The book - which looks interesting- is discribed like this:

A memoir of a remarkable rock-and-roll career from Glyn Johns, a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame producer and sound engineer whose resumé includes work with the Rolling Stones, the Beatles, Bob Dylan, the Who, the Clash, and many more. Born in Epsom, just outside London, in 1942, Glyn Johns was sixteen years old at the dawn of rock and roll. His big break as a producer came on the Steve Miller Band's debut album, Children of the Future, and he went on to produce iconic albums for the best in the business: Let It Be and Abbey Road with the Beatles, Led Zeppelin and the Eagles debuts, Who's Next by the Who, and many more. Even more impressive, Johns was perhaps the only person on a given day in the studio who was stone-cold sober, and so he is one of the most reliable and clear-eyed insiders to tell these stories today. In this entertaining and observant memoir, Johns takes us on a tour of his world during the heady years of the sixties, with beguiling stories that will delight music fans the world over, such as when he had to bail the Steve Miller Band out of jail on their second day in London, his impressions of John and Yoko during the Abbey Road sessions, or running into Bob Dylan at JFK and being asked by Dylan to work on a collaborative album with him, the Stones, and the Beatles, which never came to pass. Johns was there during some of the most iconic moments in rock history, including the Stones first European tour, Jimi Hendrix's first London performance, and the Beatles final performance on the roof of Savile Row.

Johns's career has been long and prolific, and he s still at it over the last two decades he's worked with Eric Clapton, Crosby, Stills & Nash, Emmylou Harris, and most recently, Ryan Adams. Untitled Memoir provides a firsthand glimpse into those freewheeling first years of rock and roll, and an inside look at the art and business of making music.

[www.amazon.co.uk]



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2014-11-24 18:44 by GetYerAngie.

This should be good, he is big mates with Bill & charlie, Bill especially.

Did he really think Ronnie is a piece of shit?

What are the Stones contending?

What´s that about Ronnie?

Glyn is a very talented, straightforward person.

Glyn Johns book with Stones contend..............

Isn't that obvious........

Looking forward .....one of the greatest

__________________________

Is he going to break his silence about the Get Back project? He mixed not one, but two, albums from the sessions, both of which The Beatles rejected before bringing in Phil Spector. As much as the Spector mixes were maligned, I have heard the Johns mixes and they were pretty tepid. Some of the song choices were quite strange as well. I would love to hear his take on it though.

I can't wait to read this...

This raises an interesting question................
If Johns was with the Stones on their 1st European Tour (as the book description above says) why was he there, which tour do they refer to, and importantly did he record any concerts?
Although the Stones made a couple of European TV appearances in 1964 the 1st real tour must have been in 1965 in Scandinavia. We know Johns taped the six March shows in the UK in 1965, so this book will indeed be interesting to read.
We've had the superb "Live in England" release. Could it possibly be that there is more live concert material in the archive from that period? Let's hope so.

Quote
varilla
What´s that about Ronnie?

I thought I read - just the other day in... Rocks Off? that he despised Ronnie joining the band.

Alright, he doesn't despise Ronnie, he loves Ronnie. He thought he was too much like Keith. If I recall correctly it's about Respectable.

Glyn John was the sound engineer for the Rice Krispies jingles back in 63 too.

The teenage Johns cut a few records himself. “I thought I was England’s answer to Jim Reeves,” he admits, “but the songs were all pretty awful.” He met Ian Stewart, the legendary pianist and co-founder of the Rolling Stones; they shared a flat in 1964. Johns clearly idolised Stewart, although he was nobody’s idea of a rock star. “Stu was as ordinary a guy as you could wish to meet. He lived in Cheam. He played golf. He was working for ICI when we met – in the early days, the Rolling Stones lived off Stu’s luncheon vouchers. He and Brian [Jones] put the band together.”

