Solid State: The Story of "Abbey Road" and the End of the Beatles Hardcover – Illustrated, October 15, 2019

This was a gift for my exhusband who grew up with the Beatles and has always been fascinated by their musical journey. He's halfway through the book and, in his words, 'It's light reading packed with details I've never seen anywhere." He's very happy with this choice!.

I found this entire book to be a fantastic read. It's filled to the brim with factual information about how Abbey Road came to be, all of the pressures on the Fab Four to make each new recording better than the last.It mostly starts with double tracking and voice manipulation, but George Martin is due considerable mention for bringing them to new sounds, new instruments and how tape speed played an important part in the final sound.And then there were the many documented problems that kept bubbling up, fracturing 'the boys' into what George Harrison would describe in his song, "I, Me, Mine". Peter Jackson laid to rest many of the "tooth and nail" aspects of their arguing, but the problems kept festering, eventually getting to the point of "I quit first" vs "No, I did" until the wheels fell off the wagon completely.It's all here, from the people who were closest to the action. Much of what has come to pass was not available in the studio until they created it and you'll get to read all about it in amazing and factual reporting.That it all happened more than 50 years ago makes it all the more interesting.

I enjoyed the book very much even when it veered slightly into the excruciating detail on recording equipment. Very interesting detail on the making of Abbey Road and nicely dovetailed into the break up of the band. I found myself reading chapters, then going back to listen to the song(s) described in the chapter. Overall, very enjoyable.

Ken Womack's books are dreams to read. His knowledge of the Beatles world give any reader insight to the most important musicians and musical technicians ever. This book describes the too brief coming together of the Beatles in a last hurrah of the sort of music they had begun with Rubber Soul - well crafted, melodic artistic pop, Their friendship wore away as the pressure of their fame grew, and they rebelled against the machine they made, and against themselves until the end, when I suppose they realized they were better than the sloppy group that put out The Beatles and allowed George Martin and Abbey Road crew back in and redefined the album as art form, and recording as technology. Then they rode off into the sunset and mostly mediocrity. Sic Transit Gloria Beatles. Womack captures the potential and lost potential of this era in Beatles history. A must for any Beatles fan.

The target audience of this book is Beatles fans who have a basic interest in or understanding of audio concepts, as the “main character” is the newly installed solid-state recording console at EMI studios, which was used by The Beatles for their Abbey Road masterpiece. The book is entertaining and informative, without getting bogged down in technical details. NOTE TO MUSIC PRODUCERS: The titular recording console (known by its model number TG12345) is available as an emulation by the plugin manufacturer Waves, should you wish to experiment with the characteristics of the console on your own.

Abbey Road was the first record I ever owned - a Christmas gift from Mom in 1969. At the ripe old age of 8 I discovered the magical power of music. Abbey Road remains one of my 5 favorite albums of all time, and at last we’ve been given a chance to draw back the curtain and watch the Beatles creating their masterpiece.I’ve always been disappointed by the short shrift this album gets in the other Beatles histories and documentaries. For example, after seemingly dozens of hours of the Anthology, Abbey Road gets covered in about 10 minutes. Sort of like a 10,000 page history of WWII with a 5 page footnote covering D-Day.The wealth of technical details, even for a non-techie like myself, are fascinating and elucidating. Hearing how the songs took shape and the artistic choices that were made was truly amazing

A good read about the end of the Beatles. If you are a fan of the band or a nerd about music, you will enjoy this book. Well researched and written.

This book is really amazing. I admit that I'm a Beatles fan and thus I find the book marvelous!Aside of giving the reader a fly-on-the-wall experience of the band while recording their last album (and in my opinion the best work of them) it also shows how the 8-track technology did wonders and influenced the final result.One will not only find details on the sessions and how Abbey Road (the record) came to be but also their ever-growing differences between the four friends.It's a quick read (240p) but nonetheless enjoyable!If you like music, if you like The Beatles or simply if you want to learn about one of the best-selling albuns of all time...grab this book and enjoy a fine reading!