George Martin: In My Life Album Documentary

Here's a documentary on the making of George Martin's final album, In My Life. Interesting points on arranging and seeing Martin get good performances out of comedic actors (something he started his career doing)

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Sir George Henry Martin CBE (3 January 1926 – 8 March 2016)

There's so much that could and should be said about George Martin and this tribute will only scratch the surface but my desire to do justice to important subjects often means I end up writing nothing at all. So here goes.

The Beatles didn't change the music business. They invented it. They did a lot of other things too. But without a few people the Beatles don't happen. Obviously John, Paul, George and Ringo. The Beatles' booking agent, Allan Williams, sends them to their first residency in Hamburg where they get their '10,000 hours'. Then Brian Epstein who keeps them working, smartens them up enough to meet the public halfway and gets them a record deal. And George Martin.

George's contribution is immeasurable. The greatest contribution the Beatles made to society are their songs and recordings, neither of which existed before George got involved. They had a few, but Love Me Do was about the most advanced composition they had on hand and that was even rawer than the version we all know. The stories about them having a back catalogue of 100 songs were just that - stories.

Lennon and McCartney did not start writing in earnest till they had reasons, positive and negative. The positive was a record contract. The negative was the threat of having to record cheesy covers if they couldn't come up with anything better.

George Martin signed the greatest songwriters in the world – before they'd written any great songs. Why? Gut instinct. He felt they had a spark, some magic ingredient.

George then allowed them to be what they needed to be. He resisted cultural norms and hoped something new would fill the vacuum. He resisted the temptation to make Paul or John 'the leader' and the rest a backing band. He allowed them to write their own material. As they grew, he continued to allow them space to 'break the rules'. Again and again and again and again. Perhaps his greatest gift was his inability to say “no” to a musical idea.

George used his skills to fill in gaps in their abilities. At first, he arranged songs, produced (obviously) and played piano. Later, starting with Yesterday, he used his skills as an arranger not only to put dots on manuscript but to translate and bridge the chasm between pop and classical music. He used his experience in comedy, using sound effects and 'samples' from the Abbey Road archives to spice up tracks like Yellow Submarine and Sgt Pepper.

He provided a safe space to create away from the 'suits' in what was an incredibly stuffy and rigid studio system, doing the same for his engineers too – arguing successfully that the Sgt Pepper Grammy belong to Geoff Emerick not EMI studios.

George kept Lennon and McCartney to a rigorous release schedule – a new record every three month, insisting album tracks should not be recycled as single, which kept them writing, denying them time for naval gazing and second guessing and meant they were always developing and improving. Similarly he ran a tight ship ensuring that no matter how crazy the band became the studio was treated as a workplace, free from fans and hangers-on, where songs were recorded properly.

Lastly he imparted, almost subconsciously, many ideas from classical composition, development and harmony which John, Paul and George continued to use well into their solo careers. You can hear his influence in the harmonies of That Boy and Because, the intros to Can't Buy Me Love and Help and the wonderful arrangements of Eleanor Rigby and I Am The Walrus and many, many others.

Rest In Peace, George.

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Links

Guardian Obituary

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Yesterday And The Myth Of Inspiration

Songwriting is the closest thing to magic there is. No one understands it – even the people who do it. If you want to get theological, singing a song is the closest humans get to the divine act of creatio ex nihilo (creation out of nothing). Forget cleanliness, songwriting is next to godliness.

But if songwriting is a deep impenetrable mystery, what have I been doing here at Beatles Songwriting Academy for the last 5 years? If songs are things that just happen to songwriters why does anyone try to analyse it?

People who push the 'songwriting as alchemy' line usually wheel out this fact

Paul McCartney wrote Yesterday in a dream!

In a dream. In fact 'wrote' is often replaced by 'it came to him...'

Yesterday 'came to' Paul McCartney in a dream!

It might have 'come to' John Lennon or Keith Richards or Peter Asher or Mary Quant or Michael Caine or my Dad. But it came to Paul McCartney.

A message from the gods? A kiss from his muse? A belch from his subconscious? Who knows?

No one, that's who.

