Customer Reviews

Complete "Beatles" Recording Sessions: The Official Story of the Abbey Road Years

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For at least 4 years, this book has been out of print (it was originally published in 1988). The Beatles Anthology CD releases probably had something to do with this. Nevertheless, if you're interested in the complete recording sessions, this is the book to read. It begins with their 1st EMI session in June 1962 (back when Pete Best was still the Beatles' drummer, before Ringo Starr replaced him) and ends in 1970 with the remixing of the Let It Be sessions with Phil Spector. The only thing that's dated is the often repeated phrase "This remains unreleased to this day" in reference to songs "Leave My Kitten Alone," "Not Guilty" (the Beatles' version), "One After 909" (the 1963 version), "12 Bar Original," "That Means a Lot," "What's the New Mary Jane" and "How Do You Do It." This book features anecdotes about what went on during the studio sessions (some the Anthology listeners and viewers already know about and more), photographs, interviews and insights by producer George Martin, Norman Smith, engineer Geoff Emerick, session drummer Andy White (who took Ringo's place on the single version of "Love Me Do") and an insightful interview with Paul McCartney. Yes, Mark Lewishon has done his homework here with research and hours upon hours of listening to the Beatles' session tapes. In a perfect world, many of these still unreleased sessions would be available for listening, legally (of course, there would be some tracks which would leave the listener thinking "Ok, now I know why they didn't release this"). I'd like to see an updated version of this book (many of Mark's comments concerning the songs and other additional tracks mentioned above will have to be replaced with "Until the release of The Beatles Anthology 1 [or 2 or 3], this take/track remained unreleased"). He'd have to include a section for the Beatles Anthology CD's and DVD collection ("You can hear part of this take on Part 1 [or Part 3 or Part 8] of The Beatles Anthology").

It's truly rare that a book on The Beatles manages to satisfy such a divergent set of fans as this one does. If you are a fan of the music and had always wanted to know more about how they made those fantastic sounds on equipment that's practically obsolete these days, this is the place to find out.

We get an interview with Macca at the start which covers the period from pre-Beatles to the end focussing on recordings and who played what and when. Lot's of great b/w and colour photos and pictures with a full discography at the end make this an excellent edition to any fan's library. Chronologically, we get every track recorded with information on the various takes and pithy insights from the recording engineers as well.

Recommended.

Has any Beatle fan ever visited London and not walked the zebra crossing in Abbey Road? This fascinating book, compiled by Lewisohn with the help of intimate observers of the Fab Four's eight years at Abbey Road, takes you on an almost day-by-day, song -by-song account of their recordings. Through the blitzkreig tours of Beatlemania, the op-art trendiness of Carnaby Street, the Summer of Love, the squabbles and the break-up, it's easy to forget that from 1962 to 1970 the Beatles produced their masterpieces in the unassuming townhouse that was (and is) EMI Abbey Road studios. With infinite detail, the author describes everything from the primitive days of "Please Please Me" and "With the Beatles", to the masterful conjuring of "Revolver" and "Sgt. Pepper", to the final notes of "Abbey Road" (the group's last album and a fitting tribute to their recording home). The book is full of anecdotes on recording tricks and techniques, photographs and trivia. Best of all is the presence of George Martin, the Beatles' producer; his contributions are forever bound up with the history of Abbey Road. Since they arrived in 1962, the street, and the studio, have never quite been the same.

I bought this book a long time ago when it first came out. As a diehard Beatles fan, I think it is great!! It really goes into the little details of the Beatles in the recording studio and gives the reader something of an idea as to what it was like to be there. By the way, Amazon states this is out of print; however, my local Borders store has a lot of copies in their bargain books for a really cheap price . . .between $4.99 to $9.99 (I can't remember exactly) So check out the closeout sections of your local stores.

This is a great book. There is a lot of information for the superfan. There are day-by-day notes of what happened during each recording session.

Not every fan wants to sit everyday in the studio with the beatles, but if you did you would learn alot about recording techniques. This book helps to show that the beatles were'nt just creative but they got a lot of help from GEORGE MARTIN and the others at abby road studios. It is interesting to learn every exact sound and effect on the songs but does become a bit dry at times.