Here’s an excerpt from Geoff Emerick’s book, Here, There and Everywhere: My Life Recording the Music of the Beatles, where he talks about replacing their longtime sound engineer Norman Smith, who had left to produce Pink Floyd. Emerick was only eighteen years old at the time and was apprehensive that the Fab Four might not … Continue reading Where’s Norman?
Beatles
Fab Four Faves
I haven’t written much about The Beatles lately, but there has been some talk over on E-V.com about the favorite songs of that group. I rather suspect that it would be easier to come up with a list of ten songs of theirs that I don’t care much for. I also suspect that any list … Continue reading Fab Four Faves
Three Things
Now that I know that measuring by weight rather than volume can produce better results, I want to convert my recipes to weights where appropriate. I found a very useful site from King Arthur that gives the equivalents for many ingredients: Ingredient Weight Chart It’s been awhile since I mentioned The Beatles, hasn’t it? So … Continue reading Three Things
Baby, You’re a Rich Man
Quote of the day: I have nothing but respect for you—and not much of that.—Groucho Marx Instead of just turning today’s post over to e-v.com, I’m going to point to their Saturday Q&A and mention of a few of the questions that they answered that I think might be of general interest. The first concerns … Continue reading Baby, You’re a Rich Man
Number Nine
On Saturday I relocated squirrel number nine. Number nine, number nine, number nine… It’s been awhile since I relocated any squirrels. The birds had started eating the bait. …number nine, number nine, number nine… And then the heat waves began, and I didn’t feel like carting the squirrels to a park in 90+ degree heat, … Continue reading Number Nine
December 8, 1980
When I went to work on Tuesday December 9, 1980, there was really only one topic of conversation, and it had nothing to do with anything work related. It was the shocking murder of John Lennon the night before. This just wasn’t supposed to happen to a pop star. Political figures got shot, yes. Celebrities … Continue reading December 8, 1980
Lonely Hearts Club Band
Sunday September 17, 1967, was my first day at Penn State. I finally got to meet my roommate Dave DeTullio and get settled into room 1008 Pinchot Hall. The first week was orientation week, which meant I got to take some tests to see if I could opt out of certain courses, select my first … Continue reading Lonely Hearts Club Band
Sgt. Pepper
Sometime early in the summer of 1967 Leonard Yingst brought the new Beatles album over for me to listen to. I had been following the Beatles ever since they made their American debut on Ed Sullivan’s television show back in 1964, but the only album of theirs that I had ever bought was their first … Continue reading Sgt. Pepper
Got To Get You Into My Life
Perhaps the most joyous song ever penned by The Beatles, “Got To Get You Into My Life” was a “pastiche of Holland-Dozier-Holland’s recent hits for The Supremes” according to Ian MacDonald in Revolution in the Head. Slightly out of his neighbourhood in this idiom, McCartney seems to have had no firm idea of how he wanted … Continue reading Got To Get You Into My Life
We Can Work It Out
Here’s one of the videos that The Beatles made to promote their single “We Can Work It Out”. Clearly they are lip-syncing to the recording with George looking bored and John slyly grinning at the absurdity of it all. And who’s playing the tambourine? Speaking of which. According to Ian MacDonald in his book Revolution … Continue reading We Can Work It Out