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A legend passes away.

George Martin

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Davedog Thu, 03/10/2016 - 17:08

He was my muse for recording. He was the reason I wanted to turn a tape machine on and print things to the acetate. He was the reason I searched and searched for that tone and edit point that made something....better.....

Without Sir George's input and diligence who knows whether there would have BEEN a Beatles........Not to mention the VAST discography that Sir George has left us to consider and enjoy. Jeff Beck, Mahavishnu Orchestra, Cheap Trick, America, Little River Band, McCartney and Ringo solo records even a James Bond Soundtrack.....He was a tireless worker. Lots and lots of compilations and best of and greatest hits...... And the experimental way he handled the Beatles sessions.....Would we have the kind of multi-tracking and huge variety of gear without the stuff he literally caused to be invented? And then there's the arranger.......Quartet of strings.....Acoustic guitar....cheeky lad singing a Pop-Perfect song......Yesterday and Eleanor Rigby are as much about Sir George as Paul. And for that I'm forever grateful and awed.

I miss him already. Just the fact that he's gone from this world saddens me.

R.I.P. Sir George.

Kapt.Krunch Fri, 03/11/2016 - 03:26

Davedog, post: 437031, member: 4495 wrote: Without Sir George's input and diligence who knows whether there would have BEEN a Beatles........ .

Definitely not the Beatles that they turned into. Who else would have indulged them so much?

John wants to 'fly around a microphone' for effect? Sir George says..."maybe we have a better way"...and gets EMI engineers to modify the Leslie.

They want "this sound"..."that effect"...and no gadget exists? "Let me talk to the EMI engineers".

Take a raw arrangement, tame it, strip some stuff out, add some stuff. "Now, then, lads...what do you make of THAT?!"

Realizing limited tracks available, but wanting many more, and knowing many were going to have to overdubbed onto another?

"We'll lose a bit of highs when these early tracks end up on the new tracks...so we need to compensate for that by making these tracks a bit brighter, and the brightness they lose will be near the brightness they need to be to still be "bright enough".

"WE NEED MORE TRACKS!"

"I'll ask the EMI engineers if they can figure out how to 'sync up' two of these".

"Let's get some horns in here, shall we try?"

"How about during this solo trade-off in "The End" we use vastly different guitar sounds?"

"I don't want to KNOW if you are abusing the studio recording equipment after hours to obtain sounds." (Wink, wink...)

Direction. New ideas. New production techniques. Composition. Arrangement. Bridge from the crazy thoughts of often-drugged lads, to reality in concept and innovation. Confidante. Biggest supporter of the group. Referee.

No, if the Beatles hadn't been fed up with touring and the ridiculous underpowered PAs of the time, and if Sir George hadn't been their producer to say "Yes...let's go experiment in the studio...we'll see if we can find a way to do anything you imagine".....if Sir George hadn't had his own brilliant ideas, and his own manner, and his own instinct...if it had been anyone BUT Sir George....

....the greatest Beatles works of all time, which ranks at the top of the charts of some of the greatest, most influential and world-changing musical works of all time, in ADDITION to some of the greatest technological advances in sound-manipulation that are simply taken for granted today...

...those Beatles would never have happened.

Not without Sir George Martin. And, Sir George Martin may never have (really) "happened"...without the Beatles.

R.I.P. You deserve every bit of accolades and respect.

Kapt.Krunch