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by Kenneth Womack


  But for George, beyond the music, the fanfare, and an enduring legacy that had already passed among the generations, the Beatles would always be “the boys,” a nickname that he had inherited from Brian Epstein. For George, they had been frozen in time as the “four fascinating, impossible, enormously talented, infuriating, adorable young men who changed all our lives.” Gifted and frustrating in the same breath, they were still the boys. For the bandmates, he was Big George in the studio. And in John, Paul, George, and Ringo’s more mischievous moments—when they would poke fun at the older gentleman with the posh voice and the prim and proper ways—he was the Duke of Edinburgh. But beyond that, in those instances when it really mattered, George Martin was the Beatles’ most steadfast and devoted friend.19

  Acknowledgments

  * * *

  A PROJECT OF THIS MAGNITUDE could not possibly come to fruition without the encouragement and support of a host of friends and colleagues. I owe special debts of thanks to Patrick Alexander, Steven Bachrach, Phil and Eileen Beard, David Bedford, Harry Burton, Lauren Caruso, Al Cattabiani, Eileen Chapman, John Christopher, Lynne Clay, James Collins, Kathryn Cox, Chris DeRosa, Grey Dimenna, Scott Erickson, Mike Farragher, Scott Freiman, Furg, Rob Geurtsen, Katie Kapurch, Karen Keene, Jason Kruppa, Mark Lapidos, Carmel Lee, Helen Lucas, Ed McKenna, Nancy Mezey, Jacob Michael, Laura Moriarty, Kit O’Toole, Michael Plodwick, Judy Ramos, Joe Rapolla, Stu Rosenberg, George and Kathy Severini, Jim Slevin, Joe Studlick, Chris Smith, Jay Sweet, Michael Thomas, Rich Veit, Kurt Wagner, and Rob Winston.

  A number of Beatles specialists, music scholars, and firsthand witnesses to George Martin’s remarkable story have shared their time and expertise on behalf of this project, including Malcolm Addey, Mitch Axelrod, David Bedford, Jim Berkenstadt, Gerry Buckley, Dewey Bunnell, Richard Buskin, Bun E. Carlos, Chris Carter, John Covach, Geoff Emerick, Walter Everett, Michael Frontani, Joe Goodden, Jerry Hammack, Piers Hemmingsen, Peter Hodgson, Laurence Juber, Donnie Kehr, Jude Southerland Kessler, Allan Kozinn, Howard Kramer, Aaron Krerowicz, John Kurlander, Denny Laine, Richard Langham, Jeff Larson, Spencer Leigh, Steve Marinucci, George A. Martin, Giles Martin, Gregory Paul Martin, Ken Michaels, Staffan Olander, May Pang, Donna Parsons, Bill Quinn, Russ Reising, John Repsch, Tim Riley, Robert Rodriguez, Bob Santelli, Ken Scott, Fred Seaman, Adam Sharp, Simaen Skolfield, Brian Southall, Bruce Spizer, David Stark, Al Sussman, Ken Townsend, Steve Turner, and Peter Vince. I am especially grateful, as always, to Mark Lewisohn, whose groundbreaking work and painstaking scholarship continue to benefit music historians around the world. As with Maximum Volume, this book simply would not have been possible without his lifelong devotion to getting the Beatles’ story right.

  I am thankful for the steadfast encouragement of my agent, Isabel Atherton, and my indefatigable publicist, Nicole Michael. I am grateful for the efforts of the folks at Chicago Review Press, particularly Yuval Taylor and his top-drawer staff, including Olivia Aguilar, Mary Kravenas, Julia Loy, and Michelle Williams. Special thanks are also due to Josh Rowe of the Independent Publishing Group and most especially to Helen Bowden and Emily Freer, Orphans Publishing’s dynamic duo.

  Finally, I am thankful, as always, for the love and support of my family—Fred, Jennifer, Andy, Becca, Peter, Tori, Josh, Ryan, Chelsea, Emma, Landon, Justin, and Mellissa—and especially to my wife, Jeanine, who makes all things possible.

  Notes

  * * *

  Prologue: Get Back to Where You Once Belonged

  1. George Martin, All You Need Is Ears, with Jeremy Hornsby (New York: St. Martin’s, 1999), 136, 180.

  2. The Beatles, The Beatles Anthology (San Francisco: Chronicle, 2000), 337.

  1: You Say It’s Your Birthday

  1. Keith Badman, The Beatles Off the Record: Outrageous Opinions and Unrehearsed Interviews (London: Omnibus, 2001), 188; Beatles, Beatles Anthology, 194; Kevin Ryan and Brian Kehew, Recording the Beatles: The Studio Equipment and Techniques Used to Create Their Classic Albums (Houston, TX: Curvebender, 2006), 402.

