Norman Smith: "Paul was the main musical force of the Beatles"

I ran across this comment by the Beatles first recording engineer Norman Smith. I mentioned this comment in a different thread but I wanted to go further and make this a thread topic. While I"m a George Harrison and John Lennon guy I wonder how true this is.

Norman Smith (who was The Beatles recording engineer from Please Please Me through Rubber Soul)

"I don’t want to take anything away from anyone, but production of the Beatles was very simple, because it was ready-made. Paul was a very great influence in terms of the production, especially in terms of George Harrison’s guitar solos and Ringo’s drumming. The truth of the matter is that, to the best of my memory, Paul had a great hand in practically all of the songs that we did, and Ringo would generally ask him what he should do. After all, Paul was no mean drummer himself, and he did play drums on a couple of things. It was almost like we had one producer in the control room and another producer down in the studio. There is no doubt at all that Paul was the main musical force. He was also that in terms of production as well. A lot of the time George Martin didn’t really have to do the things he did because Paul McCartney was around and could have done them equally well… most of the ideas came from Paul".

 

I think this is generally borne out by Geoff Emerick's memoir, too. I sure wish we had more documents like the "Think For Yourself" vocal recording session that has been bootlegged.

 

I'm not surprised to hear this. Alone of the three (main) Beatle writers, Macca seems to have had clear ideas about what he wanted and how to achieve it.

 

There is already a thread about this, and I wish to have a cite for this interview, because until i see some official prove by a reputable source i will consider it ********!!

 

I always thought he was, even when I was a kid.

 

He made the comment in an interview in the late nineties. His comments were reprinted in his obituary in Sound on Sound in 2008:

http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/may08/articles/normansmith.htm

 

Why do you find this so hard to believe?

 

He has a long history of this kind of thing around here.

 

Heh...good point!

 

Interesting that Mccartney never did anything close solo to what he did with the beatles while both Lennon and Harrison at times exceeded what the beatles did.
It was a group effort.

 

Like there's not an equally "long history" of inflating and exaggerating Paul's contributions to the Beatles "around here"....

 

I've seen the quote the OP posted numerous times. I know it was pre-1986 because it appears in a book - McCartney by Chris Salewicz - which was published in 1986. In fact, that book contains a number of extensive direct quotes from Norman Smith making the same point.

As was noted above, this is consistent with Geoff Emerick's description of the way things were in the studio. I'm pretty sure it's Emerick who says that Paul had much more of an effect on John's songs than vice versa because Paul came in knowing exactly what he wanted to do with his songs. John's songs generally came in in a more unfinished state.

Although George Martin bends over backwards to be even-handed it is clear from what he's said in his books and interviews that he feels the same.

I know Goldman's book is widely hated, but his description of the Sgt Pepper sessions is based on interviews with people who were actually there, including Barry Miles, Robert Fraser, and John Dunbar. According to Goldman's description of the action, it does sound as if Paul played at least a co-producer role during these sessions.

I also remember a statement by Chris Thomas, who did some producing of the Beatles toward the end. I can't put my finger on the exact quote but it was along the lines of 'Paul was the musical genius. John's genius was something else entirely.'

Norman Smith died recently. He had decades to refute these widely circulated quotes but I've seen no evidence that he did. And his opinions seem to be consistent with many others who were there.

 

I would be interested to know specific songs that you think exceeded the Beatles catalog. Not judging, just curious.

 

What, I have a long history of not believing something i read on an internet forum? or do you mean something else??

I wish to know if it is words from Norman Smiths mouth? or is this an exagerated quote by a Macca fan/writer- there is a lot of crap writen about The Beatles which is sensationalised lies to sell a book ie like John was Gay etc, and that quote could just be another way to sell some tabloid type Beatles book, so thank you for posting the source His Masters Vice?

 

This is ironic, since most books say that George and John pretty much produced their own early albums after the Beatles broke up, even though Phil Spector is credited for the work.

 

What's ironic about it? They didn't have Paul to produce them anymore so they had to do it. Phil was running on fumes by that point.

 

I personally think that pre-1965 the producing was done by the producer ie Martin etc and then after that the individual Beatles would produce there own sessions, i still can not see Macca producing 'Within You Without You' or telling Harrison what to play on 'While My Guitar Gently Weeps' - Maybe Macca was the first to produce his own session post-1965 and so thats how it is remember by Norman Smith because he ended his engineering duties with The Beatles after 1965 - because I believe he was fed up with the arguing and them not listening to him, so it sounds like he has lots of faith in McCartney's producing abilities?? This Quote cited here IMO may only be published because Sir Paul is still alive to give him a boost and the publicity because he is still making music ?

 

I used to own the Salewicz book when I was in my teens (I no longer have it though) and I remember it was distinctly ANTI-sycophantic, and was less than forgiving to some (and indeed, many) of McCartney's musical and personal decisions throughout. If anything was quoted as being pro-him, I think it was put in in complete fairness and honesty, because there were just as many negatives reported and quoted to even the balance out.

BTW I only found out the other day that Norman Smith was Hurricane Smith. I'd never even thought to look up the connection before I heard there was a small feature on BBC Radio 2 the other weekend, which I missed by the time I was able to find a way to hear it, unfortunately (and the show in question didn't seem to be available on iplayer either).

 

he's not saying that Paul could tell Lennon what to do, he's just saying that Paul was the conductor on the studio floor and only up through Rubber Soul at most. This doesn't seem all that sensationalist to me.

 

And he made it to the Tonight Show thus:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJdkCs5RdQg

In the interview following this performance he said that Paul McCartney was bigger than God.

 

Although to be fair written and spoken reports, and recorded out-take evidence all point to Lennon as being the one always keen to get the takes started and to stop the others chattering and tootling around with their instruments in-between takes - you know, the famous "go on" or "come on" calls at the start of many early takes?

I see Paul as being the one who provided the voice of calm planning and order, with John being the one to say to everyone "OK, now we know what we're doing, let's DO IT". I think he only really felt compelled to try and innovate by Lennon's presence. I think Paul's work suffered in a way after the Beatles from not having that someone to give final impetus and 'rubber stamping' to whatever he'd put forward and, will all due love and respect to Linda, I think she probably gave Paul approval in such a laid-back and relaxed way (as a loving spouse would do, naturally) that it didn't really lend the same urgency to proceedings. That fitted in with Paul's newfound desire to not have to worry about pleasing everyone all the time, which all the Beatles went into during their early solo careers.

 

Silly thing to have on your record when you're entering the Pearly Gates.

 

I am no Macca apologist, but it sounds like here that you doubt
Macca is worthy of praise simply because he outlived his two bandmates!

If Paul quit the music biz, how long would it take you to
start cutting him some slack, two years? Five years? Never??

 

I believe that is the irony. Somebody please correct me if I am using irony wrong here.

 

In the bonus DVD that came with the deluxe edition of Chaos and Creation, Paul sits down at a Mellotron in Abbey Road and plays the famous "flute" intro to "Strawberry Fields," which one has to presume was his contribution to that song. All available evidence points to McCartney embellishing Lennon songs with little instrumental touches like that far more often than Lennon did the converse.