Category: Beatles

For the technically inclined, or anybody who enjoys superbly produced books, I once again recommend the RTB Book: Recording The Beatles, by Kevin Ryan and Brian Kehew. In a way, the star of the book is the EMI REDD.51 mixing console. REDD is Recording Engineering Department Development at EMI. I previously posted pictures with the REDD.51 that was used (mostly) by engineers Norman Smith and Geoff Emerick to record the Beatles here and also here.

The original gatefold LP release of “Let It Be” has this photo of a REDD.51, which is missing from later LP pressings, and likewise the CD.

I remember being a wee lad, staring at this picture, having an idea of what the equipment did, and wondering if John was actually working the console. Today I know that Lennon was totally inept technically, and he never would have even touched the controls, let alone mastered their use, except perhaps for playback volume.

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Clarification: Beatles engineer Geoff Emerick, in his memoir Here, There and Everywhere, says that during the production of Revolution 9 for the White Album, Lennon took a hand at the console, “doing bits of panning and looking after the overall level so things didn’t get out of hand and distort. The whole thing was extremely haphazard; if he raised a fader and there was no sound, he’d say “Where’s it gone?”

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The next picture was taken in early 1964, shortly after the REDD.51 was delivered, brand-new. That’s Norman “Hurricane” Smith sitting at the REDDy. 😉

Click to enlarge

One bit of trivia about the first pressing of “Let It Be.” Besides having a red Apple label, both sides are engraved with the names “Phil + Ronnie.”

The Beatles with Neil Aspinall, Murray “The K” Kaufman, and Miami Police Sgt. Buddy Dresner, February 1964

In November, 1964, Capitol Records released a 2-disc LP called The Beatles’ Story. It’s missing from the otherwise excellent series The Beatles: The Capitol Albums. The record was produced by Gary Usher and Roger Christian, both of whom had worked with Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys.

I’ll post each side of The Beatles’ Story separately, taken from a 70’s pressing. The album would have fit on a single disc, and thanks to it being so short, there was plenty of real estate to get an exceptionally good cut on the master. As a result, the sound quality is noticeably dynamic and full.

[audio:http://www.dograt.com/Audio/2008/APR/BeatlesStory1.mp3]

This is a picture of The Beatles that I bet you haven’t seen. It’s the original concept for what became the infamous butcher cover for the initial pressings of the US LP “Yesterday and Today.” The idea was to give the impression that the woman was being disemboweled. Pleasant, eh?

The Beatles hated the way Capitol in America put out their records, and they felt their material was being butchered. Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Heart’s Club Band was the first LP that was released exactly as it was in the UK. Well, almost. It was missing the inner groove at the end of side 2. This is how it sounded.

[audio:http://www.dograt.com/Audio/2008/MAR/BeatlesChordUS.mp3]

This is how it sounded in the UK, assuming you had a manual record player that left the tone arm down.

[audio:http://www.dograt.com/Audio/2008/MAR/BeatlesChordUK.mp3]

Note the superior sound quality of the British pressing. Listen carefully at 28 seconds and you’ll hear Ringo’s shoe squeak; however, at the end, the full three seconds of the inner groove don’t play. The CD release of Pepper has it played in a loop, but this single-play recording is from an LP.

[audio:http://www.dograt.com/Audio/2008/MAR/BeatlesInnerGroove.mp3]

Rubber Soul records being inserted into sleeves, England 1965

One of the best known Beatles song anomalies is the false start to “I’m Looking Through You” on Rubber Soul that is missing on the UK version. But instead of that, I’ll offer the rarely heard hi-hat intro to “All My Loving.”

[audio:http://www.dograt.com/Audio/2008/MAR/AllMyLovingHiHatIntro.mp3]

And finally, here’s the end of “Penny Lane” as it was originally heard on the radio in America and Canada. The horn will either sound strange to you or, if you’re old enough, it will be something very distant, yet familiar.

[audio:http://www.dograt.com/Audio/2008/MAR/PennyLaneHornOutro.mp3]

Only a couple of weeks after the passing of Beatles recording engineer Norman Smith, Beatles road manager and business associate Neil Aspinall has died. It would take a long time to explain Neil’s relationship and roles with the Beatles, so I won’t even try. But it’s safe to say that without Neil Aspinall, the massive Beatles Anthology project in the mid-90’s would never have gotten done.

Here’s a link to an obituary in The Los Angeles Times. If that doesn’t work, click here instead. And at this link is the BBC’s write up on Neil.

Do I have one single favorite Beatles song? Actually, yes, I think I do. Overall, I tend to favor John over Paul, but this one is my favorite.

[flv:/Video/2008/MAR/HelloGoodbye.flv 440 330]

And while I have the old Laser (pre-DVD) video disc player going, here’s a delightful short scene from Magical Mystery Tour. Seeing this, it’s obvious that John had a kid of his own.

[flv:/Video/2008/MAR/MagicalMysteryTour.flv 440 330]

Extra: That version of “Hello, Goodbye” is obviously not the original stereo mix from Thursday, November 2, 1967. Further, it’s slower. Or perhaps the mix for the record was sped up. I’ll put it here for comparison, taken from the original Capitol Records LP of Magical Mystery Tour that I first heard 40 years ago.

[audio:http://www.dograt.com/Audio/2008/MAR/HelloGoodbye.mp3]

In the UK, Magical Mystery Tour was a double EP, and it had only the songs on side 1 of the American LP.

Click to enlarge

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.