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I Should Have Known Better:
Here, There and
Everywhere |
If I have to read that Beatles story one more time about how when producer George Martin first met the Beatles, he asked if there was anything they didn't like, and George Harrison replied "For starters, I don't like your tie", I will stop buying Beatles books all together.
Not that it isn't a classic show biz story, but like some Marx Brothers anecdotes ("I think I just heard one of the original lines!"), the "I don't like your tie" story has appeared in print so many times, as soon as I start reading yet another version, my eyes start to glaze over and I skip to the next paragraph. It appears again in Geoff Emerick's new book Here, There and Everywhere: My Life Recording the Music of the Beatles, but in a second-hand way that manages to lose the whole point to the story. (Geoff, if you are going to tell it, tell it all the way!)
That's the main problem with Emerick's book: if you've read more than a handful of the best Beatles' books, you've heard it all before. The fact the Emerick was one of the most talented Beatles' recording engineers, creating some of their most groundbreaking sounds, doesn't make the story of how "Strawberry Fields Forever" came together any more fascinating than when you read about it in half a dozen other books and interviews.
Emerick had already incurred the wrath of many Beatles' fans for his "Frankensteining" of unreleased Beatles tracks for the Anthology compilations, editing and fiddling with many of their outtakes instead of just presenting them as they are. This book will not help his reputation with those fans.
It does not help that he
feels the need to continually diss George Harrison, who has always been
my favorite
Beatle and Ex-Beatle. Emerick makes a point of reminding us
every
few pages how
Harrison often struggled through his guitar solos in the early
years. This is news? Any Beatles fan worth his salt
knows
that many of Harrison's early solos are clunky and tenuous.
To
point this out repeatedly, complete with descriptions of Paul and/or
George Martin rolling their eyes to the heavens, seems a bit
tasteless. Emerick does make a point of praising some of
George's
other work, even something as early as his several solos on the BEATLES
FOR SALE closer "Everybody's Trying to Be My Baby". But by
that
time, he's already soured me on his opinions of Harrison.
Paul comes off best, and Emerick admits that of the four, Paul is the one that could be considered a personal friend. You can tell the book is a love letter to Paul right from the get-go, as he is initially described as "handsome", "friendly and engaging" with his bass-playing "powerful and melodic" (and this about that early piece of simple fluff titled "How Do You Do It?" that the group didn't even release until 1994). Meanwhile, on the same page, John Lennon receives the adjectives "hooknosed" and "gruff", George Harrison is "fumble-fingered" and "emaciated", and Ringo Starr "dejected". For those who enjoy Da Vinci Code-style puzzles, comb through the pages of this book to find such negative adjectives attached to Sir Macca. Whenever Paul is criticized, there is usually a caveat (of course, he was just trying to keep the band together), and often, when the others come in for some rare Emerick compliments, they are of the backhanded variety. RIngo gets a thumbs-up for his drumming on "I Am the Walrus", but Emerick immediately reminds us how it was Paul playing a tambourine that kept him in time (Bless you, SuperPaul! You're humble and loveable!). In describing George's red-hot guitar solo on "Hey, Bulldog", Emerick feels the need to tell us how it was one of the few times he ever nailed a lead on the first try. Not that I am anti-Paul, but after a few chapters it gets irritating to keep reading words like "snide" and "unimaginative" about those Beatles who aren't left-handed bass players. The ultimate suck-up to Sir Paul is when Emerick dismisses criticism of the Beatles disastrous tv film MAGICAL MYSTERY TOUR, saying that it was really just the start of Paul's film career. Excuse me? After the breakup, Ringo did some acting, George started Handmade Films, and even John created self-indulgent "art" films with Yoko. What Paul film career is Emerick talking about? GIVE MY REGARD TO BROAD STREET?
