

1989

ISBN

0-517-57066-1 1098765432

Author

s acknowledgements

The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions

would be aninfinitely poorer book were it not for the invaluableassistance of those people directly involved in the story. The following technicians, musicians, production staff and observers of eight magical years of recording sessionsgenerously offered me their time and their memories, and Ithank them all warmly.Malcolm Addey; Kenny Baker; Martin Benge; Pete Best;Anil Bhagwat; Leo Birnbaum; Chris Blair; Peter Blake;Bob Boast; Peter Bown; Jerry Boys; Tony Bramwell; AlanBrown: Jack Brymer; John Burden; Barrie Cameron;Clem Cattini; George Chkiantz: Alan Civil; Tony Clark;Frank Clarke, Peter Coe; Terry Condon; Hunter Davies;Malcolm Davies; Stuart Eltham; Geoff Emerick; KennethEssex; Jack Fallon; Eric Ford; Jim Foy; FranciscoGabarro; Brian Gibson; Tony Gilbert; Laurie Gold; KeithGrant; Richard Hale: Dave Harries; Derek Healey; AlanHolmes; Ted Huntley; Bill Jackman; Jeff Jarratt; Philip Jones OBE; Harry Klein; Bobby Kok; John Kurlander;Richard Langham; Richard Lush; Phil McDonald; GeorgeMartin OBE; David Mason; Peter Mew; Mo Miller: BarryMorgan; Rex Morris; Harry Moss; Cris Neal; Alan Parsons;Ron Pender; Bill Povey; Ron Richards; Mike Sammes;Sidney Sax; John Scott; Ken Scott; Mike Sheady; StephenShingles; Kenneth Sillito; John Skinner; Keith Slaughter;Norman Smith; Derek Taylor; Chris Thomas; Eddie Thornton; John Timperley; Ken Townsend; Peter Vince;Nick Webb; Andy White.Very special thanks to Paul McCartney for a splendidlyentertaining and illuminating interview. The supportive role offered to me by

everyone

at AbbeyRoad Studios throughout the duration of the project hasbeen marvellous. Ken Townsend, the general manager,and a man whose sharp memory spans three decades of sterling service there, offered consistently illuminatingrecollections, not least about his own inventions whichspurred the Beatles on to making more complexrecordings and changed all recording practices worldwide. The checking of the technical aspects of this book,undertaken by Townsend, could not have been placed inmore appropriate hands. Special thanks also go to AlanBrown and to the good folk in the tape library, for puttingup with innumerable "final

requests.Grateful thanks are due to many people over at EMI in WI,and especially to Terri Anderson, Norman Bates, MikeHeatley, David Hughes, Brian Southall, Bob Street and Tony Wadsworth. A special debt of gratitude is owed toBrian Southall for being the hook

s editor.Grateful thanks to Paul Wilkinson for marshalling thedesign of the book and for his eternal optimism, to BrianFolkard for his timely assistance and to Bryan Dunn,Piers Murray Hill and Isobel Smythe-Wood at Hamlyn.I am indebted to Linda Mallarkey, Sarah Murgatroyd,Christine Russell and Tracie Smith for transcribing theinterview tapes, and to Jenny Caswell at the Musicians'Union for supplying information from its unique archive.And thanks, of course, go to my wife 'aria, for patientlyenduring the interminably long hours slaved by herhusband over a hot word processor.Special thanks go to Kathryn Varley at Abbey Road, for without her astute and unremitting belief, vision,persistence and encouragement, this book simply wouldnot exist.Finally, posthumous salutations to John Barrett, to whomthis book is dedicated. I enjoyed the good fortune of meeting John before his sad and appallingly prematuredeath and remember him well, as both a man dedicated tothe project and a very fine recording engineer. Thanks, John.Mark LewisohnAbbreviationsAbbreviations in this hook are few, and they mostly occurin the initial information part of each date entry. There youmay encounter the following:P ProducerE Balance engineer. (See below.2E Second engineer, otherwise known as the TapeOperator/tea boy.n/a Not applicable– ie, there was no producer on thesession.SI Superimposition, also known as overdub.Special mention should be made of the role of the technicalengineer, distinct from the balance engineer. While thelatter would be positioned behind the recording consoleduring a session, adjacent to the producer, the technicalengineer would be there or thereabouts, on hand – or oncall – to deal with any equipment problems or makesuggestions in this area. There was, in the 1960s, andthere remains today, a pool of such staff at Abbey Road,and each member would have contributed to Beatlessessions to some degree. But unlike balance engineers, whose names were noted for posterity on recording sheetsand tape boxes, history cannot tell us which technicalengineers were assigned to which sessions.Picture creditsEvery effort has been made to correctly acknowledge thesource and/or copyright holder of each illustration, andEMI Records apologises for any unintentional errors oromissions, which will be corrected in future editions of this book.Apple Corps: 98 bottom. 102, 129 top left, 177 bottomright, 180 top; Apple/Dezo Hoffman: 19 bottom left, top,centre & bottom right; Apple/

than Russell: 165, 169;Beat Publications/Leslie Bryce: 58, 64, 65, 74, 75 left, 93,94 right, 97, 98 top left & top right, 100, 101, 103, 104,105 top left & bottom right, 108 top left & bottom right,122 right, 132 bottom left & top right, 135; BeatPublications Leslie Bryce/Paul McCartney: 108 centre;Peter Blake ' EMI): 113 top left; Tony Bramwell: 136 top,138. 140 bottom; Michael Cooper: 106, 112/113 bottomcentre, 113 right, 115 top left, top centre & top right, 118top right;

Daily Mail:

92 centre; Express Newspapers: 62bottom right, 63; Robert Freeman: 2, 3, 7, 9, 10, 12, 13,15, 43 top left & right, 45 bottom left, 46 left & right, 69,71, 73, 75 right, 76, 79, 80, 81, 82, 87, 88; Richard Hale:148, 151, 154; The Keystone Collection: 124-125; RichardLangham: 26 bottom centre; Mark Lewisohn: 25 topcentre & right, 47 top right, 52 right, 61 bottom, 92 left,129 bottom right; Linda McCartney: 149, 156 right, 171left & right, 172 bottom right, 174, 175, 179, 180 bottomleft and right, 183, 184. 185, 191; Don McCullin: 136bottom, 141; lain Macmillan: 186, 192;

Radio Times:

94left, 129 top right, 156 left; Ron Richards: 22 bottom; John Skinner: 45 centre; Times Newspapers/Brodie: I I;HarryWatmough: 17; Andy White: 20.All other photographs and all studiodocumentation © EMI Records.