And if it came to him while he was snoring in the attic of Jane Asher's family how could Paul (or anyone else) make it happen again? It's magic. We might as well give up.

But I don't believe songwriting is magic. Inspiration is magic. Songwriting is a craft. Everyone, EVERYONE, gets inspired. But only a special kind of person can turn inspiration into a thing that can be shared with others. They're called artists. An artist who knows how to turn inspiration into a song is called a songwriter. The story of Yesterday proves it.

Because Paul McCartney didn't write Yesterday in a dream.

He wrote the melody in a dream. In fact he wrote the verse melody in a dream.

7 bars. 29 notes.

Dum dum dum
Dum dum dum dum dum dum
Dum dum dum
Dum dum dum dum dum dum
Dum dum dum
Dum dum dum dum
Dum dum dum dum

that's all.

What Really Happened

Rolling out of his bed he went to the piano and figured out the tune, and no doubt began harmonising it. But inspiration was already beginning to be replaced by perspiration. Though music theory remains a mystery to Macca he was bringing to bear a vast amount of practical experience in harmonisation.

Paul, unable to believe he hadn't subconsciously ripped off an old standard, played it to the Ashers, George Martin and anyone else who would listen asking if they recognised it.

Then came the dummy lyrics (the equally legendary “scrambled eggs, oh my baby how I love your legs”) and the bridge.

The bridge was pure craft – hammered away on piano during every break in the filming of Help! to the point of driving director Richard Lester nuts.

But still no lyrics. All McCartney knew was he wanted the opening phrase to have three syllable words. He started mulling them over driving to Portugal with Jane Asher. Staying at the villa of Shadows' guitarist Bruce Welch he fleshed out the lyrics. He didn't have a piano at his disposal - he didn't even have a left handed guitar - so playing a 'righty' upside down and Yesterday became a guitar tune. Rather than playing the song in F he detuned the guitar a tone and played it in G.

Back in London the song was ready to be presented to the band. But no one could think of anything to do on it, so it became the first Beatles 'solo number'. On the same day the band cut I’ve Just Seen A Face and I’m Down (14 June 1965) McCartney did two live takes and it seemed like the song was done, until George Martin suggested adding strings. Paul (thinking Mantovani) wasn't convinced but George (thinking Bach) won the day.

So here's a list of what 'came to' Paul in a dream

• The verse melody
• Some version of the verse chords

Here's what was the result of craft

• The full verse chords
• The bridge melody
• The bridge chords
• All the lyrics
• The guitar arrangement
• The string arrangement

The most recorded song in the world would never have been finished without craft.

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RIP Robin Williams

Robin dueted with Bobby McFerrin for George Martin's album In My Life

 

Triple Book Review: The Beatles In The Studio

Buy The Books 

All You Need Is Ears   Amazon UK     Amazon US
Summer Of Love   Amazon UK     Amazon US
Here, There And Everywhere Amazon UK     Amazon US

Check out more reviews and recommended resources by clicking on the links

10:27 Piggies (pt. 3) – Recycling On The Farm

Let's finish up our discussion of Piggies.

The highlight of the song for me is the way Harrison and Producer/Arrangers Chris Thomas and George Martin recycle and develop themes both large and small. Ticket 4 is in full effect -the intro, outro and solo are all fashioned from the verse melody - and the bridge, constructed from a three note melodic cell, is a primer in Ticket 9.

The intro is little more than the first 5 notes of the verse. The solo is largely the verse melody inverted and 'pedal-pointed' – the verse melody

C Db Eb C, Bb C Db Bb etc

becomes the solo pattern

Eb Db C Eb, Db C Bb Db

Things get really clever in the Coda. First, they restate the intro idea (1:42) before converting the major key tune into the minor (1:44). Then they restates the first bar of the melody exactly in the new minor key (1:47). But there's more clever stuff to come.

The melody finishes with a five note ascending harmonic minor scale (Ab Bb Cb D Eb) over a Bb to Eb chord progression (1:50). Though the Bb is 'out of key' it fits right in under the D note and having 'borrowed' Bb major throughout as the V of V ( Bb is the 5th of Eb which is the 5th of Ab major – the original key) it feels normal. But ending this way gives the impression we've changed key just in time for the final chord. Are we now in Eb major?

