Good Vibrations -- A History of Record Production [Paperback]

Mark Cunningham (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1, 1998

From Elvis Presley's Heartbreak Hotel through Telstar, Pet Sounds, Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, The Dark Side of the Moon, Bohemian Rhapsody, Vienna, Two Tribes, Zooropa, Older, to Britpop albums from Oasis, Kula Shaker, Cast and Radiohead, Good Vibrations follows the development of popular music recording from the perspective of the producers, engineers and session players.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 380 pages
• Publisher: Sanctuary Pub Ltd; 2nd edition (June 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1860741444
• ISBN-13: 978-1860741449
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.8 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,610,554 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars THE book on the real history of hit making, September 10, 1999

By 

Joseph Scott ([e-mail]) (United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Good Vibrations, Second Edition: A History of Record Production (Sanctuary Music Library) (Paperback)

There are two basic types of music fans: (1) people who like to read quotes from the members of Pink Floyd explaining how they actually put together their records and (2) people who think Pink Floyd are, whoa, a trip. People in the first category will love this book. Unlike other similar books, this is an actual history of record production in chronological order. Cunningham is a talented writer. He's also a respected producer and player himself, which means he knows just about everyone who is anyone behind the scenes of record making, and they all seem to have agreed to talk to him! The book is worth buying just for all the little anecdotes, such as the time the trumpet soloist on "Penny Lane" inadvertently offended John Lennon at the session, or the time one of the world's top producers, Chris Thomas, was beat up by thugs while recording the Sex Pistols. But it's also full of important, hard facts. The section on Motown, for example, cuts through all the usual mythology about everything being recorded in Detroit, and provides quote after quote from actual participants explaining how Los Angeles session musicians (Carol Kaye, Earl Palmer, Hal Blaine, etc.) played on many of the biggest mid-'60s Motown hits. That's typical of the book: Cunningham does his homework. While most writers have a hard time even explaining what a Mellotron is, he gives a detailed history of the instrument, and its use on particular hit records, and provides an interesting quote from George Martin about the instrument, and figures out where the actual Mellotron the Beatles used on "Strawberry Fields Forever" is today. This is not the sort of simplistic hero-worship PR that entertains the average person in the average magazine. It's a thick, accurate, intelligent book, full of authentic, little-known stories, told from the inside, and they're fascinating.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Insightful Look at British Pop, November 6, 2001

By 

Stephen B. Ward (White Plains, NY United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Good Vibrations, Second Edition: A History of Record Production (Sanctuary Music Library) (Paperback)

When I first got a look at the contents and sampled a few pages, I was eager to read this book. Ultimately, I too came to the conclusion that it is too biased towards the British Pop scene.

Not to fault Mark Cunningham, after all he's British, but a lot of the artists he spends time on, have had little impact on the history of record production, at least on this side of the pond.

Ron and Russell Mael? Chris Rea? Slik? Interesting to read about, perhaps, but hardly of the same caliber as Trevor Horn, The Police, Peter Gabriel and U2.

Mainstream American artists such as Fleetwood Mac (yes, American!), Prince, Paul Simon, Billy Joel, Springsteen, Toto and The Cars are largely ignored if mentioned at all. Equally absent are prominent American producers, such as Phil Ramone, Russ Titelman, Richard Perry, Jam & Lewis, Reid & Babyface, Nile Rogers and the like.

Still, what it does discuss is interesting. There are whole chapters on The Beatles, Brian Eno and the making of "Bohemian Rhapsody." There are substantial sections devoted to The Beach Boys' "Good Vibrations," Jeff Lynne, Leiber and Stoller, Motown and Carol Kaye, Joe Meek, "Heroes," and Flood.

There are interesting discussions of the specific technologies used in producing the records. But unfortunately, beyond a certain time period in the book, just at the point where the use of technology gets really interesting in music production, the book fails to explain its influence. For example, one might assume that an Anglophilic book might wax poetic about how automated mixing changed the way records were made and how it was introduced by British mixing desk manufacturers Solid State Logic (SSL) and Neve. Not a word.

I think it would be most useful as a companion to a book that focused mostly on what was happening in the States. But as a general history of Record Production, it is somewhat weak.

I used it as a textbook for a course I teach in Record Production Techniques here at Mercy, but after one semester, I am looking for a replacement text. Perhaps the Wadhams....

Stephen B. Ward
Mecry College, White Plains, NY

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Fascinating Journey to the World of Record Production, April 27, 2000

By 

"rootwitch" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Good Vibrations, Second Edition: A History of Record Production (Sanctuary Music Library) (Paperback)

First of all, I'd like to share a few comments about the previous reviews. Although I agree this book is really geared towards the rock/pop scene, I do believe the bias is justified. Even today, classical and jazz recording techniques don't really employ the more radical innovations in production approach generated by the demands of rock/pop projects. Let's remember that multitrack classical recordings are a relatively new thing (The Zappa LSO recordings in the 80s are a fine example), and moreover, the role of the record producer is not so proeminent in such enterprises. Also, another complain points to the greater coverage of the UK scene. The book deals with the early days of multitrack recordings (Les Paul), then moves on to Phil Spector's 'wall of sound', Motown, Muscle Shoals and stops at Brian Wilson's efforts. Of course it's an incomplete US panorama, but then again the book does justice to important (and sometimes overlooked) names of the trade, like Joe Meek, Gus Dudgeon, Tony Visconti and David Hentschel. The idea of centering the chapters around a particular studio is nothing short of brilliant, giving the author the opportunity to comment on the evolution of recording technology and techniques, generated by the demands of their particular clients. Another fine addition to this book (in comparision to Buskin's book 'Inside Tracks') is the abundance of historic photographs and the presence of 'real-life' cases, where a particular producer shows the approach he used to achieve a particular result. Add a wealth of anecdotes and behind-the-scenes stuff aplenty and you get a sure winner.