GOOD VIBRATIONS: A History of Record Production

378 pages devoted to our favorite subject?  Don't get too excited yet.  This book has good intentions, and does shed light on some crazy recording history, but I think despite being a decent read it fails pretty miserably.  There's a lot of good stories in here, despite a lack of technical insight, and it's good to hear about Phil Spector, Brian Wilson, Joe Meek, Les Paul and others who made such a stamp on the world of recording.  On the other hand, it was frightening to learn about recording Yes, George Michaels' digital habits, and anything involving Elton John.  One of the most annoying features of this book is that it follows a thread, say George Martin, all the way up until recently, as if the recording of an Ultravox album was as important as the Beatles' Revolver.  And then there's the fact that this book only focuses on rock and pop record production, completely ignoring reggae, jazz and blues recording techniques and history (to the extant that I think the books subtitle is wrong).  Plus, somebody completely screwed up the typesetting, so you occasionally read the same passage twice!  I guess it's still worth checking out if you're heavily into recording like I am, but don't go in expecting any hard information to help you in recording.  It's more like a bunch of old men sitting around slapping each other on the back and telling stories.