No. It's a false ending (Ticket 47) and the icing on the cake is yet another cadence (Eb, Ebmaj7, Eb6, Bb), this time IV – I in the final key of Bb (1:55).

So in the last few bars we changed key three times from Ab major to Ab minor to Eb major to Bb major! And none of it felt forced or disorientating. Genius.

Micro Recycling (Ticket 9)

In the bridge Harrison creates the opening melodic material from 3 notes, each a tone apart (Db Eb F)

F Eb Db F (in their sties with)

While the chords move up a tone, from Bbm to C7, the cell moves down a semitone

E D E C (all their backing). He extends the idea further in the second half

F Eb Db F – in their eyes there's
E D E C - something lacking
F Eb Db F – what they need's a

with the final line becoming an inversion of the initial cell (F Eb Db F becoming Eb F G Eb)

Eb F G Eb – damn good whacking

Pork Scratchings

There's plenty of other things to love here, both 'ticketed' and not

Though the melody is mostly comprised of chord tones the chromatic run up to III7 (0:45) is cheeky as is the fact that it leads to a ii rather than the more common vi or VI.

There's a nice contrast between the sections (Ticket 5) in the way the hooky harpsichord parts (Ticket 3) are kept for 'special occasions' and the bridge's effected vocals and stabbing keyboard chords. Madrigalism (Ticket 49) rears it's piggie head with grunting instruments (and sfx) throughout.

There's contrary motion (Ticket 12) at the end of the harpsichord solo (1:19) and with a 2:04 running time there's definitely no fat on this hog (Ticket 2).

There's an AABA 'no chorus' structure (Ticket 26) and we don't blow all three major chords early (Ticket 7) as you don't hear the IV till the bridge (0:51).

Lyrically good points abound (though verse 1 seem to contradict itself - surely things are getting better if clean clothes are provided?). We have parallel lyrics (Ticket 24) -

have you seen the little/bigger piggies and in their eyes/sties

internal rhymes -

lives/wives with knives

and there is strongly unified lyrical imagery (Ticket 54) because the song isn't really about pigs – remember?

I'll try to fit in one more Beatles song before the new year and a special video. But if I don't see you before then – HAVE A MERRY CHRISTMAS!

10:25 Piggies (pt.1) The Once And Future George Martin

Chris Thomas and George Harrison - pork curry?

Piggies is a dark children's ditty, a social commentary about class difference, and a song that inspired the Manson murders.

George Harrison began working on the track in 1966 - the same time as Taxman. And it shares the same dour cynicism that seems to be in Harrison's DNA. The year after it was released Charles Manson took the song as an incitement to murder and his followers used “forks and knives” as murder weapons daubing "death to pigs" in victims' blood on the walls. Understandably for some people this has tarnished the song. Ian McDonald calls the track an “embarrassing blot on [Harrison's] discography” referring to “misanthropy” and “the song's uncharitable karma” (p.317-18).

Walter Everett points out the "Orwellian comparison of pigs to socially horrid though outwardly refined tyrants”. Which comes through in an unused verse -

Everywhere there's lots of piggies
Playing piggy pranks
You can see them on their trotters
Down at the piggy banks
Paying piggy thanks
To thee pig brother

Pig Brother is watching you? The harpsichord was played by co-producer Chris Thomas, Ringo played tambourine and tiny bit of bass drum. Lennon's only contribution was editing a tape loop of pigs grunting.

Lennon grapples with analogue sampling

It was thought that Harrison provided all the vocals including the full-on bass vocal in the last verse but the 50th Anniversary edition reveals that John sang bass and Paul helped out with BVs. (What's up with all the bass vocals recently? Previous song Happiness Is A Warm Gun and next-but-one track I Will feature John and Paul, respectively, doing their best Barry White impression).

George Martin, contributes the wonderful string octet arrangement using the same personnel as Glass Onion (which was tracked at the same overdub session).

We're Not In Esher Any More

The most interesting thing about the genesis of this track is that difference between demo and final recording. Whereas Paul's I Will is a note for note recreation of the demo (apart from the odd flubbed lyrics) almost every aspect that makes so distinctive Piggies was added in the studio.

