Although George Martin is generally credited with shaping The Beatles’ sound, the Abbey Road sound engineers were key in helping the group realise their visions. Arguably none were as influential and crucial as Geoff Emerick, who worked with The Beatles between 1966 and 1969.
The Beatles were in the right place at the right time. There was an anti-Establishment thing in the air, and everybody was looking for a youthful leader to latch onto. Everything came together. It just happened, really. And I could never see that happening again.
Emerick was born in London on 5 December 1945, and joined EMI at the age of 15. He sat in on The Beatles’ second EMI session on 4 September 1962, on his second day at work in the studios, and witnessed them recording How Do You Do It and Love Me Do.
Brian Epstein, George Martin and Geoff Emerick at the worldwide satellite broadcast of All You Need Is Love (Our World), 25 June 1967
He first worked with the group on 20 February 1963, when he was tape operator on an overdub session for ‘Misery’ and ‘Baby It’s You’. He assisted on a number of sessions for Please Please Me, With The Beatles and A Hard Day’s Night, before moving into EMI’s disc-cutting team.
In April 1966, at the age of 20, Emerick was promoted to engineer on the first session for Revolver. The first song to be recorded was ‘Tomorrow Never Knows’.
The studio manager called me to his office and asked whether I’d like to be The Beatles’ engineer. That took me a little bit by surprise! In fact it terrified me. I remember playing a game in my head, eeny meeny miney mo, shall I say yes, shall I say no? The responsibility was enormous but I said yes, thinking that I’d accept the blows as they came.
The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions, Mark Lewisohn
Emerick took over from Norman Smith, who had worked with The Beatles on almost all the sessions from ‘Love Me Do’ to Rubber Soul. Emerick’s youthful age and willingness to experiment with recording techniques dovetailed perfectly with The Beatles’ quests for new sounds.
Geoff walked in green but because he knew no rules he tried different techniques. And because The Beatles were very creative and very adventurous, they would say yes to everything. The chemistry of George and Geoff was perfect and they made a formidable team. With another producer and another engineer things would have turned out quite differently.
The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions, Mark Lewisohn
Being responsible for the innovative sounds on Tomorrow Never Knows would have daunted any new engineer, but Emerick rose to the challenge spectacularly. He went on to receive Grammy awards for his work on Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band and Abbey Road.
I spoke to Geoff Emerick, the engineer, and he had a good idea. He said, ‘Let’s try putting his voice through a Leslie speaker and back again and re-recording it.’ A Leslie speaker is a rotating speaker, a Hammond console, and the speed at which it rotates can be varied according to a knob on the control. By putting his voice through that and then recording it again, you got a kind of intermittent vibrato effect, which is what we hear on Tomorrow Never Knows. I don’t think anyone had done that before. It was quite a revolutionary track for Revolver.Geoff Emerick used to do things for The Beatles and be scared that the people above [in the EMI hierarchy] would find out. Engineers then weren’t supposed to play about with microphones and things like that. But he used to do really weird things that were slightly illegitimate, with our support and approval.
Anthology
The night we dubbed in the orchestra on ‘A Day In The Life’, there was a kind of party in the studio. I set up a rough monitor mix to play for everybody, and Ron Richards, who was the producer for The Hollies, was in the control room. When I played back the rough mix, Ron just put his head in his hands. And he was serious. There was silence after we finished playing it back. It was like you were watching a black-and-white film, and suddenly there was color and Cinemascope. The feeling in that control room was just amazing. Nobody had ever heard anything like it in their lives..
Despite his creative wizardry being invaluable to the group, Geoff Emerick became increasingly unhappy with the often tense atmospheres during the sessions for the White Album in 1968. He quit working with The Beatles on 16 July, while the group were recording ‘Cry Baby Cry’.
