When you go back and listen to the Beatles recordings, you tend to forget all those marvelous effects and sounds were made on analog machines and mainly on 4-track decks. When the Beatles started to record with Martin, technology was still mainly in the vacuum tube (valve) era; by today's standards, primitive doesn't even begin to describe the state of recording in 1962. If you made a splice or edit in a recording, you did it by actually cutting the recording tape with a razor and taping the bits together. Very, very few people were as gifted as Martin in the art of recording. His background prior to the Beatles was first in classical music, then, later, in novelty records. It was Martin's connection to and production of the
Goon Show recordings that sold him as a producer to the Beatles, particularly John Lennon and George Harrison, who were avid fans of the Goons...
It is also an example of the twists of fate as precursors to later history how Martin came to work with the Beatles. Beatles manager Brian Epstein had pounded the pavement, going from record label to record label, trying to get the Beatles signed to a contract and had been turned down by every one. Martin, by chance, got an opportunity to listen to the demo recordings and decided to take a chance with the band. If he had not taken that chance, the Beatles may not have gone anywhere, professionally, since EMI was the last of the labels Epstein could have gone to and try to sell his act...
The history of rock and pop music is filled with tales of bands having to fight against label execs and/or producers who wanted to shape and mold acts to their vision rather than the artist's and this was particularly true when the Beatles started to record. But, Martin was very open to the experimental, "what if we..." sort of attitude of the Beatles. Remember, none of the Beatles could read or write musical notation; they couldn't just write a chart and communicate their ideas as other, more technically educated musicians. Martin thus became their interpreter to the technical side of recording. There is the famous story of how Lennon couldn't decide between two different takes of Strawberry Fields Forever and told Martin he liked the first half of one take and the second half of the other: couldn't Martin just splice them together? Well, the two takes were in different keys and in different rhythms. George Martin somehow, using just analog equipment and techniques, did splice together the two halves into a seamless whole, creating the haunting classic song we hear today. Here is a clip of Martin discussing the track and how it developed; when you hear the strings and orchestrations, keep in mind it was Martin who arranged and wrote all the charts:
Here is a BBC documentary about George Martin and his career showing how broad and great were his talents:
Finally, here is the Wikipedia entry on George Martin:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Martin
There are very, very few record producers who have been creative enough to have been considered artists in their own right; Quincy Jones and John Hammond, Sr., and Phil Spector come to mind. The list is very small and very elite. It can be argued George Martin is at the very top of the list. It can also be said George Martin forever changed the field of recording just as much as the Beatles changed modern music..
RIP, George Martin, thank you for taking a chance on four scrubby lad from Liverpool and thank you for giving them a voice...
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