Revolver

My favorite nuts and bolts book about The Beatles recordings has always been Revolution in the Head; I've never seen an entire book about a single album, but here's one now. Great interview with the author.

First, the rumor that they really were planning to record what became Revolver in Memphis really was true.  It wasn’t an urban legend.  Not only did Brian Epstein fly out to book Stax, but they had a house lined up to rent for their stay, too.  But Stax blew it for themselves; first by upping the studio rate, and second by leaking word in advance, totally undermining any chance for privacy or security.
The revelation about Paul’s walking out of the sessions just as they were wrapping up work on the album was a bit of a bombshell. There’d been this throwaway quote in what’s more or less his memoir, Many Years From Now, where as an aside, he mentions not playing bass on She Said She Said. The reason he gives was some kind of argument, and he just stormed off.

Paul was the most ambitious of the group… in terms of protecting the brand… the most committed to their success, and so forth. So for him to literally leave them in a lurch just as the project was coming to an end must have been a pretty big deal.

I discuss in the book the evidence that George played the bass on it, and how the incident was referenced in a taped conversation during the Let It Be sessions, right after George quit the group.  I’ve never read anywhere else of anyone getting into this event in any detail.

 Looking forward to this shit, suckahs.