Never Say No To A Rock Star: In The Studio With Dylan, Sinatra, Jagger And More…

Glenn Berger SCHAFFNER PRESS. £13.08

With a foreword by Judy Collins, a New York studio engineer spills the beans.

Glenn Berger was 17 when he joined Phil Ramone’s A&R Studios as an assistant engineer in 1972. After surviving the trial-by-fire of a James Brown session, he became Ramone’s right-hand man, working with Bob Dylan, Frank Sinatra, Mick Jagger, Arif Mardin, Judy Collins, New York Dolls and Paul Simon. Now a Manhattan psychotherapist, Berger manages to capture the insanity, triumph, exasperation and magic of recording at a top studio in a time before computers. Crucially, this eloquently emotional memoir avoids vapid backslapping and describes what actually happened, in forensic detail, giving pricelessly up-close accounts of an insecure Dylan re-recording Blood On The Tracks, arrogant Paul Simon (a “prick”) ordering studio microsurgery to fake his Live Rhymin’ album before insulting an ailing Karen Carpenter, or the rapture of watching Sinatra nail The Saddest Thing Of All in one take. There’s heaps more of that in this warmly compelling rollercoaster of a read.