Thursday, March 10, 2016

REMEMBERING SIR GEORGE MARTIN

Words can’t express how sad I am to hear that legendary music producer Sir George Martin has died.  Without his ability to translate and augment the Beatles' musical visions, the band might never have reached the heights they did.  Martin was like a wise and loving parent—knowing just when to get out of the way and let his “chidren’s” natural gifts blossom unencumbered and when to step in and gently pull them back when they were racing down creative blind alleys.

The Beatles challenged Martin constantly, forcing him to grow, to push beyond his comfort zones.  Time and again he rose to those challenges, embracing, and expanding, the band's wildest ideas; creating musical soundscapes that none of them could have achieved alone.  Together they forged a musical legacy that has lasted more than fifty years—and will no doubt last for many, many years to come.

Perhaps no song better epitomizes the Beatles-George Martin collaboration than John Lennon’s classic “Strawberry Fields Forever.”  The song began as a soft, dreamy meditation, exploded into a psychedelic free-for-all and then, when the composer decided he wanted two different versions (in two different tempos and keys!) fused together, Martin and engineer Geoff Emerick managed to meet Lennon’s seemingly-impossible demand, creating one of the great masterpieces of modern music.  And this without benefit of the digital technology we take for granted today.   

Sir George Martin was a great talent and, by all accounts, a good and gentle man. He will be missed.  



22 comments:

  1. A fitting tribute to arguably the most solid contender for the title "the fifth Beatle." (And I will cherish the joy that is "Strawberry Fields Forever" ...well, forever. And I appreciate your beautiful description of the song, as well).

    So... when do we get the J.M. DeMatteis Beatles covers CD? :-)

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    1. The problem with covering the Beatles, Mike, is that the originals are so perfect that no one can really match them. Although I DO have a killer arrangement of "With A Little Help From My Friends" that I've been doing for years!

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    2. It's not about matching them. It's about the crazy joy of being a little toddler singing along with the tunes coming out of Mom and Dad's radio (not that you're musically a toddler, by any means). However, I can understand that while you may joyfully cover them live (whether in public or your living room), the cost and realities of releasing a commercial product has to take into account that anyone who wants to spend money on the Beatles is most likely going to spend it on the actual Beatles. Oh well, I shall keep listening to the delight that is your disc and pop in the lads when I'm in the mood for "Rocky Raccoon."

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    3. Sounds like a plan, Mike! Thanks!

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    4. The key to a cover is not improving, but rather giving one's own spin on it. Johnny Cash had several albums that were nothing but covers, and they were great. They were great because he knew how to pick songs that reflected his own life.

      Another good example is the song "New York City" by Cub that was covered and made famous by They Might Be Giants. The original was great, but TMBG added a new flair as a group whose history was tied to the city, opposed to the Vancouver based group who wrote it.

      What's more think about this, Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, John Romita, Steve Ditko, Don Heck, came as close to perfecting superheroes as possible, then add Steve Gerber, Jim Starlin, Steve Englehart, Roy Thomas, Doug Moench, and Chris Claremont, it would seem everything that could be said with Marvel heroes was... yet you pushed on there. Greatness shouldn't inhibit, it should inspire.

      You work in comics a realm of taking ideas and adding a spin all your own.

      And for God's sake, it's the Beatles.. it's not like we're talking the Rolling Stones or the Yardbirds. pffft

      Jack

      PS dare to compare.

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iteq4e03rj4

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dSS_ty5o7x4


      or


      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ql4IiP__5ck

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O5rVmXyZP5s

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    5. I love a great cover as much as anyone else. I played in bands for years and we did plenty of covers along with our originals and the goal was always to bring something fresh to the table, to interpret and expand, not just parrot a favorite song. (And, yes, we did Beatles songs.)

      I also think it depends on the song or artist in question. You can find versions of Dylan songs that transcend, or at least equal, the original because (for me, anyway) the songs are so open to individual interpretation. The Beatles (for me, anyway) are on another plane. Every once in a while you come across a killer cover, but I've rarely heard one that could touch the original.

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    6. "A fitting tribute to arguably the most solid contender for the title 'the fifth Beatle'"

      This got me thinking, i wonder what Mr. DeMatteis thinks of Billy Preston and other contenders for that title?

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    7. Billy Preston gets honorable mention, since he actually played with the band and was credited right there on the label for "Get Back" and "Don't Let Me Down": The Beatles with Billy Preston. (No one else ever received that honor.) And of course Brian Epstein, without whom there might not have been a Beatles at all. But it was George Martin who was in the studio with them, actually creating the music, year after year; so, in my book, he gets first claim to the title.

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  2. You bring up an interesting point, JMD. I do wonder if being "open to individual interpretation" is less a quality thing and more a character one, if that makes any sense. Less "this version is so perfect that it can never be improved on" and more "this song is so much itself it could hardly be anything else, warts and all."

    To put it in comics terms, some songs are like actual covers (inviting more possibilities than the product itself can offer) and others are like the stories themselves (delving into specifics in such a way as to frustrate re-tellings).

    For instance, I can imagine a lot of different stories that could emerge from the image of Spider-Man rising from his grave on WOS 32, but I can only conceive of one KLH.

    And bringing this back around to Martin, maybe his production work is so detailed that it defies reinvention.

    I don't have any strong feelings about Beatles covers one way or the other, but I can see similar patterns emerge in storytelling. You think about Superman's origins over the years, for instance, and there's a pretty big difference between even more modern versions like Waid's BIRTHRIGHT and the New 52.

    But with Spider-Man, creators tend to not just stick to the basics, but the details themselves. The biggest tweaks involve mixing in some of the Romita stuff with Ditko, like having Harry and Gwen in high school with Peter instead of meeting at college.

    Best,

    David

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    1. Smart and insightful, as always, David. I love the idea of interpreting actual comic book covers vs. the stories inside! Although this takes us off the track quite a ways, I've always loved covers that can open our imaginations and tell stories like that.

      I still remember the first time I saw the cover to part one of the original Lee-Kirby Galactus Trilogy. One look and I'd written an entire story in my head...and one of these days I'm actually going to write that story!

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    2. I wonder how many comic writers wrote classic tales based on what they thought would incorrectly be inside from the cover. Or reading a book's back cover for a book, or whatever.

      Jack

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    3. It'd be great to do a whole series of stories where writers get their ideas from classic comic book covers.

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    4. Also a possible interesting idea: Artists come up with a cover first, then the writers do a story based around what they come up with just seeing it.

      I think we may have found two great summer events. Best of all they are more akin to Flashback Month than Civil War.

      Jack

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    5. I had a similar idea a few years back and, if I'm not mistaken, pitched it to DC. They didn't bite.

      Julie Schwartz used to do this back in the Silver Age: He and the artist would come up with a wild cover idea, show it to the writer who would then go home and write the story based on the image.

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    6. Then perhaps with the possible Superman:Silver on the horizon, the time has come again.


      Jack

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    7. In a shocking development, I love JMD and Jack's ideas.

      Prepare yourselves for cats and dogs living together, mass hysteria, and all that.

      Or...maybe just a pretty normal Wednesday.

      --David

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    8. Normal, David? What is this normal you speak of?

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    9. LOL! A 'normal' day is a thing I've heard spoken of in legends of old.

      Oddly enough, the people who achieve this elusive state often complain of boredom!

      --David

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    10. Normal? In my experience it is a sickness that afflicts men from time to time. It is important to deal with it quickly before it spreads.


      Jack

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    11. It's an affliction I've rarely experienced!

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  3. So Julie Schwartz employed the Roger Corman school of film making with comic books? That is awesome!

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