Geoff Emerick, George Martin and The Beatles

Two books that seem to really define the real history of The Beatles are “Here, There and Everywhere” and George Martin’s “All You Need Is Ears”. Between these two books an important perspective can be formed about the relationship between the Producer and Recording Engineer. There are personal ancedotes in both books, but the real value is the lesson learned about the differences between the role of Recording Engineer and Producer. They are most definately not the same thing. “Here, There and Everywhere” documents some of the things that led up to the disintegration of The Beatles as a band and the latter struggles that they experienced after “Revolver”. I was absolutely amazed to learn how little influence that George Harrison has on the overall production of the last few Beatles records and how he was considered to be a “junior member” of the group. The criticism of George Harrison documents that he struggled to produce the things that John and Paul wanted to hear on their records. It is important to remember that at the time The Beatles albums were produced (and I confining this to “Revolver” and the records that followed) there were no techno-toys like recording artists have today. Nearly all of the sounds heard on Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band and Abbey Road were produced by clever and natural means due to the ingenuity of Geoff Emerick searching for ways to get the sounds that The Beatles were asking for. The most advanced instrument that surfaces later on in their career appears to be the Mellotron - a keyboard which produces it’s sounds with tape loops! Interesting enough - there is currently an M-Audio keyboard that EMULATES the MELLOTRON quite well and I highly recommend it to any band that is doing Beatles covers. BUT - true Mellotron, it is not, make no mistake about it. I first heard a real Mellotron live in the Bob Berry Trio many years ago in a lounge somewhere on Steven’s Creek Boulevard in San Jose. I will never forget the richness and extreme impact that it had on the sound of the group. Geoff Emerick tells that John Lennon brought the Mellotron to Abbey Road during the production of Sergeant Pepper’s and Paul created the signature Calliope sound with the flute setting that opens “Strawberry Fields Forever”. Aside from this instrument, other instruments were also brought to Abbey Road for the very first time. Among them - the sitar and the Tamboura, brought by George Harrison. One interesting story tells something that is quite surprising - and that is the fact that the distance of a microphone from an acoustic instrument was closer on some of these recordings than had ever been done on any recording prior to The Beatles. Geoff Emerick is the first engineer to document placement of a microphone inside the bell of a trumpet or trombone. During Eleanor Rigby, the string section had microphones only a few inches from the violins, much to the disdain of the artists who were performing. The result, as we know today, was one of the most powerful early string recording ever heard. George Martin was the bridge between The Beatles and the introduction of the use of London Philharmonic Orchestra artists in the recording of pop music. Before this time - it had not happened, at least in the U.K. I do know, from other things that I have read and researched that Phil Spector’s approach to recording “Spectorization” and “The Wall of Sound” may have been occurring at the same time across the Atlantic in Detroit. A lot of this new type of recording technique was happening on both sides of the Atlantic almost simultaneously. “Let It Be” was actually remastered at one point by Phil Spector! Interestingly enough - Phil Spector was also directly involved in Beach Boys albums at a later stage. “The Wall of Sound” approach to recording has come down as a legacy of the work of George Martin, Geoff Emerick, The Beatles and Phil Spector. These four entities changed the face of recording, engineering, production and music forever.