This review is from: Here, There and Everywhere: My Life Recording the Music of the Beatles (Hardcover)
I've read many Beatles books which were all fine and good, but this was just one of those books that had me captivated. If you know the Beatles' story in and out like myself, you will still find this book quite interesting, or at least it's a book you should read just to get a different feel than your typical bio.
Geoff E. goes through all the Beatles albums he engineered, techniques that were used in getting their sound, incidents and experiences with the Beatles, and his own observations during recording sessions. I felt like I was part of the action while I was reading (always a good sign!) and was entertained by all of the stories he told. It gives you an even better idea of them as people in the studio- granted through his eyes, but it's still an interesting viewpoint nonetheless.
As one might expect, there is a lot of technical lingo in the book which was, well...technical lingo- some of it I was kinda clueless on or didn't understand simply because I'm no sound engineer, but it was still neat to read how certain sounds were made, little things I didn't know about. I got a little bit of musical-sound education out of it so I didn't mind.
Like other reviewers said, Geoff does favor Paul (which he also mentions having the best rapport with him, so it's not like he hides it), but to me it wasn't obnoxious or anything that overshadowed the basis of the book. I'm a huge Lennon fan myself but I'm always interested in what other people think or what they've witnessed about him or the others, positive or not. It is a personal recollection and how things were through his eyes, so I went into the book keeping that in mind. He didn't engineer all of their albums which I wish he had- I would've loved to have learned more about say, how A Hard Day's night was engineered, but at the same time you get a great picture of how things went down through the albums he did work on, which is most of them anyway.
I love the personal spin on it. It's not by some guy who compiled a bunch of facts from all over and spit out a book- he was there when the music was being made first-hand, and had a big part in creating that sound. And considering the amount of time he spent with them in the studio- I'd say he's pretty fit to recount his experiences!
To cap off, I really like how this was written. I found Geoff E. to be a straight-forward kinda guy with some great ideas, of course with his own opinions. He has a conventional way about him, yeah, but mind you, he's creative. Gotta give him that. I don't know, I found him pretty down to earth for the most part, relate-able in a way. Beatle fans, read the book and get the experience! It's really great!!
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