Johns’ memories of recording the Stones aren’t exactly blissful. He quotes Charlie Watts’s grumpy summation of their career: “10 years of music, 40 years of hanging around.” Were they perfectionists, I ask? “Keith would have an objective that he was aiming at, one that only he would know, and you just went on until he achieved it. If the rest of the track suffered as a result, it didn’t matter to Keith. But Mick was equally involved in the production. He was often in the control room with me, while Keith was dicking around in the studio with the rhythm section.”

[www.independent.co.uk]

an interview in the Herald tribune

http://www.dailyherald.com/

the daily herald link does not work because the herald wants you to answer stupid questions about google

links works for me ... I don't know why ...

here is the article


By Jill Lawless
Associated Press

LONDON -- Glyn Johns is a walking rebuttal to the maxim that if you remember the 1960s, you weren't there.

He was there -- overseeing the Rolling Stones' first recording session, arranging the Beatles' rooftop concert, reeling from the first blast of Led Zeppelin -- and he remembers everything.

Johns, a recording engineer and producer, began his career at the start of the '60s, when studio technicians still wore white lab coats. He went on to work with the Stones, the Small Faces, the Steve Miller Band, The Kinks, The Who, the Eagles and many more, helping to define a certain classic-rock sound.

"I'm a bit of a purist," said Johns, whose memoir, "Sound Man," was released recently in the U.S. by Blue Rider Press. It's out in Britain next month.

Johns recalled how after the Beatles released the "Sgt. Pepper" album in 1967, Mick Jagger took him into a cafe near London's Olympic Studios.

"He said 'You've got to come up with some new sounds.' Because 'Sgt. Pepper' had reinvented the wheel," Johns explained. "And I said 'Oh really? Have I? I thought I was here to record you playing.' And that's really always been my attitude."

Bands liked what he did, and the briskly written "Sound Man" recounts an exhausting work rate. Through the 1960s and into the '70s, Johns spent long nights in the studio with the Stones, went on the road to record them on tour, and became increasingly in demand in the United States while working with the cream of British rock.

How did he manage? Unusually for the time and the music industry, Johns never took drugs.

"You can't do what I do and be under the influence of anything," said Johns, clear-eyed and energetic at 72. "Coffee would be about it."

He said some acts stopped working with him because he wouldn't allow them to get high during recording sessions.

"I wouldn't let The Eagles have any drugs in the studio and in the end that was part of my reason for being fired" after producing their first two albums, he said.

Still, he noted that their next album, "Hotel California," was a smash hit -- and "Sound Man" is full of such evenhanded assessments.

Johns gave the Stones their first recording session, in 1963, only to see the band go off with producer Andrew Loog Oldham.

"I wasn't best pleased," Johns said during an interview at his airy London mews house. "But that's life."

He went on to work with the band as an engineer for well over a decade.

He recorded the Beatles in 1969 for the then-disintegrating band's final album, "Let It Be," and was the one who suggested they play a gig on the roof of Apple Corps' London headquarters.

"It was a difficult time for them," Johns said. "But equally I also witnessed them having a really good time and being hysterically funny and just ordinary blokes."

Johns describes several lightning-bolt musical moments, like hearing Led Zeppelin for the first time after Jimmy Page, an old friend, asked Johns to record his new band.

"My jaw was on the floor for the next week," he said.

When he tried to share his enthusiasm with George Harrison and Mick Jagger, however, he was disappointed.

"They completely didn't get it," Johns said.

Johns admits to some blind spots of his own. Initially he didn't understand the appeal of Eric Clapton.

"When I first met him I didn't like him at all because he was a heroin addict, and that doesn't show anybody in their best light," Johns said.

But a recording session organized by Pete Townshend changed his mind and Johns went on to produce Clapton's hit 1977 album "Slowhand."

"He's actually a really lovely guy," Johns said. "He's terribly funny, great sense of humor. And he's an astonishing musician."

Then there were the ones that got away. In 1969, Bob Dylan asked Johns to help him make a record with The Beatles and The Stones. Members of those bands expressed varying degrees of interest, but Paul McCartney and Mick Jagger were dead-set against it, and the ultimate supergroup collaboration never happened.

Johns, who was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2012, is still working, recording the likes of Ryan Adams and Band of Horses.

