I just finished reading “Here There and Everywhere: My life of Recording the Beatles“, written by famed Abbey Road engineer Geoff Emerick, a man who played an enormous role in reinventing the recording studio into a musical instrument in itself. The book, which is a must-read for any Beatlemaniac, got me to reminiscing about my one session at Abbey Road in November of 2006. I hunted through my diary for this excerpt:
11/28/06
I awoke yesterday morning in mono.
One of my ears was suddenly stuffed with wax, and completely useless. How could I have done this to myself the day I was to finish Muller and Patton’s second album at Abbey Road Studios?
Since I was 11, and I recorded my first songs with my Dad on a reel-to-reel four-track tape machine not unlike the one the Beatles might have used in 1965, I’ve been fascinated with the recording and producing aspect of pop music. My Dad showed me how overdubs were achieved, and helped me layer my vocals so I could harmonize with myself. It was in London’s Abbey Road studio, he told me, that “overdubbing” became an artist’s tool, rather than a mere technical trick. I dreamed of someday working at Abbey Road myself.
More than a decade later, Jaye and I were booked there, and I could only hear out of half my head. Our mastering engineer, Nick Webb, was one of the sweetest, least intimidating men I’ve ever met. His disposition suggested a small-town baker, or even a friendly chimney-sweep, rather than a man who, at only 18, took part in the engineering of “Sgt Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band”. He said “Crikey” on numerous occasions, and even remarked at one point that a certain cross-fade on our album could prove to “put us in a bit of a pickle.” Our’s was Nick’s second-to-last job before retirement. His last, a few days later, was to be with Iggy Pop and the Stooges.
Nick assisted with many of the post-Pepper Beatles albums, much of the Fab Four’s respective solo work, and he also worked on the Zombie’s “Odyssey and Oracle”, another of my favorite albums. Eventually, he became exclusively a mastering engineer, because, as he put it, he liked “finishing albums”. He mastered Queen, among others.
He didn’t brag about these things, but I pried his pride out of him, while trying not to appear star-struck.
John Leckie, the producer of both Radiohead and Muse, called the studio during our session to wish us luck and say hello. He, Jaye, and Nick go back quite a few years.
These social connections gave the session a very casual, friendly atmosphere.
I exercised great restraint, I thought, waiting until we were just wrapping up the session to burst out “Do you have any Beatles recollections you can share???”
He laughed, as if he could tell it had been welling up inside me all day, and indulged me with a few anecdotes.
The Count and I strolled across the zebra-stripes crosswalk (made famous on the cover of the Beatle’s last album) risking life and limb in the face of oncoming traffic.
Incidentally, you can see the Abbey Road crosswalk, at any time, on this webcam:
http://www.abbeyroad.co.uk/virtual_visit/webcam/
A couple other tourists were there too, trying to recreate the well-known cover, and they seemed as surprised as I that this was just a plain old fully functional crosswalk, with cars stopping for it, who didn’t have all day to wait. Jaye, photographing me, was nearly flattened by a double decker bus. But I got the photo I’ve been waiting for since I was 11.
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I was sure I’d ruin their movie, but I saw the final edit the other day, and they really did a remarkable job, despite my acting. Apparently it was well recived at the school too.
