Abbey Road

The Inside Story of the World's Most Famous Recording Studio

David Hepworth

• Publisher: Pegasus Books
• Year: 2023
• eBook ISBN:
  9781639364329
• Topic: Media & Performing Arts
• Subtopic: Music Biographies

Theincredible history of how Abbey Road became the most famous recording studio inthe world. "There are certain things that are mythical. Abbey Road is mythical."—Nile Rodgers Many people will recognize the famous crosswalk. Some visitors may have graffitied their name on its hallowed outer walls. Others might even have managed to penetrate the iron gates. But what draws in these thousands of fans here, year after year? What is it that really happens behind the doors of the most celebrated recording studio in the world? It may have begun life as an affluent suburban house, but it soon became a creative hub renowned around the world as a place where great music, ground-breaking sounds, and unforgettable tunes were forged.It is nothing less than a witness to, and a key participant in, the history of popular music itself. What has been going on there for over ninety years has called for skills that are musical, creative, technical, mechanical, interpersonal, logistical, managerial, chemical and, romantics might be tempted add, close to magic. The history of Abbey Road may just make you believe.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Dedication
• Epigraph
• Foreword
• Intro: The Long and Winding Road
• Chapter 1: The Fat, the Jolly and the Covent Garden Shuffle
• Chapter 2: A Home Fit for Divas, Knights of the Realm and Weeping Piano Players
• Chapter 3: Al Bowlly, the Microphone and the Invention of Intimacy
• Chapter 4: Noël Coward and Gracie Fields Take on Hitler
• Chapter 5: George Martin, Tape and the Smell of Money
• Chapter 6: Cliff, the RS 124 and the Quest for Rough
• Chapter 7: Hazel Yarwood, the Class System and Stereo
• Chapter 8: The Beatles, the Compressor and the Capture of Delight
• Chapter 9: ‘The Greatest Recording Organisation in the World’
• Chapter 10: ‘Sgt Pepper’, J. S. Bach and Bending the Current
• Chapter 11: Pink Floyd, a Cow and Eight Tracks in Search of Strange
• Chapter 12: Roy Harper, Harvest and Endless Overtime
• Chapter 13: Jacqueline du Pré, the Clit Factor and the Man Who Could Hear Hair
• Chapter 14: Pinky, Perky, Manuel and Light Music by the Yard
• Chapter 15: The Record that Ate the World and Played the Whole Building
• Chapter 16: Steve Harley, Alan Parsons and the Commercial Value of Silence
• Chapter 17: Ken Townsend Changes the Toilet Paper, the Name and the Business
• Chapter 18: ‘Star Wars’ Sets Down in God’s Aircraft Hangar
• Chapter 19: Tina Turner, the CD Gold Rush and the Appliance of Science
• Chapter 20: Noel Gallagher, a Flugelhorn and the Importance of the Sewers
• Chapter 21: Guy Hands, English Heritage and Monetizing the Brand
• Chapter 22: Upmixing the Past and Remixing the Future
• Outro: The Road Goes on for Ever
• Photographs
• Acknowledgements
• About the Authors
• Playlist
• Bibliography
• Sources
• Index
• Picture Acknowledgements
• Copyright