George Martin RIP

If the question was about why this is getting less notice than Bowie's passing, that seems like a reasonable answer to me, tbh.

(I don't even count on music tech students to know the names of major producers when they come in.)

I'm wtfing at George Martin, a trained oboist and piano player and string arranger, wasn't a musician.

If only flappy bird would come over and post some silliness on the 'Mats thread to unite the crowd which is otherwise currently involved in a little narcissistic of small differences tiff over what songs are good and bad on Don't Tell A Soul.

Oh, yeah, I'd definitely call him a musician (and this is definitely getting more coverage than the deaths of most trained oboists and piano players and string arrangers).

x-post to Tom:

I'm very much in the UK! I haven't seen how the BBC have been reporting it, but knowing the BBC I would have expected them to give this quite a great deal of attention and I suspect they have. The reaction of the British media was not what I was talking about, though. I was mainly talking about discussion on here and elsewhere amongst dedicated music fans.

maybe cos the works most people know Martin from are mostly from a 6 year period

Reminds me of a a similar eye-rolling moment when a guy I was in band with said to the owner of the rehearsal studio, "oh, you're a musician too?

A lot of dedicated music fans don't really care about the Beatles though. (xxp)

(xp) nowadays it's all about owners of rehearsal studios saying to guys in bands, "oh, you're an engineer too?"

lol

what is a dedicated music fan and where do i apply

You seriously never had a Beatles phase, Tom?

I mean, okay, at this stage I've heard Beatles stuff so much that I don't really need to listen to it anymore, but I can still acknowledge the great work Martin did even though I'm tired of it. I mean, the guy produced 'Tomorrow Never Knows'!

feel like i've seen the same (5 Beatles songs that George Martin made his mark on) article a dozen times by now.

they all talk about him doing the tape loop stuff in Mr. Kite but nobody seems to mention that btw he was also playing along with the Beatles on all the live takes, which meant playing a harmonium, which is a hand-pumped air organ, requiring you to constantly pump air otherwise you get no sound at all.

let's see your "non-musician" put up with 4 hours of that.

Martin's harmonium part on 'The Word' is the best part of the song for me!

yeah dude was laying down drone rock a year before the Velvet Underground

Isnt that a farfisa on the Word...?

You seriously never had a Beatles phase, Tom?

Not sure why anyone would be surprised by that.

Because he was 90, and a producer, not a musician.

― flappy bird,

are you fucking kidding me

― The burrito of ennui (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, March 10, 2016 4:16 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

that's the public perception - i know how important he was and how much he played on Beatles' records. Should've clarified. Feathers were ruffled.

Should've said he wasn't a performer.

Isnt that a farfisa on the Word...?

― Οὖτις, Thursday, March 10, 2016 5:21 PM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

according to Lewisohn it's a harmonium.

B-b-but what does he know?

W that bright overdriven tone? Huh

It's credited as a harmonium on the record sleeve!

That is the one album i do not own a physical copy of tbf

there are also the actual session notes printed to the right of that claim in pg. 68 of "Complete Beatles Recording Sessions".

you can find the book in full for free on a Peruvian Beatles site. not gonna link it though, use your google.

As an aside, I maintain that Rubber Soul sounds the best in its mono version. That's the way that I first heard it, and it sounds really thick and punchy in mono. I remember being sorely disappointed when I heard the stereo mix, because it sounded less powerful to me.

There's two stereo mixes: the original, and a digital remix Martin did in 1987 for the CD. Haven't compared them back-to-back myself, but the '65 stereo sounds decent (prefer mono, though).

Martin did the same with Help!.

Guys i believe u no need to freak out

not sure if they were still working this way as of rubber soul, but in the early days they spent their time on the mono mix, since that was considered the main version, and then they would toss off a stereo mix as an afterthought in a matter of minutes. which has a lot to do, presumably, with why their mono mixes tend to sound better.

