All the Songs: The Story Behind Every Beatles Release (9/22/13)
Category: Books,Arts & Photography,Music
All the Songs: The Story Behind Every Beatles Release (9/22/13) Details
From Booklist *Starred Review* This hefty gem of a book catalogs every recording released by the Beatles, in chronological order of album release. The Beatles were early adopters of available technology and were known for using innovative techniques, and this book admirably captures the recording process of their English catalog, including all the singles and studio albums. Each song gets a minimum two-page spread, featuring the credits for the recording, a section on the genesis of the song, a narrative on the production, and a paragraph on technical details. While the bulk of the material is not new information, Guesdon and Margotin have done extensive research. They know their stuff (Guesdon is a musician; Margotin, a music critic), and it shows—especially in the Production and Technical Details sections, where the type of equipment is named and described, recording speeds are discussed, and there is much talk of the number of takes each song required and why. Footnotes are found in each entry. Side boxes of trivia (For Beatles Fanatics) are posted throughout, letting readers in on such trivia as If you listen carefully, you can make out an extra voice in the solo part at exactly 1:32 on Any Time at All. Large-scale black-and-white photos abound, with color shots popping up as well. A short glossary of technical and musical terms, an index of albums and songs, a list of release dates, and a general index round out the work.Comprehensive and entertaining, this is a good reference source of music trivia and a must for the circulating collections of most public and academic libraries. Beatles fans will be clamoring for this one. --Rebecca Vnuk Read more Review "Fun facts about every one of the Fab Four's creations, with photos. Yeah yeah yeah."―People"Fifty years ago, the Beatles released their debut album. ... if you're a fan and All the Songs: The Story Behind Every Beatles Release makes it onto your coffee table, chances are that it'll be the one least likely to leave. Music historians Jean-Michel Guesdon and Philippe Margotin dissect, discuss and analyze every song, from 'Please Please Me' (1963) to 'The Long and Winding Road' (1970). There's a well- written 'Genesis' and 'Production' section for each song, as well as enough technical tables to please everyone's inner nerd, not to mention 600 photographs.―Wall Street Journal"Everybody has a Beatles fan in their life, and you'll make them very happy if you give them a copy of All the Songs: The Story Behind Every Beatles Release."―Newsday"A perfect giftt for the Fab-Four fanatic."―New York Post"This is rock-solid stuff .... Yields all sorts of surprises, even for the initiated.... Essential for Beatles fans and a pleasure to read."―Kirkus Reviews"Beautiful layout and plenty of photos throughout.... And if that isn't enough, Patti Smith wrote the book's preface."―A.V. Club, 'Our Favorite Books of the Year"Impossible not to like for Beatle-types."―The Nation Read more See all Editorial Reviews
Reviews
What I mean is, that this massive (heavy!) book takes the "greatest bits of info" from the Lewisohn, Babiuk, Ryan/Kehew books, as well as previously published interviews by the Beatles and associates, recording anomalies (readily available on several internet sites) and puts them together under one cover (primary songwriter, instrument/vocal credit, dates/mixing/studio location and personnel, specific instruments used, the Anthology series audio material and additional background info). The authors DO give credit to these various sources whenever necessary and present it in a well-organized format. You will not see photos of the EMI recording boxes nor photos of every single instrument used, however there is certainly enough visual material to make the book a valuable tool covering the studio career of the Beatles. I also give them credit for the using "?" when information has not been 100% verified (i.e. who actually played the 12-string part on "Every Little Thing"). I appreciate this "when in doubt..." approach.I'd really give this book 4-1/2 stars, but not 5, due to the fact that the previously published books (mentioned above) contained much of this info. What I WILL say, is that this will now by my main go-to source for the the Beatles studio session information. It also stands on its own and is well-written. It's now a matter of justifying the price, but I have no regrets purchasing this book.
