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WITH A LITTLE HELP FROM MY FRIENDS

Name: WITH A LITTLE HELP FROM MY FRIENDS
Author: George Martin
ISBN: 0-316-54783-2

THE MAKING OF SGT. PEPPER

by George Martin & William Pearson ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 10, 1995

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The Beatles' producer fondly recalls the recording sessions that resulted in one of the 1960s' cultural landmarks. Martin writes not as the group's pal but as their collaborator, integrating his personal impressions mainly to illuminate the songwriting and performances that became the album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, although he does find occasion to drop in anecdotes from all stages of their career. Martin has unique authority: On staff at EMI, he signed the Beatles to their first recording contract after they had been turned down by everyone else, and he remained their producer until the band's demise. Martin concisely summarizes the dissatisfactions that led the Beatles to stop touring in 1966, a move that dovetailed with their ambitions to create more complex records; he then dives into the studio, detailing chronologically, from song to song, the specific complexities of the 196667 Sgt. Pepper sessions. Martin amiably reveals lots of arcana: not just the exact makeup of assorted string and horn sections, but how the mad calliope music that concludes ``Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite'' was assembled from random snippets of carnival-music recordings, the exact degrees by which vocal and keyboard parts were sped up or slowed down, and where the animal sounds came from at the end of ``Good Morning, Good Morning'' (``We used `Volume 35: Animals and Bees' from EMI's sound effects library''). He catalogs which instruments occupied which tracks on each song, and his cheerfully avuncular tone makes even passages describing successive generations of tape transfer relatively painless. Stepping a bit outside his bailiwick, Martin adds pleasant filler, like a chapter on the evolution of the cover art and a selection of contemporary press comments on the album. Not for every reader, but true Beatles fanatics should find it enormously winning. (16 pages color and b&w photos, not seen)

Pub Date: May 10, 1995

ISBN: 0-316-54783-2

Page Count: 192

Publisher: Little, Brown

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1995

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
CCB
by George Martin

- BOOK REVIEW
VERDI AT THE GOLDEN GATE
by George Martin

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NUTCRACKER

by E.T.A. Hoffmann ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 28, 1996

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This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)

Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996

ISBN: 0-15-100227-4

Page Count: 136

Publisher: Harcourt

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER AND THE MOUSE KING
by E.T.A. Hoffmann ; adapted by Natalie Andrewson ; illustrated by Natalie Andrewson

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER
by E.T.A. Hoffmann & illustrated by Julie Paschkis

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TO THE ONE I LOVE THE BEST

EPISODES FROM THE LIFE OF LADY MENDL (ELSIE DE WOLFE)

by Ludwig Bemelmans ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 23, 1955

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An extravaganza in Bemelmans' inimitable vein, but written almost dead pan, with sly, amusing, sometimes biting undertones, breaking through. For Bemelmans was "the man who came to cocktails". And his hostess was Lady Mendl (Elsie de Wolfe), arbiter of American decorating taste over a generation. Lady Mendl was an incredible person,- self-made in proper American tradition on the one hand, for she had been haunted by the poverty of her childhood, and the years of struggle up from its ugliness,- until she became synonymous with the exotic, exquisite, worshipper at beauty's whrine. Bemelmans draws a portrait in extremes, through apt descriptions, through hilarious anecdote, through surprisingly sympathetic and understanding bits of appreciation. The scene shifts from Hollywood to the home she loved the best in Versailles. One meets in passing a vast roster of famous figures of the international and artistic set. And always one feels Bemelmans, slightly offstage, observing, recording, commenting, illustrated.