Engineer puts an entertaining new spin on band's story

The author's favorite? Paul, the best man at his wedding.
By SCOTT BAUER
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Just when it seemed that everyone who had any role in the rise and breakup of the Beatles had written a book or two, along comes a name familiar only to hard-core fans.
Luckily for the rest of us, Geoff Emerick is able to spin an entertaining tale of his life behind the control room dials during the Beatles' recording sessions at EMI's Abbey Road studio in London.
Emerick's story, as told in "Here, There and Everywhere," is a charming one, in a "Forrest Gump" sort of way. Hired at 15 by EMI, he started his career as an assistant engineer and found himself very much in the right place at the right time.
He was lucky enough to get tabbed to sit in on the first Beatles recording session in 1962 before being promoted to engineer at 19 and taking on a larger role in the most famous Beatles sessions, including "Revolver" and "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band."
Makes his case
Although Emerick is not as familiar as Beatles' producer George Martin, he makes a strong case that he, too, was integral to creating the band's sound that has become so well-known. Much of that required bending protocol and finding ways to create in the studio what band members heard in their heads.
Emerick's description of the lengths he traveled to meet the band's demands are engaging. He is adept also at breaking down the recording industry lingo into language that can be easily understood by those whose audio engineering skills don't extend far beyond knowing how to press "Play" on a CD player.
Emerick was the fly on the wall at these sessions, privy to the arguments, bursts of creativity and painstaking attention to musicianship that marked the Fab Four's recording career.
And while Emerick clearly enjoyed the band most during their heyday, his displeasure with their behavior toward the end -- including the arrival of Yoko Ono -- is clear.
Emerick has his favorites and biases. He clearly adores Paul McCartney, often complimenting him on his ideas and the musical direction he provided the band. McCartney was best man at Emerick's wedding.
Less for Lennon
John Lennon gets less favorable treatment, taken to task for being impatient, inattentive to details and further disrupting the Beatles "family" by bringing Ono into the studio.
George Harrison, who is initially a subject of derision -- Emerick considered his guitar playing subpar -- grows into a musician Emerick admires and respects.
Ringo Starr is described often as an afterthought to the group's work who is brought in only at the end to shake a tambourine or perhaps struggle through his one allotted song per album.
The strength of the book comes not from unveiling any new Beatles gossip but from offering a glimpse into the band's life that very few people had firsthand.
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