Geoff Emerick’s Here, There, and Everywhere: My Life Recording the Music of The Beatles is perhaps my favorite Beatles connected book. Why? Because it offers such a fascinating and lifelike perspective on the recording of The Beatles legendary albums such as 1967’s Sgt. Pepper.

I like that the book is focused on what was going on within the studio instead of what the members of the band were doing personally as far as who they were dating and all of that kind of stuff. In comparison other books like this are far too centered on the biography of The Beatles and not enough on the music. It’s because of their songs that anyone is interested in their biography.

The book is not entirely concerning The Beatles, it is more of a Geoff Emerick autobiography (with an obvious focus on his time with The Beatles) however if you think that may make it not as interesting, I really don’t think that is true. I truly think it helps make his interactions with The Beatles appear more “real.”

In fact the book’s “realness” is one of my favorite things about it. I have read a lot of books on the band however many of them appear quite clinical in comparison. They’re often like a bunch of facts pieced together. With Here, There, and Everywhere I felt like I was really there at the studio in the 1960s. Sort of a fly on the wall, taking it all in.

This book offers a nice look into The Beatles as musicians there’s actually a series of books called The Beatles as Musicians which goes into that more in depth.) We get a glimpse of Paul McCartney working for hours in the studio to get his bass parts on Sgt. Pepper just right and we see George greatly improve his guitar playing skills through the decade.

Emerick was a very important part of the band’s sound during their most creative period in the mid ’60s. Incredibly on his 1st full day as lead engineer he came up with concepts which helped make the last track on Revolver, “Tomorrow Never Knows,” sound so futuristic.

If you’re interested in shopping for this book you aren’t stuck with shopping for it on old fashioned paper, you’ll be able to also buy it for your Kindle. If you do not have a Kindle yet then I advocate shopping for the Kindle DX because of it’s bigger size, it makes it more easy to read. If you reside outside of the US, you’ll need to order a Kindle with Global Wireless.

As much as I love reading about the recording of The Beatles music, I enjoy listening to their albums even more than that. I think it is a great idea to have the new remastered versions of The Beatles back catalog available to listen to while you are thumbing through this great book. In particular I recommend buying The Beatles in Mono CD Box Set since Emerick mentions several times in the book how he thinks the mono mixes are superior (especially Pepper.)

Harold Maxwell Quesenberry also thinks you should get The Beatles USB and The Beatles Remastered Vinyl (when it comes out.)

Technorati Tags: Geoff Emerick