Glyn Johns – Sound Man
I have now read 3 autobiographies by recording engineers who got their start in Beatles era London: Geoff Emerick, Ken Scott and Glyn Johns. Of the three, Johns had the most interesting career – involved with the Rolling Stones, Beatles, Small Faces/Faces, Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, The Who, The Eagles – both as engineer and producer. So, I spent the last few weeks reading his autobiography “Sound Man”. Simultaneously I have been reading “Creation Stories” by Alan McGee. Guess who I would rather go out for a pint with? McGee of course – his book is one anecdote after another about a life of drugs, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll, followed by a little salvation. John’s book is a story of transatlantic travel, no sex, no drugs and a lot of rock ‘n’ roll. Strange, like Ken Scott, John’s career seems to have stalled in the 1980s – probably because they forgot how to make decent records then, but had a small resurrection in the 2000s – as retromania brought back nicely balanced well recorded (not overproduced) folk-country-rock. I thought McGee disappeared with Creation records, but – of course, he has had a great afterlife as a manager – in particular of the Libertines. In the McGee biography, all of the characters come across in 3 dimensions, we marry Yvonne, divorce her – his fault, he meets Kate, it works, he has a bromance with Bobby Gillespie etc etc etc. Glenn Johns worked with, arguably, the most successful and notorious artists of the vinyl era and all we learn was – that he set up drums for recording really well, and that Ian Stewart was a hell of a nice guy. Surely he prevented Keith Richards from choking on his own vomit in the studio at least once!
The Geoff Emerick book brought us inside the Beatles, their personalities, Yoko, their recording sessions. He may not have been the most interesting of characters – but he made the book interesting. Ken Scott’s book was full of technical details and enthusiasm for the recordings – I just had to dig out my copy of Supertramp’s “Crime of the Century” to hear what he was talking about. Glyn Johns – well there could have been just a little more detail. I enjoyed the book, but it reads like you’re having a cup of tea with an old codger who doesn’t want to upset anybody – it is all very “stiff upper lip”. I never quite got what made him so special that he became the engineer for the Stones and the producer for the Eagles (the records speak for themselves). Anyway, the book isn’t bad, just a little bit boring…..read McGee first
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