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Abbey Road: The Inside Story of the World’s Most Famous Recording Studio (with a foreword by Paul McCartney)

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Abbey Road claims that exalted status, of course, because it’s where the Beatles made their iconic, innovative albums with the assistance of producer George Martin, who developed his knack for sonic experimentation by recording comedy albums for the likes of Peter Sellers. For me, the main and most interesting point to taker from the narrative is that the music that we have listened to and loved was the product of a combination of the artists themselves who supplied the vision of what they wanted to achieve, and the technicians and producers, without whom the sounds that we hear could not have been made reality. I bought this book a little over a month ago and it’s been sitting on the stack of books next to the couch waiting for me to post my praises of it to my audience. Improvements to technology expanded what was possible, and it was the lowly “pop” people working in Studio Two who were most willing to innovate (there was also a Studio Three, which was originally intended for singers and small ensembles).

Hepworth: "Thanks to four young millionaires who couldn't be bothered to do anything more than to step onto a zebra crossing. My only minor complaint was that was very little context provided as to what other studios where doing, particularly in the 30s and 40s. There’s a fine line between “those studio folks sure contributed” and “the Beatles would have been nothing without their technical minders,” but Hepworth walks it well. Even into the late ‘90s, rock bands (rare as they were at the time) like Travis were still coming to Abbey Road to see if they couldn’t capture a bit of the old building’s magic on tape.But to skip from the Beatles to the 2000s leaves out too much of Abbey Road’s story, which of course Hepworth doesn’t do.

As Hepworth's engrossing book comes to an end, he wistfully captures the image that greets tourists as they wind their way from the St. As an Anglophile, audiophile and unapologetic Beatles nerd, there was slim chance David Hepworth's book would be anything less than a hit with me - and it certainly delivered. Indispensable reading for anyone interested in the iconic Abbey Road Studios, their history, the recordings made there and the artists who made them. It’s just that I’m mixing in Beatles books with other books as you may have noticed from my last several posts.Royal Mail stamps featuring the Beatles, January 8, 2007 at the Abbey Road Studios in London, United Kingdom. Magnetic tape, developed by the Germans and only discovered by Britain and America after the Second World War, finally made editing possible, as the poor parts of a performance could literally be cut away, and a more pleasing version inserted in their place. Of course, I especially liked reading about The Beatles and how they recorded at the studios, and as I read, I found myself yearning to visit the studios. With a narrative assist from Stanton, the result is a consistently titillating and often moving story of human struggle as well as an insider glimpse into the days when Times Square was considered the Big Apple’s gloriously unpolished underbelly. He was one of the presenters of the BBC rock music programme The Old Grey Whistle Test and one of the anchors of the corporation’s coverage of Live Aid in 1985.

Always intrigued when one landmark can pull in greatness from all corners of the world, this book captures everything from the artists themselves to the engineers and the groundbreaking discoveries. Overall, as easily readable and entertaining as always, but perhaps feeling a little more disposable than expected. David Hepworth has developed a very distinctive style of writing, honed over years of writing music reviews and articles. He was involved in the launch and editing of magazines such as Smash Hits, Q, Mojo and The Word, among many others.

Includes features on Mike Scott, Black Midi, Jethro Tull, Jean-Claude Vannier, the Stranglers, the Bangles, and the Beatles' Abbey Road. He is the radio columnist for the Saturday Guardian and a regular media correspondent for the newspaper. Lastly, a large part of the charm of reading Abbey Road is that it's clearly written for an English audience. Parsons interjected, a trick that “always occurs to the person listening and never seems to occur to the person playing,” Hepworth rightly notes. Does get a little technical at times, but the story of the music and artistes takes the reader on quite a journey.

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