I lost interest in the White Album because they were really arguing amongst themselves and swearing at each other. The expletives were really flying. There was one instance just before I left when they were doing ‘Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da’ for the umpteenth time. Paul was re-recording the vocal again and George Martin made some remark about how he should be lilting onto the half-beat or whatever and Paul, in no refined way, said something to the effect of ‘Well you come down and sing it’. I said to George ‘Look, I’ve had enough. I want to leave. I don’t want to know any more.’ George said ‘Well, leave at the end of the week’ – I think it was a Monday or Tuesday – but I said ‘No, I want to leave now, this very minute, and that was it.
The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions, Mark Lewisohn
Emerick did, however, mix songs for the Yellow Submarine album, and engineered the orchestral recording sessions for the soundtrack in October 1968. However, he didn’t work with The Beatles again until 14 April 1969, when he engineered a session for ‘The Ballad Of John And Yoko’. He returned full-time in July, while the group were making Abbey Road.
I started working with them again at Paul McCartney’s request, just a week after I had left EMI to run Apple Studios. I went back to Abbey Road as the first freelance engineer that had walked in the building.
The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions, Mark Lewisohn
After The Beatles split up, Emerick worked with artists including Paul McCartney, Judy Garland, Elvis Costello, Art Garfunkel, Cheap Trick, Split Enz and Jeff Beck. His work on McCartney’s Band On The Run album won him a Grammy, and he was awarded another in 2003 – his fourth – for lifetime Technical Achievement.
In 2006 Emerick’s memoir, Here, There And Everywhere: My Life Recording The Music Of The Beatles was published. It was co-written with music journalist Howard Massey. The book received some criticism for its dismissal of the contributions of George Harrison and Ringo Starr, and his assessment of Rubber Soul as “not especially noteworthy” and the White Album as “virtually unlistenable”.
This is the true story of the Beatles in the recording studio as I and many of my colleagues remember it. As The Beatles’ own Anthology project proved, put four people in a room and you will get four differerent recollections of the same event. That is simply human nature. Nonetheless, my co-author and I took great pains to ensure the accuracy of all that is stated in the book.
In 2007 Emerick led a project to re-record Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band with contemporary artists including Oasis, The Killers, Travis and Razorlight. The new versions, mostly recorded on Abbey Road’s original equipment, were broadcast on BBC Radio 2 on 2 June to mark the album’s 40th anniversary.
In a 2007 interview for Netscape, Emerick spoke of his distaste for the Love album.
I won’t listen to it. People have told me about it. Look, the four artists were present when we did the mono mixes of the original records. And the recordings were fresh in our minds when we did the stereo mixes: even if the Beatles weren’t present, they were involved. It’s their record – and now it’s been messed around with. The original records are iconic, they’re pieces of art. Would you go and repaint the Sistine Chapel? You don’t. Just leave it alone.
Geoff Emerick moved to America in 1984, and lived in Los Angeles. He died on 2 October 2018.
Our thoughts are with the family and friends of Geoff Emerick, who has sadly passed. Geoff’s work as audio engineer on their music was integral, resulting in multiple highly deserved Grammy Awards. pic.twitter.com/PWKO5i2EIc
— The Beatles (@thebeatles) October 3, 2018
‘Here, There and Everywhere’, written by Geoff Emerick with Howard Massey is a fascinating insight into what took place at Beatles recording sessions during Geoff Emerick’s time as assistant, and later, balance engineer -after I bought the book I couldn’t put it down! The innovations and new sounds they developed from uncomplicated 1960s recording technology (effects-wise, they had little if anything more than reverb and ‘tape echo’) made for some amazing sounds. On ‘Tomorrow Never Knows’, Emerick gives an account of how the mixing console became a musical instrument (pp111-3), by running tape loops containing contorted sounds played from every available tape machine in the Abbey Road facility, speeding them up and down, fading them in and out etc- not the earliest example of non-instrumental music but very high profile because it was being offered to the Beatles’ mass audience. On ‘Revolver’ and ‘Sgt Pepper’ it was amazing what they could still do with just 4 tracks to record and ‘bounce’ on. No doubt the higher-ups at Abbey Road and EMI HQ (to their chagrin!) knew well what unorthodox things and taboo experiments were taking place in the studios but they must have turned a blind eye because of the millions the Beatles were making for them. ‘Here, There and Everywhere’ will certainly alter any Beatle afficionado’s perception of their music, like it did for me. Enjoy!
