M
rayc
retroreprobate
Magic Alex seemed to have hoodwinked all of the Beatles by the time Apple was set up. Emerick suggested that it was , by then, all in the deep end. Didn't McCartney enquire as to the gear MA had constructed?
Lennon was inconsistent & cavalier in his comments, humour, relationships & songwriting.
Lennon was inconsistent & cavalier in his comments, humour, relationships & songwriting.
T
The Ghost of FM
Banned
I'm nearly up to page 20 on it too!
Took it with me on a camping trip some time back and left it in the car for the next camping trip....which could be coming shortly.
Cheers!
CoolCat
Well-known member
I just started the Ken Scott book....its great too. Very cool these guys wrote it down, or it would have lost forever really.
MiamiMike
Musician - Composer
I've not read the book and have been trying to decide who played the guitar solo on 'Hey Bulldog'
Hey Bulldog by The Beatles Songfacts
Hey Bulldog by The Beatles Songfacts
G
gvdv
Member
Hi,
I just wanted to add my comments about Geoff Emerick's book.
I think that it is quite a badly written book, despite being co-written with a writer/journalist, and I think that the poor execution of the book has given rise to some controversies and impressions which, perhaps, could have been avoided.
I do not have the book with me now, so cannot quote page numbers, and so will talk without quoting page numbers and direct quotes when qualifying my statement about the controversies and avoidable, bad impressions.
In terms of George's guitar playing, several points should be made:
First, although Emerick says that everybody in the studio (meaning those regularly present in the control room, and the other Beatles) used to cringe when it came to George doing a solo (because of the time it took), Beatles engineer Ken Scott says that this was not his experience of Beatles sessions.
Scott also points out factual errors in Emerick's book, and there are quite a few of them.
Most interesting to me is that Emerick actually praises George's musicianship later in the book. Now, this could be because he meant that George improved as a musician (which he does state), but he says something like 'I had always been respected his musicianship', so Emerick's statements about George's guitar playing and musicianship are confusing, to say the least, when taken together.
Of course, things like this are often a matter of opinion, but it is also interesting to see Emerick talk on behalf of all of the others present (saying that everyone dreaded the times when George had to play a solo), and then to see Ken Scott refute that as not having been his experience of George, or of everyone's opinions of George.
(George Martin seems to have adopted a kinder view of George's guitar playing in recent years, although he has always maintained, "Paul McCartney was the best guitarist in the Beatles", or words very close to that - from an interview in 'Goldmine').
Having said the above, I find the book fairly interesting.
If anyone is interested, I can add quotes and page numbers in a few weeks' time, when I again have Emerick's book in my possession.
I just wanted to add my comments about Geoff Emerick's book.
I think that it is quite a badly written book, despite being co-written with a writer/journalist, and I think that the poor execution of the book has given rise to some controversies and impressions which, perhaps, could have been avoided.
I do not have the book with me now, so cannot quote page numbers, and so will talk without quoting page numbers and direct quotes when qualifying my statement about the controversies and avoidable, bad impressions.
In terms of George's guitar playing, several points should be made:
First, although Emerick says that everybody in the studio (meaning those regularly present in the control room, and the other Beatles) used to cringe when it came to George doing a solo (because of the time it took), Beatles engineer Ken Scott says that this was not his experience of Beatles sessions.
Scott also points out factual errors in Emerick's book, and there are quite a few of them.
Most interesting to me is that Emerick actually praises George's musicianship later in the book. Now, this could be because he meant that George improved as a musician (which he does state), but he says something like 'I had always been respected his musicianship', so Emerick's statements about George's guitar playing and musicianship are confusing, to say the least, when taken together.
Of course, things like this are often a matter of opinion, but it is also interesting to see Emerick talk on behalf of all of the others present (saying that everyone dreaded the times when George had to play a solo), and then to see Ken Scott refute that as not having been his experience of George, or of everyone's opinions of George.
(George Martin seems to have adopted a kinder view of George's guitar playing in recent years, although he has always maintained, "Paul McCartney was the best guitarist in the Beatles", or words very close to that - from an interview in 'Goldmine').
Having said the above, I find the book fairly interesting.
