Prattling before the Pratfall

I have a special appreciation for the late Norman Smith, aka Hurricane Smith. He had a varied and fascinating career, not only as the Beatles’ first recording engineer at EMI, and as the man who discovered Pink Floyd and produced their first albums, but as a performer in his own right, with his big international hit, “Oh Babe, What Would You Say?”

Rich Phoenix, President of the New Jersey Radio Museum, wrote this remembrance of Norman, that I’m publishing here with his permission.

Nick Smith, Rich Phoenix, Eileen and Norman Smith

I knew the man since 1973, when we met in London where I was on holiday; spent 20+ years in radio trying to make a living. At that point, I was working for a station in New Brunswick, NJ and had gone to the UK for the first time in 1972 from where I brought back a slew of radio airchecks on tape. In the pre-internet days without stations around the world streamed for your convenience, it was like — “fine, you go see Big Ben; I’ll stay in the room and get Radio One, Luxembourg and Radio Caroline on tape!”

Brought home a Radio One aircheck containing “Oh Babe” and I was finished! Knew I had to meet this guy and interview him, and hadn’t even put together that he was the same man with album credits on Floyd’s “Saucerful of Secrets” which I had then owned for years. (There, he was “Norman Smith” — a name like Smith, well, who knew?) Neither had I put it together that this was the Norman Smith mentioned in the Hunter Davies Beatles book.

So, back in New Brunswick, I decided that I would holiday again in the UK in ’73, ‘coz I discovered I loved the place and the American dollar in those days did wonders! By then, Babe was an international hit, and Capitol/EMI were very cagey with me when I told them I was going back to London and wanted an interview. They recommended I contact Chappell, his music publisher?!?, which I did. I wasn’t in my Covent Garden hotel for 24 hours when the desk told me a Mr. Smith was on the phone — wow! Shocker of shockers!! Picked up the phone and, yes, there it was, the trademark raspy but incredibly warm voice bordering on the quality of a seasoned BBC announcer (since he was born in North London, Norman’s speech was impeccable and totally absent any of the many British regionalisms). He invited me up to his office in the EMI House, Manchester Square for an interview.

Over tea, he opened up his entire life to me, we talked the Fabs, music in general and like so many Brits, he had an abiding fascination with all things to do with America and its music (this, again, was 1973). We discovered that we had mutual interest in many jazz artists (some of whom I had interviewed, Louis Armstrong and Ray Charles included) and he opened up about the many, many groups and artistes he had engineered and produced at Abbey Road (which I had already visited in ’72) and about which I could now actually speak intelligently, like ‘what was the deal with that staircase in Abbey Road Two, etc., etc.’ We became fast friends instantly. He was as genuine as the rest of the business is fake — a real gem, bright, funny, would give ya the shirt off his back, and all that. Wow!

1973 was an ideal time to make Norman’s acquaintance. There was so very much going on with the international music scene, and a great deal of it originating from the UK. Without a doubt, Norman Smith is one of the great unsung heroes of the British invasion.

We kept in regular contact over the years and visited whenever possible. Every time we spoke, more and more stories, one of the more telling being that he greatly enjoyed his solo career and the multiple hits (Babe was not a one-hit wonder); but, he said, he would have given it all up if he could have reunited the Fabs. Never heard anybody else quote that from him, but it is something he told me to my face.

I was always after him to write “his book,” which he finally did. It is a great read about a great man! (For some unexplained reason, he even included me in the book, and a practical joke that he played on me one night at his home after we had been down to his local and had a couple of whiskeys!)

He was always an incredibly humble and modest guy about all that he accomplished, but the more that you listen to his recorded work as an engineer/producer/singer/songwriter, the more evident it becomes that, in his time with the Fabs, he was on equal footing with George Martin when it came to being a sounding board, creative force and inspiration for getting their ideas on wax for the ages.

One of Norman’s great moments of triumph — when he sang “Oh Babe” live before a cheering, delirious crowd of fans at the 2007 FestforBeatlesFans on St. Patrick’s weekend, here in New Jersey. It was like the entire ballroom levitated and happily, his wife, Eileen and son, Nick were there to experience it as were my wife, Carla and I. Norman never seemed to believe that the Fabs enjoyed such undiminished adoration over here, or that he and his music were so fondly remembered and “alive,” all these years on, but they were!

Rock’n’Roll!

Rich Phoenix, President, NJ Radio Museum

Programme Presenter, TheAlbumZone, London

Thanks so much, Rich! A brief bit of Norman working with George Martin and The Beatles at EMI Studio 2 can be seen in this silent video from 1964.
[flv:http://www.dograt.com/Video/2008/NOV/BeatlesEMIStudio2.flv 400 300]

Norman had significant input into the writing of the book RTB Book: Recording the Beatles, by Brian Kehew and Kevin Ryan, and as luck would have it, today Curvebender Publishing sent a mailing announcing the authors will be at the Boston Public Library next week, December 2. This is something I don’t want to miss, and I plan on being there as early as possible. The next night Kehew and Ryan will be at the Ed Sullivan Theater in New York, where the Beatles made their legendary American debut.