It is the Worst Book On Earth.
While I found his book to be (occasionally) interesting for the insight into the Beatles recording technique, I cannot recommend it due to the obvious, lopsided favoritism he gives to McCartney.
One takes from it what their own biases predetermine.
The book gives fascinating insights into music recording for the Beatles and into the Beatles themselves. Geoff is completely frank about his feelings about the four Beatles and does not talk about that nearly as much as he does about his experiences as a head recording engineer with the Beatles. His comments about the four as individuals are not the point of the book and don’t receive that many pages. Anyone at all who is interested in the Beatles music will really enjoy this inside look at them as the Beatles, George Martin, Geoff and others worked their tail ends off coming up with new techniques to display the Beatles sound and desired sounds, while gaining some insight into what went on in the studio(s) at EMI during Beatles sessions.
This fairy-tale book doesn’t contain a single word of authentic dialogue.
It’s all made up, guys.
Ken Scott called him out after the book came out, and they may have corrected a few minor mistakes, but Geoff went on telling obviously fake stories and never openly admitted his “fraud”.
It is a SHAME that such a true Beatles hero would fail them so hard and spread massive misinformation, messing with people’s reception by telling lies.
For anyone who still hasn’t seen it, here are parts of an interview with Geoff from 1979 – that’s only 12 years after recording Pepper, and he doesn’t even know who’s playing the piano on ADITL!
“But no, I don’t recall actually meeting them. I just have sort of images in my mind of certain sessions, like “She loves you”. Just images, really.” (…)
(What do you recall about the session for “Tomorrow never knows”?)
“Hm, again, that’s really going back quite a few years. It’s a bit difficult to recall, actually. (…)
“As I say, it’s hard to recall anything specific. The only thing I can recall is that we used tape loops. (…) And that’s about it! It’s been many years!” (…)
“It’s difficult to recall details of specific sessions so many years on. They kind of blur together.” (…)
(Any memories of Eleanor Rigby?) “Not particularly. I mean, it was just Paul with his acoustic guitar. Well no, that’s not quite right, is it? Eleanor Rigby was with the string quartet, right?”
(Any memories of Taxman or For no one?) “No, sorry.”
(Yellow submarine?) “I don’t really remember much about the actual recording of the track.” (…)
“I remember one session – I can’t remember which song it was, but it was something from Pepper.” (…)
(What instrument is that in the intro of Lucy in the sky?) “Hm, it’s been a while since I actually listened to it. How does it start? Oh yeah, I don’t really know, to be quite honest. It might have been guitar that we treated in some way.” [It’s a Lowry ORGAN]
“Two-track was used at least through Help!” [FALSE]
(A day in the life – what do you recall recording that?) “Mainly the orchestral crescendo.” (…)
(Was John playing the piano or Paul, do you remember?) “Sorry, no. Haven’t a clue. It was basically John’s song, so it might have been him. [it was PAUL]. I don’t remember.” (…)
(Do you remember those sessions [for Magical Mystery Tour]? ) “All I recall is that I didn’t think it was a good idea.”
(Do you remember the sessions for I am the walrus?) “Not particulary, no.”
I agree with you that it was disgraceful of Geoff to fabricate fake stories. Perhaps he should’ve written a book about his experiences working with Supertramp, Gallagher and Lyle, Art Garfunkel, Split Enz, The Mahavishnu Orchestra (coincidentally crossing paths again with George Martin), Badfinger, America, Jeff Beck, Stealers Wheel, etc., in lieu of his book about The Beatles and it has to be noted that like George Martin, he worked with acts other than The Beatles.
