Category: Beatles

Here is actor Alan Rickman…

…and below is Beatles recording engineer Norman Smith, who was a recording artist himself under the pseudonym Hurricane Smith.

From Recording the Beatles © 2006 Curvebender Publishing

Norman Smith first joined the Abbey Road staff in 1959 as an assistant and quickly progressed to Balance Engineer. He served as the Beatles’ engineer from their Artist Test in 1962 until the completion of Rubber Soul in 1965. In addition to every album made during that time period, he also engineered all of the accompanying singles, including such standouts as “She Loves You”, “I Want To Hold Your Hand”, “I Feel Fine”, “Day Tripper”, and “We Can Work It Out.” Nicknamed “Normal” by the group, he left the engineer’s seat in 1966 when he was promoted to EMI’s A&R department (assuming George Martin’s former position as the head of Parlophone). From there, he went on to produce Pink Floyd’s first two albums — Piper at the Gates and A Saucerful of Secrets — as well as notable work with The Pretty Things. Smith also tried his hand as a recording artist, and in the early 1970s he scored a #3 US hit with “Oh Babe, What Would You Say?” using the alias “Hurricane Smith”.

It’s here! It’s here! It’s here! For $100 this book is a giveaway, depending on your level of interest. And anybody wanting it would have that interest. Don’t know if I’ll be blogging much for the next day or so!

See my previous item about the book Recording the Beatles. The second printing isn’t out yet, but the bonus materials are here!

Dennis, what are you waiting for?? Do you think it will show up on remainder at Barnes & Noble? 😉 (That’s an inside joke.)

Perhaps you’ve heard about the recent Beatles CD, Love. It’s a wild remix — a mash-up, if you will — of later Beatles recordings. The song “Help!” is in there, as is some of the Revolver album, but mostly it was taken from “Sgt. Pepper” to “Abbey Road.”

My buddy Dennis gave me a copy of Love for Christmas and, much to my surprise, I really like it! Except for the art, which is total rubbish as the British would say. If nothing else the sound is stunning, and highlights how badly the Beatles’ catalog needs to be remastered.

NPR has given “Love” lots of coverage, including a frank interview with Sir George Martin that’s at this link. Although I can’t stand NPR’s Bob Boilen imitating Scott Simon’s annoying laugh, I agree 100% with his comments about the release. Boilen’s 30-minute interview with George Martin’s son Giles Martin can be heard here. I’ve extracted three minutes of the interview and put them on the audio player. Martin discusses “Being For the Benefit of Mr. Kite.”

As familiar as the stereo mix of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Heart’s Club Band is, the fact is the Beatles had nothing to do with it! Their input went exclusively into the monaural mix. EMI recording engineer John Lush, who assisted Geoff Emerick on the stereo mix, says “The only real version of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Heart’s Club Band is the mono version. George Martin, Geoff and I did the stereo in a few days, just the three of us, without a Beatle in sight.” (Source: The Beatles Recording Sessions, by Mark Lewisohn)

Here’s “Being For the Benefit of Mr. Kite” from the original 1967 mono LP release of Sgt. Pepper, purchased by my sister Leslie the week, if not the day, of its release. Don’t expect sonic excellence — American Beatles records had notoriously poor sound quality — but do expect the song to not be just the stereo version made mono.

Edit: That old record sounds so bad I equalized it to give it some life.