Tomorrow Never Knows
October 3, 2018 12:59 PM Subscribe
Geoff Emerick, Beatles engineer, passes away at 72. Many comments on @thebeatles, Paul pays tribute to Geoff. Without a doubt, he threw himself whole-heartedly into the adventure.
I think he produced Imperial Bedroom, among other non-Beatles work, too.
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posted by thelonius at 1:37 PM on October 3, 2018 [3 favorites]
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posted by thelonius at 1:37 PM on October 3, 2018 [3 favorites]
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I wasn't aware of the man's influence on The Beatles, but the tribute from Paul McCartney is really lovely (and Paul McCartney is also really lovely).
posted by bluesky43 at 1:43 PM on October 3, 2018 [3 favorites]
I wasn't aware of the man's influence on The Beatles, but the tribute from Paul McCartney is really lovely (and Paul McCartney is also really lovely).
posted by bluesky43 at 1:43 PM on October 3, 2018 [3 favorites]
The last link nicely illustrates why I got into messing around with audio production and engineering. You get to feel like a wizard messing around with weird black arts in ways that the visual arts don't seem to have in the same heavy quantities and amounts of fun.
I will also share a rare credit and acknowledgement: Growing up listening to the Beatles and listening to my mom tell these stories about their studio innovations like tape cutups and messing around with weird pitches and stuff definitely primed me when I was younger for what was possible, including messing around with my own cut up experimental tape splices as early as grade school.
I might not be a huge fan of 60s era rock, but they definitely helped influence me and the weird artists I like to listen to.
Also, it's really cool seeing that Geoff Emerick is a huge nerd and square.
posted by loquacious at 2:24 PM on October 3, 2018 [7 favorites]
I will also share a rare credit and acknowledgement: Growing up listening to the Beatles and listening to my mom tell these stories about their studio innovations like tape cutups and messing around with weird pitches and stuff definitely primed me when I was younger for what was possible, including messing around with my own cut up experimental tape splices as early as grade school.
I might not be a huge fan of 60s era rock, but they definitely helped influence me and the weird artists I like to listen to.
Also, it's really cool seeing that Geoff Emerick is a huge nerd and square.
posted by loquacious at 2:24 PM on October 3, 2018 [7 favorites]
Emerick's book, Here, There and Everywhere is one of the better ones by someone who worked closely with The Beatles. Some have said that Emerick gave himself too much credit, but I don’t agree. Either way, I've read way too much about The Beatles, and I found his book one of the more informative and interesting, and one of the least gossipy, which I consider a good thing.
He will be missed.
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posted by young_simba at 2:45 PM on October 3, 2018 [7 favorites]
He will be missed.
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posted by young_simba at 2:45 PM on October 3, 2018 [7 favorites]
Given the technology available to them at the time, what The Beatles and Martin and Emerick created is astonishing. They pushed the medium beyond what anyone imagined it could be before them.
We're nearing the end of that era. (Although I hear Paul's new album is pretty excellent.) And things are being pushed forward in completely different ways now. But still... Emerick deserves a giant
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posted by hippybear at 2:46 PM on October 3, 2018 [3 favorites]
We're nearing the end of that era. (Although I hear Paul's new album is pretty excellent.) And things are being pushed forward in completely different ways now. But still... Emerick deserves a giant
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posted by hippybear at 2:46 PM on October 3, 2018 [3 favorites]
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posted by JoeXIII007 at 2:55 PM on October 3, 2018
posted by JoeXIII007 at 2:55 PM on October 3, 2018
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posted by So You're Saying These Are Pants? at 3:03 PM on October 3, 2018
posted by So You're Saying These Are Pants? at 3:03 PM on October 3, 2018
For last year's 50th anniversary of Sgt. Pepper, he gave an absolutely fascinating interview to NYMag's Vulture.
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posted by Doktor Zed at 4:46 PM on October 3, 2018 [3 favorites]
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posted by Doktor Zed at 4:46 PM on October 3, 2018 [3 favorites]
He was nineteen when he became the principal engineer for the biggest band in the world. At nineteen I was recycling high school essays on King Lear as work towards an English degree I didn’t actually want while pining hopelessly over a music major named Samantha, and at nineteen Emerick was engineering Revolver.