As I said before, if Geoff had published his book while George and John were still alive, he most likely would have been sued by the two former Beatles guitarists for defamation. I wouldn’t be surprised if Yoko or Olivia had sued Geoff for writing libellous stuff about their late husbands.
Hmmm…
We tend to remember things that meant alot to us, to our beings…
He clearly was not a very emotional man! I woud deduce…! (i.e. -not really into it, but in his technical head ‘tape loops’!? C’mon!)
I wonder how George Martin would have buffereed some of his comments and interpreted it all with more kindness! The truth is grerat, but not from someone who is all-head and no-heart!
I love the fabs, all four of them! but like anyone (anyone not-repressed and interesting) we have all sorts of devils as well as angels…
As Alain De Bottom says -after saying we are all loveable ‘we are (also) all… horrible, really weird…’ The fabs too…
But we have seen ‘Get Back’, and they all come out of that with flying colours -for me, -esp. Paul and Ringo as human-beings!
I have been giving Paul McCartney “lopsided favoritism” since I wrote a book report on the musical genius in 3rd grade. That was in 1970.
HAPPY 80th BIRTHDAY PAUL!
I am almost finished the book and I think its fantastic, I feel theres nothing in here we havent heard before regarding the beatles and their roles in the band. Yes, Paul is a perfectionist and workaholic, and John and George were pretty much over the whole thing by the time they hit it big. Its only natural that Geoff would appreciate the guy with the best work ethic as he was punching a time clock himself. Even Ringo admits to this in the new George Harrison film. We all know enough about the beatles to read this and still be able to draw our own conclusions, but the tidbits in here are priceless, please dont be dissuaded from reading it.
I’m but three chapters in, and there are pluses and minuses in the book. Generally, so far, I agree with Jammy_jim: the book has great insight into the technical aspect of how the recordings were made, and some of the off-the-cuff quotes made by George Martin et al, but then there’s the forced interpretation through his own filter – “Paul McCartney was the real leader” and such drivel.
Read with a bit of skepticism about the more subjective sides of this book, but enjoy the window into the best era for music ever!
“…and such drivel”. And how in the world would you know? Your only point of reference is in your own mind based on your own biases and idolatry.
The book is the observations and interpretations of one who WAS INDEED there. It’s a wonderful book.
I’m also reading “Here, There and Everywhere” currently. It’s a great read. As an amateur Beatles historian, I’ve always imagined what it was like to be in the recording studio with these guys. Now I feel like I’m really getting to get in there some. I’ll occasionally read things that I don’t like as much. Yes, there is a very clear bias in the book towards McCartney and against George, whom he seldom has a positive or even neutral remark about. Such obvious bias, I lose faith in the truthfulness of what I am reading on occasion. I would still recommend it to any budding Beatles fan. Geoff had an incredible contribution to the sound of the band and I’m glad that it’s documented.
I agree with FWD: in his book, Emerick is giving us a window into the Beatles recording sessions, through his eyes. Maybe what he says goes against the grain of what we would like to think about them, but he was there, at least for the period 1966-69. He reports Paul as the only one who really had any rapport with him, and that certainly colors his impressions. Otherwise look at what he says. That Paul was the “arranger”, with very precise ideas of how he wanted his songs to sound. John was a creative genius, but often surly (and often under the influence) and too impatient to spend the same time perfecting his songs that Paul did with his. George and Ringo were much criticized by John and Paul, and little time was spent on their songs. He found neither one very happy during sessions, both walked out at times, and Emerick describes Ringo as being bored most of the time, as he had little to do once the basic rhythm track was recorded. We know that George and Ringo had more complex personalities than Emerick describes, but he only saw them in Abbey Road studios under conditions that they often found distasteful. He is entirely complementary about Ringo’s drumming, and he recognizes that George’s guitar solos improved enormously over time. And in 1966-68 it seems entirely believable that Paul was the driving force behind the group. A great read, but keep an open mind and realize that it only deals with the recording sessions, and mostly in the contentious post-touring era.