Nevertheless, the best chapter is Paul-centric, or rather, Emerick-centric, as he spins the horrific tale of helping Paul record Band on the Run in Lagos while simultaneously battling giant cockroaches and lizards. It's the best chapter solely because it is not rehashing stuff we've all heard before. Similarly, Emerick would have done well to expand on his time with Elvis Costello on the albums Imperial Bedroom and All This Useless Beauty. Imperial Bedroom is one of Costello's landmark albums, filled with fascinating sounds and complex arrangements, but that section of the book is over all too quickly, with little true insight on Costello himself. In short, the book is more interesting when Emerick is not talking about the Beatles. A paragraph about Judy Garland, who stopped into the control room to have a friendly casual chat with Emerick after a session, is more revealing about that great artist than anything Emerick has to say about the lads from Liverpool. We learn little about the Beatles themselves except that Paul was friendly, John moody, George dour and Ringo quiet. Not exactly earth-shaking stuff. As for the technical recording details, Emerick already gave his best stories to Mark Lewisohn for his classic The Beatles Recording Sessions.
The chapters on the Sgt. Pepper album are typical. Halfway through, I realized that in anecdote after anecdote, I had not read one single thing that hadn't already been revealed many times over through the years. Creating a tape of random calliope music for "Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite", making an orchestra wear clown noses and gorilla hands for "A Day in the Life" --- Emerick is strictly in "I don't like your tie" territory.
Don't look to this
book for
info on behind the scenes looks at the albums Help!, Rubber Soul or Let It Be, as
Emerick did not work
for the Beatles on those albums. Still, you would think that
a
man who worked so closely with the group would have a bit more to say
about Rubber Soul
than
calling it "a pleasant diversion" and "not particularly
noteworthy." This
about the album that is universally considered their break from
pure "teenybopper" music into a more adult musical world, as well as
being John Lennon's high point with the group, with songs like "In My
Life", "Norwegian Wood", "Girl" and "Nowhere Man".
Furthermore, Rubber Soul
featured several exotic
non-traditional instruments and a rich, warm inviting sound.
Emerick could have discussed this album from an engineer's unique
perspective, even if he was not
involved in the making of it. Instead, he dismisses it in a
single sentence. I can understand Emerick not liking The White Album,
since he
lived through half the squabbling and infighting before begging off the
project, but to call call Rubber
Soul
"not particularly
noteworthy" is akin to calling Beethoven's Sixth "a forgettable piece
of
nonsense".
His memories of The White Album sessions do shed some light on what it was like for an outsider to be in the midst of all that intense group squabbling. You gotta sympathize with the guy as he describes being on his knees trying to overload two separate consoles to create the dirty guitar sound John Lennon wants for "Revolution", while the only constructive criticism John can muster is a sarcastic "You know, three months in the army would have done you some good." Emerick also gives us insight to John's 1968 mindset. When Emerick announces to the boys that he is quitting the sessions, John tries to talk him out of it, mentioning how everybody loved the Emerick-engineered SGT. PEPPER, "even though", added John, "I think it's the biggest load of sh*t we've ever done."
Despite the good White Album chapter, when he has a chance to tell us something about relatively uncharted Beatle territory, the "Free as a Bird/Real Love" sessions, Emerick has little to say. He opts for the one story we already know, how they decided to pretend that John Lennon was "on holiday" in order to deal with the emotions of hearing his voice on tape 14 years after his murder. But that's all we get. What were the sessions like, Geoff? What kind of technical things did you do? How did Jeff Jynne differ from George Martin as a producer? How did the lads get on? Did George nail his solos on the first take or did Paul have to fly in from Krypton and save the world again? Here was an attempt to recreate The Beatles sound with three surviving band members and one old cassette tape, and Emerick somehow neglects to inform us of even one juicy detail of how it all came together.
If you don't have Lewisohn's Recording Sessions and cannot track it down, then this book probably deserves a spot on your Beatles book shelf. But since most hardcore fans probably already own a copy of Lewisohn's book, as well as Anthology and possibly even George Martin's pleasant All You Need is Ears, Emerick's book comes off as little more than a b-side that is worth one listen but not a second. In other words, a pleasant diversion but not particularly noteworthy.
Copyright © John V. Brennan 2006. All Rights Reserved.
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Copyright © 2008 John V. Brennan, John Larrabee