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ivan@stellysee.de
| From | "Mark Bacino" <mark@popjob.com> |
| Subject | The Reading Room |
| Date | Thu, 3 Aug 2006 15:32:51 -0400 |
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Hey All,
Just thought I'd write and mention a few books I recently finished that
I thought would be of interest to the list if you guys haven't hit them
already -
"Always Magic in the Air: the bomp and brilliance of the Brill Building
era" By Ken Emerson
The book basically chronicles the Brill Building's inner workings as
well as the careers, lives and times of 7 of the most successful Brill
Building pop songwriting teams. It gives the low-down on how a bunch of
kids from the NYC boroughs, LI and NJ changed the face of pop music
forever.
"Here, There and Everywhere: My life recording the music of the Beatles"
By Geoff Emerick
Autobiography by the Beatles engineer; I enjoyed this one a lot. Leans
heavy on his work with the Beatles. Just technical enough for those who
are interested but easy to understand and not off putting for those who
aren't. Gives some good insight into the Beatles themselves from a
close yet still 'outside' perspective. Makes everybody seem very human
rather than the legends we've come to know them as.
"All You Need is Ears" By George Martin
'79 autobiography by the legendary producer (I believe he's since wrote
another more in depth one called 'Playback'). Horrible title but an
interesting read especially back to back with the Emerick piece. In a
lot of cases you get to see different perspectives on the same event.
Talks about the Beatles a good bit but is first and foremost an
autobiography. Martin's had a pretty interesting life and career. I
felt stupid not knowing this all these years but I was surprised to
learn that he was actually also the head of the Parlophone label and
signed the Beatles to their deal. I was also surprised to learn that up
until that point the label (under the EMI umbrella) was kind of an
odd-ball, not particularly successful outfit that made mostly
comedy/novelty records and the like.
Amazon has them all. Happy reading!
-Mark
np- Belle & Sebastian - "The Life Pursuit"
__________________________________________
Mark Bacino I The Queens English Recording Co.
www.thequeensenglish.com
www.popjob.com
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