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3+ Works 419 Membros 18 Reviews

About the Author

Geoffrey Ernest Emerick was born in London, England on December 5, 1945. He had just graduated from Crouch End Secondary Modern School in North London in 1962 when he was hired for an entry-level job as an assistant engineer at EMI's Abbey Road studios. He assisted on some of the Beatles' first mostrar mais records while also working on other projects for the studio. In 1966, he became the group's chief engineer. In this capacity, he worked on Revolver, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, and Abbey Road. He engineered or produced albums by Paul McCartney, Elvis Costello, Art Garfunkel, and the group America. Emerick won a Grammy Award for engineering Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, Abbey Road, and McCartney's 1973 album Band on the Run. His memoir, Here, There and Everywhere: My Life Recording the Music of the Beatles written with Howard Massey, was published in 2006. He died of a heart attack on October 2, 2018 at the age of 72. (Bowker Author Biography) mostrar menos

Obras de Geoff Emerick

Associated Works

The Beatles: Get Back [2021 TV miniseries] (2022) — Actor — 22 cópias

Etiquetado

Conhecimento Comum

Nome de batismo
Emerick, Geoffrey Ernest
Data de nascimento
1945-12-05
Data de falecimento
2018-10-02
Sexo
male
Nacionalidade
England
UK
Local de nascimento
London, England, UK
Ocupação
sound engineer

Membros

Resenhas

Nothing earth-shattering, but this book kind of pulled me along. I skipped about the first and last 10%.
 
Marcado
aleshh | outras 17 resenhas | Jan 12, 2024 |
I Beatles in sala di registrazione

Beh, è molto semplice capire quali parti di questo libro sono state scritte da Emerick e quali da Massey: quando trovate una descrizione di un dettaglio pignolo sulle posizioni dei microfoni è tutta farina del sacco di Emerick, le descrizioni più liriche sono di Massey. Emerick si toglie anche una serie di sassolini dalle scarpe, anche se in stile molto britannico, nei confronti di Ringo ("completamente diverso da come sembra sotto i riflettori"), George ("fino al 1968 la sua tecnica era pessima") e George Martin (in cauda venenum: nelle ultime pagine scrive che se la tirava troppo).
La pagina di Wikipedia in inglese su Emerick segnala che ci sono state diverse critiche
che segnalano errori fattuali nel testo: nonostante la mia discreta conoscenza beatlesiana non saprei specificare quali siano, a parte appunto la tecnica di George (che è sempre stato uno sgobbone, e doveva prepararsi con calma gli assoli... facendo probabilmente arrabbiare Emerick). Credo comunque che un beatlesiano non possa non leggere questo testo.
… (mais)
 
Marcado
.mau. | outras 17 resenhas | Nov 4, 2023 |
I loved this book which really surprised me. I was a fan of the Beatles so I thought I'd enjoy the book, but what surprised me the parts I liked the most was when the author was explaining how he the engineer got the sounds that the band was looking for. So come read it for the music but stay to find out about sound engineers.

After his descriptions of Revolution and Sgt. Peppers I had to stop reading and go listen to the albums so I could hear for myself what Emerick is describing.
 
Marcado
kevn57 | outras 17 resenhas | Dec 8, 2021 |
Just when I thought I had nothing more to say about the Beatles:

I haven't read a book on the Beatles in nearly ten years at least. In fact, I can't think off the top of my head that I've read any book--at least cover to cover--chronicling a music artist since I graduated high school. Perhaps it's because I did it to death as a fanatical teenager, and I'm sure working at record stores plus this crazy, new contraption they call "The Internet" where you can just read snippets here and there PLUS having many musically-minded friends and family has sufficed in the meantime as well. And indeed, this book has been lying around my apartment for a year before I finally figured, "Huh. Maybe I should give this one a whirl."

Let me start by saying that it's been a while since I've read a book that I had so many qualms with and yet really ultimately enjoyed. Anyone who's spent a little time with me knows my history with the Beatles. To say I was (am?) obsessed is an understatement. I learned the word "monomaniacal" at the age of 13 when used by my parents to categorize my behavior (and appearance) after the anthologies first aired. To this day, of course decades after the group was together, I have yet to meet anyone personally, other than of course my dear friend Erin (who recommended this book), who have taken the obsession to such an extreme (which, yes, I feel qualified to say, especially experiencing the Event that is Beatlefest many times). I say all this because I already know a lot about the group with the addition of having so much of my life tied up with my experience of getting into the Beatles--it absolutely resounds a deep chord within me.

