For all of the controversy surrounding the so-called Big Dig in Boston, with its mismanagement, shoddy work, corruption and waste, the total bill is about $14 billion. America’s presence in Iraq is now costing the United States $12 billion each and every month. And what, exactly, do we have to show for it, besides 4,000 dead Americans and record high gas prices?
Year: 2008
Seth Swirsky’s Meeting With Norman Smith
As a follow-up to my tribute to the late Norman Hurricane Smith, the Beatles’ first recording engineer at EMI, I’ll send you over to this link, where Seth Swirsky tells of his meeting with Norman.
Also The New York Times has a good obituary for Norman, with some details I haven’t seen elsewhere, including confirmation that the alias Hurricane Smith came from the title of a 1952 movie. At this link.
It’s Really Sumpthing
A year ago in these parts there was talk of drought. The outdoor watering ban in town went from voluntary, to odd/even mandatory, to an outright prohibition. Those days are gone, thanks to plentiful snow and rain. As a result, our sump pump in the basement has kicked in early this year. Here’s a video of cute, little Sumpy in action. The suspense builds for fifteen seconds before he kicks in. He hangs out with his dehumidifier friend, who is probably still a month away from waking up from his hibernation.
[flv:/Video/2008/MAR/Sumpy.flv 440 330]
And now it’s time to get myself physically and mentally prepared for a 20-mile run! Marathon Monday, April 21, looms large.
Norman “Hurricane” Smith, 1923-2008
This is my third, and saddest, post about Norman Smith. My previous posts are here and here.
When I first heard the name Hurricane Smith, I didn’t know it was the title of a 1952 Yvonne DeCarlo movie, and I still don’t know for certain if Smith borrowed it for his pseudonym. But before I knew who he was, or anything else about him, I loved listening this song.
[audio:http://www.dograt.com/Audio/2008/MAR/OhBabeWhatWouldYouSay.mp3]I transferred that from an original 1972 45 rpm single. As Hurricane Smith, Norman scored big with this international hit, ‘Oh Babe, What Would You Say?’ This is the flip side, ‘Getting to Know You.’
[audio:http://www.dograt.com/Audio/2008/MAR/GettingToKnowYou.mp3]
It wasn’t until many years later I learned that under producer George Martin, Smith had been The Beatles’ first recording engineer at EMI’s Abbey Road studios. In fact, Norman was among the first studio professionals to hear something special in the Fab Four’s music, as described in this quote about their ‘artist test’ recordings at EMI, from The Beatles Recording Sessions, by Mark Lewisohn.
Paul sang ‘Besame Mucho’, the Latin crooner, then they layed down three Lennon-McCartney originals, ‘Love Me Do’, ‘P.S. I Love You’ and ‘Ask Me Why’. It was during ‘Love Me Do’ that Norman Smith pricked up his ears. “Norman said to me ‘Go down and pick up George [Martin] from the canteen and see what he thinks of this’,” recalls [second engineer Chris] Neal.
Of his first encounter with The Beatles, Norman had this to say.
They had such duff equipment. Ugly, unpainted wooden amplifiers, extremely noisy, with earth loops and goodness knows what. There was as much noise coming from the amps as there was from the instruments. Paul’s bass was particularly bad and it was clear that the session wasn’t going to get under way until something was done about it.
Spoken like a true recording engineer! First step: getting the gear right. In Lewisohn’s The Beatles Recording Sessions, Paul McCartney said…
Norman Smith was a great engineer, we were all so sad when Norman became a producer because we wanted him as our engineer, he was dynamite. Geoff was dynamite too, in fact that was the great thing about all of the EMI guys. Training. Anyone you get who’s been EMI trained really knows what he’s doing.
‘Geoff’ refers to Geoff Emerick, whose second day on the job at EMI happened to be the very first studio session by the Beatles, after George Martin decided to sign them to a recording contract. I previously featured Emerick’s memoir, Here There and Everywhere in this post. Geoff wasn’t at the artist test recording session, but he heard this about it.
Richard [Langham, assistant engineer] had heard good things about the Beatles’ artist test, too, and not just from Chris. Apparently there was quite a buzz around the studio about them…”
Norman Smith was the Beatles’ recording engineer through the Rubber Soul sessions. By then, in his 40’s, Smith wanted to be a full-fledged record producer, and as Emerick recalls…
I can equally understand George Martin’s adamant refusal to allow Norman to receive the promotion and remain as the Beatles’ engineer.
Smith felt he was onto something with his discovery of a new and unusual band called Pink Floyd, and indeed he was proven right. He produced three of their first four albums. It was Smith’s departure that made it possible for Emerick to be promoted to Engineer. From that point on, his recording techniques defined the sound of Beatles records.
This is a recent snapshot of Norman Smith with the authors of the RTB Book: Recording The Beatles, Brian Kehew and Kevin Ryan. Before I wrap up, I’ll embed this video of Hurricane I spotted on YouTube.
[flv:/Video/2008/MAR/HurricaneSmith.flv 440 330]
Norman Smith, 85, recording engineer and recording artist, died on March 3 at his home in Rye, England. Goodbye, Hurricane.
Pet in Connecticut
March 17, tickets go on sale for Petula Clark at Mohegan Sun, in Connecticut, on Mother’s Day. It’s about an 80-mile drive from home. I’ve never seen her live, and I’m certainly hoping to be there.
(That’s a screen grab, so it isn’t clickable.)
NOTHING CAN PREPARE YOU FOR THE WONDER OF… KING KIRBY!!!
Actually, Mark Evanier has given us plenty of preparation for his new book, Kirby: King of Comics. Years worth, in fact!
The book exists! It’s here! Mark’s first pass at a biography of comic book creative dynamo Jack Kirby does not disappoint. I’ll give it my usual short review for something that I consider to be a must-get item for anyone with any interest and inclination in the subject — get it! The page count is relatively low, about 220, but the format is B-I-G, as it must be to do justice to Jack’s powerful art. Reproduction and printing are faultless, and World Economy worriers take note — it was printed and bound in the U.S.A.
I’ve had the book for literally only an hour, but I can assure that, as expected, it does the job of providing a complete, but not overly detailed, history of Jack’s life and work. I’ll quote one passage, from pages 34 and 35.
[Jack] may also have fantasized the tale of his one day at Pratt Institute, a story he told often in later years. Details changed with each telling, but essentially involved him landing a few minor illustration jobs — minor in both importance and salary. These jobs, he said, turned around his father’s attitude about there being money in drawing. It was arranged for Jack to enroll in the famed art school, but the very next day Ben Kurtzberg lost his latest tailoring job, and his son had to quit art school.
It’s nifty to know there was some sort of connection between Kirby and the name Pratt, however tenuous it may have been! Personally, I don’t know if art school would have helped or hindered Jack’s natural talent.
I’ve scanned a couple of photos from the book. The one at left is from 1966, and it shows what I would guess might be one of the last pictures of Stan Lee before he started wearing hairpieces. The other picture, of Evanier with Kirby, is undated, but I’d guess sometime in the 80’s. If you want to hear Jack’s voice, go back to this previous posting of mine
Bravo, Mark! THANK YOU, Mark. Kirby: King of Comics will hold us over until you complete your ultra-deluxe, obsessively detailed, KING SIZE edition.