Recording - May 2014 - 53

MAY 2014
TAXI Road Rally 2013

Geoff Emerick Interview, Part Three
Interview by Michael Laskow
Legendary producer/engineer Geoff Emerick
was just 15-years-old when he worked on the historical, first EMI sessions recording the Beatles.
At age 19, Geoff became the "first engineer" on
Revolver, and subsequently engineered Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, The Beatles (White
Album), and Abbey Road. He's also engineered
three of Paul McCartney's classic solo albums,
and engineered or produced artists like Elvis
Costello, Badfinger, Art Garfunkel, America,
Supertramp, Cheap Trick, and many, many more
during his incredible, decades-long career. Emerick has received four Grammy Awards, and is the
co-author of the incredible book, Here, There and
Everywhere - My Life Recording the Music of the
Beatles. We were thrilled to honor Mr. Emerick
with TAXI's Lifetime Achievement Award and do a
live, keynote interview with a gentleman who has
literally been an integral part in musical history
on a global basis.
It's also noteworthy that this final part of the
interview with Geoff will be published shortly
after the 50th anniversary of the Beatles hitting
American shores, and their first performance on
the Ed Sullivan Show. For many of us old enough
to have watched it as it happened, it shaped the
future of our lives. TAXI would not exist, and we
would have never heard Geoff speak at the Road
Rally if not for the Beatles. We hope you enjoy
this final part of the interview!
The first question in Part Three is a carry over
from Part Two, for context and continuity.
-Michael Laskow
There is a lot to be said for capturing unbridled
enthusiasm, I think.
It's just something that's overlooked now. What
used to happen in the creation of the Beatles
records, because they didn't come into the studio
with things "finished." They might have the lyric
finished, and the instrumentation was thought
about, but it hadn't been set. So when we would
be doing the basic backing track for any of their
records, we might spend like six hours doing it

TAXI's Michael Laskow (right) beams while presenting Geoff Emerick with his Lifetime Achievement Award at the Road Rally.
(Photo by James DiModica)

and realize it's not working. Why is it not working? So there's a discussion. Well, let's change the
instrumentation. And sometimes then the ideas
would come out. You've got them en masse, so
you've got ideas floating around. And often,
someone would make a mistake and it would be
an error. But if you thought about the error, it
was really good and different, so we used to put
overdubs on top of the error. That's why their
songs are the way they are, with lots of changes in
the songs, and the mistakes becoming part of the
arrangement. It was just great working like that. I
mean, people don't work like that now, you know.
They didn't fight to go back and get another take?
They just rolled with it? When they made a mistake,
they didn't...?
No, no. We'd go back to the basic recording
again. We'd be doing basic rhythm track, and
obviously it's been recorded, and then there was a
mistake there. But we would just play it back and
listen to it, and they would sort of work on the
mistake. That's what used to happen. And with

the rules and regulations at EMI at that time, you
didn't go back and go over tape. You kept everything. Everything had to be recorded on virgin
tape.
Was that for technical reasons? Or because EMI
wanted to sell more tape?
They said you can't do it, that it was going to be a
detriment to the recording. That was the directive. You have to record on virgin tape.
I think I started in the industry about a dozen or so
years after you, and we had some rules when I
worked at Criteria Studios in Miami. I just can't even
imagine having all those internal regulations. It
seems like it would have been so incredibly inhibiting to the creative process.
Well, the problem for me to begin with was
because of my age. When I first walked into EMI
Studios, they showed me the different jobs I
might be doing, you know. When you're 35 or 40
Continued on page 54
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Recording - May 2014

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