Abbey Road to Ziggy Stardust: Off the Record With the Beatles, Bowie, Elton & So Much More [Rilegato]

Hardcover-4 page Prologue, 393 pages of text, 4 page Glossary, 4 page Discography, and an Index. Also included are 14 pages of good quality b & w photos (several taken by the author and never previously seen), with many more sprinkled throughout the book. There's also recording data sheets and other documents from the period when pertinent.

This memoir by Ken Scott of working with various artists will be interesting to those (like me) who like to know something behind all the great music we hear. The author, with the help of Bobby Owsinski, has written about his time "behind the glass" recording many great artists.

His first job was engineering THE BEATLES' "Magical Mystery Tour" album. From there he worked extensively with David Bowie, including the "The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust..." album. PINK FLOYD, PROCOL HARUM, Elton John, Duran Duran, Jeff Beck, THE ROLLING STONES, AMERICA, Lou Reed, and a number of other well known artists have all used Scott's talents. Also included are MOTT THE HOOPLE, Al Kooper, HAPPY THE MAN, the DIXIE DREGS, and a few others that crossed paths with Scott.

Scott talks about a single track he recorded with Rick Wakeman for example, about Wakeman's American car being so big, he took up two parking spaces. And when the parking meter had expired, the traffic warden gave Wakeman two tickets-one for each parking space. Or how touched he was when George Martin took Scott aside, and in a fatherly way, told him not to expect "The White Album" to win a Grammy because the album was such a departure for the group-hopefully not hurting Scott's feelings. Or working with Nilsson, and the heavy drug use he witnessed. He also talks very briefly about working with artists like SCAFFOLD, HARD MEAT, DADA, Doris Troy, Lord Sitar-certainly lesser known artists (even Troy sadly wasn't all that well known) of the time-proving his life in the studio wasn't spent working with just the big names, but for Scott they were enjoyable nonetheless. One band he did work with early on was THE IVEYS-who later morphed into Apple Records BADFINGER. Another great but sadly unsung band was LINDISFARNE, and their fine album "Fog On The Tyne"-which more people should hear. But these are just a very few of the reminiscences found throughout the book.

He also relates the time when Keith Moon, after recording a tympani part for Jeff Beck's first album, left the studio late at night, and spying an old lady walking by, used a PA system he had installed in his Rolls Royce to scream epithets at her. Needless to say Moon was banned from the studio (and the neighborhood) for quite some time. This is just one example of Scott's memories of those wild times that run through this book.

Scott goes into some detail about his work with David Bowie on several albums, and his memories of that period are pretty interesting-especially for Bowie fans. He writes about jazz-fusion and the "Birds of Fire" album with guitarist John McLaughlin, drummer Billy Cobham and keyboard player Jan Hammer, and Cobham's solo albums, beginning with "Spectrum". Bassist Stanley Clark is also here, and Scott talks about his solo album. Or SUPERTRAMP-and the album "Crime of the Century". Or KANSAS-the list goes on and on. Needless to say, along the way Scott has been nominated several times for a Grammy award, and has a number of both gold and platinum albums for his work.

He also writes about being fired from the studio because he worked with pop artists-which the new management hated. Scott then went to work for Trident Studios. It's here that Scott worked on George Harrison's "All Things Must Pass" album. He talks about the fact that no one really knows who played on a number of the tracks because there was no documentation! When he asked Ringo about playing on it, for the 2001 reissue, Ringo responded with "Did I play on it?"

With the help of Osinski, the book is laid out in an easy to read (but not chronological) style. Everything is laid out as it happened, and Scott's no nonsense style is a plus. The different events are laid out under that particular artist or a particular genre of music. But this isn't a dry treatise on recording. Anything technical is in a sidebar for ease of use, and can be skipped over for those who have no interest in such things.

Throughout the book Scott talks about many different artists-taking us where outsiders haven't the privilege of going. Scott's clear cut memories bring us closer to what actually happened in the studio without bogging down in useless minutiae. His many asides and reminisces are at times very interesting and sometimes enlightening-and sometimes funny. When his memory may not be as clear on a point, he has talked with someone else who was there at the time to verify his memories. But virtually every page contains some interesting tidbit of information-no matter if it has to do with the actual recording, or with one of the many artists he worked with.

In some ways this book is reminiscent of Geoff Emerick's 2006 book "Here,There and Everywhere", about his time behind the glass as an engineer with THE BEATLES. But this book is broader in scope, and for that reason even more interesting. Fans of these artists and this whole era of music/recording will like reading this book from someone who was there. It's interesting, enlightening, and just plain fun to read about artists and albums we've
all heard so many times. And to have the chance to hear it from someone so close to it all brings the music to life a little bit more.

