Showing posts with label Geof Emerick. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Geof Emerick. Show all posts

Wednesday, February 4, 2009

HERE, THERE, AND EVERYWHERE by Geoff Emerick


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If you want access to great Beatles facts, read Here, There, and Everywhere by Geoff Emerick. Emerick was only 15 when he worked for George Martin on the earliest Beatles recordings. Later, when he was 19 in 1966, Emerick was employed again at Abbey Road as an assistant sound engineer and worked on Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, Revolver, and The White Album.

Emerick's book is filled with great anecdotes about the Beatles, although the greatest strength of this book is that Emerick describes in detail how he (yes, Emerick) found ways to achieve various sounds or special effects that George Martin or the Beatles wanted for various songs. Emerick's explanation of how he channeled Lennon's voice through a Hammond organ on "Tomorrow Never Knows" is one of many examples. His techniques often involved pushing the envelope and going against Abbey Road policy when it came to using tape loops or using amplifiers as microphones, but he usually found a way to give the band what it wanted.

Emerick was a major contributor to the Beatles' recordings, although he quit toward the end of The White Album because he was fed up with the constant in-fighting among the Beatles.

This is must reading for anyone who wants a different book about the band as seen by an insider.

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Sunday, January 4, 2009

"Tomorrow Never Knows"


The song was recorded April 6,7, and 22, 1966. The working title was "The Void," although other sources claim it was "Mark I." John, who wrote the song while infatuated with The Tibetan Book of the Dead, assigned the final title by using another of Ringo's malapropisms.

George Martin claims that Lennon wished to sound like the Dalai lama chanting on a hilltop. Lennon himself described the sound he was after as a thousand Buddhist monks chanting in the background. The distinctive sound of this track resulted from 1) the Beatles and Martin cutting up up segments of tape and creating tape loops recorded at different speeds, and 2) sound engineer Geof Emerick channeling Lennon's voice through the speak of a Hammond organ. The entire song is played in a single chord. Lennon later regreted that he didn't try to get closer to his "chanting monk" concept.

Pic: Creative Commons Attribution 2.0


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