Sir George Martin CBE – In My Life
Sir George Martin CBE – The Fifth Beatle
Whenever I think of Sir George Martin I think of the classic Beatles Rubber Soul track ‘In My Life’. I remember waking up to find Rubber Soul at the foot of my bed Christmas morning 1965 shortly after it was first released. I drove my grandparents crazy playing it continuously on my record player. It had an auto-drop spindle but by leaving the record support arm up the stylus arm would immediately return to the start of the LP when the last track finished playing.
“I listened intently to every track trying to establish every element of the musical mix.”
I had been buying Beatles singles and LPs (as they were called back then) since their first LP, Please Please Me, but Rubber Soul was different for me. There was something about the music that really jumped out at me. Many years later I realised it probably around the time I started taking an interest in the production. I listened intently to every track trying to establish every element of the musical mix. Even with my young ears this was a masterpiece to me.
Within the first few bars of the opening track ‘Drive My Car’ I was hooked. Where did that bass line come from? This was not the Beatles I was familiar with but I loved it and it is still my number one favourite Beatles album to date. There were so many great songs with some excellent musical arrangements. What I found amazing is their ability to tell a story in less than three minutes including solos. Norwegian Wood is only two minutes one second long – amazing.
“Where did that bass line come from?”
I believe this is the first album the Beatles ventured away from their standard two guitars, bass and drums (with the occasional keyboard and blues harp maybe). George Harrison playing the sitar in Norwegian Wood creating that haunting sound over John’s lead vocals, still one of my favourite acoustic songs to play. When I bought my first bass guitar a few years later I bought a fuzz box with it, influenced by Paul playing his bass through a fuzz box in ‘Think For Yourself’.
But it is the classic harpsichord solo in ‘In My Life’ that always captures my imagination. Even more so when I recently learned that it wasn’t a harpsichord at all. Apparently, George Martin recorded the solo on a piano with the tape running at half speed. When the tape was run at normal speed it sounded like a harpsichord.
“Even more so when I recently learned that it wasn’t a harpsichord at all.”
It was many years later that I had a better understanding of George Martin’s role with the Beatles record production and song arrangements. Without George Martin the world may not have know about the Beatles and if they did, they may have just been another band from Liverpool. Or maybe there wouldn’t have been any bands out of Liverpool as many of them shot to stardom as a result of the Beatles. Who knows? Thankfully, the Beatles and George Martin did come together and the rest is history.
The fact that George Martin and the Beatles only had four tracks at their disposal to produce the masterpiece that is Rubber Soul amazes me even more. George Martin was an incredibly talented man. So many of us have benefitted as a result of his genius, whether we are listening to and appreciating his work or, like me, being inspired by it. Sir George Martin CBE certainly played an important part in my life.