A few months back I wrote about the good life. No, more than the good life, the fantastic life, top of the world, and how it might be enjoyed in Manhattan mid 20th century, by a star having life by the tail, living in tall cotton or deep clover.
That was a joie de vivre forged in talent and brawn, but there’s another so fleeting it barely happened and, as wonderful as life became, the crucial bond wasn’t forged on the musical genius that sustained it but on the most tenuous of connections: a shared sense of humor, and of charm.
I grew up a Beatles fan and, like most, was focused on the fab four rather than on those around them, until I heard an NPR interview with their producer George Martin in the late 90s that revealed how influential he was. That everyone else had turned them down before Brian Epstein took their demo to Parlophone is an old story; Martin admits he had no idea everyone else had rejected them and wouldn’t have signed them had he known. *Amazing*
Plus, he didn’t care much for their music. (Beyond amazement, that kills me.)
Epstein was so enthusiastic, Martin agreed to meet them, and it was their personal charm that actually won him over to the point that he would take a chance on them if only …
(bang fist on desk, laugh at ceiling, bang fist on desk again)
if only he could find them some music.
Yeah, that duo, Lennon-McCartney, with Harrison thrown in, creative paupers that they were, if only someone could find them a tune.
But the real brilliance of the interview was in how Martin described working with them in their early years. How each song added something new, they became more polished, growing more confident in creating their sound. And the NPR producer did a great job here, too, because as Martin describes recording Love Me Do and Please, Please Me, they play snippets of those songs in the background. As he progresses through the early hits, Twist and Shout, She Loves You, If I Fell, A Hard Day’s Night, on and on, with that infectiously joyous soundtrack in the background, each rapturous song building on the success of the last, Martin spoke of how their sales and fame grew bigger and brighter. You hear how he helped create something new and fantastic; he finally sums it up by saying, “and I couldn’t believe my luck.”
Indeed.
Can you imagine? Being George Martin, well-educated, genteel record producer in London mid 20th century, mostly known for comedy albums (such as Peter Sellers), but also knowledgeable and conversant in music, and having the the scruffy young John, Paul, George and Pete (then Ringo) land grinning in your lap?
For, beyond talent and fortune, it was symbiotic. Rock and roll had been “primitive tribal dance” music, as the experts dubbed it pre-Beatles, and they excelled at those dance tunes, too, but John, Paul and George working with George Martin stretched the musical canvas in ways it had never been stretched before.
Of course there was a whole cultural phenomenon going on, and they were riding that wave.
But riding it for them meant staying at the fore, and Martin tells how McCartney heard instruments he liked on a telly program and wondered about them, so Martin got him those French horns. And when Harrison was intrigued by the sitar, Martin delivered and incorporated its music. As creative as they were, it was Martin’s expertise and creativity in all these new instruments that helped propel them to a new sound, even a new musical genre.
Although numerous other musicians played on their albums, from the most obscure to Eric Clapton playing lead on While My Guitar Gently Weeps, they weren’t credited on the album covers (since then it has become routine for guest musicians to be credited). The only “guest musician” I know credited on their records is George Martin, playing the harpsicord on Rubber Soul.
Yeah, Martin couldn’t have done it without the Beatles, but they wouldn’t have done it without Martin, either.
And as I listened to his clear, distinguished voice, I thought about what it must have been like to be George Martin in London in the early 1960s, and to live a life where you could not believe your luck.
I can’t think of a life that could possibly be more fun — for even the Beatles themselves became prisoners inside Beatlemania, trapped inside the PR machine. Martin, meanwhile, everyday he went in to work he had a hand in creating that sound and winning that acclaim.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah!
Is there anyone whose life you’d like to live? Anyone whose life you’d most want to see and experience yourself, firsthand?
OmbudsBen 
There is something strange (to my mind) about this post. I sometimes see is said that music is rapturous but I don’t see any further description of the rapture. I see a description of people agreeing about some stuff and not agreeing about some stuff. To be sure the doings of the people are interesting. In any event, I wonder why this is? Is it that the music is such a good description of the rapturous experience that using words is pointless?
Well, rapturous is an adjective. In and of itself a descriptive word. I suppose you can add further modifiers to describe something — if you say the sky is blue you can further define it as slate blue or sky, midnight, or dark blue or some such. Maybe I chose the wrong title, and should have said something about Martin, instead.
The post wasn’t about their music, beyond the surface, it was about the making of it, giving credit, and considering how wonderful it must have been to be George Martin and be able to do that work.
Fair enough. I think I was a bit vague in what I meant. I have a bigger thing to say about it so I’ll write a post that expresses what I was thinking later this week. I’m thinking it will happen Wednesday. And then you’ll see just how truly bonkers I am.
We haven’t already?
*wink*
And, really, isn’t there anyone whose lot you’d like to experience? Per the question posed?
I think I’d most like to find out what it is like to be me.
I seem to have run into a bit of good luck on that count.
Oh, never intended it as *not* finding out “what it is like to be me”, the ongoing process each of us has of becoming ourselves.
I meant it more like watching a movie, filmed from their p.o.v. Guess I should have said it differently (besides–there’s no getting out of your own biopic, without ending production, is there? *grin*)
It’s been said that George Martin was the fifth Beatle, and I’m inclined to agree. I think he sometimes over-orchestrated on some tracks, but mostly what he added was just right.
What an interesting question…
The first name that comes to me is Dorothy Parker. I know she led a more than somewhat troubled life but her experiences at the Algonquin must have been quite amazing.
And yes, based on personal experience, one could refer to music as being rapturous. If it indeed had that effect on you.
Possibly not how it is usually used, but what the heck.
Cool post. I’m gonna read it again.
p.s. I always wanted to be Han Solo.
Azahar, it’s too brief and perhaps even too glib a slice, but have you seen the movie Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle?
I saw it years ago, have seen bits of it on TV since, and we have it way down in our Netflix queue, so my wife can see it.
While in New York a couple years ago we stopped at the Algonquin Hotel to see where they met and drank. It was nice and cozy (they prefered it because it was easily accessed from where they worked, via corridors) and given NY prices didn’t gouge overly much, either. I was surprised at how small the room was.
It’s a good movie, for the dialog if nothing else. What an amazingly fast mind. I can’t imagine thinking of, let alone retorting, “pearls before swine” so quickly to the tittering cut “age before beauty”; or, if I did think of it, it would be about an hour later. (There’s a word for that: Trepverter.)
Amuirin: but you already are Han Solo, dearheart. It’s just your supporting cast, crew, and set designers who occasionally let you down.
No, I haven’t seen the film, but I’d like to. Who is the actress that plays Dorothy? I’m hoping it’s the same one who played the fast and smart talking newspaperwoman in The Hudsucker Proxy.
One of my favourite DP quips is “You can lead a whore to culture, but you can’t make her think”. 🙂
Jennifer Jason Leigh; yes she was in both, which were both filmed in ’94. I don’t know enough about Parker, the person, to know how well Leigh captures her, but you very much get a sense of the rapier wit and the razor tongue.
Re whores and culture: brilliant. How does anyone come up with such wonderful plays on words, which capture the original wisdom while doing the one off even better?
YES – that was the one. She also played DP in the film? Fabulous! Because I know she would be perfect.
About 15 years ago I read a biography of Dorothy Parker – cannot remember the name of the author. Anyhow, it was very well written and told about her life in a very sympathetic manner. I suspect she made a few enemies in her day, but she was just a girl from somewhere who ‘made it big’ … that’s the impression I am left with. And goddam but she could turn a phrase and be so bloody witty that it would leave others left standing with their mouths open. She was quite an amazing person.
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