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The Beatles Recording Sessions by Mark Lewisohn The Official Abbey Road Studio Session Notes 1962-1970 At last: the complete, official,inside-the-studio details of every Beatles recor ding session Suspending microphones inside water jars,recording guitar solos backward, and cu tting up tape and splicing it back together in random order, the Beatles experim ented tirelessly. From the raw energy of their made-in-a-day debut LP Please Ple ase Me through the technical genius of the seminal Sgt Pepper to the last album they recorded, the finely crafted Abbey Road, the Beatles sustained an unsurpass ed level of creativity in the recording studio. They used the Abbey Road recordi ng studio in ways no studio had been used before, and in the process they comple tely revolutionized popular music. The photos, stories, and recording details in The Beatles: Recording Sessions op en up this magic laboratory where the Beatles created the sounds that changed th e world. For every day the Beatles ever laid down a track in the recording studi o, this book details what songs they were recording, who was present, how many t akes were done, what special effects or techniques were employed, and any thing unusual that happened that day. Here are the Beatles as you've never seen them b efore: John Lennon asking to be suspended from the ceiling with a rope around hi s waist and spun over a microphone to achieve a unique vocal effect; George Harr ison running around the studio holding a flaming ash trayover his head while Pau l McCartney records the vocals of "Helter Skelter"; and rock-steady Ringo, after one of his rare foul-ups, grousing "We all make mistakes." EMI Records, the Beatles' British record label, has made available to author Mar k Lewisohn its unpublished documentation for every recording session the Beatles ever did, and has allowed him to listen to the hundreds of hours of alternative takes and unreleased tracks in their archive. From these sources, in combinatio n with interviews with Paul McCartney and the producers, engineers, session musi cians, and others who were in the studio with the band, Lewisohn has created a t horough, fascinating, and definitive record of the Beatles at work. Featuring details of every recording session, more than 350 photos in color and duotone,facsimiles of contracts, studio documents, and other memorabilia, and a rare and exclusive PaulMcCartney interview, The Beatles: Recording Sessions is t he last great Beatles book a treasure of information and a loving tribute to the B eatles at their best.