Abbey Road to Ziggy Stardust: Off the Record with The Beatles, Bowie, Elton & So Much More, Hardcover Book Hardcover – May 1, 2012

If you are a music specialist or more of a Rock specialist you will love Abbey Road to Ziggy Stardust by Ken Scott. A major player in the develop of recording in the 1960s and 1970s, Ken recalls almost every detail of work, his technical details, and some stories about the people he worked with. If you are not familiar with names like Studer or don't know what a compressor does, then this book will be a little too dry for you. Ken is honest about himself and his history with many of the major artists he worked for, many of whom used his talents for their most famous albums but then left him for lesser works. Ken's resume is impressive and cannot be equalled by anyone, certainly not now in any case. He's not the story teller that George Martin is, but Martin's work on the Beatles veers towards the insipid. He's also less opinionated than Geoff Emerick, another recording technician who cut his teeth at the famous Abbey Road studios. Ken does go on and on about recording drums more than recording guitars, keyboards or voices, which can get tedious after a while. Towards the end of the book, I took fright that Ken might start ranting about addiction and recovery, but being a man of good sense, Ken mentions his AA experience and moves on. His experiences managing the ungrateful New Wave band Missing Persons finishes the long narrative. The title off-the record is misleading, since Ken often gives us sidebars filled with technical details about recording equipment long superannuated by technology, but nevertheless catnip to music freaks like me. Worth buying if you want the technical low down of what being a recording engineer, producer and manager was like in the golden age of rock, but if you are not interested in these arenas, or only want to hear about the Beatles, Abbey Road to Ziggy Stardust is liable to disappoint the casual reader.

Not as good as I hoped.

I wouldn't call this a novel as much as a collection of stories. Stories about some of the best bands in rock and roll history. The Beatles, Elton John, David Bowie, Jeff Beck, Missing Persons and more. This book takes you inside the recording studio(s) where some of the biggest bands made some of the greatest records of all time. Quite an insight for someone who has never been in a recording studio. Humor, drama and what do we do next? It's all here in this book about one side of rock and roll most of us rarely here about. A MUST for anyone interested in Rock and Roll history and the early recording industry made a go of things.

As one of many, who have always been interested in both sides of recorded music, the performance and the production, Scott’s book gave me the most satisfactory experience of the production side I’ve read. I’ve read Jac Holzman’s, Glyn John’s, John Simon’s, George Martin and Todd Rundgren’s perspectives but I never felt the resonant experience Ken Scott conveyed. He was more technical and maybe that’s partially why I enjoyed it more. The historical context was equally part of its appeal. I highly recommend it.

My first memories of Ken Scott are probably from seeing his name on some of Elton John's classical albums and as a co-producer of David Bowie's Ziggy Stardust. Then later on the nearly classic Supertramp's Crime of the Century.This book is a combination of his memoirs working with many of the artists in the 60's to early 80's. Reading this brings back a lot of memories as the book is full of anecdotes and details of working these artists. He provides also some technical insights, how he placed mikes and recorded. Many of these are interesting to read, also for a non-technical person. It gives the reader an urge to re-listen to some of the tracks. He does go into some projects with much more details than some others.The various sections with technical details of equipment used and comments by studio musicians like Klaus Voormann or artists like Bob Sienbenberg of Supertramp provide and extra dimension.My main problem is with some of the facts and the writing style, something an editor should have picked up on. It leaves a bit of an impression (or feeling) that it was written from a number of taped conversations with various intervals.While discussing the recording of Ringo Starr's 'It don't Come Easy' he lists a large cast of musicians that came by in the studio (page 107). That song was recorded in 1970, but with a little bit of research he could have found out that Stephen Stills did play piano, and that by that time Stills had already released 2 successful albums with Crosby and Nash (and later) Young (He writes specifically that this was before any success). Moreover, the name of Stephen Stills is also misspelt (at the risk of nit-picking). Towards the end there are several mistakes with dates. E.g. he worked on the re-release of All Things Must Past in 2000, writing several time there and later that it was recorded 40 years earlier...(the book was indeed written 40 years on...)It leaves a bit of a sloppy impression. Too bad, as it provides valuable information for those interested in these artists and production used in days of limited (and expensive professional) equipment.

What can I say about this that isn't obvious? The memoirs of Ken Scott, who dropped out of school to record The Beatles! This book offers a rare, unromanticized view into the realities of life in the recording studio. If you're at all interested in recording or the music scene of the mid sixties and onward you don't want to miss this book. While not overly technical, those who are interested in recording as a career or hobby will find invaluable nuggets of information nestled among the stories. For everybody else it's just a great read.