  2. Bob Spitz, The Beatles: The Biography (Boston: Little, Brown, 2005), 591.

  3. Martin, All You Need Is Ears, 224.

  4. Howard Massey, The Great British Recording Studios (Milwaukee, WI: Hal Leonard, 2015), chap. 3.

  5. “The Beatles at Shea Stadium,” Mix: Professional Audio and Music Production, January 12, 2017, www.mixonline.com/beatles-shea-stadium/429036.

  6. “The Beatles at Shea Stadium.”

  7. M. Clay Adams to Michael Adams, January 10, 1966, Beatles-History.net, www .beatles-history.net/beatles-shea-stadium.html.

  8. M. Clay Adams to Michael Adams.

  9. M. Clay Adams to Michael Adams; “Beatles at Shea Stadium.”

  10. Martin, All You Need Is Ears, 184–86.

  11. Martin, All You Need Is Ears, 140.

  12. Dominic Cavendish, “The 10 Worst Musicals of All Time,” Telegraph, February 13, 2015, www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/theatre/3672844/The-10-worst-musicals-of-all-time.html.

  13. Cilla Black, What’s It All About? (London: Ebury, 2003), 138.

  14. Black, What’s It All About?, 138.

  15. “George Martin in US for Material Hunt,” Cash Box, February 19, 1966, 18; “From the Music Capitals of the World,” Billboard, March 5, 1966, 37.

  16. Paul Du Noyer, The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Music (Fulham, UK: Flame Tree Publishing, 2003), 36.

  17. Martin, All You Need Is Ears, 189; Spencer Leigh, Love Me Do to Love Me Don’t: The Beatles on Record (Sleaford, UK: McNidder and Grace, 2016), chap. 5.

  18. Leigh, Love Me Do, chap. 5.

  19. Leigh, Love Me Do, chap. 5.

  20. Black, What’s It All About?, 136.

  21. Mat Snow, The Who: Fifty Years of My Generation (New York: Race Point, 2015), 36, 53.

  22. Lewisohn, Tune In: The Beatles—All These Years (Boston: Little, Brown, 2013), extended ed., 1:641; Snow, The Who, 53–54. For Martin’s affidavit, see the High Court of Justice Chancery Division, Group A, 1966 0. No.1000 in Orbit Music Company Limited v. Polydor Records Limited.

  23. George Martin, With a Little Help from My Friends: The Making of Sgt. Pepper, with William Pearson (Boston: Little, Brown, 1994), 6.

  2: “Why Can’t We Cut a Record Like That?”

  1. The Beatles, The Beatles Anthology (ABC, 1995), television documentary.

  2. The Beatles, The Beatles Anthology; Steve Turner, Beatles ’66: The Revolutionary Year (New York: HarperCollins, 2016), 229.

  3. Spitz, The Beatles, 599; Martin, With a Little Help, 16; The Beatles, press conference, Los Angeles, CA, August 24, 1966, The Beatles Interview Database, www.beatlesinterviews.org.

  4. Turner, Beatles ’66, 127; Spitz, The Beatles, 599; Tony Barrow, “Beatle Rumor Half True,” KRLA Beat, May 7, 1966, 1.

  5. Richard Williams, Phil Spector: Out of His Head (London: Omnibus, 2009), 142.

  6. Turner, Beatles ’66, 220.

  7. Turner, Beatles ’66, 128.

  8. Martin, With a Little Help, 46.

  9. Martin, With a Little Help, 46–47.

  10. Spitz, The Beatles, 599; Barrow, “Beatle Rumor Half True,” 1; Mark Lewisohn, interview with author, June 30, 2017; Geoff Emerick, interview with author, October 20, 2017.

  11. Barry Miles, Paul McCartney: Many Years from Now (New York: Holt, 1997), 218; Spitz, The Beatles, 597.

  12. Miles, Paul McCartney, 219.

  13. Martin, With a Little Help, 16, 80.

  14. Turner, Beatles ’66, 52; Spitz, The Beatles, 597.

  15. John Repsch, The Legendary Joe Meek: The Telstar Man (London: Woodford, 1989), chap. 11.

  16. Repsch, The Legendary Joe Meek, chap. 11.

  17. Geoff Emerick and Howard Massey, Here, There, and Everywhere: My Life Recording the Music of the Beatles (New York: Gotham, 2006), 110, 367.

