Mark Lewisohn - The Beatles Recording Sessions

At last: the complete, official, inside-the-studio details of every Beatles recording session.

Suspending microphones inside water jars, recording guitar solos backward, and cutting up tape and splicing it back together in random order, the Beatles experimented tirelessly. From the raw energy of their made-in-a-day debut LP Please Please Me through the technical genius of the seminal Sgt Pepper to the last album they recorded, the finely crafted Abbey Road, the Beatles sustained an unsurpassed level of creativity in the recording studio. They used the Abbey Road recording studio in ways no studio had been used before, and in the process they completely revolutionized popular music.

The photos, stories, and recording details in The Beatles: Recording Sessions open up this magic laboratory where the Beatles created the sounds that changed the world. For every day the Beatles ever laid down a track in the recording studio, this book details what songs they were recording, who was present, how many takes were done, what special effects or techniques were employed, and anything unusual that happened that day. Here are the Beatles as youve never seen them before: John Lennon asking to be suspended from the ceiling with a rope around his waist and spun over a microphone to achieve a unique vocal effect; George Harrison running around the studio holding a flaming ashtray over his head while Paul McCartney records the vocals of Helter Skelter; and rock-steady Ringo, after one of his rare foul-ups, grousing We all make mistakes.

EMI Records, the Beatles British record label, has made available to author Mark Lewisohn its unpublished documentation for every recording session the Beatles ever did, and has allowed him to listen to the hundreds of hours of alternative takes and unreleased tracks in their archive. From these sources, in combination with interviews with Paul McCartney and the producers, engineers, session musicians, and others who were in the studio with the band, Lewisohn has created a thorough, fascinating, and definitive record of the Beatles at work. Featuring details of every recording session, more than 350 photos in color and duotone, facsimiles of contracts, studio documents, and other memorabilia, and a rare and exclusive Paul McCartney interview, The Beatles: Recording Sessions is the last great Beatles book a treasure of information and a loving tribute to the Beatles at their best.

Mark Lewisohn

The Official Abbey Road Studio Session Notes 1962-1970

ePub r1.0

Titivillus 22.07.16

Ttulo original: The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions

Mark Lewisohn, 1988

Ilustraciones: Apple Corps, Apple/Dezo Hoffman, Apple/Ethan Russell, Beat Publications/Leslie Bryce, Beat Publications Leslie Bryce/Paul McCartney, Peter Blake, Tony Bramwell, Michael Cooper, Daily Mail, Express Newspapers, Robert Freeman, Richard Hale, The Keystone Collection, Richard Langham, Mark Lewisohn, Linda McCartney, Don McCullin, Iain Macmillan, Ron Richards, John Skinner, Times Newspapers/Brodie, Harry Watmough, Andy White

Editor digital: Titivillus

ePub base r1.2

MARK LEWISOHN (June 16, 1958) is the acknowledged world authority on the Beatles. His books include the bestselling and influential Complete Beatles Recording Sessions, Complete Beatles Chronicle and (as co-author) The Beatles London. The worlds only professional Beatles historian, he was consultant and researcher for all aspects TV, DVDs, CDs and book of the Beatles own Anthology and has been involved in numerous additional projects for them.

[1] Artists and Repertoire.

[2] The label insignia, thought by many to be a sign, is in fact a German L.

[3] Fenton later became Alvin Stardust.

[4] Later Gary Glitter.

[5] The Beatles 6 June session was held early, from 6.00-8.00pm, in order to allow the group to drive back north the same evening.

[6] British Tape Recorder.

[7] Primrose, abbreviation of Primrose Hill, close by Abbey Road.

[8] 5.75.

[9] Clearly, the 11 September version was not regarded as having been a significant improvement after all.

[10] Superimpose one recording onto another, slightly out of synchronisation, to produce a fuller sound.

[11] The song was later given by the songwriters to another Brian Epstein act, Billy J. Kramer with the Dakotas, who recorded it at Abbey Road during their debut session on 14 March 1963 and took it to number one in the charts.

[12] She never did.

[13] The studios normal tape speed was 15 ips.

[14] The latter piano piece was never used.

[15] George clearly retained a liking for it however, for on 10 July 1964 he released an orchestral LP of Beatles tracks with that title.

[16] Actually on the Columbia label but produced by George Martin and Ron Richards.

[17] Smokey Robinson and the Miracles.

[18] Originally Devil In His Heart by the Donays, an all-girl group.

[19] Ie, they gave it a new structure.

[20] Written by press officer Tony Barrow.

[21] Similar to that in Scott McKenzies 1967 San Francisco (Be Sure To Wear Flowers In Your Hair).

[22] Tape operator/button pusher.

[23] The Beatles standard stage repertoire at this time comprised of just 10.

[24] Capitol also taped another Beatles show at the Hollywood Bowl, on 29 August 1965, but microphone gremlins prevented any of the songs from being usable.

[25] The intro piece was never used.

[26] Single tape echo and echo delay.

[27] Adorned, for the first time on a Beatles recording, with a foot-controlled tone pedal later to be known as wah-wah pedal.

[28] Ringo married Maureen Cox on 11 February and had returned to London on the 14th.

[29] With at least three overdubs, Ringos vocal being double-tracked and an extra guitar passage being played by George.

[30] 1987.

[31] Vibrato is oscillation of pitch by, for string players, movement of fingers.

[32] Not only was Normans song never again mentioned but Act Naturally was the last cover version the Beatles recorded until the Get Back film/album sessions in 1969. In between times only group compositions would feature on Beatles records.

[33] Semaphore experts quickly realised that the message spelt out by the four Beatles on the album cover did not make HELP but NUJV. Not quite such a catchy title

[34] Though, interestingly, George Martin produced a Peter Sellers session employing both a sitar and a tabla, on 16 October 1959 for the song Wouldnt It Be Loverly on the LP Songs For Swingin Sellers.

[35] Even so, they later decided to add more, these being overdubbed on 29 October.

[36] Ie, in case they said anything particularly witty.

[37] John later revealed that the scat backing vocal by Paul and George was in fact the word tit sung over and over again.

[38] And again on the 19th, the EMI pressing plant had problems with the first.

[39] Cashbox chart.

[40] These were superimposed on 7 April.

[41] The latter being a Ringo-ism seized by John as the ideal title for his masterpiece.