You mustn’t take everything in the book seriously, because Geoff himself stated in 1979 that he couldn’t remember much about their EMI sessions, and for all this nonsense about distasteful conditions, photographs reveal that they had lamplights, cups of tea, food and even a TV set was brought into the studio for them to watch when Ringo appeared on Cilla Black’s show in February 1968 not to mention a bed for Yoko in the July 1969 sessions while she was still badly hurt after hers and John’s car accident in Scotland and pregnant, so they probably weren’t as unhappy recording there as Geoff wrote in his book.
The tapes for the White Album sessions, including the outtakes on the SDE 50th anniversary editions, show no indications of fighting and I think it was either Chris Thomas or Ken Scott who stated that the White Album sessions weren’t as dominated by bickering or infighting as the biographers, journalists or media made it out to be. The only arguments that they recalled taking place were petty ones that were forgotten about 15 minutes later.
I’m reading the book now and though little in it is unfamiliar to me I am enthralled by the different perspective that is usually presented. Because he is not so star struck he seems to be able to give his personal feelings on not only the sessions and band, but the individuals that make up the Beatles world and music.
Too bad Mr. Emerick (who used to be a true Beatle hero for me) obviously didn’t tell excact memories all the time, since he had been under the influence himself at that time and couldn’t remember enough to make it into a book.
So at least for some parts he plain right made up stuff and sold it as fact!
Most infamous example for me is the part where he describes in DETAIL how John recorded the “Aaahs” for A day in the life – when it is PAUL on the record!
So I guess it’s possible to enjoy the book as a work of fiction but not as an accurate description of what really happened.
Oh, and I just read that he dislikes “Love”.
I guess the fact that George Martin himself was involved wasn’t enough for him.
Too bad, he misses a great collection of remixes of the original recordings that but new life and a fresh spirit to the legendary sounds – without ever damaging their legacy.
Maybe he was pissed nobody asked HIM to be involved…
Sorry to tell you this, but it really is John who sings the aaahs on A Day in the Life. Google it or listen to the vocal-only track on YouTube, you’ll find I’m right.
Actually VinceK, as I remember it, listening to the isolated vocal track was in fact what led “paulsbass” to his conclusion. I think if you look at the comments section to the song “A Day In The Life” I think you’ll find that he claimed such. I just thought it worth clarifying.
I myself have listened to the vocal track and while I have my own viewpoint I won’t state it here, because “paulsbass” ended up getting into such a heated argument with another commentator over this matter that Joe the administrator of this site decided to close that particular section of the comments. So I figure I’d better shut up before he does the same thing here.
Nope, it’s Paul. But you’re not the only one fooled. The isolated vocal track reveals very obviously that it’s Paul. Although, not obvious enough for everybody, obviously.
Obviously it’s a matter of opinion, and doesn’t really belong on this page anyway. Let’s keep the discussion to Mr Emerick and his work.
I have almost finished reading the book, and having read these reviews, most of them are as colored by Lennon disciples as they accuse Emerick of being toward McCartney. The man was there, and he calls it like he sees it. I found it very even-handed regarding Lennons talent and song/musical contributions. He simply says that Lennon was often detached and lacked attention to detail, and was distracted alot. Wow, surprise. For those readers that are looking for a perspective of this period by a man who was THERE everyday, gazing out of the control room window, its a great read. Technical, revealing, and an excellent rememberance of that time. StanA’s review is true.
I was looking for a book on the Beatles when i found this one. I’m 62 and live in NY. At the time the albums described in Geoff’s book were coming out, I was getting my first stereo. I discovered that by fading the sound from the left or to the right speaker, I could pick out the separate parts as Geoff had mixed them. I used to bore my buddies with this sort of ” can you imagine being there during the session?” This book is perfect for musicians like me who spent hours trying to cover songs from the”Pepper” sessions only to be frustrated. I get it now! Great book.
