Geoff Emerick Interview

winston · Post by **winston** » Wed Aug 30, 2006 9:28 am

Great point and a good observation David. I have often indulged myself with a similar observation, silently to myself of course.

tomg · Post by **tomg** » Wed Aug 30, 2006 9:36 am

"Those that desperately try to hide or conceal information about themselves and/or have questionable dubious personal backgrounds do not."

No, Dave. Just No.

A lot of people, myself included, prefer to maintain some modicum of privacy and therefore only provide the minimum required information when joining a site. It says nothing about a persons "ethics" nor anything about them as a person.

winston · Post by **winston** » Wed Aug 30, 2006 9:56 am

Thomas I don't believe that he is referring to people like you and me. You can be contacted off list. You have an e-mail address in other words.

I don't list my city anymore because of security concerns. Any person who has any amount of music gear at all would see that as a reasonable way to secure your assets. So it's not just a privacy issue.

There are some who provide "0" info. It is those people that David refers to and I confess that I have often wondered about as well.

tomg · Post by **tomg** » Wed Aug 30, 2006 11:11 am

Man, I really do need to get Peter to change my "real name" to Tom Gallo instead of Thomas.

winston · Post by **winston** » Wed Aug 30, 2006 11:57 am

Ok I have made a note to self to refer to you as Tom in the future. Every little bit helps. Right?

On reflection perhaps I should have guessed that you like the shorter version of your name. You probably hated it when your teacher yelled at you using the formal but very commanding version. I can hear it now... THOMAS!!! PAY ATTENTION.

Just having a bit of fun Tom.

westtexasrickenbacker · Wed Aug 30, 2006 12:01 pm

OK, if Thomas can go to 'Tom'. I want to be Ringo, not Alex, in future posts. Yes, I like the 'ring' of it.

jt10824 · Post by **jt10824** » Wed Aug 30, 2006 12:13 pm

Okay, David, you got me. I'm amazed and impressed at how quickly you discovered my questionable dubious personal background and the fact that I am desperately trying to hide or conceal information about myself. Clearly I am no match for your superior deductive powers.

I have accordingly modified my profile and invite you to flood my email inbox with more of your grand conspiracy theories and wild accusations.

Man, I haven't laughed this hard in years!

winston · Post by **winston** » Wed Aug 30, 2006 12:32 pm

ROTFL You guys are hilarious.

jt10824 · Post by **jt10824** » Wed Aug 30, 2006 2:42 pm

Well, I TRIED to keep it on topic... but (as Al Pacino once said), they keep pulling me back in!

simer4001 · Post by **simer4001** » Wed Aug 30, 2006 4:27 pm

All I can add is ...GOD BLESS GEOFF EMERICK, ENGINEERING GURU!

brammy · Post by **brammy** » Sun Nov 05, 2006 1:01 pm

I'm currently in the middle of Emerick's book "Here There and Everywhere". VERY interesting and worthwhile.

I can certainly see why some people thought he was overly dumping on George Harrison... it seems like Geoff never misses an opportunity to bash GH's guitar playing (even calling him "ham handed") and also GH personally. To Geoff's credit he admits that he never got along with George on a personal level (like he did with Paul). Emerick spends some time in the book describing his take on the personalities and roles of the Beatles and it's interesting to get that insight. As we all know, Emerick confirms that Paul was the "leader" of the band in many respects, not John which was the public perception at the time.

Emerick became a full recording engineer for EMI just before the REVOLVER sessions (he had other lesser duties prior to that) and his experimental approach to recording was in synch with the mindset the group was developing at the time. Its too bad that Emerick wasn't able to supply more stories about the Beatles recordings prior to that. There are some, but they are spotty as Emerick was not always assigned to Beatle recording sessions.

All in all, a good addition to a Beatle library.

shamustwin · Post by **shamustwin** » Mon Nov 06, 2006 11:05 am

I liked the book, but one thing Emerick and everyone should consider is that J&P brought songs to the studio, freshly written.

Unlike most bands, they didn't go out and gig the new stuff. Probably no or not a lot of the four of them jamming on it either. Paul's played Beatle tunes on his recent tours that have never been played live before.

So out of the blue, Harrison and Ringo, and J&P for that matter had to come up with quality playing and or solos on songs they've just been exposed to, in the pressure of the studio, no less.

8mileshigher · Post by **8mileshigher** » Mon Nov 06, 2006 1:46 pm

Jerry - that is an excellent point about George and Ringo often having to become acquainted with the prominent song-writing duo's tunes on the spur of the moment, out of the blue. Although by the time of the White Album, the Beatles were exchanging some of their demo tapes with each other ahead of time to "practice". What some authors refer to as the Kinfaun demos or the Anthology series had some other name for these tapes made at George's place.
Rich F.

westtexasrickenbacker · Mon Nov 06, 2006 2:39 pm

Very good points made about Emerick's book and the way the Beatles recorded. Jerry, I oftentimes forget how quickly a Beatles song went from demo to fully recorded song.... and then out the door to the public. Great reminder.

I read where the Eagles and Fleetwood Mac both took a very long time in making "Hotel California" and "Rumours", respectively. I think both albums took between 6 months and a year to complete. The guitar work on both is just wonderful, but all those great guitarists had so much time to work and re-work guitar parts multiple times.

The Beatles didn't grant themselves so much time by comparison. Still, their creativity on "out of the blue" songs is extremely impressive, especially, as Jerry notes, it was under the pressure of the studio.

shamustwin · Post by **shamustwin** » Mon Nov 06, 2006 3:21 pm

I hadn't heard of the Kinfaun demos - how nice it would be to hear some of them.