The Beatles Bible - Topic: "The Beatles as Musicians" .........the Walter Everett books

mjb on "The Beatles as Musicians" .........the Walter Everett books

Sat, 20 Feb 2010 18:16:11 +0000

I've finished them both

What can I say......well as previously stated, they are VERY musically written, so much so that I probably skipped 50%+ of the text purely because I didn't understand it!

In essence Everett breaks down each song recorded with an in depth summary of it's musical value and then he attempts to go into very precise detail about who played what, which instrument was used, how each track was panned in the stereo mix etc. This is the part that interested me. We know he wasn't there and a good part of it was guesswork ...

mjb on "The Beatles as Musicians" .........the Walter Everett books

Fri, 12 Feb 2010 08:17:56 +0000

I apologise to all for having my bathroom habits discussed in such detail

skye on "The Beatles as Musicians" .........the Walter Everett books

Thu, 11 Feb 2010 22:42:16 +0000

Then he's in the right place to fix that problem.

mjb on "The Beatles as Musicians" .........the Walter Everett books

Thu, 11 Feb 2010 21:36:38 +0000

PeterWeatherby said:

mjb said:

Joe - just put it in the bathroom and open it up every time you pay a visit. That's how I've read it. Thing is, my wife keeps saying "what have you been doing up there all this time?"

Ha! I don't suppose it would do to answer, "studying the usage of borrowed chords and contrapuntal bass lines in the latter half of the Beatles' compositional career."

She'd just say you were full of ... well, you know.

Cheers Mr Weatherby

PeterWeatherby on "The Beatles as Musicians" .........the Walter Everett books

Thu, 11 Feb 2010 20:48:40 +0000

mjb said:

Joe - just put it in the bathroom and open it up every time you pay a visit. That's how I've read it. Thing is, my wife keeps saying "what have you been doing up there all this time?"

Ha! I don't suppose it would do to answer, "studying the usage of borrowed chords and contrapuntal bass lines in the latter half of the Beatles' compositional career."

She'd just say you were full of ... well, you know.

mjb on "The Beatles as Musicians" .........the Walter Everett books

Thu, 11 Feb 2010 20:35:36 +0000

Joe said:

I absolutely recommend both volumes. I've got copies of both, though I've not got very far reading them yet (I'm still on the early years, though I've dipped into both).

Google Books has them, though there's no substitute for a proper paper copy.

http://books.google.co.uk/book.....mp;f=false
http://books.google.co.uk/book...... 

Joe - just put it in the bathroom and open it up every time you pay a visit. That's how I've read it. Thing is, my wife keeps saying "what have you been doing up there all this time?"

Joe on "The Beatles as Musicians" .........the Walter Everett books

Thu, 11 Feb 2010 20:26:24 +0000

I absolutely recommend both volumes. I've got copies of both, though I've not got very far reading them yet (I'm still on the early years, though I've dipped into both).

Google Books has them, though there's no substitute for a proper paper copy.

http://books.google.co.uk/book.....38;f=false
http://books.google.co.uk/book..... 

mjb on "The Beatles as Musicians" .........the Walter Everett books

Thu, 11 Feb 2010 16:58:12 +0000

PeterWeatherby said:This sounds fascinating, mjb, thanks for pointing out a book that I would probably really enjoy. I've been a songwriter/guitarist/pianist for almost 20 years now, so this kind of musical notation detail that you're talking about would most likely be a gold mine for me. How many books are in this set?

There are two Peter. Are you UK based? If so, visit Amazon. Thery're not cheap (from anywhere). The pair cost me just of £50

PeterWeatherby on "The Beatles as Musicians" .........the Walter Everett books

Thu, 11 Feb 2010 15:54:48 +0000

This sounds fascinating, mjb, thanks for pointing out a book that I would probably really enjoy. I've been a songwriter/guitarist/pianist for almost 20 years now, so this kind of musical notation detail that you're talking about would most likely be a gold mine for me. How many books are in this set?

mjb on "The Beatles as Musicians" .........the Walter Everett books

Thu, 11 Feb 2010 14:05:54 +0000

Just finished the White Album

8tracktgdesk on "The Beatles as Musicians" .........the Walter Everett books

Sat, 30 Jan 2010 20:19:22 +0000

mjb said:

As you know (well those of you who have been following) I'm working my way through these books chronologically. I've now got to the start of Magical Mystery Tour.

I must admit that it took until Revolver for it to get really interesting in terms of the recording proccess becoming more challenging and inventive, but so far I've really enjoyed it. I do have to skip a lot of the musical notation stuff, but there you go!

You need to study the evolution of Recording technology at EMI Hayes and the development of the recording process at Abbey Road Studios ...

mjb on "The Beatles as Musicians" .........the Walter Everett books

Sat, 30 Jan 2010 08:47:19 +0000

As you know (well those of you who have been following) I'm working my way through these books chronologically. I've now got to the start of Magical Mystery Tour.

I must admit that it took until Revolver for it to get really interesting in terms of the recording proccess becoming more challenging and inventive, but so far I've really enjoyed it. I do have to skip a lot of the musical notation stuff, but there you go!

Joe on "The Beatles as Musicians" .........the Walter Everett books

Fri, 29 Jan 2010 10:23:47 +0000

Walter Everett's focus is on developments in The Beatles as musicians (as the title suggests): how their songwriting developed, how other musicians influenced them, the songwriting structure, and themes and motifs that recurred (or not) throughout their career. It's not a book about recording technology, though that is touched upon.

The musical notation is valuable in explaining how much of this occurred - none of it is 'pointless' or 'useless information'. It's fascinating.

Here's a layman's example: Ian Macdonald wrote about how Lennon's melodies tended to be horizontal, whereas McCartney's were vertical - ie went up and down the scales, rather than ...

8tracktgdesk on "The Beatles as Musicians" .........the Walter Everett books

Fri, 29 Jan 2010 04:51:03 +0000

I'm currently on the first book and although, as already pointed out, a lot of the analysis goes over the head on non-musical folk who cannot read or undestand musical quotation (like me), I am enjoying his breakdown on who played what and how the songs were mixed etc.

All that musical quotation to me is pointless. Unless you are going to recreate the songs live, then to me it's all lines and musical notes that are useless information. I mean come on, why even put them in the book anyway. My point here which continues to be lost, ...

Joe on "The Beatles as Musicians" .........the Walter Everett books

Thu, 28 Jan 2010 12:37:01 +0000

I messed up trying to move this thread over to this new books forum; instead of moving the entire thread it only moved the first post. I don't know if whole threads can be shifted.

Anyway, I'll leave it as is, with apologies to MJB. The original thread had moved somewhat off-topic anyway, so let's carry on using this for a discussion of Walter Everett's incredible books. And feel free to start a new thread about any other books you may have read, or are thinking of getting hold of.