The Beatles and the Departure of Norman Smith
The Beatles and the Departure of Norman Smith.
Norman Smith, 1st Enginner for all the Beatles records up to late 1965 with John and George looking on.
We draw again today from "Recording the Beatles," by Brian Kehew and Kevin Ryan, Curvebender Press, 2008
With George Martin leaving EMI, someone had to be kicked upstairs and with the delicate chemistry of the Beatles already changing as early as 1965, Norman Smith left his engineer's job and became Parlaphone's new main producer. Here now some of his recollections to the authors who were able to interview him before his recent and unfortunate death (b 2/22/23 - d3/3/2008).
Quick Recap of Norman Smith's Career:
He first joined the Abbey Road staff in 1959 as a general assistant and quickly worked his way up to balance engineer. He was literally there from the day the Beatles first walked into Abbey Road (June 6, 1962) until the Rubber Soul sessions. In addition to serving at the Fab's 1st Engineer for all of their Albums, he engineered all their early singles up to December, 1965. He was bumped up to full Producer status in Feb. 1966 in the wake of George Martin's departure and went on to nuture a new band on the London scene at the time, Pink Floyd. He would go on to produce their first two LPs as well as their fourth. Pink Floyd, it should be noted, recorded the bulk of their music in the famed Abbey Road Studios. *(On a related note, Alan Parsons, who came along in 1969 as the then new engineer recruit on staff would go on to engineer Pink Floyd's magnum opus, "The Dark Side of the Moon" all recorded at Abbey Road). In the early 1970's, Smith scored a #3 hit on the US Billboard charts with "Oh Babe, What Would You Say," under his alias, Hurricane Smith.
With The Beatles: Smith's body of work with the Beatles from 1962 to 1965 served him well in later years. Said Smith,"Back then the sound engineers were judged - quite unfairly, in my view - by the number of hits they'd worked on. Consequently, once the Beatles broke through I was walking on water at Abbey Road and I could do no wrong, so I could more or less do exactly as I wanted."
Success bread success and as Smith put it, he, Martin and the band enjoyed a definitive family relationship; "The four boys, George and myself had formed a sort of family, and, as you can probably imagine, it was wonderful to be part of all that."
However, according to Smith, things began to sour within the band as early as mid 1965; "After the first LP in 1963, the following albums had been wonderful. But the Rubber Soul album was the most difficult one for me. It was much less enjoyable. I can't remember how long the gap was between HELP! and Rubber Soul, but there certianly had been one hell of a change in the relationship between the boys - mainly between John and Paul. It was very noticeable, and it made me quite sad in actual fact. Something had happened between those two albums, but I'm not sure what it was. That was the beginning of the end, really. That's when it started."
Norman also noticed Paul McCartney's completely natural ability to conduct the band and his unique facility at musical arrangements; "I don't want to take anything away from anyone, but production of the Beatles was very simple, because it was ready-made. Paul was a very great influence in terms of the production, especially in terms of George Harrison's guitar solos and Ringo's drumming . . . The truth of the matter is that, to the best of my memory, Paul had a great hand in practically all of the songs that we did and Ringo would generally ask him what he should do. After all, Paul was no mean drummer himself, and he did play drums on a couple of things . . . . it was almost like we had one producer up in the Control room and another producer down in the studio. There is no doubt at all that Paul was the main musical force, He was also that in terms of production as well. A lot of the time George Martin didn't really have to do the things he did because Paul McCartney was around and could have done them equally well . . . most of the ideas came from Paul."
How very interesting. Yet, not surprisingly, Paul's dominance in the band lead to the predictable friction that came to a head four years later during the dreaded "Get Back" sessions; "With Rubber Soul, the clash between John and Paul was becoming obvious. Also, George (Harrison) was having to put up with an awful lot from Paul. We now had the luxury of four track recording, so George could put his solo on afterward. But as far as Paul was concerned, George could do no right - Paul was absolutely finicky. So what would happen was that on certain songs . . . . George would have done two or three takes, and to me they were really quite OK. But Paul would be saying, 'No,no,no!' And he would start quoting American records, telling him (Harrison) to play exactly as he had heard on such- and- such a song. So, we'd go back from the top, and George would really get into it. Then would come Paul's comment, 'OK, the first sixteen bars weren't bad, but that middle . . . . ' Then Paul would take over and do it himself - he always had a left handed guitar with him."
The tensions within the band became more than Smith could take. He decided he didn't want to work with the Beatles anymore. George Martin left EMI and Smith was promoted. "I'd been offered the job of producer when George (Martin) had formed AIR studios. And I did start Rubber Soul, but, as I said, I wasn't enjoying it. And in any case, I wanted to get on with my new job in Manchester Square as Producer. I said to the Beatles, 'I don't want to finish the album (Rubber Soul) because I want to get on with my new job.' And that upset them, of course, and they went to Aspreys in New Bond Street and bought me the most beautiful gold clock which they inscribed. That was a bit of a softener and I said, 'OK, well, I'll finish the album with you, but then I'm finished, because, obviously I want to continue with my new job.'"
The End: Finish it he did and Rubber Soul was the LP that really began turning heads and particularly blew the mind of rival Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys . Rubber Soul became the LP that all critics began calling the first of the supremely great LPs. Norman Smith contiunued to have a great career as did the Beatles. Enter Geoff Emerick after Smith left. But here we have yet another opinion as to when the Beatles started falling apart, 1965. And again, your humble correspondant posits that we were fortunate to get what we got from the greatest band in history!
By John Haberstroh (Bassist for BeatleTracks) Find us at www.beatletracksband.com
Norman Smith, 1st Enginner for all the Beatles records up to late 1965 with John and George looking on.