Respect.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 6:25 PM on October 3, 2018 [9 favorites]
Respect.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 6:25 PM on October 3, 2018 [9 favorites]
Imperial Bedroom is all the proof of his genius I’ve ever needed.
posted by mykescipark at 9:50 PM on October 3, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by mykescipark at 9:50 PM on October 3, 2018 [1 favorite]
The Beatles, yes, obviously; and his post-Beatles work with Macca, also obviously. But Emerick also produced this fine transitional album for Split Enz, and its standout track "Charlie".
posted by rory at 5:46 AM on October 4, 2018 [1 favorite]
posted by rory at 5:46 AM on October 4, 2018 [1 favorite]
His Beatles and McCartney work notwithstanding, WOW, Imperial Bedroom? Odyssey and Oracle? Stealers Wheel? Worked with Kate Bush and Big Country? Man, those are some stellar credits!
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posted by droplet at 6:44 AM on October 4, 2018 [1 favorite]
♬
posted by droplet at 6:44 AM on October 4, 2018 [1 favorite]
Worked with Kate Bush and Big Country?
I've been trying to corroborate this since seeing him listed on AllMusic as producer of The Seer (which would account for both artists, because KB guested on it), but not finding any evidence elsewhere. That (great!) album was produced by Robin Millar and remixed for release by Walter Turbitt, and none of its engineers were Emerick. But I then realised that his work with the band was on the Restless Natives soundtrack, which appeared on the 2014 deluxe edition of The Seer, and that's how that connection was made on AllMusic.
I wondered whether this meant that Emerick didn't ever actually work with Kate Bush—but it turns out that he was the engineer on one of the most important recordings of her career, the demo tape that landed her a deal with EMI.
posted by rory at 7:19 AM on October 4, 2018 [2 favorites]
I've been trying to corroborate this since seeing him listed on AllMusic as producer of The Seer (which would account for both artists, because KB guested on it), but not finding any evidence elsewhere. That (great!) album was produced by Robin Millar and remixed for release by Walter Turbitt, and none of its engineers were Emerick. But I then realised that his work with the band was on the Restless Natives soundtrack, which appeared on the 2014 deluxe edition of The Seer, and that's how that connection was made on AllMusic.
I wondered whether this meant that Emerick didn't ever actually work with Kate Bush—but it turns out that he was the engineer on one of the most important recordings of her career, the demo tape that landed her a deal with EMI.
posted by rory at 7:19 AM on October 4, 2018 [2 favorites]
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Beatles albums sound so much better than most of their contemporaries. Listening to them now it's almost shocking how clean they sound, especially knowing how primitive the equipment that had to work with.
posted by octothorpe at 11:14 AM on October 4, 2018
Beatles albums sound so much better than most of their contemporaries. Listening to them now it's almost shocking how clean they sound, especially knowing how primitive the equipment that had to work with.
posted by octothorpe at 11:14 AM on October 4, 2018
Get the mic right up in there! There now, that's good work.
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posted by petebest at 12:17 PM on October 4, 2018
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posted by petebest at 12:17 PM on October 4, 2018
"Geoff Emerick was the first engineer I ever worked with. He recorded The Man With The Child in His Eyes along with a couple of other tracks at Air Studios in Oxford St in 1974. He was incredibly sweet and supportive - I'd never been in a recording studio before, let alone played live with an orchestra. He joked around with me and put me at ease. He had a brilliant sense of humour and was really quite mischievous. I'll always remember him with a smile on his face. What a really lovely man he was, an incredibly gifted engineer and one of the truly great heroes of the music business. It was such an honour to work with him."
Kate
posted by larrybob at 3:48 PM on October 9, 2018 [2 favorites]
Kate
posted by larrybob at 3:48 PM on October 9, 2018 [2 favorites]
Emerick also mixed I Am the Cosmos by Chris Bell of Big Star.
posted by larrybob at 3:57 PM on October 9, 2018
posted by larrybob at 3:57 PM on October 9, 2018
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