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Geoff Emerick is officially listed as the engineer for today’s session, but in his telling of the story, he did not participate.
“That’s it, George,” I announced. “I’ve decided that I can’t take it anymore. I’m leaving.”
I was surprised at how resolute my voice sounded. He looked up at me quizzically.
“Leaving? Where are you going?”
The question seemed ludicrous. “I don’t know, George, but I’m not doing these sessions anymore….”
“Look, Geoff, I can understand your frustration, really I do. But, honestly, you can’t just walk out in the middle of a session.”
Over his shoulder, I could see the four Beatles looking up from the studio below, wondering why we hadn’t come down to say hello.
“No, George, I am walking out. Now. I’m not starting the session.”
At this point Emerick went to the studio manager’s office to announce his decision, then informed the band. Lennon tried to talk him out of it, and in Emerick’s account is quoted thusly:
Come on, Geoff, you can’t be serious about this. We need you, man, you can’t just walk out in the middle of an album. I mean, everyone always says what a great record Pepper was, even though I think it’s the biggest load of shit we’ve ever done.
And given that this was John’s idea of sweet-talking at the time, is it any wonder Emerick wanted out? At this point he exits our story for most of a year before returning to work on Abbey Road.
Personal drama aside, the actual purpose of today’s session was to record “Cry Baby Cry.” The first of the day’s 10 takes appeared on Anthology 3, to wit:
You can hear that the song was already mostly in place; it was mostly just a matter of fine-tuning and tweaking the structure. “Cry Baby Cry” would only take one more session to complete, and not be labored over endlessly like some others I could name.
Great version of one of my fave songs! Thanks. And Godspeed, Geoff!
And John was right about Sgt. Peppers! Out of the mouths of babes … and Lennon.