So I found reading Emerick's account at times quite frustrating. For one, the writing was not top-notch even with a music journalist in tow (although this makes me think of the Zappa quote: "Most rock journalism is people who can't write, interviewing people who can't talk, for people who can't read"), and Emerick occasionally adds some details of his own personal life that seem irrelevant and disrupt the flow at times. I mean, really--we're reading this book to find out about the Beatles. Also, I found his attitude a little off-putting when it came to addressing the albums he wasn't involved with...especially dismissing Rubber Soul, which, though it doesn't contain as much experimentation as Revolver, to me stands out as their point of departure in both musicality and songwriting from their earlier work.

My primary beef, though, was the rather heavy-handed idol worship of Paul McCartney. Granted, this is Emerick's story, Emerick's experience, but it really got hard to stomach at times. There were several points within his recollections where he made the other three Beatles seem little more than bumbling idiots who had no business being in the music business at all (and George Martin to be nothing short of a tyrant). They all had their problems, but Paul certainly was no exception. Besides, having read/watched/listened to so much of the Beatles and so many of the people they've ever associated with, I wasn't reading this to get another character analysis of the band--I wanted to get the technical side of the recording process, which is certainly not as frequent a commentary to be found. This reflection on character subsequently seemed to reveal inconsistencies in Emerick's approach to recording the Beatles. Take, for instance, the Sgt. Pepper sessions. If I read this correctly, to get the rich sound, he mentions how he put Paul's bass on a separate track--different from before when bass and drums were often heaped together--which was a bigger deal since they were recording on EMI's notoriously behind-the-times four-track machine. Yet, a little later he bemoans not being able to separate the distinct guitar styles of George and John...why not give them a chance then and record them on separate tracks, and putting the bass and drums back on the same track? He also complains about Lennon's abstractions, but seems blind to it when Paul speaks in them. Similarly, John's attention to detail--when it occured--was unwelcomed, but he bent over backwards for Paul. I actually started making a list of the bias, but got tired of keeping track.

To be fair, he has become close with Paul over the years in both their musical and personal lives, which makes his assessments a little easier to understand. I also realize that Paul had the most musical ability and variety of the group when first coming into the studio, which I'm sure that makes a sound engineer's job a lot easier to develop an overall sound, plus he's obviously the most pop oriented of the four. Additionally, his attitudes towards all four Beatles seemed fairer towards the end of their career. And for any egotism I found unsettling, I just reminded myself, "Well, it IS the Beatles we're talking about, and this IS the guy who helped develop some truly fantastic and innovative albums..." It's hard to live that one down.

Above all, though, I truly got a lot out of this memoir. Some of the more flamboyant recording tricks are pretty well documented (e.g., the whole of "Tomorrow Never Knows") so I already knew plenty about a lot of it. However, I've also forgotten a lot, too, as my rabid mania has calmed a bit over the last decade or so (or perhaps simply found different avenues) and delighted in refreshing my memory. I reveled in learning about the normal aspects of the recording process as well as the details pertaining to the laborious creativity of having to work with EMI's limited equipment. Ultimately, I truly appreciated the inspiration I got to go back and pour over the Beatles' albums once again (and am gearing up to watch the Anthologies over again). Unlike other things I've obsessed over, I've never really had a phase where I got burnt out on the Beatles, but it's definitely been a while since I've paid extra close attention to the nuances of the songs. And in listening so closely to the songs once again, I found myself completely overwhelemed. I am reminded of what the Beatles mean to me in the context of my life--how these sounds have shaped, influenced, and inspired me and will continue to do so. And so, in spite of the issues I had during the reading, I am grateful to have had Emerick's account provoke an awareness within of my connection to music.
… (mais)
 
Marcado
LibroLindsay | outras 17 resenhas | Jun 18, 2021 |

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Estatísticas

Obras
3
Also by
1
Membros
419
Popularidade
#58,191
Avaliação
4.2
Resenhas
18
ISBNs
13
Idiomas
4

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