The song, as originally conceived, is a rustic, chirpy 'down on the farm' folk song complete with asthmatic whistling solo. The White album version is a faux-baroque song whose harpsichord and strings hint at 'Orwellian' grotesque characters. And that is all down to George Martin and the man he was grooming to be his successor - Chris Thomas.

But it started with an accident –

We were working in [studio] number two. I wandered into number one and found a harpsichord...we discussed wheeling the thing in...but Ken Scott said, 'No, we can't, it's there for another session!' So we moved our session into number one instead. George Harrison agreed that my harpsichord idea was a good one and suggested that I play it.

Chris Thomas (in Beatles Complete Recording Session)

Other changes

• The key changed from G (standard tuning), to Ab (played in D and capoed at 6th fret) - the high capo, along with the light vocal, gives it an innocent childish sound.
• Countryside ambience (birds chirping), pig sound effects, grunting celli and bass, and fussy, staccato strings conjure up self important pigs.
• The rising chromatic run before the III7 chord that leads into the bridge and the similar chromatic vocal line on “eat their bacon” that sounds like a hysterical dalek.
• The jokey blues fill (0:56) that is a call back to the cello fill in Yesterday (1:25)
• The pedal point solo that becomes celli/harpsichord duet
• The minor cadence at 1:44 (the demo ends blandly and badly on a sloppy Ab Eb Ab)
• The key change final coda (Eb Ebmaj7 Eb6 Bb).

The Beatles built a bridge between pop and classical music and you can see it in microcosm in the blues riffs played on a harpsichord and the laid back “one more time” followed by the uber classical cadence (and grunting pigs!).

We'll explore some of these great arrangement twist next time.

Background: thanks to Beatles Bible!

Under The Influence: Jim Carrey

The Beatles r the greatest antidepressant every created. Right now, I'm listening to Rubber Soul and bathing in serotonin. They r love! {8^• 

 Jim Carrey - Twitter

 

“Hey, look, the Monkees. They were a huge influence on the Beatles.” 

Lloyd Christmas (Jim Carrey): Dumb and Dumber (1994)

10:1 The Beatles (aka The White Album) Introduction

Personally Speaking

It's hard for me to be objective about The White Album (I know it's called 'The Beatles' but that's just going to get too confusing). It is forever linked in my memory with the C120 cassette my older sister had recorded it on and lent me. The fact it was on a C120 marked it out as A VERY SPECIAL ALBUM. I am sure that my love of out of key chord progressions is directly linked to repeated listens as a 10 year old. The chromatically rising 5th in Glass Onion, the descending I to VII in Sexy Sadie, the major to minor and back again movement in Piggies are hardwired into my brain and are as much a part of my musical DNA as they are for the men who wrote the songs. In contrast to Let It Be (a few good songs and a few funny bits) and Abbey Road (never heard the album till I started Beatles Songwriting Academy) I feel like this album is part of me.

That Difficult Ninth Album

When looking at the context it's crucial to understand that this is the follow up to Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. Since that watershed the band had produced several hit singles, an EP soundtrack to a critically panned TV special, contributed a few filler tracks to a film soundtrack (released after TWA) and a whole library full of unreleased atonal jams. But this was the Beatles finally back in album mode. The 'blank' cover was a very conscious reaction to the Pepper cover. Which means that, whatever it's shortcomings as an album, The White Album is possibly the greatest follow up to a world changing album of all time.

Context

It's well documented that this is the album where the Beatles started to break up but it's good to appreciate the level of fragmentation and loss that they were operating at.

This was, of course, the first album since the death of Brian Epstein. Prior to recording the White Album the band (especially Lennon and Harrison) had seriously entertained the possibility of quitting the music business to become full time disciples of the Maharishi. When that dream died the band started a major corporation instead and also opened (then closed) the Apple Boutique.