We draw again today from "Recording the Beatles," by Brian Kehew and Kevin Ryan, Curvebender Press, 2008
With George Martin leaving EMI, someone had to be kicked upstairs and with the delicate chemistry of the Beatles already changing as early as 1965, Norman Smith left his engineer's job and became Parlaphone's new main producer. Here now some of his recollections to the authors who were able to interview him before his recent and unfortunate death (b 2/22/23 - d3/3/2008).
Quick Recap of Norman Smith's Career:
He first joined the Abbey Road staff in 1959 as a general assistant and quickly worked his way up to balance engineer. He was literally there from the day the Beatles first walked into Abbey Road (June 6, 1962) until the Rubber Soul sessions. In addition to serving at the Fab's 1st Engineer for all of their Albums, he engineered all their early singles up to December, 1965. He was bumped up to full Producer status in Feb. 1966 in the wake of George Martin's departure and went on to nuture a new band on the London scene at the time, Pink Floyd. He would go on to produce their first two LPs as well as their fourth. Pink Floyd, it should be noted, recorded the bulk of their music in the famed Abbey Road Studios. *(On a related note, Alan Parsons, who came along in 1969 as the then new engineer recruit on staff would go on to engineer Pink Floyd's magnum opus, "The Dark Side of the Moon" all recorded at Abbey Road). In the early 1970's, Smith scored a #3 hit on the US Billboard charts with "Oh Babe, What Would You Say," under his alias, Hurricane Smith.
With The Beatles: Smith's body of work with the Beatles from 1962 to 1965 served him well in later years. Said Smith,"Back then the sound engineers were judged - quite unfairly, in my view - by the number of hits they'd worked on. Consequently, once the Beatles broke through I was walking on water at Abbey Road and I could do no wrong, so I could more or less do exactly as I wanted."
Success bread success and as Smith put it, he, Martin and the band enjoyed a definitive family relationship; "The four boys, George and myself had formed a sort of family, and, as you can probably imagine, it was wonderful to be part of all that."
However, according to Smith, things began to sour within the band as early as mid 1965; "After the first LP in 1963, the following albums had been wonderful. But the Rubber Soul album was the most difficult one for me. It was much less enjoyable. I can't remember how long the gap was between HELP! and Rubber Soul, but there certianly had been one hell of a change in the relationship between the boys - mainly between John and Paul. It was very noticeable, and it made me quite sad in actual fact. Something had happened between those two albums, but I'm not sure what it was. That was the beginning of the end, really. That's when it started."
Norman also noticed Paul McCartney's completely natural ability to conduct the band and his unique facility at musical arrangements; "I don't want to take anything away from anyone, but production of the Beatles was very simple, because it was ready-made. Paul was a very great influence in terms of the production, especially in terms of George Harrison's guitar solos and Ringo's drumming . . . The truth of the matter is that, to the best of my memory, Paul had a great hand in practically all of the songs that we did and Ringo would generally ask him what he should do. After all, Paul was no mean drummer himself, and he did play drums on a couple of things . . . . it was almost like we had one producer up in the Control room and another producer down in the studio. There is no doubt at all that Paul was the main musical force, He was also that in terms of production as well. A lot of the time George Martin didn't really have to do the things he did because Paul McCartney was around and could have done them equally well . . . most of the ideas came from Paul."
How very interesting. Yet, not surprisingly, Paul's dominance in the band lead to the predictable friction that came to a head four years later during the dreaded "Get Back" sessions; "With Rubber Soul, the clash between John and Paul was becoming obvious. Also, George (Harrison) was having to put up with an awful lot from Paul. We now had the luxury of four track recording, so George could put his solo on afterward. But as far as Paul was concerned, George could do no right - Paul was absolutely finicky. So what would happen was that on certain songs . . . . George would have done two or three takes, and to me they were really quite OK. But Paul would be saying, 'No,no,no!' And he would start quoting American records, telling him (Harrison) to play exactly as he had heard on such- and- such a song. So, we'd go back from the top, and George would really get into it. Then would come Paul's comment, 'OK, the first sixteen bars weren't bad, but that middle . . . . ' Then Paul would take over and do it himself - he always had a left handed guitar with him."
The tensions within the band became more than Smith could take. He decided he didn't want to work with the Beatles anymore. George Martin left EMI and Smith was promoted. "I'd been offered the job of producer when George (Martin) had formed AIR studios. And I did start Rubber Soul, but, as I said, I wasn't enjoying it. And in any case, I wanted to get on with my new job in Manchester Square as Producer. I said to the Beatles, 'I don't want to finish the album (Rubber Soul) because I want to get on with my new job.' And that upset them, of course, and they went to Aspreys in New Bond Street and bought me the most beautiful gold clock which they inscribed. That was a bit of a softener and I said, 'OK, well, I'll finish the album with you, but then I'm finished, because, obviously I want to continue with my new job.'"
The End: Finish it he did and Rubber Soul was the LP that really began turning heads and particularly blew the mind of rival Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys . Rubber Soul became the LP that all critics began calling the first of the supremely great LPs. Norman Smith contiunued to have a great career as did the Beatles. Enter Geoff Emerick after Smith left. But here we have yet another opinion as to when the Beatles started falling apart, 1965. And again, your humble correspondant posits that we were fortunate to get what we got from the greatest band in history!
By John Haberstroh (Bassist for BeatleTracks) Find us at www.beatletracksband.com
Hi,
Will be happy to send you the JPG of the late, great Norman Smith "at the REDDy" but I've disabled hotlinking, so it's disappeared from your post.
DOuG pRATt
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