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The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions: The Official Story of the Abbey Road years 1962-1970
£21.50
One of the most important documentaries on rock music ever published, this is EMI Records’ official diary-format history of every Beatles recording session. Now in paperback.
Researched from hundreds of unreleased Abbey Road archive tapes, featuring thousands of previously unpublished studio documents and interviews with many of the key recording personnel.
The book is filled with over 350 color and black-and-white photographs and illustrations, including rare photos by Linda McCartney and the first facsimile reproductions of Abbey Road recording sheets, tape boxes, album sleeve roughs, memos, contracts, press releases and much more.
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Additional information
| Publisher | Hamlyn (2 Sept. 2021) |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Paperback | 204 pages |
| ISBN-10 | 0600637123 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-0600637127 |
| Dimensions | 28.7 x 1.78 x 28.58 cm |
by Hauntedsoup
I can’t recommend this enough. Anyone who loves The Beatles will find this fascinating. It’s the little details that really make this stand out. Having read it from cover to cover, I know it’s something I’ll dip back into if I’m looking for info on a certain song, or date or piece of trivia. How about this for insightful detail……
“John wanted a really unusual vocal sound so I suspended a very thin condenser microphone tied in a plastic bag inside a milk bottle fill with water.”
Brilliant.
by Suzie21
This book was chosen by my son and bought by me for his birthday. He’s made no comment, so I can assume he’s pleased with it.
by James Langley
This book is a MUST for any Beatle fanatic out there.. Absolutely brilliant
by Mr. L. F. G. Ballinger
Originally published way back in 1988, Mark Lewisohn’s THE COMPLETE BEATLES RECORDING SESSIONS makes a thoroughly welcome return to our bookshelves. Having been somewhat superseded by his own THE COMPLETE BEATLES CHRONICLE (a work detailing virtually every working day of The Beatles’ career), it is nevertheless very pleasing to see a book which gets to the knub of what The Beatles were all about – the music – being made available once again.
Mark Lewisohn has long since established himself as a prime authority on the Fab Four and his research here has given fans an exhaustive yet thoroughly readable account of the band’s time at EMI’s Abbey Road studios. The most intricate details of how The Beatles’ classic albums were recorded and ultimately put together as finished packages are all laid bare here and it makes for fascinating reading. It also goes to show that, no matter how much musicians – The Beatles included – may have mocked EMI’s what was then notorious by-the-book, men-in-white-coats approach to the running of the studios, EMI’s stringent policy regarding day-to-day record keeping has been duly vindicated by providing a supremely comprehensive archive of material upon which Lewisohn could base his work. (Incidentally, The Beatles worked at various other London studios during their career together and it’s worth noting that other sessions which took place, such as the ‘Hey Jude’ recordings at Trident and the GET BACK/LET IT BE sessions at Apple, are also detailed herein.)
For this particular fan, THE COMPLETE BEATLES RECORDING SESSIONS is possibly the best Beatles book ever compiled, for it side-steps all of the latter-day bickering, the bruised egos and the business squabbles to instead tell the story of four musicians – not forgetting, of course, producer George Martin – knuckling down to create a body of work which continues to enthrall music-lovers the world over.
by Joseph Fortune
Perfect book for the serious Beatle fan.
by Hugh Jarse
Very informative book at a good price. Very slightly damaged on receipt, packaging could have been better.
by Ryan Golding
Liked this purchase
by Kirky
You’ve got to be really into the Beatles to get full value from this expensive book. Every last detail of each day in the studio is chronicled, eg how many takes there were, how they different, what overdubs took place and when, why some recordings of songs are longer than others, etc, etc. A lot of it is pretty boring, to be honest. The emphasis is very much on the mechanics of the creative process rather than the artistry of the songwriting which I’d have found more interesting but isn’t within the scope of this book.
It includes an interview with Paul McCartney which is moderately interesting and some good pics.
Worth getting out of the library for a flick through but that’s all.