“Solid State: The Story of Abbey Road and the End of the Beatles” by Kenneth Womack (whose previous books include a two-part series on the life and work of Beatles producer George Martin) is due October, 15. Hardcover, with 296 pages, with a foreword by Alan Parsons, is timed to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the Beatles’ Abbey Road album. The book will be published by Cornell University Press and is available now for pre-order in the U.S. here and the U.K. here.

Womack’s colorful retelling of how this landmark album was written and recorded is a treat for fans of the Beatles. Introduced with a foreword by renowned engineer, producer, and musician Alan Parsons, Solid State takes readers back to 1969 and into EMI’s Abbey Road Studios, which featured an advanced solid-state transistor mixing desk. Womack focuses on the dynamics between John, Paul, George, Ringo and producer George Martin and his team of engineers, who set aside the tensions and conflicts that had arisen on previous albums to create a work that boasted an innovative studio-bound sound that prominently included the new Moog synthesizer, among other novelties.
Abbey Road was the culmination of the instrumental skills, recording equipment and artistic vision that the band and George Martin had developed since their early days in the very same studio seven years earlier. A testament to the group’s unparalleled creativity and their producer’s ingenuity, Solid State is required reading for all fans of the Beatles and the history of rock ’n’ roll.