Maybe you guys could help with this: a while back on one of the Beatles threads somebody shared some YouTubes of some taped sketches from a British comedy show that were about "What If The Beatles Never Took Drugs", showing them as old men still in the grey suits and playing Merseybeat songs. They were pretty funny, but I've had a hard time finding them again (taken down perhaps?).

Oh man yeah i remember those

x-posts:

The mono is the primary mix up until and, yes, including Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. Stereo was the primary mix from The Beatles onwards.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SgnaAiAi1Pk

The mono version of SPLHCB is fucking revelatory....it's like, Oh! This is what this record is supposed to sound like

for some reason i watched The Rutles again today and was in absolute hysterics for much of it.

Trivia question for y'all: what is the name of The Rutles equivalent of George Martin?

to whoever it was that said the Big Train sketch was 'affectionate' yep yr right:

Kevin Eldon ‏@ItsKevinEldon

Thank you Sir George Martin for your wonderful life that gave ours so much joy.
We love you and we'll never forget you.
-KE

The mono version of SPLHCB is fucking revelatory....it's like, Oh! This is what this record is supposed to sound like

― Iago Gladstone, Thursday, March 10, 2016 6:51 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Yeah I hadn't heard it until like three years ago. The vocals on Lucy in the Sky are incredible, all that flange.

late to this thread, but yeah, massive respect to Sir Martin. As a musician, I wish I had a George Martin. Imagine someone whose entire M.O. was making you sound good, better than you had any right to sound, translating all your wildest ideas into viable, effective arrangements-- and who btw happened to know all the best classical and session players, should you ever want, say, a piccolo trumpet solo on your psyche pop track (which happened to utilize a chain of 4-track recording modules you didn't even realize was possible, much less available). Not to mention, WAY more emotionally stable than Phil Spector. RImfnP

xpost - and yeah, he was obv a fine musician. Never mind his piano playing, you don't write string arrangement like the one on Eleanor Rigby without a DEEP knowledge of not just basic orchestration, but aesthetic nuance (eg writing in the vein of Bartok and Herrmann, as opposed to slapping together 4 lines and calling it a quartet).

^^^real shit

Yup

glumdalclitch: That's It! Thank You!

As an aside, I maintain that Rubber Soul sounds the best in its mono version. That's the way that I first heard it, and it sounds really thick and punchy in mono. I remember being sorely disappointed when I heard the stereo mix, because it sounded less powerful to me.

― // 166,000 W A N K E R S // LOVE (Turrican), Thursday, March 10, 2016 2:48 PM (6 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

There's two stereo mixes: the original, and a digital remix Martin did in 1987 for the CD. Haven't compared them back-to-back myself, but the '65 stereo sounds decent (prefer mono, though).

― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Thursday, March 10, 2016 3:12 PM (5 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Martin did the same with Help!.

― Now I Know How Joan of Arcadia Felt (C. Grisso/McCain), Thursday, March 10, 2016 3:17 PM (5 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I had forgotten that the official stereo versions of both albums are now the '87 mixes. I've got the Help! CD, but not sure I ever heard the Rubber Soul and it is sounding really nice on the Spotify right now. Compare with the archaic sounding stereo mixes of "Paperback Writer" and "Rain" on Past Masters.

"Paperback Writer" stereo was apparently done for A Collection of Beatles Oldies and "Rain" was done for Hey Jude.

archaic sounding stereo mixes of "Paperback Writer" and "Rain" on Past Masters

Or "Eleanor Rigby!" Compared to how it sounds on Yellow Submarine Songtrack...

they better curate the music for his funeral just right. send that man off with a dope orchestra imo

also sidebar, the remix stuff he & his son did for the Love thing in Vegas was kinda great

Or "Eleanor Rigby!" Compared to how it sounds on /Yellow Submarine Songtrack/...
--timellison

The "Love" album SOUNDS so good !
it made me enjoy songs I never liked before ("Back in the USSR" for instance).
And the version of "While my guitar" with strings is lovely.