Legendary recording engineer Glyn Johns earned a place in Beatles history when he became the first producer after George Martin to work on a project with the group. He was hired in late 1968 to oversee the sessions for the project that resulted in the group's final album, Let It Be, and which were documented in the 2021 series The Beatles: Get Back.
But as he explains in a new interview with Rick Beato, he was surprised to get the call in the first place. Johns initially crossed paths with the Fab Four when he was still a fresh face on the scene and working as engineer on the Rolling Stones' 1967 album, Their Satanic Majesties Request. The project saw him, coincidentally, manning the console alongside Jimi Hendrix's producer of choice, Eddie Kramer
“John and Paul came and sang backup on a Stones session, so I met them then,” he explains. “I was just the engineer. They barely acknowledged my existence.”
So Johns was shocked when, roughly a year later, McCartney hunted him down for an ambitious project to record the Beatles as they rehearsed for what would be their first public concert since the summer of 1966. What's more, the rehearsals themselves were to be filmed for a TV special that would include the live performance.
“The call from Paul to proceed with the idea he'd had was a complete shock. I thought it was Mick Jagger taking the piss,” Johns says with a laughs. “I was obviously, like the rest of the world, a fan of the Beatles.
“It was a very unusual project,” he continues. “Paul's idea was to do a live concert and perform new music. And so the film that became [the] Let It Be [album] was just a documentary of how we were going to prepare for that show. And then the live show was to be filmed, and that would be released as the piece.
“That didn't come about, as we all know. The rest of the band didn't really get the idea. It was a bit far-fetched, but it would have been really interesting.”
Although Johns was hired to engineer those sessions, which took place in London's Twickenham Studios, he found himself serving as producer in the absence of George Martin. He continued in that role after the sessions moved to the Beatles' studio at their Apple Corps headquarters in London's Savile Row.
“George Martin attended on the odd day for a little while and facilitated the equipment when we moved to the Beatles' office studio in Savile Row, " John says. "It became apparent as the sessions went on that I was required to play a little bit more of a role than just the engineer.”
Johns continued to work on the tapes from those sessions in the months that followed. He was even on hand to produce the late–February 1969 sessions at Trident Studios for the Abbey Road track "I Want You (She's So Heavy)." But by the time the group settled down to work on that album in earnest that summer, Johns was long gone.
“I started the Abbey Road sessions, and then I went off to America to do something,” he recalls. “They very sensibly decided to go back to George and Geoff Emerick, who finished [the album]. And thank God they did, because it ended up much better than when I left it. I can tell you.”
In related news, a brand-new Beatles Anthology box set has been announced, with McCartney suggesting that John Lennon’s spirit haunted the making of the first Anthology release in 1995.
