Too bad — RIP, George
Dang, I had no idea he was that old!
90... I had no clue
Oh, no, no, no.
Damn. He was the fifth Beetle. He even played piano on “In My Life.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DUDje4cTev0
Great producer and arranger. He also composed the orchestral soundtrack for Yellow Submarine.
Rest in peace, Sir Martin. You’ll be sorely missed.
He polished the Beatles sound and was a huge part of their musical success/creativity. He helped to lift their compositions into a real art form. RIP Mr Martin.
Heartfelt RIP
Classical crisp production
He really nailed it
On Sergeant Peppers it’s just so defined and plays loud on tube amps great
Really really authentic producer
For those big egos to ride with him as long as they did
If Epstein chose Martin he earned his pay that day
RIP to one of the giants in the music business.
A genius and a very odd pairing with the Beatles that in the end turned out so fortunate.
Sir George’s background was in classical music and comedy albums. He understood the randomness and off the cuff creativity of the likes of Peter Sellers and Spike Milligan. This served him perfectly with rock n roll and the Beatles’ Laissez-faire creativity.
RIP
From the “History of the Eagles” (Netflix): Sir Martin wasn’t convinced that the Eagles had the talent it took for him to work with them. Starting out, while in the London studio with Martin, they played several songs they had written but Martin wasn’t impressed that they were worthy until they decided to sing “Seven Bridges Road”, he was blown away at the harmonizing. He went on to work with them on subsequent albums. Don Henley said that what he liked about working with Martin was that he demanded hard work and absolutely no drugs or alcohol in the studio, he learned the hard way while producing the Rolling Stones. Glen Fry didn’t agree with the policy, saying it was “bullsh!t”.
Classy gentleman- I saw years ago that his son was music director of The Beatles Love show in Vegas.
File under: Didn’t know he was still alive.
Those mop top Beatles were quite the sensation in their day.
I think Steely Dan and Gerry Rafferty were two of the greatest recording acts of all time.
RIP Sir George. Say hi to Messrs. Lennon, Harrison, Epstein, Evans, and Aspinall for us.
ff
A few classics:
* When John Lennon came up with the idea for what became "Tomorrow Never Knows," Martin showed the Beatles what could be done with tapes played in reverse and suggested using assorted tapes and splicing parts of them. The Beatles each went nuts with their own home tape recorders, put assorted odd sounds on tapes, brought them back to the studio, and Martin worked with Lennon splicing them up into the odd sounds you hear threading "Tomorrow Never Knows."
* When Lennon wrote "Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite" (maybe my absolute favourite Sgt. Pepper song), he told Martin he thought about having circus sounds behind the middle and closing instrumental passages. Martin raided the EMI tape library, came up with an armload of circus-related sounds, mostly fairgrounds organs but a few other things like carousel calliopes, and sliced, diced, and spliced those tapes into the sounds you hear in both breaks.
* When the Beatles first came up with "Please, Please Me," after Martin challenged them to do one better after they rejected a song he wanted them to do as their second single, the song was originally slowed down somewhat. (Paul McCartney has said they were thinking of Roy Orbison when they wrote the song.) When they played it in the studio, Martin suggested they speed it up a bit. They played it faster, nailed it in a few takes, and Martin called from the control room, "Gentlemen, you've just recorded your first number one record." Ballsy prediction but Martin turned out to have been right---the song did go to number one in England.
* When the Beatles couldn't think of any way for a rock quartet to play "Yesterday," both John Lennon and George Martin suggested Paul McCartney do it solo with just his acoustic guitar. When McCartney played it that way, Martin set about convincing McCartney that he could add a string quartet and do it tastefully. McCartney was extremely dubious until Martin brought in a cellist to play a low-register part he'd written for the song. That convinced McCartney. "He taught me how you voice for strings," Sir Paul has said of Sir George.
* Martin rejected George Harrison's "Only a Northern Song" for Sgt. Pepper, the only time he ever rejected a Harrison song, but he made it up to Harrison with "Within You, Without You"---he worked with Harrison on the song's unique arrangement, having Harrison work with the Indian musicians writing their parts (Harrison had learned Indian notation as well as the sitar from Ravi Shankar) while he, Martin, worked with the string section that also featured on it.
* Martin figured out what John Lennon wanted for the middle of "In My Life" by finally playing a piano solo an octave lower and into a tape recorder, then speeding the tape up (hence the faux harpsichord sound) and dubbing it onto the song's break. Lennon was amazed.
* When Paul McCartney hummed a support part he wanted a French horn to play on "For No One," he didn't realise he'd hit one note that wasn't supposed to be in the instrument's range until Martin told him so. Yet Martin found a French horn player who could hit that high note---and did.
RIP Sir George.
I just heard about his death a moment ago and already have a tear in my eye. Another meaningful piece of our lives lost. RIP Sir George.