New in the Attack Store is “Classic Tracks – The Real Stories Behind 68 seminal Recordings” by New York Times best-selling author Richard Buskin.

Classic Tracks: The Real Stories Behind 68 Seminal Recording

Classic Tracks
📷: Get the stories and technical process behind some of music’s most timeless tracks.

What really went on behind the doors of the world’s top studios while recording The Beatles, The Human League, Bob Dylan, Nirvana and R.E.M.? How did producers and engineers deal with the legendary egos of Oasis and Paul Simon? Or the haunted perfectionism of Michael Jackson and Phil Spector? And how – between the drugs, the sex, the fights, the tears and the tantrums – did some of the most iconic tracks of our times ever get recorded?

📷: Alan Wilder on the making of “People Are People” – “The synths were recorded through various guitar amps set with various levels of distortion”.

It’s more than the music

In Classic Tracks, New York Times best-selling author Richard Buskin unearths the true stories behind 68 seminal recordings:

  • How John Lennon put his 15-month drink-and-drugs-fuelled ‘lost weekend’ on hold to nail his first U.S. solo No. 1.
  • Why The Sex Pistols were forced to hide out in the studio as police investigated complaints about them during a session for ‘God Save the Queen’.
  • How Donna Summer’s ‘Love to Love You Baby’ was extended to enhance the sex life of the record company s president. – Why The Police required a referee as much as a producer during the fight-filled sessions for ‘Every Breath You Take’.
  • How two divorces and one very public intra-band breakup didn’t stop Fleetwood Mac from recording ‘Go Your Own Way’.
  • How The Rolling Stones completed their smash hit ‘Start Me Up’ without spending any time together in the studio.
Classic Tracks
📷: Hank Shocklee of Public Enemy: “We didn’t do parallel compression like people do today. We had to invent it”.

HEAR THE STORIES NEVER BEFORE TOLD

From rock to rap, pop to hip hop, soul to metal, punk to disco, and jazz to electronica, each chapter draws on original interviews and the recollections of artists, producers and engineers to tell the inside story of an era-defining recording, with in-depth information including rare original studio photos, lyrics and track sheets about the relevant recording techniques and creative processes.

Starting with Les Paul (1951) and closing with The xx (2009), via recordings by David Bowie, The Beatles, 10cc, Chic, The Human League, Public Enemy, Tricky, Justice and many more Classic Tracks offers a rare insight into the mindsets and unique talents of the finest musical artists of the past six decades and reveals how often against the odds some of the all-time best-selling, most influential records came into being.

Classic Tracks is available now from the Attack Store priced £19.99 or circa $24.99.

23rd June, 2020

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