George Martin Books
If anyone could truly lay claim to the title of the “Fifth Beatle” it would be George Martin. No one outside of the Fab Four themselves had as much influence on the Beatles as George. Yes, Brian Epstein polished their act and made it acceptable to people of all ages but it was George, who in his role as producer for almost all of the Beatles records, actually helped shape the sound and music of the Beatles. It was George who suggested that the Beatles double the speed of “Please, Please Me” and then after hearing them record it proclaimed “You’ve just recorded your first Number 1 hit”. At George’s suggestion “Can’t Buy Me Love” started with the chorus instead of the verse, can you imagine that powerhouse of a song starting any other way? As the Beatles matured and their confidence in their own abilities grew George’s role changed from being a producer and shaper of their music to being a realizer for the sound they were attempting to create.
When John wanted his voice to sound like “I’m the Dali Lama singing from the highest mountain top” on “Tomorrow Never Knows” it was George Martin and the EMI engineers who came up with a way to accommodate his request. This required taking John’s voice and running it through the rotating Leslie speakers inside a Hammond Organ creating what Paul called “The Dali Lennon” effect (For more details on this go to our In the Studio- Quantum Leap section). When John could not decide which version of “Strawberry Fields Forever” he liked better he told George Martin “I like them both why don’t you just put them together?” George responded by saying “That might not be possible, they are in different tempos and keys” John Lennon simply demanded that George perform a little of his magic and make it work.
George Martin published two books on the recording of the Beatles music that are must reads for those of you who want to know “How did they do that with the primitive equipment they had back then?”
Remember Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band was recorded on 4-Track Tape machines. My own computer has a 64 track audio program in it.
“All You Need Is Ears: The inside personal story of the genius who created The Beatles
” Originally published in 1994 by St. Martin Griffins and currently available through Amazon in Paperback form.
I really liked this book. Once you get passed George’s personal background in the first 4 or 5 chapters it really moves and is filled with great stories of the creation of the Beatles music and how George and the EMI engineers helped the Beatles create and invent new ways of recording.
Here is an excerpt from one of my favorite sections of the book:
“Of all the army of hangers-on, the one I recall most vividly, because he impinged on my work and my musical relationship with the boys , was Magic Alex (Alex Mardis). I can never remember his real name, but he was a Greek who had ingratiated himself with John Lennon, and who was so preposterous that it would have been funny had he not caused so much embarrassment and difficulty with me in the recording studio.
He was one of a group of sycophants who were forever making mischief, telling the boys there weren’t getting the best treatment, telling them they deserved better than the rotten old equipment that everyone was using. I didn’t need that. I knew better than anyone that we lacked certain facilities which were available in independent American studios. I was still working on four-track machines when I knew that eight-track was already common in America, and that sixteen-track was just around the corner. It annoyed me as much as it did the boys. But I could do without Magic alex turning up one day and announcing: “Well, of course, I’m designing a seventy two- track machine.”
Alex was certainly clever, a good electronic technician; but the boys pandered to his wildest whims…He supposedly had these new inventions he was coming up with: A paint that when he sprays it on a wall and connects two electrodes to it will make the whole wall glow…eliminating the need for lights…computerized telephone with voice commands…”Call George Martin” and it will (of course your Blackberry can do that now but not in 1967)…or replacing the drum screens around Ringo with ultra-high-frequency beams which would form a wall of silence (could have just used Maxwell Smarts Cone of Silence…”no not the cone of silence Max”).
The final irony came when the boys decided that they were going to build their own studio in their building in Saville Row, and that it would be the best in the world. And who should they turn to for the design of this electronic Mecca? Why, Magic Alex, naturally. Once he built it, the boys sat down to wait for the installation of the famous seventy two-track machine. They waited. And waited. And finally, when we came to the recording of the album “Let It Be”, late in 1969, which they wanted to do in their own studio, they had to admit that Alex still hadn’t quite worked his miracle.
“You’d better put some equipment in, then,” they told me.
He also wrote “With a Little Help from My Friends: The Making of Sgt. Pepper
” Published by Little Brown & co in 1995.
Here is a description from Publishers Weekly: In 1962 George Martin reluctantly signed a young group called the Beatles to the EMI record label. Thus began his stint as record producer for one of the most groundbreaking bands in pop history. Martin, writing with freelancer Pearson, describes in detail the creative processes-both artistic and technical-that went into making one of the most acclaimed Beatles albums, the 1967 Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, "a musical fragmentation grenade, exploding with a force that is still being felt." Tracing each song on the record from its genesis in the mind of one of the Fab Four, Martin explains how each fragment or idea evolved, with input from the entire band and from the engineering team, into a final track, and how the album broke new ground. Fans hoping for an inside scoop on some of the more sensational aspects of the bandmembers' lives will be disappointed, but admirers of the Beatles' music and those who take an interest in the technical aspects of record production will find this book engrossing.
Beatles Books by Author
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