Lennon had a mental breakdown (proclaiming himself Jesus Christ at a business meeting), started a relationship with Yoko Ono, got divorced and Yoko suffered a miscarriage before they were both arrested on drugs charges. Feeling marginalised and unloved Ringo quit the band in the middle of recording (on the day Cynthia Lennon sued for divorce) returning two weeks later. Paul split up with Jane Asher after 5 years together. Long time engineer Geoff Emerick walked out due to the acrimonious working atmosphere and George Martin took a month long holiday in the middle of proceedings, leaving inexperienced producer Chris Thomas in charge. Even when George was around the increased workload of making a double album forced the band to work on several tracks at the same time and Martin's failure to be omnipresent further reduced his active involvement on the album.

Growth

Arguably The Beatles pushed more convincingly into different genres than any time before or since. They take a good stab at musique concrete, blues, folk and 1920's jazz while, at the same time recording a track (I Will) that could have seamlessly replaced And I Love Her on the A Hard Day's Night soundtrack.

Rishikesh

Whatever the effects of ashram living on the Beatles spirituality, mental health, long term relationships or digestion, spending a month in India writing songs was undoubtedly the secret ingredient in making The White Album such a triumph. It was the most preparation the Beatles ever gave an album. They even managed some preproduction, demoing 26 tunes.

Is It Really A Solo Album?

It's a common misconception that on The White Album the Beatles recorded separately, but with common purpose (rather like that rash of Kiss albums in the late 70's) – everyone working in their own corner of Abbey Road Studios. The facts don't bear this out.

The band recorded 19 Rishikesh songs*. All bar Wild Honey Pie were later demoed at George's house. Which means that the whole band had multiple opportunities to listen, critique and select most of the album tracks. 15 of the finished tracks feature the whole band including (surprisingly) Piggies, Rocky Raccoon and Honey Pie. In fact there are only 6 truly solo tracks and (surprisingly) I Will is not one of them. Of those 6 solo tracks, only two were written back in the UK.

In Conclusion

Yes, it's sprawling. Yes, it features Ringo's second best composition, and the presence of Ob-La-Di Ob-La-Da and Revolution 9 show that songwriting quality control was starting to become lax, but for the songwriter there are a million great lessons ahead.

Let me introduce you to Julia.

*The songs they dropped were Harrison's Circle, Sour Milk Sea and Not Guilty and Lennon's What's The New Mary Jane, Mean Mr Mustard, Polythene Pam and Child Of Nature (which later became Jealous Guy). And sadly, none of the guys wanted to touch McCartney's Junk.

The Best Of Let It Be (pt.4) - Let It Be

Just like I Me Mine, Let It Be contains extensive overdubbing done by George Martin rather than Phil Spector.

Past Masters

This is the single version recorded and mixed by George Martin. The master take (take 27-A) was recorded on 31 January 1969 at Apple Studios. McCartney played grand piano, Billy Preston played organ (switching between organ and electric piano sound – compare 1:45 with 1:52), Lennon on six-string electric bass, and Harrison on electric guitar. On 30 April, Harrison overdubbed a new guitar solo using a leslie effect. On 4 January 1970 He overdubbed another more distorted solo and Martin added brass and nearly inaudible cellos (last verse, panned right). Ringo and Paul added extra drums and maracas to verse 3 and Harrison, Paul AND Linda McCartney added BVs. This version uses the first solo (panned right) though the second faintly audible (centre). There is almost no trace of the original guitar track. Just after Paul sings Though they may be parted (1:06) you can hear someone (George Martin?) saying “stop it!” in the right speaker.

This was the version used on the 1967–1970 'Blue' album, 20 Greatest Hits and the 1 album.

Let It Be

Phil Spector's remix. He used the second more distorted and aggressive solo (with the first overdubbed solo still faintly audible – both are panned centre), cut the BVs except for the first verse, added delay to the hi-hat in the second verse and brought the bass and brass up in the mix. Just as in I Me Mine Spector 'copied and pasted' to increase length, this time extending the final chorus from twice to three times.

