Geoff Emerick was only sixteen years old when he worked on the Beatles’ first-ever recording session. Only a few years later he would play an important part in shaping the fab four’s musical direction.
At the age of fifteen, Geoff Emerick landed a job as an assistant engineer at Abbey Road Studios in London. Emerick, the son of a butcher, had developed a keen interest in music from an early age, despite the fact that none of his family members possessed any particular musical talent.
As a young child, Emerick was capable of picking out simple tunes he had heard on the radio and playing them solely by ear on his uncle’s piano.
“I have no explanation for how I was able to do it; for some reason I just knew where the notes fell, and it was only a matter of going from one note to another to make up the tune,” Emerick said in his book “Here, There and Everywhere - My Life Recording the Music of The Beatles.”
Emerick discovered his grandmother’s collection of classical and operatic records at the age of six, and played these records endlessly. He started to mimic the role of a conductor when listening to the records - using a pencil as a baton.
“The music would not only evoke emotions in me - joy, sadness, longing, excitement - but also conjure up images in my mind,” Emerick said.
When his dad George presented him with his first radio, young Geoff began listening to skiffle and rock ‘n’ roll music. Listening to contemporary music, he said, was like a breath of fresh air. He found himself drawn more and more to pop records, but at the same time retained his appreciation for classical and operatic music.
“Somehow my musical tastes were broadening, not just shifting,” he said.
A FUTURE TO CONSIDER
As he grew older, Emerick had to start thinking about his future. He was however reluctant to follow in his father’s footsteps (”there was no way I could face a lifetime of chopping up raw meat.”) In 1960’s England, pupils completed school at the age of 15. Although his parents suggested he should pursue a career in architecture, Emerick lost interest as soon as he discovered he would have to go to university to do so.
After some deliberation, Emerick finally decided that he wanted to be involved in the creation of music.
“I realized that I was never going to get the proper training to become a professional composer or an accomplished musician, but I wanted to somehow make a contribution,” he said.
Emerick sent application letters to record companies in London, but they either turned him down or never replied. His school’s career counselor, Mr. Barlow, tried to convince him that a job in the post office installing telephones was the right thing for him. But Emerick was headstrong and made it clear that it was music he wanted to do. A few months later, when Emerick was beginning to lose hope, Mr. Barlow called him into his office. There was an entry-level vacancy at EMI’s Abbey Road Studios and a job interview had been arranged.
“Good luck with it, and don’t let us down,” said Mr. Barlow.
A few weeks later, Geoff Emerick had been appointed assistant sound engineer - or “button pusher” as some called them - at Abbey Road. The year was 1962.
MEETING THE BEATLES
“They’re scruffy and they wear leather jackets and they comb their hair forward. But they sing brilliant harmonies, just like the Everly Brothers, and they’ve got a true rock ‘n’ roll attitude,” Emerick heard Chris Neal, one of the other assistant engineers at EMI, say.
It would not take long before Emerick would experience first hand what Neal was taking about. Emerick was in fact present at the Beatles’ very first proper recording session - on September 4 1962. That was also when he was introduced to producer George Martin - “the fifth Beatle” - for the first time. Martin and Emerick would later form a partnership in the studio which would contribute enormously to the Beatles’ artistic progress. But none of them new any of that at this stage, of course. Emerick was just an teenage assistant, a few weeks into his new job.
In the coming years, Emerick took part in Beatles sessions on an on and off basis, and he got to know Paul McCartney fairly well. Step by step, he also moved up the ranks at EMI, and was assigned to do different tasks which gave him the opportunity to experiment with sounds and to develop a good understanding of the recording studio as a whole.
REVOLVER: A NEW SOUND
In 1966, 18-year old Emerick was asked by George Martin if he wanted to take over from Norman Smith as the Beatles’ sound engineer. Norman had decided to move on to produce another promising new band, called Pink Floyd. Emerick was gob smacked. Firstly, it was not common for EMI staff to be promoted to the position of full sound engineer before the age of 40. Secondly, he had been asked to work with the most famous band in the the whole world!
Although Emerick had worked on Beatles sessions before, he also new that his new role would involve a lot more responsibility than previously. Quite frankly, he was terrified of what the sessions would bring.
“I pictured the four of them - even friendly, charming Paul - ganging up on me, reducing me to tears, banishing me from the studio in disgrace and shame,” he said.
And young Emerick was put on the spot from day one. In early April 1966, the Beatles were booked into EMI’s Abbey Road studios in London to start the recording of a new album - Revolver.
The first track to be recorded was an unusual one-chord song penned by Lennon, which had the working title “Mark 1.” It would later be entitled “Tomorrow Never Knows.”
“I want my voice to sound like Dalai Lama chanting from a mountaintop, miles away,” Lennon told producer George Martin.
“Got it. I’m sure Geoff and I will come up with something,” Martin replied.
In reality, what Martin was saying is that he was sure Geoff would come up with something. This was 1966, however, and the standard studio tricks available would not do the job alone.
“I looked around the room in panic. I thought I had a vague idea of what John wanted, but I had no clear sense of how to achieve it,” Emerick said.
Then he got an idea: The studio’s Hammond organ was hooked up to a Leslie, a large wooden box that contained an amp and two sets of revolving speakers. What would John’s voice sound like if it was put through that?
Precisely like Dalai Lama chanting from a mountaintop!
Lennon was thrilled with the result, and so were the others. That gave Emerick the confidence to experiment further. In an attempt to create a distinctive drum sound for the song, he put an old woolen sweater inside the bass drum and moved the microphones in close - just inches away. This was a direct violation of EMI’s strict recording rules, of course, but nevertheless - it sounded fantastic!
“Beyond my immense relief at having passed muster and being accepted as the Beatles’ new engineer, it probably not too far fetched to claim that recording history was made during the very first night of working on Revolver,” said Emerick. In fact, both the drum sound and the vocal-through-a-Leslie trick has become the standard to this very day.
Emerick’s new inventions did not stop with that, however. When Paul McCartney wanted a deep Motown bass sound for his new song “Paperback Writer,” Emerick delivered the goods again. No surprise then, that Emerick also played an important role during the recording of the Beatles’ next album - Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.
Emerick quit during the recording of “The Beatles” (The White Album) however, following the “poisonous” atmosphere that dominated the sessions. But he was back again for the recording of “Abbey Road,” a worthy finish of the Beatles’ career.
Geoff Emerick never developed close friendships with John, George or Ringo - but he is close friends with Paul to this very day. He has worked on many of McCartney’s solo albums, including Band On The Run, which was recorded in Nigeria. When Emerick married his late wife Nicole in 1988, Paul McCartney was his best man and his late wife Linda the wedding photographer.
In addition to McCartney’s solo albums, Emerick also worked on the Beatles’ re-union singles “Free As A Bird” and “Real Love” in the 1990s.
“We laughed and joked our way through the sessions, just as we had done in the early years, but here was a sadness, too. A huge piece of the puzzle was missing, and we were reminded of that every time we heard John’s distinctively nasal vocal coming through the studio loudspeakers.”
Andreas Walstad is a journalist an the author of The Beatles Online:
http://www.thebeatlesonline.com/pages/beatles_songs.htm