Geoff was there. Shouldn’t we hold a little more confidence to what he says than what we “think”?
Exactly….Some Historians here are too clever that seems they were there inside the control room
Emerick may be biased, but at least he calls it as he sees it. Take what you like in the book, and ignore what you don’t like.
Do fans who are rankled by Emerick’s view of George as an “economy class” Beatle also feel angst towards John & Paul for their same view of George? Emerick points out that J&P and George Martin himself didn’t take George that seriously, not at least until the Abbey Road sessions. You can feel angry at Emerick sure, but George himself admits that J&P’s egos and dominance over him kept him down.
I don’t believe that George really was as unhappy with being in The Beatles as many biographers make him out to be – if he was, he could’ve quit any time he wanted, but he didn’t and other than the brief period of 1969, he stayed until the end. Some of the post-1970 comments that he made in interviews may have been dictated by his mood.
He actually himself acknowledged that in the early years up until 1967, he didn’t mind being allocated at least two of his own songs per album, but it most likely became a pressing problem around 1968. He was lucky to get three on “Revolver” and four on The White Album, being a double album.
John told the media in 1967 that George’s song “Within You Without You” was a great Indian one and even Paul really liked “The Inner Light”, neither of which matches the description of unsupportive bandmates.
No book or text anywhere actually put me inside the studio with the Beatles while they were recording their three greatest albums (Revolver, Sgt. Pepper and Abbey Road). Biases toward or against band members aside, this book is filled with excellent little nuggets, like the orchestra players constantly backing away from the microphones during the recording of “Eleanor Rigby” or during the recording of the dueling guitar solos on “The End” when John asked Yoko to stay in the control room while he went down to the studio floor for one last triumphant hurrah alone with his bandmates. Geoff Emerick helped the Beatles make the magic happen, which is perfectly captured in his retelling.
I think George Harrison was a tremendous lead guitarist – one of the best – and the other Beatles recognized that. Paul was quoted as saying “we always knew we had a very, very good guitarist” in George. But John and Paul didn’t consider him a song-writer on par with them.
Paul did say in one interview that George didn’t seem interested in writing songs in the very early years, but he did get better over the years. He started contributing his own songs in earnest on “Help!”, where he was given two songs on that album, and they were “I Need You” and “You Like Me Too Much”.
It’s sad to see how many people read this book and take it for a true story…
Here’s what Ken Scott – another great Beatle-engineer – says about it:
“March 3, 2006
Dear Daytrippin’,
I must start of by thanking you for your efforts to bring the truth to the fore. I have followed with interest the Bob Spitz biography debacle. By way of an introduction my name is Ken Scott and I was honored and privileged to work on a lot of recording sessions with the Beatles. Being one of the few who got to see the Beatles record, up close and personal, I have always been bothered by the many people who disseminate false stories, always for a fast buck or some kind of ego boost. I have been waiting for someone with legitimate credentials – like Geoff Emerick – to come out, finally, with the true story. When his “Here, There and Everywhere” was announced I was so happy. The truth would be told, finally, I thought.
I was in for a big disappointment. I was one of the people interviewed for Geoff’s book, as were many other former Abbey Road employees. We all came to understand that these interviews were arranged because he had very little recall of those days, and his co-author would use our memories to buttress Geoff’s own meager memories.
Now, after reading his book, I KNOW how little he remembers. It appears we, the interviewees, didn’t give enough, because much is clearly fabricated stories, something made up to fill out the book.”
It’s a very good book. For those that want to get to the heart of the actual recordings, i think it’s brilliant and great to read alongside Ian MacDonald’s ‘Revolution in the Head’.
