The Beatles had already been rejected by several publishers when he addressed them an invitation to audition at Abbey Road studios in London. We were in 1962 and the “no” more famous to the future ‘fabulous’ was given by Decca – John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Pete Best were not, in those days, a band in a state of grace. At number 3 Abbey Road waiting for them George Martin, producer made to resume in comedy records (Peter Sellers, for example) and responsible for the catalog of Parlophone. The meeting took place with reserves of both parties: if Martin, since then 36 experienced and professional, questioned the musical capabilities of the quartet, the Beatles saw young producer paternalistic figure of an older generation. When Martin asked the Beatles if anything in the studio setting the displeasing, guitarist George Harrison – the youngest of the group – did not linger in response: “For now, do not like your tie.”
George Martin, who died Monday Tuesday aged 90, was, recognize almost all the musicians who worked with him, a gentleman endowed with sense of humor, “exemplary” unlikely a severe industry early 60s and the Beatles would soon to sign a contract with Parlophone, having been replaced drummer Pete Best of Ringo Starr, after Martin had made it clear that the man who had entered the drumsticks at Abbey Road in June was not able to play satisfactorily. Months later, when the recording of the singles who have installed the ‘Beatlemania’ was George Martin who he sat behind the machinery, in the control room. His vision, which made for example with the version we know of ‘Please Please Me’ has been accelerated by his statement, produced immediate results: the Beatles came thundering in topes. “For an adult, that is what he was, was quite experimental,” would later Paul McCartney.
If Martin, pianist and arranger of classical training, he found the Beatles almost infallible vehicle of your options aesthetic, the Beatles counted on Martin as a filter of the creative stream and convenor element of the different personalities that emerge. The discs followed at a fast pace, between digressions: after “Please Please Me” (1963), there were the two years that followed “With The Beatles”, “A Hard Day’s Night,” “Beatles For Sale” ” Help “and” Rubber Soul “until – after!” Revolver “(1966) – the Beatles decided to stop giving concerts. Starts there a renewed studio experience, with especially made music by Lennon and McCartney (with valuable but rare contributions of George Harrison) to evolve to greater refinement stops: it was not for the music influences the group heard in India (including Ravi Shankar), psychedelia propelled by hallucinogenic drugs and a very sustained vacuum leak from a purely rock and roll ground, then flooded with imitations of the Beatles.
> COURTESY PHOTO bY APPLE CORPS LT.
Enter the scene, duly supported by George Martin, a thirsty Beatles experimentation in the studio and open to the inclusion of instruments and structures hitherto little identifiable with electric music, a decade earlier, Elvis Presley popularized. Thus were born today inseparable details of songs that would become undisputed classics of popular music: the trumpet solo in ‘Penny Lane’ (McCartney whistled and was transposed to the agenda by the manufacturer), the unpolluted string ‘Eleanor Rigby’ (a score itself composed and performed masterfully, under the inspiration of music to Bernard cinema Herrmann), the surreal arrangements of ‘I Am the Walrus’ (brass, strings and choir), the filigree ‘Strawberry Fields Forever’ (compiled from takes separate recording and where we find a thorough use of tone control), the orchestral climax of ‘a Day in the Life’.
As a performer, has left its mark, for example, the baroque piano ‘ in My Life ‘and vaudeville’ Lovely Rita ‘, the harpsichord that punctuates’ Fixing a Hole ‘and the circus atmosphere of the organ’ for the Benefit of Mr. Kite “-” Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band “, the album that defines the second half of the Beatles’ career, more daring and experimental, had finger her.
Before, in 1964, an insecure atypically McCartney found in Martin the solution to a song that you was a fight – and won so curiously in Albufeira, during a vacation Paul by. In the text that pays tribute to the late producer, Paul McCartney remembers it: “A [moments] that comes to mind is the time when I took the ‘Yesterday’ song for a recording session and the boys in the band suggested that I sing alone to the guitar. After having done so, George said to me, ‘Paul, what if we put here a string quartet?’. I said, ‘Oh no, George. We are a rock and roll band and does not seem a good idea. ‘ In his sane way to large producer, he replied: ‘let’s try and not result returned to the solo version’. I agreed and the next day drove me to his house to work on the arrangement. He took the chords I showed him and scattered notes over piano, putting the cello in low octave and the first violin in the eighth high, giving me there my first lesson on how to win should voice the strings in a quartet. When we recorded in Abbey Road, I was so excited to see that his idea was correct that I’ve been telling you this to everyone for weeks. It is obvious that the idea worked because the song became one of the most recorded of all time, with versions of Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley, Ray Charles, Marvin Gaye and milhentas other “.
