‘Soundbreaking’ Recap, Episode 2: The Beatles, Beach Boys And Pink Floyd Begin Painting With Sound

The PBS documentary series Soundbreaking: Stories from the Cutting Edge of Recorded Music, currently available to stream on Hulu, sets out to demystifying the art of recording and show how it forever changed music. Episode 1 unraveled the sometimes-elusive role of the producer in the recording process. Episode 2, entitled “Painting with Sound,” shows how the limitless possibilities of multi-track recording freed artists from conventional songwriting and took them places they could have only imagined before.

The creation of the series was overseen by the legendary producer and studio engineer Sir George Martin, whose groundbreaking work with The Beatles not only redefined how music was recorded, but how it sounded. It should come as little surprised then that episode two spends a large amount of time discussing his revolutionary work with “The Fab Four,” as they transitioned from a touring band that recorded live, to a studio entity, that used Abbey Road’s recording facilities as an instrument unto itself, as much as any guitar or keyboard.

But first, let’s talk about Boston. Yes, the extremely unhip yet undeniably catchy giants of classic rock radio. The band is brought up to illustrate what one man can do with multi-track recording. Despite it selling nearly 20 million copies worldwide, the band’s debut album was mostly recorded by lead guitarist and serious nerd Tom Scholz in his basement apartment. The model of guitar Scholz played all those syrupy leads on was actually named after the man we can thank for multi-track recording, Les Paul.

Rewinding a little, most musical recordings up until the early ’50s were done live. A well-rehearsed band would setup in a room and run through a song until the producer was happy with a final take. If he wanted the drums or piano louder, they would move a mic closer to the desired instrument, and then run through the number again. When guitarist Les Paul hooked up a couple reel-to-reel recorders, creating the first 8-track recorder, he not only freed the musician from having to play as part of an ensemble, he also enabled engineers to focus in on each individual instrument. His innovations were so advanced, it took another decade or so for most studios and recording engineers to catch up with them.

Paul’s innovations would be taken even further by those four mop-topped lads form Liverpool and their schoolmaster producer. Starting in 1966, Martin and The Beatles would begin to push the limits of the recording studio and redefine what a pop record should and could sound like. They would distort vocals, record instruments backwards, and incorporate cutting edge tape loops and sound collages on such records as Revolver and their high-water mark Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. As producer and musician Brian Eno rightfully says, “It’s the birth of a new art form. They were starting to make music that you couldn’t actually play. It couldn’t exist outside the recording studio.”

At the same time, on the other side of the world, Brian Wilson of The Beach Boys would use the studio to create an aural landscape painting of the idealized Southern California lifestyle. The Beach Boys Pet Sounds album layered heavenly multi-tracked harmony vocals on top of dense pop orchestrations, while the subsequent “Good Vibrations” single took an unprecedented 90 hours to record. It also didn’t hurt that the songs were very, very, very good.

By the dawn of the ’70s, isolated multi-track recording was standard operating procedure at most recording studios, including The Beatles’ old stomping grounds at Abbey Road. Pink Floyd took full advantage of the technology in creating their meditative masterpiece, the Dark Side Of The Moon album, often referred to as “the Sgt. Pepper’s of the ‘70s.”

8-track recording soon begat 16-track recording, which in turn begat 24-track recording. Whereas The Beatles debut was recorded in a brisk 12 hours, rock bands now took weeks to record a song, months to record an album. While this afforded them new creative freedom, it also often led to artistic self-indulgence. Whereas Fleetwood Mac’s meticulously crafted Rumors album was a hit due to the personal nature of its songwriting, its 1979 follow-up Tusk cost over $1 million to make, as songwriter Lindsey Buckingham indulged all of his experimental recording whims.

Reacting against these excesses, punk, new wave, and synth pop bands embraced the immediacy of home recording thanks to the the advent of affordable portable recording devices. The limits of home recording fit the music’s reductive style and also allowed them to create music spontaneously on their own schedule. With the ensuing digital revolution of the ’90s, musicians could now have it both ways; they could record quickly and cheaply at home on their computers, while also having access to the latest cutting edge recording technology.

Musicians now have myriad different recording options, and the technology enables them to be as intimate or experimental as they want. It’s sort of funny though, how the episode equates the 24-track recording of the late ‘70s as a bad thing, but the limitless digital recording options of the present day as a good thing. You can’t have it both ways, and it reminds me of how Episode 1 shoe-horned Sly Stone’s adventure’s in home recording into the history of hip hop, but it’s a minor quibble. Overall, the episode is effective explanation of how musicians and producers went from taking an audio photograph, to creating a vivid painting in sound.

Benjamin H. Smith is a New York based writer, producer and musician. Follow him on Twitter:@BHSmithNYC.

Watch the "Painting With Sound" episode of 'Soundbreaking' on Hulu