Beatles without George Martin

They still would have been very successful. George Martin was hugely important, but Lennon and McCartney (and to a lesser extend Harrison) wrote the songs, not Martin. What broke The Beatles were the beatlemania hits, helped by the band's fresh image. Martin produced the former, but let's not carried away, the production of those singles was excellent but not a work of genius.

 

I find it very hard to believe that if records like She Loves You or I Want To Hold Your Hand had a sound comparable to the early Stones or Kinks records, they wouldn’t have had the impact which they did….let alone the sound of the corresponding time-period albums.

 

They still would have written brilliant songs, and thanks in large part to the tenacity of Brian Epstein, they may have been just as massively famous, but the sound would not have been the same. George Martin was the perfect producer for them since he was also an enormously gifted pianist and orchestral arranger. He also encouraged their experimentation, and even encountered some initial opposition from McCartney over the string quartet on "Yesterday." It was simply one of the most cosmically fortuitous pairings of artist and producer in the history of recorded music. Of all of the people who were labeled "the 5th Beatle", Martin deserved it most of all.

 

I rather thought that George Martin was the musical talent

 

No, the groupie in Almost Famous

 

Yes, I'd considered that for all of two seconds but then it occurred to me there are a lot of great pop and rock bands which didn't owe their existence to The Beatles. I'd like to think SH would have still done what he does in the business and therefore...........

 

I think they needed Martin to facilitate their becoming something more than just another band from Liverpool. They could easily have faded after some success as British Invasion-era hitmakers, like many bands did, if they hadn't been able to become so ambitious in the studio. Did they have the chops to do that without Martin? I doubt it. They certainly didn't show the same artistic panache in their solo careers.

 

I hear that sounds peaceful.

 

It didn't birth anything.

 

Even as a tremendous lifetime fan, at times bordering on obsession, I was never one to support the ridiculous idea that if not for The Beatles, the sixties would have been some kind of artistic darkness. But I do give credit where I feel it's due...and when it came to the proliferation of self contained Pop and Rock bands, they were hugely responsible. That said, implying that forums such as this one would not exist (as I did as well)may be taking it too far. Along with other technologies, interest in recorded musical sound would have advanced and over time, discussions would abound as they do here....only difference , it may have been dominated by other musical styles and influences with a band we know as "The Beatles" never having existed.

 

George Martin was the conduit between the Beatles imagination and tape.

 

Hard to say. I Saw Her Standing There was pretty much the same at the Star Club before it was recorded. Some Other Guy was great live. Some nice unreleased BBC stuff too. He did add some very nice orchestrations to the music that managed not to be intrusive like some other bands. Not so much at the start though.

 

He did get them to get Ringo who was much better for the band, altho I think he would have been ok with Pete as a live drummer.

 

They may have been a bit like The Kinks, amazing songs which shine through DESPITE the awful production jobs delivered by the in-house Pye engineers. Plus, the arrangements of said songs would have been very different, and probably not as good.

 

George Martin was the 'school teacher', The Beatles needed all their lives. Without George and indeed, Brian, they were less certain.
George Martin was so important some obscure American novelist named himself after him.

 

That is a very good post. I think you have put your finger on something importang there.

 

Yes, in the beginning he didn't have to do much. But later on, he was the only one thinking about making a good record, and those records were what made the world notice the Beatles and has made them endure.

Look at the GET BACK film--without Martin to guide them, they were almost aimless.

 

A better example of what the Beatles would be like without George Martin are the BBC recordings. It's "The Beatles" ...it's good...it's rockin' ...but something is missing when you compare the EMI recording with Martin to the BBC recording from the same era.

 

He's not called The Fifth Beatle for nothing.

 

Exactly - George Martin played a pivotal role in getting them to that stature.

 

The arrangement of ISHST was of course, identical...but when it comes to records, textural aspects make all the difference, IMO. Studio oriented aspects which came along in later years aside , this is where Beatle records with Martin and Co. at the helm, were a cut above the sound of many Pop/Rock albums at the time.

 

...yes...a great studio recorded sound. My only issue with those earlier albums is the comparitive lack of bass.

 

According to what I've gathered from Jackson's Get Back film, Martin kept his input to a very wise minimum during those sessions; but when he did step in with an opinion, it was always spot on and to the heart of the given matter. This man truly connected from the very start as to what "the boys" were about and what was to their greatest benefit, artistically. One great proof of this was the Tug of War album all those years after the fact. Next to maybe RAM and BOTR, it's by far the most cohesive work from McCartney up to that point (and for many points to follow, actually).

 

Exactly - perfect synopsis.

 

I remember even as a kid always noticing how much better The Beatles sounded on the radio than other corresponding groups. It was always odd, even then to my young ears. Why did they sound so much better? Eventually I chalked it up to the vocals being mixed louder than others. This does seem to be true, but of course you had to have excellent vocals for that to be a plus. At any rate, even now it's somewhat mysterious why their recordings came out so much better than everyone else, but you have to say George Martin did play a major part in creating those recordings.