Surprisingly enough, he owes some of his good health to Keith Moon, the hell-raising drummer for The Who, who once agreed to quit drinking if Johns kicked his 60-a-day cigarette habit. Moon, who died in 1978, didn't, but Johns did.

After half a century, Johns' enthusiasm for the job still hasn't waned.

"I can't wait to get back in the studio," he said. "I'd do the 'Hallelujah Chorus' tomorrow morning and get just the same buzz as I would from the Rolling Stones."

Glyn Johns, like Stu, was...is a class act. Love music, appreciates fine
musicianship and is not an ego maniac.

Would love to see him work with the Stones again.

Johns describes several lightning-bolt musical moments, like hearing Led Zeppelin for the first time after Jimmy Page, an old friend, asked Johns to record his new band.

"My jaw was on the floor for the next week," he said.

When he tried to share his enthusiasm with George Harrison and Mick Jagger, however, he was disappointed.

"They completely didn't get it," Johns said.


Love that he saw the magic of that lineup. Love even more that he and his little brother Andy were able to capture that magic on tape. peace

I see that it got tepid reviews on Amazon

C

I doubt he succeeded in banning drugs from sessions with the Beatles, Stones, Who and Led Zeppelin....

I tend to take most Amazon reviews with a grain of salt.

Prefer "Goodreads"

Glyn Johns' book is definitely worth reading.

For most true music professionals who care about what they're doing
working with bands and individuals who are using drugs in the studio
become a nightmare which compromises the ability to make a great record.

.................................................. drugs in the studio
become a nightmare which compromises the ability to make a great record.

Not sure it compromises the ability to make a great record, there's just too many of them out there which contradict that statement....but I'm sure it takes alot longer.

peace

Bought the book and had it finished in no time flat. A very quick read, light and enjoyable.

(One thing that struck me as I read it was how ubiquitous that Stones Mobile Recording truck was, seemingly having a hand in so many classic recordings by several artists.)

Quote
djgab

Johns describes several lightning-bolt musical moments, like hearing Led Zeppelin for the first time after Jimmy Page, an old friend, asked Johns to record his new band.

"My jaw was on the floor for the next week," he said.

When he tried to share his enthusiasm with George Harrison and Mick Jagger, however, he was disappointed.

"They completely didn't get it," Johns said.

From a Jimmy Page interview in the November, 2014 MOJO magazine:

MOJO: "Musically quoting his classic SOMETHING, THE RAIN SONG is said to have been a rejoinder to George Harrison who'd remarked to John Bonham that Zep never did ballads. True?"

JIMMY PAGE: "I don't think he'd heard a lot of Led Zeppelin because there are quite a few ballads like THANK YOU. But yes, the first two notes were a nod and a wink."

It's a good book, but I wish it were longer. The bad reviews on amazon must be by people who wanted Glyn to dish the dirt on the musicians he worked with.

I'm only 80 pages into this book, but really like it so far. Stones references, especialy Stu are really good. This guy was there for the making of so many fantastic albums. His insights and memories surrounding those events and those times should be much respected and provide a document of invaluable reference. Anyone that would diss this book just doesn't get it. If the book can criticized it would that the length is too short.

Leaves you wanting more!

Finally got a hold of this book and having been through 2/3 of it I must say it's very interesting. Very much "to the point" and sometimes you wish he elaborated a bit more on events and people. Geoff Emerick (and his co-writer) did a better job in that respect I think. The whole "Engineer" vs "Producer" job for instance which was a sticking point for him with the Stones isn't really discussed in depth. In his case he just tells is he went from engineer to producer for Steve Miller's first album when he told Steve the project was going nowhere and Steve asked him if he wanted to produce.

Great recording stories, telling us about Stu in more detail than I'd ever read, his house purchase vs Ronnie's (The Wick), his absolutely exhausting work schedule, etc...Interesting too what he says about (re)mixing D&G and OMS in 2012...you have to wonder why Don Was got him involved actually or what he brought, didn't remember reading much about it when the tracks came out in 2012.

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