  18. Emerick and Massey, Here, There, and Everywhere, 106–7.

  19. Emerick and Masse
y, Here, There, and Everywhere, 109.

  20. Turner, Beatles ’66, 62.

  21. Turner, Beatles ’66, 148.

  22. Turner, Beatles ’66, 141.

  23. Turner, Beatles ’66, 142; Miles, Paul McCartney, 291; Beatles, Beatles Anthology, 210.

  24. Emerick and Massey, Here, There, and Everywhere, 112.

  3: Every Sound There Is

  1. Beatles, Beatles Anthology, 206.

  2. William J. Dowlding, Beatlesongs (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1989), 78; Emerick and Massey, Here, There, and Everywhere, 8; Robert Rodriguez, Revolver: How the Beatles Re-imagined Rock ’n’ Roll (Milwaukee, WI: Hal Leonard, 2012), chap. 5.

  3. John C. Winn, That Magic Feeling: The Beatles’ Recorded Legacy, vol. 2, 1966–1970 (Sharon, VT: Multiplus, 2003), 8.

  4. Emerick and Massey, Here, There, and Everywhere, 9.

  5. Emerick and Massey, Here, There, and Everywhere, 10.

  6. Emerick and Massey, Here, There, and Everywhere, 10.

  7. Beatles, Beatles Anthology, television documentary.

  8. Mark Lewisohn, The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions: The Official Abbey Road Studio Session Notes, 1962–1970 (New York: Harmony, 1988), 71.

  9. Lewisohn, Recording Sessions, 71.

  10. Lewisohn, Recording Sessions, 71.

  11. Ian MacDonald, Revolution in the Head: The Beatles’ Records and the Sixties (New York: Holt, 1994), 169; Emerick and Massey, Here, There, and Everywhere, 112.

  12. Emerick and Massey, Here, There, and Everywhere, 113.

  13. Martin, With a Little Help, 83.

  14. Lewisohn, Recording Sessions, 72.

  15. Lewisohn, Recording Sessions, 72; Emerick and Massey, Here, There, and Everywhere, 137.

  16. Lewisohn, Recording Sessions, 72.

  17. George Martin, “Listen to My Story: George Martin Interview with Melody Maker,” interview with Richard Williams, Melody Maker, August 21, 1971, http://beatlesnumber9.com/martininterview1971.html; Martin, All You Need Is Ears, 259.

  4: A Rube Goldberg Approach to Recording

  1. Emerick and Massey, Here, There, and Everywhere, 114.

  2. Emerick and Massey, Here, There, and Everywhere, 114.

  3. Emerick and Massey, Here, There, and Everywhere, 115.

  4. Emerick and Massey, Here, There, and Everywhere, 116.

  5. Miles, Paul McCartney, 279; MacDonald, Revolution in the Head, 196; Keith Badman, The Beach Boys: The Definitive Diary of America’s Greatest Band, on Stage and in the Studio (San Francisco: Backbeat, 2004), 104.

  6. Lewisohn, Recording Sessions, 74; Emerick and Massey, Here, There, and Everywhere, 150.

  7. Badman, The Beatles Off the Record, 208.

  8. Emerick and Massey, Here, There, and Everywhere, 116–17.

  9. Lewisohn, Recording Sessions, 74.

  10. Lewisohn, Recording Sessions, 13.

  11. Turner, Beatles ’66, 154.

  12. Emerick and Massey, Here, There, and Everywhere, 111; Spitz, The Beatles, 605.

  13. Lewisohn, Recording Sessions, 74.

  14. Beatles, Beatles Anthology, 214; Lewisohn, Recording Sessions, 75.

  15. Lewisohn, Recording Sessions, 75.

  16. Maureen Cleave, “George Harrison: Avocado with Everything,” London Evening Standard, March 18, 1966, 8.

  17. Walter Everett, The Beatles as Musicians: Revolver Through the Anthology (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999), 49.

  18. Turner, Beatles ’66, 135.

  19. Lewisohn, Recording Sessions, 77; Everett, Beatles as Musicians, 46.

  20. Lewisohn, Recording Sessions, 77.

  21. George Martin, Playback: An Illustrated Memoir (Guildford, UK: Genesis Publications, 2002), 160.

  22. Turner, Beatles ’66, 164; Dowlding, Beatlesongs, 135.

  23. Badman, Beatles Off the Record, 228; Turner, Beatles ’66, 166.

  24. Steve Turner, interview with author, July 4, 2017; Emerick and Massey, Here, There, and Everywhere, 127; Lewisohn, Recording Sessions, 77.