If anyone is interested, I can add quotes and page numbers in a few weeks' time, when I again have Emerick's book in my possession.
grimtraveller
If only for a moment.....
"Other than that Mrs Lincoln, how did you enjoy the play ?
You know, if you look at the story of the Beatles, they spent 1961 to 1967 in the hold of other people {Brian Epstein, Dick James, George Martin, Dick Lester, various lawyers, accountants, biz people etc} and after they stopped touring, they chose who had a hold on their lives. But initially, those people weren't presented as having a hold on their lives. They found out the hard way that they and their generation, despite the drugs and inner consciousness were no different than the generation they were rebelling against.
When you consider some of the characters that had some kind of hold on him in a short period {the Maharishi, Magic Alex, Tariq Ali, Michael X, Jerry Rubin, Abbie Hoffman, Arthur Janov, Allen Klein, Phil Spector and yes, Yoko Ono. I include Yoko because he included her in his list of people that he would eventually see through}, you can see Martin's point. The other 3 were alot more solid minded. In the Anthology, George Harrison has some interesting things to say about how £$&^***d up John was.
Anyway, because the three were pretty good lead guitarists, they all played breaks and solos. According to Ian McDonald in "Revolution in the head", on 'Hey Bulldog' Lennon plays piano and lead guitar {which would imply the solo} while David Rowley in "Beatles for sale" says Harrison played the solo. William Dowlding in "Beatlesongs" says both Harrison and Lennon played lead guitar. All of this makes me wonder just where they got their information and it also points to the problems associated with getting definitive information from an era when no one was interested in who did what or how and with which equipment !
I thought he wrote great songs throughout the Beatle period but I'm biased ! Actually, I thought they all did. There's only 3 of their songs {"Thank you girl", "This boy" and "Revolution 9"} that I don't like. I also thought he was pretty funny until he got serious in 1970. Actually, they were all funny, even Paul.
Yeah, Lennon does come over that way. He said just before he died, "You know, it seems my partings are not as sweet as I'd like them to be" or words to that effect. I guess in his position it must've been hard to trust people or to genuinely know if they liked him. He also strikes me as someone that got bored easilly.
During 1967 & 68 the Beatles did a number of sessions at other studios and EMI's 4 track set up seemed so antiquated in comparison to these hip 8 track studios with their hip young dope taking engineers.
Drugs. They all liked Alex and he did make a few little electronic gadgets that they'd never seen before and therefore he seemed kind of plausible to them with his tales.
You know, if you look at the story of the Beatles, they spent 1961 to 1967 in the hold of other people {Brian Epstein, Dick James, George Martin, Dick Lester, various lawyers, accountants, biz people etc} and after they stopped touring, they chose who had a hold on their lives. But initially, those people weren't presented as having a hold on their lives. They found out the hard way that they and their generation, despite the drugs and inner consciousness were no different than the generation they were rebelling against.
At the end of the Beatles' authorized biography that came out in 1968 {although most of the info was written and collected during '67 which makes it a priceless document of the mindset of the high water mark of the psychedelic era before the hippies became casualties and cynics}, George Martin said this. He said that John was like a little kid, liking magical things and that if he clapped his hands and produced a bunch of flowers, John would be fantastically impressed and Martin would be able to do anything with him.
When you consider some of the characters that had some kind of hold on him in a short period {the Maharishi, Magic Alex, Tariq Ali, Michael X, Jerry Rubin, Abbie Hoffman, Arthur Janov, Allen Klein, Phil Spector and yes, Yoko Ono. I include Yoko because he included her in his list of people that he would eventually see through}, you can see Martin's point. The other 3 were alot more solid minded. In the Anthology, George Harrison has some interesting things to say about how £$&^***d up John was.
In the light of a lifetime, a mere drop {no pun intended} in the ocean......That's a long poo, Tagbo!!!
Ken Scott's autobiography is one truly enjoyable book. Along with Tony Visconti's, it's the most enjoyable book by an engineer/producer that I've read. I found it fascinating just how many tracks I've had for decades that Ken Scott had been the engineer on.
I don't know if it's just an age thing, but many of the comments on this site make me cringe. They seem like a worldwide bunch of arguing yet adoring teenagers.
