Here, There And Everywhere My Life Recording the Music of the Beatles Book

I can only review from the pov of a complete Beatles geek. I have read most of the biographies by various journos and hangers on... and i love the music pure and simple... thats the context.

This is my favorite of them all (shout out to Philip Nolan's Shout bio tho). Its the stories I really wanted to know... not the chisme about who did drugs and who was gay - its about the creation of the music sonically. And what is happening behind the scenes when the songs we have heard a million times before were being recorded. Why does one album sound different than another - how were they evolving as musicians - what was the dynamic between them in the studio - why was the White Album so unique compared to Sgt Pepper 1 year before? Anecdote after anecdote - the questions are answered and not by a journalist but a guy who had the best seat in the house.

What i love about Emerick is that he is both diplomatic, but also incredibly biased - and he admits his biases from start to finish - Paul McCartney was nice to him the first time they met and they had a professional relationship for years to come... his tendency to praise Paul and affectionately crap on the others (george's guitar solos were a bitch to record, john was a moody prick, ringo was a simpleton) is pretty consistent, but for some reason that i cant define, it all seems believable and honest, not some attempt to sell another book. The critiques are pretty mild and he is the first one to give credit where credit is due.

Most importantly, as i read, i went back to the music - and listened to it again, often with headphones and had a new appreciation for each member, the group as a whole and for the contributions of George Martin and Geoff Emerick. Instead of digging deep into speculation about their personal life - he stays with the subject i cared the most about (and he did as well)... the music - and for that he has all my respect as an author... and as a sound engineer -well, that knows no bound.