Let It Be Naked

Spector's reverb and extra chorus, and Martin's overdubs are all removed (except the backing vocals?). This is the same basic track as LIB/PM but with numerous edits flown in from other takes, most obviously notably the guitar solo, and there is even evidence of auto tune (listen to the first WORDS of wisdom – 0:21). The solo (from take 27-B) appears to have been lifted with the entire section not just the lead guitar track (compare the piano and drums). The guitar tone is similar to the PM version but the track is much cleaner as there is no 'shadowing' from other takes. Because much of the 'original' guitar tracks are removed there is no real 'build' in the last verse or penultimate chorus.

The whole track is much clearer sonically and seems tighter rhythmically (listen to the cool way Ringo swings the rhythm in the second chorus).

Anthology 3

A completely different version. Take 1 of the song (recorded 25 Jan) is bookended by studio chatter from Jan 31st (take 23) -

John: Are we supposed to giggle in the solo?
Paul: Yeah.
John: OK.
Paul: This'll...this is gonna knock you out, boy.

followed by more chatter from take 25 -

John: I think that was rather grand. I'd take one home with me. OK let's track it. (Gasps) You bounder, you cheat! (a reference to abandoning the no-overdubs/double tracking position that Lennon himself had advocated for Let It Be).

This is simpler and rougher version. No organ at all, and a repeat of verse one replaces the (as yet unwritten) final verse. Harrison is strumming chords on the last verse with a fairly clean leslie'd guitar tone and the drums drop out completely in the last verse. Lennon/Harrison contribute BVs.

The opening is hesitant, the tempo wobbles and there are mic pops throughout. Lennon phones it in on an out of tune bass, playing his trademark bored staccato bass parts. John may have joked about Ringo not being the best drummer in the Beatles, but Lennon's performances on Let It Be and Long & Winding Road definitely earn him 'worst bass player in the Beatles' award.

Film Version

Take 27-B, like 27-A, was recorded at Apple Studios the day after the roof top concert, along with Two Of Us and The Long and Winding Road. Though the audio to this version has never been officially released (apart from the guitar solo), this is the version used in the Let It Be film. The chorus lyrics end “there will be no sorrow, let it be” instead of “there will be an answer, let it be”.

Though there's nothing wrong with the overdubs they're not up to Martin's usual standard and LIBN really benefits from their removal and all the other cleaning up. LIB's solo gives the latter half of the track energy that the LIBN lacks, the brass sounds like a collection of individual instruments rather than single entity and the organ and BVs blend angelically (all of which I like). Anthology is yet another horrible rehearsal tape of historic, rather than artistic, value. And every version has that horrible bass slide at the end!

Verdict

There's really not much to chose between PM, LIB and LIBN but because of the sonic fixing I'd go for LIBN.


abbreviations

LIB - Let It Be
LIBN - Let It Be Naked
A3 - Anthology 3
PM - Past Masters

You have no idea how long this post took to research. I think I would have gone mad without What Goes On - The Beatles Anomalies List and Mix Online. I also would have gone mad without Wikipedia, but Wikipedia was also part of the reason I was going mad in the first place!

Still not got your head around the many solos? There's a special treat for you tomorrow - for a limited time only!!!!!

  

Let It Be vs Abbey Road

I guess the general consensus is that Abbey Road is a classic, though possibly underrated, album – a return to form even. Whereas Let It Be is a scrappy mess, a badly developed snapshot of a band drowning in dysfunction.

How you view them is further coloured by which one you think came first.

Did they end on a profound, but meaningless, high - their final message to their loyal fans “And in the end the love you take is equal to the love you make" or did they end on the roof of the Apple building, the song petering out and Lennon fatuously joking “I hope we passed the audition”?

My view (which I’d like to think is what you’re here for) is that they’re two sides of the same coin.

Both albums present a songwriting partnership that could no longer work together and a band running out of ideas. Old songs and incomplete fragments abound. This is partly why Harrison shines so brightly on Abbey Road. He’d never really been able to get anyone to work with him, so the lack of collaboration was nothing new.

The Difference

The reason they were such different albums can be answered in two words.

George Martin.

Let It Be was Lennon & McCartney’s vision. Macca to 'get back' to what the Beatles did best - being a live band. Lennon to do an 'honest' album 'with none of [George Martin's] trickery'.

