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Our review of the documentary Behind the Walls of Abbey Road Studios: Sanctuary of All Music on Disney+

2023-01-06T12:17:43.055Z


REVIEW – Directed by Mary McCartney, daughter of her Beatles father, this documentary traces the history of the most famous recording studio in the world, still standing after ninety years of activity. Behind the walls of Abbey Road studios, a film not to be missed...


It is a visit that is both intimate and universal, historical and musical, to which Mary McCartney invites us.

Paul's eldest daughter, a photographer like her mother, Linda, has been familiar with Abbey Road studios since she was a child.

If the film begins with the adventures of the Wings, McCartney's second group, we soon embark on a long history of nearly a century, nine decades of music, from classical to pop, including film music and jazz. .

Testimonials abound

Paul McCartney, who spent a lot of time there explains:

“I don't know of a better studio.

All the mics work, and I feel like I'm at home there."

Set up by the Gramophone company - the ancestor of EMI -, inaugurated by the classical composer Edward Elgar in 1931, the studios have seen the birth of hundreds of works.

Cliff Richard was the first rocker to record there in 1957, but it is of course the Beatles that the place is most readily associated with: they recorded most of their work there between 1962 and 1969, under the leadership of Sir George Martin.

The Fab Four's final album also gave its name to the studios, which were called EMI Recording Studios before officially becoming Abbey Road in 1976. Testimonies abound: Elton John, the Gallagher brothers, Giles Martin, son of producer of the Beatles, but also the singers Kate Bush and Celeste.

Ringo Starr, 82, contributes with his legendary phlegm.

Sustainability assured today

We may have forgotten it, but it is within the framework of Abbey Road that the British cellist Jacqueline du Pré recorded most of her work, interrupted prematurely by the multiple sclerosis from which she suffered.

The images of her in session with her young husband, Daniel Barenboim, are overwhelming.

David Gilmour, Roger Waters and Nick Mason of Pink Floyd discuss the conception of their first album, but also the genesis of

Dark Side of the Moon

, the English group's masterpiece.

We smile when we see the sound engineers of yesteryear in white coats, but also the omnipresence of cigarettes.

Former session guitarist Jimmy Page, who became a superstar after forming Led Zeppelin in the late 1960s, fondly remembers the recording of

Goldfinger

, with a Shirley Bassey feeling bad after holding the final note.

This one explains with humor to have forced his voice to cover the whole of the credits, on the insistence of John Barry.

John Williams, composer of "Star Wars"

Having suffered a serious crisis linked to the decline in record sales at the end of the 1970s, Abbey Road had to sell all its material to recover its health.

But it is above all the film music that saved the institution.

Since the early 1980s, the American John Williams, exclusive composer of the

Star Wars saga

, made Abbey Road his rear base.

The large studio 1 is barely spacious enough to accommodate all the instrumentalists required for these dantesque scores.

We will not forget the canteen of the place, in which the author of these lines had the chance to have lunch with Sir George Martin, a model of English gastronomy.

Now assured of its longevity, in great demand by musicians around the world, Abbey Road hosts the recordings of the stars of today and tomorrow without ever forgetting its past glory.

What fate!

Source: lefigaro

All news articles on 2023-01-06

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