Very sad news about the best and most successful music producer in history. His shoes will never be filled. Without George. popular music, no matter who your favorite bands are would be a lot different.
I’m so sad to hear the news of the passing of dear George Martin. I have so many wonderful memories of this great man that will be with me forever. He was a true gentleman and like a second father to me. He guided the career of The Beatles with such skill and good humour that he became a true friend to me and my family. If anyone earned the title of the fifth Beatle it was George. From the day that he gave The Beatles our first recording contract, to the last time I saw him, he was the most generous, intelligent and musical person I’ve ever had the pleasure to know.
It’s hard to choose favourite memories of my time with George, there are so many but one that comes to mind was the time I brought the song 'Yesterday’ to a recording session and the guys in the band suggested that I sang it solo and accompany myself on guitar. After I had done this George Martin said to me, "Paul I have an idea of putting a string quartet on the record". I said, “Oh no George, we are a rock and roll band and I don’t think it’s a good idea”. With the gentle bedside manner of a great producer he said to me, "Let us try it and if it doesn’t work we won’t use it and we’ll go with your solo version". I agreed to this and went round to his house the next day to work on the arrangement.
He took my chords that I showed him and spread the notes out across the piano, putting the cello in the low octave and the first violin in a high octave and gave me my first lesson in how strings were voiced for a quartet. When we recorded the string quartet at Abbey Road, it was so thrilling to know his idea was so correct that I went round telling people about it for weeks. His idea obviously worked because the song subsequently became one of the most recorded songs ever with versions by Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley, Ray Charles, Marvin Gaye and thousands more.
This is just one of the many memories I have of George who went on to help me with arrangements on 'Eleanor Rigby', 'Live and Let Die' and many other songs of mine.
I am proud to have known such a fine gentleman with such a keen sense of humour, who had the ability to poke fun at himself. Even when he was Knighted by the Queen there was never the slightest trace of snobbery about him.
My family and I, to whom he was a dear friend, will miss him greatly and send our love to his wife Judy and their kids Giles and Lucy, and the grandkids.
The world has lost a truly great man who left an indelible mark on my soul and the history of British music.
Not so much sad...as he lived such a full life...but a loss of a spirit to celebrate. From an 11 year old who received - out of blue and at the moment somewhat disappointing - the 8 track of the Red album for Xmas; that disappointment evaporated within minutes and it set me on this path...this self-identity. Well this man...this producer of comedy records...how he realized the fanciful ideas of these upstarts...amazing.
Yes John...you did pass the audition
For that and so much more we owe so much thanks and praise to this man. Thoughts and prayers to the Martin family. RIP
This is a great box set which shows the breadth and scope of George Martin's work. I was lucky enough to have it given to me as a gift by my brother in law.
Beyond the Beatles... what he did with America's album "Holiday" provided the soundtrack for a good bit of my teen years. I've always loved him for that.
I'm not a Beatles fan, but this man was a gift to music and he was so cool to listen to.
Very distinguished.
He also produced two of my favorite artists in UFO and Ultravox and those acts made two of their best albums with George, even though he was aghast at UFO's partying ways.
R.I.P. Sir George...
_________________ "We have a great bunch of outside shooters. Unfortunately, all our games are played indoors."—College Basketball player Weldon Drew
After the The Beatles called it quits in 1970, producer George Martin found himself associated with another band -- America, whose members met as Air Force personnel stationed in London and scored a hit with their first single and debut album, both called A Horse With No Name, in 1971. Martin came on board for 1974's Holiday and stuck around for three more albums -- 1975's Hearts, the following year`s Hideaway and Harbor in 1977. The first two hit top 5 peaks on the Billboard 200, while the latter two went top 20. Martin`s hits with the band included "Tin Man," "Lonely People," "Sister Golden Hair" and "Daisy Jane." During an interview last year the group's Dewey Bunnell, the singer recalled the experience of working with the iconic producer, who recently died at the age of 90:
Quote:
Holiday was our first time working with George. We'd only met him a few months before. We'd made the decision to approach George to produce us and then had a meeting and he was receptive. But he made it clear that he wanted us to come to London and work at AIR Studios, his studio there, and that he could only block out a month or something. We had spent almost three months on the album before (1973's Hat Trick) and he didn't want to do that.
So we got ourselves really well-rehearsed and we knocked out those songs and arrangements and were definitely prepared when we showed up in London. I think we recorded the whole album in 16 days and everything, and it was a great experience. It was really what cemented our relationship for the rest of the projects over the next few years that we worked on with George, and our friendship is still strong.
Y'know, things in those days were happening so quickly and stuff was falling at our feet so amazingly, and we took everything in our stride because we were just young. I didn't let the awe part of working with (Martin) hit me so much, but it was great. We got along so well. We had the British humor down, too. We started in England and we had lived in England and Gerry (Beckley) and I had British mothers, so we sort of connected real easily with him.
He didn't rule with an iron hand, really. He did expect us to keep a schedule, 'cause we'd been loosey goosey on (Hat Trick), which we produced ourselves, and we had late sessions into the wee hours. He put some structure into the thing, but it was fun. He'd say, "Let's go into the storage room and find an instrument for this," and I distinctly remember, 'We'll use this bell here. We used this bell on [The Beatles'] 'Yellow Submarine.' So almost as awesome as George Martin was producing us was, 'Wow, we're using the bell from 'Yellow Submarine!' It was kind of funny.
George was a great judge of songs, too. If I'd bring back a song or say, "Let's revisit that song we didn't use on Hearts," he would say, "Well, if it wasn't good for that project, Dewey, it really wouldn't be good for any project, would it?" That really stuck with me -- I haven't always followed it, but it's something I do think about if I go back to look at a song we'd put aside before.
I know I am in the minority, but I have always loved Martin's production of Cheap Trick's "All Shook Up". It's my favorite record by them. He really worked a wide variety of music. No doubt he had no idea what he was getting into when he was assigned the Beatles. It was a whole new world that he helped to create.
_________________ “Don’t take life too serious. It ain’t nohow permanent.”
Watch a Tribute to George Martin from His Final Project, ‘Soundbreaking’
George Martin‘s final project, an eight-part documentary about the evolution of recording technology, is being promoted with a preview clip that now includes interview tributes to the legendary producer.
Martin, who passed away March 8 at the age of 90, is remembered in the clip by an array of clients, peers, and disciples that includes Ringo Starr, Brian Eno, A&M co-founder Jerry Moss, and producers Rick Rubin, Tony Visconti and Russ Titelman. Check it out via the video embed above.
The documentary series, titled Soundbreaking: Songs from the Cutting Edge of Recorded Music, was a passion project for Martin, who spent years working on it alongside his son Giles in conjunction with PBS. The series appears to have morphed out of On Record: The Soundtrack of Our Lives, a previously announced effort which the company greenlighted in 2008. A special Soundbreaking presentation is planned for SXSW on March 14.
“Music is the only common thread and universal language that binds us together regardless of race, nationality, age or income,” Martin earlier said of the project. “And, recorded music is how we experience it and what makes it accessible. Through the production of Soundbreaking, I was afforded the opportunity to tell the story of the creative process of so many of the artists I have worked with throughout my life.”
Soundbreaking: Songs from the Cutting Edge of Recorded Music is scheduled to reach audiences later this year, when the documentary makes its broadcast debut via PBS. Plans currently call for a November 2016 premiere, with further details to be revealed during the project’s SXSW presentation.
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