  25. Emerick and Massey, Here, There, and Everywhere, 127.

  26. Emerick and Massey, Here, There, and Everywhere, 127.

  27. Lewisohn, Recording Sessions, 77; Leigh, Love Me Do, chap. 6.

  28. Turner, Beatles ’66, 169.

  5: Collective Madness

  1. Turner, Beatles ’66, 170.

  2. Turner, Beatles ‘66, 171.

  3. Paul Du Noyer, Liverpool, Wondrous Place: From the Cavern to the Capital of Culture (London: Virgin Books, 2007), 103; Martin, All You Need Is Ears, 186.

  4. Du Noyer, Liverpool, Wondrous Place, 193–94.

  5. Turner, Beatles ’66, 173.

  6. Turner, Beatles ’66, 174.

  7. Turner, Beatles ‘66, 175; Martin, All You Need Is Ears, 160.

  8. Martin, All You Need Is Ears, 160; Turner, Beatles ’66, 181.

  9. Martin, With a Little Help, 55.

  10. Beatles, Beatles Anthology, 207.

  11. The Beatles, press conference, Los Angeles, CA, August 29, 1966, The Beatles Interview Database, www.beatlesinterviews.org.

  12. Rodriguez, Revolver, chap. 1; Badman, Beatles Off the Record, 201.

  13. Winn, That Magic Feeling, 2:19.

  14. Lewisohn, Recording Sessions, 79.

  15. Emerick and Massey, Here, There, and Everywhere, 128.

  16. Emerick and Massey, Here, There, and Everywhere, 128.

  17. Emerick and Massey, Here, There, and Everywhere, 128; Lewisohn, Recording Sessions, 79.

  18. Beatles, Beatles Anthology, 207.

  19. John Wade, “Alan Civil,” obituary, Daily Telegraph, March 21, 1989, www.hornsociety.org/information-archive/151-hornplayer/hpn-info-archive/636-alan-civil-obituary.

  20. Lewisohn, Recording Sessions, 79.

  21. Wade, “Alan Civil”; Lewisohn, Recording Sessions, 79; Beatles, Beatles Anthology, 207.

  22. Emerick and Massey, Here, There, and Everywhere, 129.

  23. Turner, Beatles ’66, 178; Lewisohn, Recording Sessions, 79.

  24. Beatles, Beatles Anthology, 207; Miles, Paul McCartney, 289.

  25. Emerick and Massey, Here, There, and Everywhere, 128; Beatles, Beatles Anthology, 207.

  26. Emerick and Massey, Here, There, and Everywhere, 129; Lewisohn, Recording Sessions, 79; Mark Lewisohn, The Complete Beatles Chronicle: The Only Definitive Guide to the Beatles’ Entire Career (London: Pyramid, 1992), 222.

  27. Lewisohn, Beatles Chronicle, 222.

  28. Maureen Cleave, “How Does a Beatle Live? John Lennon Lives Like This,” London Evening Standard, March 4, 1966, 10.

  6: Abracadabra

  1. Lewisohn, Tune In, 1:638.

  2. Martin, Playback, 176.

  3. Gregory Paul Martin, interview with author, August 27, 2017.

  4. Martin, Playback, 176.

  5. Martin, All You Need Is Ears, 183; Louise Harrison, My Kid Brother’s Band: A.K.A the Beatles (Morley, MO: Acclaim Press, 2014), 40.

  6. Emerick and Massey, Here, There, and Everywhere, 118; Everett, Beatles as Musicians, 56.

  7. Emerick and Massey, Here, There, and Everywhere, 118.

  8. Emerick and Massey, Here, There, and Everywhere, 119.

  9. Lewisohn, Recording Sessions, 101; Emerick and Massey, Here, There, and Everywhere, 123.

  10. Lewisohn, Recording Sessions, 81; Emerick and Massey, Here, There, and Everywhere, 119.

  11. Lewisohn, Recording Sessions, 81; Emerick and Massey, Here, There, and Everywhere, 120.

  12. Lewisohn, Recording Sessions, 81; Dowlding, Beatlesongs, 139.

  13. Lewisohn, Recording Sessions, 81.

  14. Martin, “The Mojo Interview: Sir George Martin,” interview with Jim Irvin, Mojo, March 2007, 39.

 

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