The problem was that The Beatles hadn’t been a good live band for about 5 years. But undeterred they headed off to their jerry built '72 track studio' (!) while Martin (understandably) made himself scarce as the slow motion train wreck ran it’s course. Glyn Johns and then Phil Spector were left to sift through the wreckage.

Spector finally produced a workable album by abandoning Lennon’s original vision (which is something that often happened). But by then The Beatles themselves had admitted defeat, doing extensive overdubs on Let It Be & I, Me, Mine before Spector arrived.

Humbled by the miles of unreleaseable audio tape and a documentary film so embarrassing that the Beatles haven’t dared reissue it to this day McCartney went cap in hand back to Martin with the request to do an album 'like the old days'.

In The End

So then the difference between Let It Be & Abbey Road is what a great producer can achieve with a dysfunctional band and patchy unfinished material. Abbey Road is a triumph of the producers art and Let It Be...isn't.

Though there are some classic songs there, both albums are slim pickings for songwriters.

The long and winding medley.

Martin wanted to stretch the Beatles by pushing them into more classical style thematic development & recapitulation. Lennon wasn’t convinced, either ideologically ("that’s not rock and roll to me, George") or temperamentally (too much like hard work). The album was called Abbey Road because  the band were too lazy to go any further than the street outside to shoot the cover!

McCartney was a willing pupil, but all he had were unrelated fragments. Even some of the songs in the medley (e.g. You Never Give Me Your Money) were themselves collections of musical fragments. Maybe they could have done something on this kind of scale on ‘The Beatles’ or Sgt Pepper. But not now.

I’ll look at ‘the long one’ as a piece in it’s own right and a collection of individual songs but to be honest my conviction is that the medley isn’t really a unified piece of music at all and judging each part in it’s own right most of the songs don’t stand up.

Am I wrong? If you think I am, leave me a comment! I'm open to correction....

Watch the Fab Faux play The Long One here

Book Review: Summer of Love: The Making of Sgt. Pepper – George Martin

It’s tempting to think that the best accounts of the Beatles career are always going to be by those who were actually there. George Martin potentially stands out above all others because he was as close as it was possible to be, without being a Beatles, he WASN’T on drugs during the crucial period, he was and remains a fan and writes as a musician. But though this book is an enjoyable amble through 1967 it yields no great insight or revelation. Perhaps it’s the plethora of interviews Martin’s already given, perhaps because much of what he witnessed still exists on the Abbey Rd masters.

E.M.I. = English Misers Inc.

If you can filter out Martin’s purple prose the best parts are the pictures he paints of everyday life at Abbey Road where “legendary meanness was company policy” from the eternally padlocked fridge to the hard shiny toilet paper that was more suitable for making kazoos than wiping your bottom on. His descriptions of wrestling with archaic gear like the Mellotron (“a horizontal wardrobe”) and the home made frequency changer (“a Diplodocus-sized washing machine lookalike”) make you all the more appreciative of what he had to go through.

Life with Lennon

Speaking of trials, the book is revealing about his working relationship with John Lennon. Bringing Strawberry Fields et al to life were some of Martin’s greatest achievements but it was a thankless task. Lennon vision was massive but he had neither the skill, nor ultimately the discipline to bring any of them about. “I want to smell the sawdust”, “I want to sound like a Buddhist monk singing from the top of a mountain” and when presented with the technical impossibility of his demands, “Well George, I’m sure you can fix it”. How soul destroying then to be told by Lennon years later that “most of what the Beatles did was rubbish” and he wanted to rerecord it all. Though Martin is unfailingly gracious and forgiving that seems to speak volumes about Lennon’s high appraisal of his own gift and his lack of appreciation of Martin’s.

Nicely illustrated with some decent photos, this is a good book. Not worth going out of your way to hunt down, but pick up Summer of Love: The Making of Sgt. Pepper if you see it going cheap.

George, George & Michelle

Which George wrote the solo for Michelle?
Here's a couple of clips for you.

Have a great weekend.

Dissecting The Beatles

There was a great documentary on Radio 2 (UK) a long time back about George Martin. Waxy.org has 3 clips where you can hear the multitrack masters of

Come Together
She's Leaving Home and
A Day In The Life

pulled apart. It's facinating stuff.