George Martin RIP

Oh, don't get me wrong, I fully understand the reasons why they quit touring, and I agree that they achieved some great things in the studio that they couldn't have possibly put together unless they'd had the time and focus to do so. I also agree that they never really stopped working as an ensemble, The Beatles in particular features a lot of ensemble playing, but the excitement and adrenaline rush that characterised, say, 'It Won't Be Long' and 'Any Time At All' begins to appear far less frequently, aside from the odd track like 'Helter Skelter' and 'Birthday' ... but I suspect even these would have benefitted far more from being performed by a band that had just come off the road, rather than by a band that hadn't actually played in front of an audience for a couple of years. While being in the studio helped some of their tracks gain a richness they wouldn't normally have had, I think their performances suffered a little from not having an audience to vibe off.

They also quit just as the industry started to come up grips with the sound systems needed for bigger crowds and venues

They actually played one show with a powerful sound system, and with stage monitors -- the first ever, supposedly -- in Atlanta in '65. The band raved about it, and Epstein offered the local soundman a job doing the Beatles' live sound (which he turned down):

http://www.cbs46.com/story/24667227/beatles-atlanta-65-the-most-memorable-show-of-the-tour

To be fair, though, it wasn't just sound issues that caused 'em to quit touring. By the time they got off the road in 1966, they'd been through enough threats to their safety that I'm guessing that this was the main reason, above all, that they stopped. McCartney seemed to be able to brush it off after a while, Lennon had no issues with performing live as a solo artist but thought the idea of performing with The Beatles again was "daft", and Harrison was undoubtedly the most burned out by it all.

the excitement and adrenaline rush that characterised, say, 'It Won't Be Long' and 'Any Time At All' begins to appear far less frequently

a lot of this is probably chemical. a lot of those early Beatles songs were written when they were popping speed pills. for a couple of years they had some insane schedules so maybe they kept that up to handle the work load.

While being in the studio helped some of their tracks gain a richness they wouldn't normally have had, I think their performances suffered a little from not having an audience to vibe off.

which, funny enough, is one of the reasons they quit playing live in the first place. they couldn't vibe off the audience bc it was just a wall of screaming. they couldn't even hear themselves!

Yeah, in '66 they played shitty in Japan, got manhandled and robbed in the Philippines, then had to deal with death threats from the Klan in the US. In that context, "I can't really hear myself" is a minor concern. Also, they'd already finished Revolver when they went on tour; going from their most positive studio experience to their most negative live experiences made the choice pretty clear.

xp

x-post:

Yeah, as I said, I'm aware of that I completely understand why they stopped touring, I just think there's an excitement in their work when they were a touring band which started to disappear when they weren't... I think McCartney, in a way, recognised this, which I suspect was one of the reasons he wanted The Beatles to tour again towards the end, but I think Lennon and Harrison were so soured by the experiences of touring in '66 that it put them off entirely.

I think that was the thing about the Get Back project, actually... most of the band didn't actually want to go back!

*and

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXF66qZgSR8

"Blue Jay Way" production is amazing, MMT has always been a magical sounding record to me. This is futuristic music? It is electronic sounding, almost like dark hip hop. Also that ambient mellotron intro which is featured at the end of "Flying" and fades into the BJW organ drone. So killer.

Maybe it is proto industrial? The intro feels a little like Throbbing Gristle.

When I first started seriously investigating the Beatles discography, I often found myself surprised by how Harrison managed to craft so many pop songs based on Indian classical music and/or drones. 'Blue Jay Way' is a fantastic example of this approach, and I too love the production on it... it's possibly the darkest•sounding psychedelic track the band ever did.

Also, I'm not much into the US configurations of Beatles albums, but expanding Magical Mystery Tour into a full-length LP with assorted 1967 singles and B-sides on side two was a stroke of genius, IMO. I'm glad they kept it that way when the 1987 reissues happened!

I've always thought that the Yellow Submarine/MMT/Lady Madonna sessions should have been released as one album. Would have been a nice cohesive mix bridging Pepper and the White album.

1. Magical Mystery Tour
2. Baby You're a Rich Man
3. It's Only a Northern Song
4. Flying
5. Fool on the Hill
6. Blue Jay Way
7. Your Mother Should Know
8. I Am the Walrus

9. Hello Goodbye
10. Hey Bulldog
11. The Inner Light
12. All Together Now
13. Lady Madonna
14. Across the Universe
15. It's All Too Much
16. All You Need is Love

The version of 'Across The Universe' on Let It Be is superior to the "wildlife" on Past Masters, but I don't think they ever did a decent recording of it. I think Lennon had a point when he criticised the way that song was treated.

For me, "Lady Madonna" is like the first definitively post-psychedelic period record, so it doesn't feel like it fits the on MMT or the Yellow Sub soundtrack. All the Yellow Sub songs are '66 or '67 recordings except for "Hey Bulldog," which kind of feels like it could go either way for me - on one of the psychedelic records or on the White Album. "Lady Madonna" feels like a White Album song to me.

Yeah, 'Lady Madonna' feels as though it would fit in snugly on The Beatles, without a doubt!

I've hesitated to jump into all the speculation/Beatles fun stuff in this thread (generally of high quality) just cause, y'know, RIP thread and all. But I'm only human, so: yeah, leave off Lady Madonna/The Inner Light and you actually have a pretty reasonable record there, and closer to a 'period' running time anyway. Heck, leave out All You Need Is Love as a standalone single, and finish with It's All Too Much... very good record IMO.

"Hey Bulldog" could easily have bumped "Glass Onion" and made its way onto the Beatles too. I always thought "Hey Bulldog deserved better than b-side treatment.

Yeah, but it was the first time Yoko had seen John at work in the studio with the Beatles, and he got somewhat embarrassed at doing something as silly as that.

I hate to be that guy, but Hey Bulldog was recorded three months before Yoko and John became a couple. She definitely wasn't attending Beatle sessions until the white album.

'Hey Bulldog' is definitely one of my favourites and I agree that it deserved better than just been snuck away on Yellow Submarine. It would have made an excellent single.

Anyone else watched Under the Volcano yet? It looks at George Martin's studio built on a remote Caribbean island in 1979 and is ultimately destroyed by a volcano. Lots of anecdotes provided by The Police, Elton John, Earth, Wind and Fire, Paul McCartney and Duran Duran. Fascinating if you can get past the colonialism.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nWf7_eXZ-bo

this always seemed like the New Jerseyof recording studios to me, wasnt brothers in arms recorded there?

gets a shout-out in the trailer! with a costanza-esque "and it didn't take me very long, either" aside.

Been watching this this am – have been interrupted a bunch of times and still have a bit to go but it’s definitely enjoyable.

Agreed. I stopped at the part where Nick Rhodes observes how tropical tranquility + Nick Rhodes are chalk and cheese.

Indeed that also describes the color of his skin.

All in all, I really enjoyed it. For all the colonialism stuff, Martin didn’t exactly abandon the island after he closed the studio. According to Wikipedia, it appears he did quite a bit of fundraising in the heads that followed.

Relatedly, I was a bit surprised there was no mention of Chris Blackwell’s Compass Point Studios which Alex Sadkin ran until he died in a car wreck in the late 80’s. Looking at their webpage, it says:

“But in 2010, several unfortunate local incidents occurred at or near to Compass Point Studios,
and both Blackwell and Manning determined that it was unwise to continue operations in The Bahamas.”

Does anyone know what those “unfortunate local incidents” were?