Solid State , livre ebook

298

pages

English

Ebooks

2019

Écrit par
Kenneth Womack

Publié par
Cornell University Press

Lire un extrait

Obtenez un accès à la bibliothèque pour le consulter en ligne En savoir plus

Découvre YouScribe et accède à tout notre catalogue !

Je m'inscris

Découvre YouScribe et accède à tout notre catalogue !

Je m'inscris

298

pages

English

Ebooks

2019

Lire un extrait

Obtenez un accès à la bibliothèque pour le consulter en ligne En savoir plus

Publié par

Cornell University Press

Date de parution

15 octobre 2019

EAN13

9781501746864

Langue

English

Poids de l'ouvrage

2 Mo

Acclaimed Beatles historian Kenneth Womack offers the most definitive account yet of the writing, recording, mixing, and reception of Abbey Road.In February 1969, the Beatles began working on what became their final album together. Abbey Road introduced a number of new techniques and technologies to the Beatles' sound, and included "Come Together," "Something," and "Here Comes the Sun," which all emerged as classics. Womack's colorful retelling of how this landmark album was written and recorded is a treat for fans of the Beatles. Solid State takes readers back to 1969 and into EMI's Abbey Road Studio, which boasted an advanced solid state transistor mixing desk. Womack focuses on the dynamics between John, Paul, George, Ringo, and producer George Martin and his team of engineers, who set aside (for the most part) the tensions and conflicts that had arisen on previous albums to create a work with an innovative (and, among some fans and critics, controversial) studio-bound sound that prominently included the new Moog synthesizer, among other novelties. As Womack shows, Abbey Road was the culmination of the instrumental skills, recording equipment, and artistic vision that the band and George Martin had developed since their early days in the same studio seven years earlier. A testament to the group's creativity and their producer's ingenuity, Solid State is required reading for all fans of the Beatles and the history of rock 'n' roll.

Voir

Publié par

Cornell University Press

Date de parution

15 octobre 2019

EAN13

9781501746864

Langue

English

Poids de l'ouvrage

2 Mo

Solid State

SolidState

TheStoryofAbbey Roadand the End of the Beatles

KennethWomackForeword by Alan Parsons

CornellUniversityPressIthacaandLondon

All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in a review, this book, or parts thereof, must not be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the publisher. For information, address Cornell University Press, Sage House, 512 East State Street, Ithaca, New York 14850. Visit our website at cornellpress.cornell.edu. First published 2019 by Cornell University Press Library of Congress CataloginginPublication Data

Names: Womack, Kenneth, author. Title: Solid state : the story of Abbey Road and the end of the Beatles / Kenneth Womack. Description: Ithaca [New York] : Cornell University Press, 2019. | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identiﬁers: LCCN 2019011210 (print) | LCCN 2019012075 (ebook) | ISBN 9781501746864 (pdf) | ISBN 9781501746871 (epub/mobi) | ISBN 9781501746857 | ISBN 9781501746857 (cloth : alk. paper) Subjects: LCSH: Beatles. | Beatles. Abbey Road. | Rock music— 1961–1970—History and criticism. | Rock musicians—England. | Sound recordings—Production and direction—England. Classiﬁcation: LCC ML421.B4 (ebook) | LCC ML421.B4 W67 2019 (print) | DDC 782.42166092/2—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019011210

Jacket design and illustration by Henry Sene Yee

For Geoff Emerick

WhatwecallthebeginningisoftentheendAnd to make an end is to make a beginning. The end is where we start from.

—T. S. Eliot

Contents

Foreword by Alan Parsons ix Introduction: “Unmitigated Disaster”1 1 EMI TG12345 Mk110 2 Stereophonic Sound38 3 Tales of Men and Moog74 4 “The Long One”100 Photo gallery 5 The WindUp Piano and Mrs. Mills131 6 Virtuosi159 7 Tittenhurst Park186 8 Letting It Be204 9 Solid State223 Acknowledgments241 Notes243 Bibliography257 Index263

Foreword

y entire career in sound recording has been based on an M incredible series of right place, right time events. At age eighteen, I began working for EMI Records, the parent company of Abbey Road Studios, in a tape duplication department in West London. One of my assignments was to make a copy of the master tapes of an album calledSgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. I had been a long-standing Beatle fan, but hearing that album had a profound effect on meactually bringing me to tears during Shes Leaving Home. From that moment, I resolved to do what-ever it took to seek out a job at Abbey Road. It proved easier than I thought. A few months later, I wrote to the studio manager at the time, Allen Stagg, who granted me an interview at the studios and a tour of the building with Richard Lusha second engineer who was working on the nal stages of the BeatlesWhite Album. Just before my twentieth birthday, I earned my transfer to Abbey Road, initially working in their tape library, but enjoying the experience of hearing some of theWhite Albumrecordings as they resounded around the building. Afterbarelythreemonthsofyonthewalltrainingsessions and following a shortage of second engineers after two of them had been sackedI was approached by Vera Samwell, the studio

Voir