RECORDING THE BEATLES by Kevin Ryan and Brian Kehew
Never before has there been such an absolutely thorough and definitive look at how the Beatles’ albums were recorded. Years of research and extensive interviews with the group’s former engineers and technicians shed new light on those classic sessions. With a detailed look at every piece of studio gear used, full explanations of effects and recording processes, and an inside look at how specific songs were recorded, Recording The Beatles is a must-have for any Beatles fan or recording engineer. Hardcover, 11" x 11", 540 pages, over 500 photos and illustrations, color and black and white, available September 2006, ISBN:0-9785200-0-9. The initial release of the book in September 2006 is the Deluxe Edition only.
Please don't take our word for it - it has received wonderful comments from anyone who has seen and held it. It IS a somewhat technical book, but ANYONE can understand it - it's not complicated (my parents understood it all). There are tons of cool photos, including some never-seen Beatles studio pics. We tried very hard to make the book the most fair and accurate portrayal of what it was like in those days, and most of the people who worked with them have agreed it is... Please let us know if you have questions or comments. Thanks!
I've got a couple of questions concerning this book and it's very nice of one of the authors to come here to talk about it!
First of all, does it have details for every song they recorded or just certain songs when you want to illustrate a technical detail?
Second, I've noticed that Geoff Emerick doesn't get a mention in the publicity.He has recently brought out his own book about recording the Beatles.Did he refuse to contribute?Is his book accurate?(It's been publicly criticised by Ken Scott).
I imagine that the book took a lot of research.How long have you been working on it?
Looking forward to your answers and welcome to DM's!
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Welcome to the forum Brian!
As Zipp said, it's great that you took time to stop by to answer any questions - nice one
I'd really like to buy a copy but the postage from the US is a bit expensive (over half the price of the book!). So, will de-luxe copies be available from UK bookshops?
HI and thanks. We're saving a lot of the "how we did this" information for interviews in magazines and radio, coming up in the next few months.
We cover many songs individually, whenever we felt that significant accurate information was available. They are not placed to cover any technical point, but to give as many good examples of their recordings as we could find. There is no way to cover every song - too much is unknown (such as who played what) and will likely never be known. We work hard to stay in the realm of reality and accurate information - verifying things with paperwork, photos etc.
Beatles methods changed so often, it's good to see many examples so you can start to understand how some things stayed consistent (at least for a while) and how other things shifted.
We only sell books from our website (http://www.recordingthebeatles.com), not through stores at this time. As the book costs so much to make (it is NOT small and is very high quality) it would not be proftable to sell through dealers now, unless they charge a higher price. (It is worth the money - please see ANY posts about it on other forums.) You are lucky in the UK actually - with the current exchange rate, it is cheaper for you to buy than for Americans.
Thanks for your answers Brain. Very honest to point out that some things are impossible to know and that you've only put things that you're sure of. The problem of the price is a case of swings and roundabouts.The exchange rate may be favourable but the shipping is more expensive.I'm sure a less luxurious edition would sell in Europe, especially through amazon or something similar. We'll just have to be patient!
1) Sorry - it's not the luxury of the book that costs money - it's the size and mass of it. Which will never change, unfortunately. We give all the extra stuff, because we knew people would like it and it doesn't cost too much really to add some extra bits in and make it a better value.
Maybe read what everyone says on various forums around the web - it is commonly said that it is worth far more money than is charged. Hopefully, you will be able to save and afford your own copy soon!
2) Mark Lewisohn's book tells good detail about WHEN and WHO. This book is more about the studios (not just Abbey Road, but mainly), the equipment used (which seems to be THE big mystery before now) and HOW they did things - ideas and tricks they had, who played bongos on "Hard Day's Night", how some songs were built up - track by track. (BTW - Mark is a good friend, a great help and wrote the Foreword to our book! I think my copy of "Recording Sessions" is the MOST beaten-up one in the world!)
3) Hopefully, the book is inspiring people to be more like the Beatles - not in sound, but in approach. They would often change things, just to be "not like the old Beatles". They would even make a sound worse, rather than use the "good" sound they had last time. VERY creative people - and the book points out that they PUSHED everyone to be better and different - George Martin, Norman Smith, Emerick, Scott, McDonald, etc etc. They even pushed themselves to be different than before. Notice that there's only one song like "Tomorrow Never Knows", they never copied it for something else!
To answer your question about Geoff Emerick: At first he said he'd contribute, then he didn't. So we used all his previous interviews (some unseen and unpublished) and used anything that might be applicable - which you'll see in the book. Some of the very things that were important to know had been discussed, so they are included in the book. Of course, usually there were several people there for a given session. and we could ask all involved to get a better picture of what happened.
It may be as a result of the various criticisms of his book, I don't know. But we feel we don't take sides - everyone involved gets credit in our book, and about 30+ other former Beatles staff have been very supportive of our book and it's accuracy.
** I'm curious if anyone here has gotten our book, and if so, what your favorite parts are?
Thanks for the answer Brian. It was me that asked the question about Geoff Emerick. I haven't bought his or your book yet but ,like you, I've heard some criticism of Geoff's book(but not of yours!).
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