By 1966 it was no longer clear cut who played the solos on Beatle songs. Up to the "Help !" album it was nearly always Harrison, except for Lennon on "You can't do that". McCartney played lead on "Ticket to ride" and one or two others, plus acoustic on "Yesterday". By 1966, there was much more branching out on different instruments {Harrison plays bass on "She said, she said" after McCartney stormed off after an argument} and McCartney turned in a number of solos {including wiping Harrison's on "Good morning, good morning" and replacing it with his own}. There seem to be a number of reasons for this ~ among them Lennon not being very interested or capable because he was literally erasing his ego {and in the process blowing his mind} with sustained LSD usage. Harrison was also, by his own admission, lacking interest in Beatle music after "Revolver" and this sudden surge of free time created by them giving up touring coincided with his passion for all things Indian. Discovering that there was so much more to life than being a Beatle was in many ways the fissure that ultimately ripped them apart, in my view.
Anyway, because the three were pretty good lead guitarists, they all played breaks and solos. According to Ian McDonald in "Revolution in the head", on 'Hey Bulldog' Lennon plays piano and lead guitar {which would imply the solo} while David Rowley in "Beatles for sale" says Harrison played the solo. William Dowlding in "Beatlesongs" says both Harrison and Lennon played lead guitar. All of this makes me wonder just where they got their information and it also points to the problems associated with getting definitive information from an era when no one was interested in who did what or how and with which equipment !
CoolCat
Well-known member
I was reading a Hendrix book and it mentioned something from the manager , that he freaked out because John and Paul had taken Jimi off somewhere..and something mentioned about they do LSD non stop, large quantitys or something, just constantly taking that LSD, and he was worried for Jimi being around them a bit because of the large quantity of LSD they were doing.
Chase CHandler mentioned John and Paul were going around with Jimis demo or something, promoting him in a way, at some club, but not really promoting Jimi, he was just the "new cool thing" or something. The manager loved it though, he said it sure doesn't hurt to have John and Paul promoting your act. Chase Chandler, from the Animals, right?...he was the manager.
I notice how much Drive My Car has a Hendrix like guitar riff....sounds like Crosstown Traffic kind of.
CoolCat
Well-known member
yea, I always thought the Magic Alex thing made them seem child like in a way, but the more you hear comments made seemed it was Johns "new thing", most others saw that he was just making stuff up.
one comment , I think from George, was "to see what Magic Alex was going on about, all one had to do was find that months copy of Popular Mechanics.." lol
the mixing board was a mess, they scrapped it as junk....he was a "snake oil" salesman type. Part dreamer/Part scammer/Part sponge tag along, right?
even the name makes me laugh, Magic Alex....lol what a character in the story.
grimtraveller
If only for a moment.....
In 1970, Lennon claimed he'd taken 1000 trips. He said "I just used to eat it all the time". His first wife said it wrecked their marriage, it was instrumental in him being wide open for Yoko, it was responsible for him being suckered by Alex and entwined in the Maharishi and both Sergeant Pepper and Magical mystery tour wouldn't have happened in the same McCartney inspired way had Lennon not been "away with the fairies". On the other hand, it brought about visions, thoughts and circumstances that gave rise to some wonderful songs of his. All his "Revolver" contributions plus "Rain" were acid songs and his 1967 output was as acid rock as you can get, even down to stuff like "Good morning, good morning" and "A day in the life" which portray the acid enhanced mind existing in everyday living.
McCartney, on the other hand, says he only took acid 5 times. Harrison was the other heavy acid Beatle until he came to the US of A in the summer of love and far from seeing the Hippie heaven of '67, realized the dropout hippy scene was pretty destructive. He gave up LSD after that visit. He said he looked at it under the microscope and it looked like little ropes and he thought "You're not tying up my head anymore !".
That was when the Beats were struggling for a direction and soul was one of the influences they were imbibing. Smokey Robinson said the Beatles were the first white musicians he'd heard say they liked and were openly influenced by black music and Motown in particular although "Drive my car" was more of a Stax thing with Harrison shadowing McCartney's bass line on guitar.
It's worth bearing in mind that when the Beatles did three Motown covers on "With the Beatles" and said they dug Motown, Motown records started hitting big time, in England.
Hendrix didn't appear in England till late '66.