I find it laughable that he gets criticised for his views. The Rubber Soul critique I disagree with, but Geoff’s allowed to not like it much! I understand him more on the White Album. I don’t think it sounds as sonically or fresh as say, Revolver does. Of all the Beatles albums, it’s the one that’s benefited the most from Remastering (again, just my opinion). He’s allowed not to like it. Lennon dislikes And your Bird Can Sing, and is at best lukewarm on Abbey Road. Again, he’s also allowed to have these views!
As to the pro-McCartney thing, well, it’s obvious that Macca and him were more on the same wavelength from the start. McCartney seems to have understood just how much talent Geoff had, and cultivated that talent. However, McCartney doesn’t come off scot-free, as numerous sources tell us, McCartney was slow to credit others for their efforts, hence Geoff not getting an actually engineering credit on Sgt Pepper. I’m not saying Macca is perfect, but Geoff found him the easiest to work with and Macca wanted him on his solo stuff. Geoff’s allowed to say he got on best with him!
Likewise, Geoff paints the band as they were from his perspective. John Lennon had many sides and there are numerous sources of him being rather unpleasant. Surely most fans know this? Do the examples of Lennon being unpleasant to Geoff in the book sound out of character? Nope. To be fair he also has a few nice moments. More interestingly he confirms how Lennon was untechnical and lacked production ideas and needed help. McCartney, George Martin and the recording nous of Geoff Emerick gave him that help, and he flourished. This isn’t belittling Lennon, but it’s a nonsense to say that Lennon could have done it all alone. McCartney needed similar support. This book will only disappoint those who think Lennon and McCartney were omnipotent. If one looks at the uneven solo careers of both lead Beatles, we can see how much they missed the support network of the (extended )Beatle family.
As for Harrison, George’s own biographer Graeme Thomson confirms much of what Emerick says about how standoffish he could be to those not in his circle of trust. I doubt George would have disagreed with Emerick or even cared much. Thomson, alongside Ian MacDonald and George Harrison himself, confirm the minimal role he would take on albums such as Sgt Pepper. That McCartney superseded Harrison at times is pretty much fact. That Emerick thinks McCartney the more talented, is his opinion. If he is unsympathetic to George, well so was George Martin. George Martin pays lips service to Harrison, but he too obviously favoured McCartney.
Rather than criticising, it’s probably more logical to try and understand why? McCartney was (arguably) the best musician and, perhaps crucially for a producer and engineer, he found it far easier to convey what he wanted production wise. Lennon, found it extraordinarily difficult to convey production ideas: see Strawberry Fields Forever as the best example. Harrison took a laboured approach. It’s easy to see why McCartney is both Geoff and George’s favourite. Likewise, he was the most committed to the Beatles post 67. Both Harrison and Lennon having had enough far earlier. In this context, it must have been easier working with McCartney from Emerick’s perspective. Read some Peter Doggett’s account on Apple and in another context for a different view of Paul.
As for Ringo, he was a talented drummer, but he himself confirms that he spent most of Pepper learning to play Chess and felt his role was reduced once they stopped being a touring band. His lack of sympathy for Ringo post Beatles (and the madness of Apple) makes sense in context. As Beatles fans we romantically this it was all wonderful. Recording the White Album and especially Let it Be sounds horrible. The chaos of the break up of the Beatles and the aftermath don’t sound much fun. Emerick’s account fits in with what others report of this period, most notably Peter Doggett’s You Never Give Me Your Money.
I think you’re being very unfair to George. He didn’t have minimal involvement with “Sgt. Pepper” – he did say that he had minimal enthusiasm, not involvement. The SDE 50th anniversary outtakes show that he was very involved by making creative suggestions and he played on virtually every track, which does not match the description of “minimal involvement”. Ringo was heavily involved as well and when he said that he did learn to play chess, he may have been referring to his spare time and not when he made to work.
Neither John nor George made any effort to quit the group prior to 1969 and without Paul, we wouldn’t even have “Sgt. Pepper”, “Magical Mystery Tour” or “Let it Be”.
Hi im geoff emerick follow me on istagram @geoffemerick
my personal website is emerickbeats .com
Thanks for visiting, Geoff! I hope you’re well.