Ken Scott should be a name that most people who care about music from the 1960's on should know. If you don't you've at least heard his work and know him indirectly. Scott worked as an engineer, producer, etc. with The Beatles (he engineered much of The White Album for example when Geoff Emerick grew uncomfortable working with the band for these sessions), David Bowie (he worked on Bowie's seminal early albums), George Harrison (he engineered "All Things Must Pass"), Supertramp (he produced Crime of the Century and Crisis? What Crisis?)and went on to manage Missing Persons in the 1980's.

Scott's book is a combination of memoir and technical review of his career as he sprinkles his book with plenty of stories of working with the various artists and producers throughout his career as well as HOW he achieved the sounds he did for various albums (including notes about the engineering, mixing and production of each album with info on the equipment he used). This makes "From Abbey Road to Ziggy Stardust" (the book goes far beyond that period as noted--the title was probably chosen to appeal to Beatles and Bowie fans and sell the book)essential reading particularly for those interested in the engineering side of things.

That doesn't mean that you HAVE to be a musician or engineer to enjoy the book. You could easily skip those sections (which are highlighed at the end of each section with production notes for each album as well as photos of the equipment he used at the time)and just enjoy the stories that Scott recounts about working with Bowie or John Lennon for "Imagine" (where he relates a story about WHY he bowed out of working on that album--it had to do with the overuse of cocaine and how the sessions would continue to drag on and get worse because of drug abuse by everyone involved).

Scott's co-author Bobby Owsinski is also an music engineer as well as writer so he's able to help Scott digest some of the more complex things he did and simplify for those that don't have that background.

The book is sprinkled with comments about Scott and the various albums he worked on from people like Klaus Voormann (who played bass for John Lennon, Ringo Starr and George Harrison solo releases as well as Harry Nilsson)to Supertramp drummer Bob Sienbenberg that also provide some outside insight into their perception of the various sessions that Scott worked on.

That said, the only criticism that I have of the book is that it might be a bit TOO ambitious--it tries to be both memoir AND a technical book about his engineering of all the classic albums he worked on. As a result the book feels a bit uneven as it shifts from one style to another. Still, it works for the most part but I couldn't help feeling that Scott would have been better served writing two separate books with each focusing more on the important element for each.

Nevertheless, "From Abbey Road to Ziggy Stardust" will be essential reading for fans of Scott's work or the artists that he worked with and the stories that he shares (for example he shares WHY he didn't work with Supertramp again--or at least why he believes he wasn't hired again as well as comments from the band members in the book)haven't been told before.

There are also plenty of previously unseen photos included. Music fans and musicians will enjoy this book.

Recommended.

While recounting his early tenure in the tape library at EMI, Ken Scott laments the fact that the older technicians who lived through the "first generation" of music recording were veritable musical repositories, having witnessed some of the greatest artists and recordings of the early twentieth century, whose stories would be lost to the world, since they went undocumented. Fortunately for us, Mr. Scott has ensured that the "Second Generation's" stories will be heard, in this engaging, warm and articulate book.
With a career spanning the "Golden Age" of Rock music, Ken Scott has been at the eye of the storm as an engineer and producer for many of the most acclaimed and loved albums ever made, and has worked with artists which include The Beatles and David Bowie (as could be surmised from the title), but also Mahavishnu Orchestra, Elton John, Supertramp, proggers Happy the Man, Missing Persons, and Duran Duran, among many others. A humble man, he asserts that this was due to a combination of luck and being a keen observer of his predecessors; anyone familiar with the sonic architecture of these albums, however, knows that it was also due in no small part to his talent and skill, as well as his ability to bring out the best in the musicians he's worked with.
Mr. Scott (and co-writer Mr. Oswinski, who does an excellent job of combining scholarly research and lucid prose while never creating a "second voice" in the text) mentions the word "nurturing" several times in regard to his studio approach. Unlike the dictatorial approach of a Rundgren, or the "Oblique Strategies" Eno experiments, Ken favored an organic approach which showcased an artist's natural strengths. He utilizes this approach in his book, as well, presenting both the music and the artists in as close to their natural state as possible. "Insider" stories abound, without resorting to gossip. In fact, almost all personal stories are meticulously corroborated with the artist, which is quite refreshing in today's gossipy culture. The technical side of studio production was relegated to sidebar panels, thus preventing the story from bogging down in technical details, while still shedding light on things like gear for both technophiles and the uninitiated alike.
Particularly pleasing to the reader is the inclusion of both the great and the small, the humorous and the tragic, within almost every page. Within a short span, for example, the secret to Ringo's drum sound is revealed (the mighty Fairchild Limiter), we learn of how an engineering mistake on "Glass Onion" from The White Album is turned into an advantage, thanks to John Lennon's astute ear, and of the truth behind the supposed acimonious nature of the sessions. The entire book abounds with such stories, told with a combination of humor (as in one of my favorites - Simon Le Bon inexplicably insisted on having everyone call him "Charlie" whenever he was in the studio) and awe (Ken was treated to a one-on-one performance of "Let it Be" by McCartney before it was recorded). This book is a must-read for anyone who is a fan of music. Highly recommended.