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Solid State

The Story of Abbey Road and the End of the Beatles

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Solid State

By: Kenneth Womack, Alan Parsons - foreword
Narrated by: William Hughes
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In Solid State, Kenneth Womack offers the most definitive account of the conception, recording, mixing, and reception of Abbey Road.

In February 1969, the Beatles began working on what became their final album together. Abbey Road introduced a number of new techniques and technologies to the Beatles' sound and included "Come Together", "Something", and "Here Comes the Sun", which all emerged as classics.

Womack's colorful retelling of how this landmark album was written and recorded is a treat for fans of the Beatles. Solid State takes listeners back to 1969 and into EMI's Abbey Road Studios, which boasted an advanced solid state transistor mixing desk. Womack focuses on the dynamics between John, Paul, George, and Ringo and producer George Martin and his team of engineers, who for the most part set aside the tensions and conflicts that had arisen on previous albums to create a work with an innovative (and among some fans and critics, controversial) studio-bound sound that prominently included the new Moog synthesizer, among other novelties.

As Womack shows, Abbey Road was the culmination of the instrumental skills, recording equipment, and artistic vision that the band and George Martin had developed since their early days in the same studio seven years before. A testament to the group's creativity and their producer's ingenuity, Solid State is required listening for all fans of the Beatles and the rock 'n' roll.

©2019 Kenneth Womack (P)2019 Blackstone Publishing
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A fascinating look into the recording of the final beatles album. A bit like the get back docu, only more upbeat. Quite a bit of information I didn't know. Recommended for those interested in recording techniques or just beatles history.

One of the better beatles books.

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This is, quite simply, one of the best books I’ve heard about the Beatles. Not only does it cover the technical aspects of Abbey Road recording, but it has some great details around the end of the Beatles career.

Essential listening for any Beatles fan

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This is the second book by Kenneth Womack that I have listened too; the first John Lennon 1980!

This guy knows his stuff, some of the information about the technical aspects of the recording studio went over my head but the detail and research is second to none.

This book compliments the Peter Jackson film - Get Back in terms of seeing how they worked together in the studio, and the use of multiply takes and overdubs.

There is lots to savour about this book, and finding something new in an oft told story.

The narrator’s voice is easy to listen to and made it an excellent experience.

Like the Beatles? Then it’s a no brainer! Want to hear how the best band ever worked and the issues getting the albums made..again it’s for you!

When they were Fab!

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A must for any Beatles fan interested in the technical process of how their records were made and the leaps in studio technology in their last few albums, culminating with (and focusing on) the Abbey Road LP. This book takes a deep dive into the instruments, production techniques and the writing/wider context of one of the most written about bands ever, and finds a fresh and rewarding take on the story. A real deep dive, I didn’t realise how much I had wanted a book like this until this came along.

Sole criticism is the recorded performance. As much as I got used to it the narrator isn’t a great fit for the book. Although written by an American author, a British narrator would have better suited to the content, and the frequent quotations. This aside, excellent.

Fantastic and thorough; wrong narrator.

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I am an old codger who enjoyed the Beatles when they were first around. Always a fan, I have read a great number of books around and about the Beatles and thought I wouldn't find much in this audiobook that I hadn't heard about before. I was wrong. Mr Womack has gathered the old stories together and put them together with a sprinkle of fairy dust into a much clearer, more detailed narrative context than I had previously known. The inclusion of the developing technical environment and its influence on what the Beatles could magic into existence is like buffing up an old copper pot to reveal a fresh, gleaming revelation of how the Beatles developed from youthful Mop-tops to independently minded Men. I was one of the youthful teenagers who were devastated by the Beatles fragmentation, and I admit I didn't understand at the time why the group couldn't go on forever. I was even resentful of Linda and Yoko for breaking up the group. The truth is the public thought it owned the Beatles and didn't want to allow them to grow up. The psychological pressure they were under must have been intolerable.- and yet in the end they gave us back much more than we deserved..

Kenneth Womack made an old codger smile

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