George Martin..

Hello all,

how much of an influence (musically) has George been on the Beatles? I
am curious to know if the orchestral arrangements have turned some
tunes into classics, and how much the Beatlel's technical musical
knowledge has been influenced by George (take for example the chord
ending of "She loves you" - most uncommon for the times)

F Parella...

Just compare Let it Be to all the albums Martin produced...

Lookingglass...

I believe George Martin had an enormous influence on the
writing/arranging/performing of the group as a whole and individually on the
Lennon/McCartney partnership and on George Harrison too.

The Beatles had the performing experience already... though Brian Epstein
"polished" the image.

They had already written some songs when they signed on with EMI and
GMartin. GMartin came from a classical music background in recording, but I
believe he had an extensive musical education. Once the Beatles began to
record their own music, as well as covers, the "how to" part of their
arranging/recording. GMartin would probably offer suggestions as producer,
and the Beatles would ask questions of GMartin... a back and forth
experience. The Beatles, being aware of GMartin's knowledge and experience,
found a great source of musical information.

Perhaps that is the reason the Beatles are as popular as they are today. I
was only listening to "classical" music in the early 60's. I heard some of
the "popular" music on the radio, but it didn't interest my ear. When the
Beatles hit the world, my listening ears perked up... something in the
music/performance was different.

As I was thinking about this earlier, I came to the conclusion that the
Beatles music is so great because, it is music you had to listen to... by
that I mean not just dance music or background music to cruise by, but music
you intently, and deliberately listened to... like you would at a concert of
symphonic music. I remember waiting for every new Beatles record to hit the

DanKaye...

What you said...

radio... and every hit song was progressively better... better recorded, but
most of all, better songwriting and arranging... new instruments... and new
ideas about songwriting.

Every new song had something new "musically" to say... the harmonica in
Please Please Me...the chord that begins A Hard Day's Night... feedback in
I Feel Fine... jangly guitars in Ticket To Ride... not to mention Rain,
Paperback Writer, Strawberry Fields Forever, Sgt. Pepper... and all the
rest.

I know I paid close attention to the music... I really LISTENED to every
note...

Certainly the whole musical career of the Beatles was like a student/teacher
relationship with George as the ol' music professor.

... that's my 2 cents... ;^)

dave (...tuned to a natural E...)

Lookingglass...

...in my personal opinion, I don't think the Beatles would have gotten the
LUCY intro or the STRAWBERRY mellotron intro, or any of the many
"structural" aspects of music without GMartin's influence... the Beatles had
the "basics" down but not the sophistication that was brought to the music
as they recorded it together... the Beatles as performers and GMartin as
producer.

dave (...there's nothing you can do that can't be done...)

DanKaye...

I guess there will always be disagreement on this subject.
There is no quantitative way of measuring it and most of us weren't
there, so we really do not know; we only know what we read, and some
of us who were around at the time The Beatles were making their magic,
have some sense of what was going on in the studio, from reading
current articles and hearing radio comments, etc.

I still stand on the side that Martin had a tremendous influence on
the Beatles' music. He never did anything great on his own, because
The Beatles were the creative geniuses and Martin only helped them
accomplish what they wanted to accomplish. He was a great collaborator
who was just not quite up to doing anything great on his own. Nothing
wrong wtih that.

I think George Martin was the silent partner, the 5th Beatle behind
the scenes.

Lookingglass...

Well... George Martin produced the Beatles recordings... is that not
great?!?

dave (...like a lizard on a windowpane...)

Barbara & Wim Meijnen & Kombrink...

I don't think he had a large influence musically on the songwriting of
Lennon and/or McCatney. In the first years he must have been a cross
between a father-figure and an open-minded coach who had some great
advices (fastening up Please Please Me from an Orbison-styled ballad to
the breezy tune we know now). In the mid-period ('65-'68) he was the
advisor/arranger of the studio-trickery and had to deal with the strange
whishes of Lennon (who wanted to sound like 'An Orange' at some point)
and the high demands of McCartney. In that respect he was an essential
part of the studio-sound of the beatles and the only person who you

Olompali4...

could call The Fifth Beatle.<

Stu was/is the fifth Beatle.

Della Street...

Stu wasn't much of a Beatle. His lone contribution was a haircut.
Musically he was nothing but harm.

Martin on the other hand made more musical contributions than Ringo.

could call The Fifth Beatle.
Essential bits:
The String-arrangments for Yesterday and Eleanor Rigby
The atmospheric sound-effects for Being in the Benifit of Mr. Kite
The great arrangments for A Day in the Life
The She Loves You-ending was from George H., I read somewhere; it was
derived from a jazzy guitar-chord.