Paperback Writer - Reviews

Quoted from Here, There and Everywhere: p.284-285

One afternoon, Paul strolled into the studio, marched straight over to the piano, and confidently proclaimed, "Gather round, lads, and have a listen to our next single." John gave Paul a sideways glance of disapproval - he never liked losing - but nevertheless joined Ringo and the two Georges for the private concert. Paul pounded out a catchy melody, instantly hummable, filled with memorable hooks. I couldn't make out the lyric entirely, but it seemed to involve book writing. Each time he would come to the chorus, Paul would stop playing and gesture to John and George Harrison, pointing out the high harmony part he planned on assigning each. By the time he finished the first run-through, it was obvious to everyone in the room that this was an instant hit. The song was PAPERBACK WRITER, and it would indeed top the charts when it was released just a few weeks later.

But even before he got down to the brass tacks of teaching the others their parts, Paul turned to me. "Geoff," he began, "I need you to put your thinking cap on. This song is really calling out for that deep Motown bass sound we've been talking about, so I want you to pull out all the stops this time. All right, then?"
I nodded an affirmative. Paul had long been complaining that the bass on Beatles records wasn't as loud or as full as the bass on the American records he so loved. He and I would often get together in the mastering room to listen intently to the low end of some new import he had gotten from the States, most often a Motown track. Even though we had DI (Direct Inject) boxes available, I rarely used them to record Paul's bass - I still don't, as a matter of fact. Instead, I followed the standard EMI directive of placing a microphone in front of his bass amplifier. The bass sounds we were getting were decent - partly because Paul had switched from his signature Hofner violin "Beatle" bass to a beefier Rickenbacker - but still not as good as what we were hearing on those American records.

Fortunately, as Paul and John turned to George Harrison and began showing him the chords to PAPERBACK WRITER, inspiration struck. It occurred to me that since microphones are in fact simply loudspeakers wired in reverse (in technical terms, both are transducers that convert sound waves to electrical signals, and vice versa), why not try using a loudspeaker as a microphone? Logical1y, it seemed that whatever can push bass signal out can also take it in - and that a large loudspeaker should be able to respond to low frequencies better than a smal1 microphone. The more I thought about it, the more it made sense. (...)

With renewed confidence, I returned to the studio to try it out for real. Paul wasn't as non-technical as John, but this was pretty far out, even by Beatles standards. He looked at me in a funny way as I set up the big, bulky loudspeaker in front of his amp instead of the usual microphone, but he didn't say anything, and neither did George Martin, who by now was getting used to my Rube Goldberg approach to recording. They returned their attention to the rehearsals, giving me the opportunity to cautiously raise the fader carrying the bass signal. Paul's distinctively fluid bass line in PAPERBACK WRITER consisted mostly of notes played high up on the lowest strings, which helped round out the tone further still. It sounded absolutely huge, so much so that I became somewhat concerned that it might actually make the needle jump out of the groove when it was finally cut to vinyl. But Paul loved the sound, and it was eventually left to my mate Tony Clark to cut the master lacquer. I was glad Tony had gotten the assignment, and he did a brilliant job. If it had been one of the older guys, they would have either slashed all the bass out of it, or sent it back and told us to mix it again. (...)

I'm not a huge fan of any of the Beatles CD releases - their songs were recorded with the intention of being released on vinyl, and as far as I am concerned, that is the way they should be heard. The PAPERBACK WRITER/RAIN single sounds exceptionally good on vinyl, not least of which because Tony Clark was able to use a brand-new piece of gear when mastering it - a huge monstrosity developed by our maintenance department that had blinking lights everywhere. It was called "ATOC", short for "Automatic Transient Overload Control" and it allowed the record to be cut louder than any other single up to that time. Unfortunately, the stereo mix of PAPERBACK WRITER does the song no justice. It's completely disjointed, and it isn't at all the balance that we intended. To me, the mono mix is much more exciting.

Another distinctive aspect of PAPERBACK WRITER is the fluttering echo at the end of each chorus, added at the mix stage. It was accomplished by routing the vocals into a separate two-track machine and then connecting that machine's output to its input. At the end of each chorus, Phil had the job of slowly increasing the record level until it just reached the point of feedback. If he went one notch too far, the echo would get out of control, so there were many attempts at doing the mix. Every time he'd go past that point, or not far enough, we'd have to stop and remix the entire song again.

Posted: 28 juni 2009

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