Martin would turn a deaf ear to growing tension between the egos of the band and it is not surprising that “Let it Be”, the only Beatles album which itself was not produced (and the last official count) is usually seen as a disappointment – in the past decade McCartney took on an old will and issued a free version of the intervention of Phil Spector, the original producer.
During the ‘reign’ of the Beatles, George Martin played production functions in Shirley Bassey recordings (like success’ Goldfinger ‘, the homonymous film of James Bond saga), Gerry & amp; The Pacemakers and Cilla Black. After the breakup of the band, went close to Paul McCartney (the most successful albums of this in the 80s have their seal) having been connected to hits like ‘Live and Let Die’ (1971), ‘Ebony & amp; Ivory ‘(with Stevie Wonder, 1982),’ Say Say Say ‘(with Michael Jackson, 1983) and’ No More Lonely Nights’ (1986). He produced four albums of America, two of Jeff Beck and even Cheap Trick, Ultravox and even Celine Dion. During the 70s and 80s, the Air studios, managed by it, were frequent resting place of some of the most respected bands of the time.
He remained associated with the ‘machine’ Beatles, supervising the post-production of issues “Anthology”, 1995, in which could not be more involved due to loss of hearing. In October of that year, he went through Portugal (coliseums of Porto and Lisbon) to direct the Classical Orchestra of Porto in a concert titled “Beatles for Peace”. In 2006, Martin and his son Giles remixed 80 minutes of Beatles music for the play “Love”, a co-production of Cirque de Soleil and Apple Corps (owned by members of the Beatles and their respective heirs) brought the scene in Las Vegas and raised a homonymous soundtrack in the same year.
“it was like a second father to me. He led the Beatles’ career with such quality and such a good mood that has become a real friend of mine and my family. If anyone deserves the honor of ‘fifth Beatle’, is George. From the day that gave us our first contract to the last time I saw him, he was the most generous, intelligent and musical person I have had the pleasure to meet, “said Paul McCartney. Ringo Starr left condolences and thanked “all love” shown by Martin. Yoko Ono, widow of John Lennon, it was said “depressed and unable to utter many words.” The son of these, Sean Lennon, expressed his “shaken” by the news. The producer Nigel Godrich (Radiohead linked to, but also to a Paul McCartney album) mourned the death of “My Hero”, the “ultimate producer, a gentleman who was always so kind to me. He did everything first … and better. ” The tributes came from various quarters: the musicians and producers Brian Eno and Mark Ronson to actor Roger Moore ( “he did my first James Bond sound brilliant!”)
Born in Highbury, London, in January. 1926, Martin grew up in a family with music connections: his uncle worked for a pianos company and, at age six, young George was composing the instrument deepen. A performance of “Prélude à l’Après-Midi D’Un Faune” by Debussy Charles, the BBC Symphony Orchestra would change his life. After leaving school, he enlisted in the Navy in 1943, but has not been in action in World War II: spent a year training on the island of Trinidad in the Caribbean, where he played piano for the troops in his spare time. He left the Navy in 1947 and without career prospects, used the veteran status of the armed forces to sign up at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London, where he studied oboe and piano. After graduating, he worked in the classical music department of the BBC, has attracted the attention of Oscar Preuss, senior executive of Parlophone, owned by record label EMI, becoming assistant this in 1950. Five years later, would take over the leadership and would record comedy albums to keep alive the company, one of the smallest under the umbrella of giant EMI (until then, had passed from baroque music to light music and jazz). In 1962, when the Beatles arrive at Abbey Road, Martin was already a successful producer. But his career would change forever.
No comments:
Post a Comment