Hey thanks all is well
Hi Mr. Emerick, how about making some kind of statement referring to the discussion about the questionable contents of your book?
This just looks like a marketing strategy…
Your more than welcome to direct your questions to my website. Thank you mike
I wouldn’t bother reading Emerick’s book. Anything that stirs up controversy like that cannot be reliable. I do trust George Martin’s memories of the Beatles. In the film ‘The Compleat Beatles,’ he comes across as very genuine and believable. There were quite a few engineers who worked on the Beatles albums, but Martin was the one constant.
“Anything that stirs up controversy like that cannot be reliable.”
That is a false statement.
Also, his book did not stir up a lot of controversy.
Yes it did – as Michael has pointed out in a few posts, Geoff’s quotes from his 1979 interview revealed that he had virtually no ability to remember his work on The Fab Four’s sessions or who did what, what amount of tracks of tape they had at the time (he didn’t even work in any capacity on “Help!”) or certain sessions and Ken Scott called him out for publishing his book full of fabricated nonsense, basically accusing him of being a hypocrite.
Sad to hear of the passing of Geoff Emerick on Oct. 2, 2018. He leaves an unbelievable legacy of innovation and important and popular recordings.
Thank you for your invaluable contributions to the music I love!
I loved Geoff Emerick’s autobiography (‘Here, There And Everywhere’), which I only read quite recently.
One thing confused me, however; if G.E. joined EMI in June 1962, and he was born on the 5th of December, 1945, he must have been 16 years old, at the time. All references I have, including his own work, have him as a 15 year old.
Is this just me being mathematically/historically inept, or all my sources wrong.
Fantastic website, by the way!
Sorry to point it out to you, but it’s a fairy tale book and doesn’t contain a single word of authentic dialogue.
Emerick himself admitted in 1979 he didn’t remember ANYTHING and Ken Scott called him out on letting Howard Massey write a book for him with fabricated and made up stories.
You’re so right and I agree with you – it was hypocritical of Geoff to say what he said in 1979 and then what, publish that book of fabricated stories, obviously made up by Howard Massey.
I disagree with Geoff dismissing “Rubber Soul” as not especially noteworthy or the White Album as “unlistenable” – the latter is more applicable to “Revolution 9”, John and Yoko’s avant-garde albums, particularly “Two Virgins”, albums with Yoko screaming and Lou Reed’s “Metal Machine Music”.
I am sure that a lot of Beatles fans, fellow musicians and music critics would be offended by an offhand and insulting dismissal of “Rubber Soul”, because that was a crucial and vital time in their career.
Seems like George was a capable guitarist until Geoff showed up.
That’s a load of hokum – Geoff’s denigration of George’s guitar playing was not only unjust, but also very disrespectful. What he wrote about George’s abilities as a guitarist (including playing good solos) had no substantiation whatsoever and he had the wrong guy to denigrate the musicianship of.
The term bad guitarist would be more applicable to Sid Vicious.
That’s sarcasm Dave. I was thoroughly disappointed in the entire book.
I will also acknowledge that, despite his self-admitted inability to remember much in his 1979 interview and the content in his book, Geoff did get something right – he correctly stated that Paul used his Rickenbacker bass on “Paperback Writer”, as can be seen in photographs taken at the session in question.
Having just read the book, and found it a very good read. I do wish writers though wouldn’t include such specific quotes from events decades earlier, and nobody would remember the exact quotes. I can’t remember exact quotes said in conversations from last week!
While there may be errors factually in terms of who played or said what etc, Geoff is perfectly entitled to give his opinions about the individual Beatles (and indeed George Martin), having spent years with them. If he thinks Paul “led” The Beatles in the studio, or that George Harrison was frustrating, then they’re legitimate opinions from someone who was there.
And it’s not as if all his comments about George Harrison were negative. He was complimentary about his later playing, and his production skills.