Beatles scholar Martin Lewis is a longtime friend of Sir George Martin. He served as consultant to Sir George on his “In My Life” album. In the wake of the current nostalgia for record releases that he feels tamper with Sir George’s work, Lewis has written a short ‘monograph’ in defense of his friend and has titled it after Sir George’s autobiography – “All You Need Is Ears.” It is available exclusively on this site.
The loving affection of American
fans for the Beatles is something ALL Beatles fans worldwide cherish. They are
numerous because America is numerous.
They are passionate because Americans are passionate. And perhaps we must forgive them their zeal
in worshipping false idols and cheesy mixes.
Nostalgia is a powerful intoxicant - and leads to rationalization. And to baby-boomers listening through
rose-tinted hearing aids…
But the facts are that the Beatles
(unlike the Stones) never recorded in America. Never used an American producer to RECORD them as a group. It is telling that the only two Americans
who have "production credits" on Beatles recordings - Capitol's Dave
Dexter and Phil Spector (the former being self-appointed) both fundamentally
misunderstood the quintessential Englishness of the Beatles. And slathered effect where there was
subtlety. Only George Martin truly
understood how to present the Beatles musically and sonically.
In 1964, George Martin had been
rightly horrified by the temerity of Capitol changing the sound of early
Beatles recordings without even the courtesy of seeking the Beatles' permission
- and doing it so BADLY. Rather than
allow Capitol to again molest the Beatles’ newest recordings with their tawdry
cheap effects - he succumbed to pressure from Capitol in 1964-5 for
"stereo mixes" and hastily dashed off a few crude stereo mixes to
appease the hungry machine. Mark
Lewisohn’s “Sessions” records how little time and thought was put into those
stereo mixes for Capitol.
But
when given unlimited time and resources to present the Beatles catalogue for
posterity on CD in 1986-7 - he consulted with the three surviving Beatles and
they all agreed that the only TRUE representation of what they had created deep
in the heart of England in those magical early years were the mono
masters. Hence the wise decision to
issue those first four real albums in mono.
In
1964/5 the innate, graceful beauty of the Beatles’ catalogue as created by
George Martin was put in an American blender to satisfy financial
considerations and brutish ears. A
Capitol Offense indeed…
American baby-boomers only heard those crude color Xeroxes of the Beatles and so brilliant was the material beneath – they fell in love with them. Even though they were actually true beauty covered in slut makeup.
Twenty
years later they heard the originals on CD and discovered that the actual
recordings were even more beautiful than the tarted-up versions they fell in
love with.
But human nature being what
it is – those aging baby-boomers now express a yearning to have what amounts to
a mid-life crisis fling with the garishly-made-up teenybopper of their fading
memories. It’s understandable. But it doesn’t make it right.
C'mon guys! She was a primitive aural equivalent of a “fumble and
grope” that belongs in your "American Graffiti" dream-world.
You're grown-up now. You ought to be able to tell the difference between
lust and love, between easy and special, between cheap and classy, between
one-night-stand and lifelong lover. Between Dave Dexter and Sir George
Martin....
George Martin, the gentlemanly genius behind the Beatles recordings to whom we true Beatles fans owe so much - put it best with the title of his autobiography. “All You Need Is Ears…”