Headline : Solid Research, Stolid Text

Having also read Womack’s earlier volumes on George Martin I was prepared for the style and content of this book on the Beatles ‘Abbey Road’ album.
Womack is an academic and accordingly his books read like university dissertations rather than novels or page-turning thrillers. Stolid State in fact. There is some repetition at times and the central peg that Solid State hangs its main thesis on is that the new TG console that was used for the recording moulded the sound of the album. Solid State contends that this was due, in essence, to modern electronics replacing old-fashioned technology.
Unfortunately, whilst referred to many times, this is not totally supported in the text and whilst it may well have been a factor I actually believe Womack provides more evidence that the increased multitrack capability of the desk was a larger influence on the eventual sound achieved. Again and again we hear of complex and redone overdubs and use of spare tracks – luxuries unavailable to the Beatles and George Martin in earlier sessions. In the past limited track availability meant reduction mixes and a potential deterioration in quality with changes impossible to effect.
Whilst there has been some work done on securing input from various parties, like a dissertation the book comes over as an amalgam of material from other published sources. After all this time it can’t be easy to come up with new material or insights but Beatles fans may be disappointed by this. The redeeming feature is the assembly of information in one handy volume.
Not for the casual fan and hard core fans may be disappointed.
This book was provided as an advance copy by the publisher in return for an honest review.

My takeaways from having spent a happy week with this book are these:

The author presents and, as far as I’m concerned, hands-down triumphs, in selling me on his argument in Solid State: The Story of “Abbey Road” and the End of the Beatles that expounds 1) the Beatles as a group, and 2) Abbey Road as an album is the clear catalyst that moved the entire recording industry forward by leaps and bounds as it relates to Western (and maybe even World?) music.

Kenneth Womack’s knowledge and experience covered this reader with that easy feeling I have when lean back into the IT Guy’s Wealth of Knowledge – I don’t have to think about this because He’s got it covered. There were details and about equipment, details about processes and techniques that were beyond my grey cells. Even when the narrative became more about who did what when, the author’s details were those of an insider, yet I still felt part of the group, listening to what really went down. It was yummy rubbing shoulders with these great people, and eventually shared a little of the fan guilt when it became apparent of that burden "celebrity" imposes. . . .

Ultimately, all good things come to an end, and I was sad to close this book. I am happy to recommend it to anyone who loves and respects the work of the Beatles, together and separate, and to the many invisible, unnamed, millions who strive for their moment in the sun, and those who work the equipment, tote boxes and instruments, and who see very little of the dollars that end producers do. It makes me sad to think that the words and notes, and scraps of lyrics and midnight guitar riffs float up and that often IS as good as it gets for the originators of the art; sad that the treasure bought fancies usually end in locked castles owned by Shakers&Movers who have ears more set to hear the clinking of coins rather than the winsome harmonies.

Lastly – this book really was written for someone much smarter than me. It was written by a technician, and a bright one at that. Like-minded people will enjoy this book even more than I did. Those who are even more passionate about the personalities involved in the industry will also have a deeper grasp on the experiences described, moment by moment having to do with all things related to the making of the Abbey Road album. Helpful in that process will be the impressive and thorough end-of-book materials in the form of acknowledgments, chapter notes, bibliography and index. These justify well-deserved high marks for the author’s attention to detail.

5 Stars from me. Now I’ve got to go calm down my gently weeping guitars. . . . .catch ya later.

A very sincere thank you to Kenneth Womack, Cornell University Press and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review a copy of this book.

That was such a fun read, I love reading Beatles books and usually have the same information. This book was well written and fun to read, the author is able to tell a very interesting narrative.

** Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with the digital copy of this book in exchange for my honest review **
Más allá de los hechos conocidos por el publico general, y de lo que he leído en otros libros, me encontré con información nueva y sumamente interesante en este libro. No solo hay datos de valor mas anecdótico, sino que también hay información d los aspectos técnicos de grabación, lo cual disfrute mucho, ya que soy diseñadora de sonido. Muy recomendable!

Womack's two volumes on George Martin are exemplary - well researched, full of trivia for the devotees and very readable. Solid State follows the pattern in a detailed analysis of the Beatles' recording of Abbey Road - the multicoloured gem that somehow emerged from the drab battleground of the band's death throes. The existence of Abbey Road reassured a generation that somewhere within the court battles and bickering there was a glimmer of band unity and the deep friendship and promise that their image had always projected - bound by a musical glue and complimentary talents.
As expected Womack's research is superb, although the opening chapters are perhaps overly technical. However his understanding of the way that each track emerged in the context of resignations, huffs and dismissals is enlightening as is his recognition of the influence of outside artists, friends and techniques like Harrison's Leslie cabinet and Moog experiments.
Th true test of books like this is whether they send the reader back to the recordings and Womack does it every time - somehow he manages to discover new detail that forensic research has missed.

I went into this book with an already very good knowledge of the making of the Abbey Road album. I'd watched multiple documentaries about The Beatles over the years and even read their ANTHOLOGY book. Abbey Road was discussed thoroughly in all of them, so I was a little concerned that SOLID STATE wasn't going to be telling me much that I hadn't already heard elsewhere.

However, I wasn't too far into the book before I realized that there was actually quite a bit that I didn't know about the making of the album. There's a LOT to be learned within the pages of this book. It's incredibly thorough with great quotes and stories from many people who were there during the making of the album, from the band members themselves and from others who were there in the studio with them. I was especially impressed with the parts that focused on producer George Martin. His talents were a very large part of what made the recordings of The Beatles so magical. It's no wonder that he was often referred to as "The Fifth Beatle."

There's a nice mix here of not only the work that The Beatles and Martin did on the album, but also on the technical side of the making of the album. Honestly, I was a little bit concerned at first that the book was going to be primarily focused on the technical aspects of the production, such as the recording devices and other "solid state"equipment used, rather than on the creative work that the band did during the making of it. While I appreciate that kind of stuff, it's not really "my thing." There is a lot of technical information at the very beginning of SOLID STATE and I briefly wondered if I made a mistake getting the book. However, I was soon very relieved and thankful to see that it wasn't going to be only technical information. The author found a very nice balance between those things and the many other things that went into the making of the album. His obvious research and deep knowledge of the material here is very impressive.

Abbey Road is one of my favorite albums by anyone and I've listened to it countless times over the years. I didn't think I could know the music any better than I already did, but because of reading SOLID STATE, I've learned things about the different instruments, vocals, sound effects, etc., that I was unaware of or had only a tiny knowledge of before. Now I'm listening to the album with sort of newer, better-educated ears and I'm actually hearing things I'd never noticed before. It's made me appreciate the album even more than I already had.

For me, that makes SOLID STATE a very big hit.

*I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for a fair review.

The story of the final days of the Beatles has been told over and over again, starting almost as soon the group made the split official. Every in depth book on the Beatles repeats much of the same information so the distinction between them, to me, lies in how well the author mines the sources and how little time they spend in speculation rather than fact.
In Solid State, Kenneth Womack keeps it pretty close to the bone as far as the accuracy of his reporting, which is a welcome relief. He pulls his narrative from the most reliable of sources and adds some useful insights into the changes evidenced in the later period Beatle music as a result of changes in their recording equipment and approach.
I have a quibble about the organization of his narrative, which hops around various parts of the Beatle history a bit more than I think is useful, particularly when he does it just to rehash information commonly known and reported in most Beatle books.
However, for those who are unfamiliar with the elements that created the iceberg the Beatles slowly slammed into during which time they also produced some of their finest work, this book is a good start.