Quote:
Originally Posted by G.A. De Forest
"The Beatles were multi-instrumentalists who played almost every instrument themselves?" Get a grip on some facts. John Lennon was still playing banjo chords well into their recording career. George Martin and Brian Epstein seriously considered replacing the Beatles as instrumentalists for their recordings at the time Beatle George and Paul were knifing Pete Best in the back. Right till the end of the Sixties, GEORGE MARTIN composed whole missing passages of songs, made the song 'A Day in the Life' out of two messes of songs by John & Paul; made their first big hit 'Please Please Me' -- all the Beatles had to do was follow the template. George Harrison almost mastered sitar. But just compare drummer for drummer: Dennis Wilson was the multi-instrumentalist and brilliant composer; Ringo almost talentless in every other department, as he shows trying to sing and write songs to this day. Yes, the moptops were great for merchandising Beatle toys, just like Capitol had done with Bozo the Clown before them. Brian Wilson used some session musicians to fill in while the group was out touring -- something the Beatles did once every summer, I think, and only the lucrative markets around the world: stuff their home town, Liverpool. Even London -- that was just a place they puttered around most of the year, rubbing shoulders with other fashion plates and politicians. Then they would go in to the studio with fragments of songs roughed out -- none could write music let alone arrange it -- for Martin to fix up. They lived cosseting themselves in palatial estates, adopted by the upper crust as pets and media favourites.
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Ok, you're going into lala-land by now. George Martin did not "make" their first big hit "Please Please Me", recording aside. He disliked the initial arrangement and suggested the boys speed it up, but the rest was up the Beatles themselves, and they radically altered it to the point where it was believed it could be a hit. As for "A Day in the Life", yes that was two seperate songs initially. I don't how good Paul's part could've been on its own, but in my mind John's part would've been great in any case, though together they become something special. Anyway, it was McCartney's idea to join the two pieces via an orchestra. George Martin supported that idea by writing a loose score, but it was not his idea. In general, George Martin was known to suggest a thing here or there, and implement small pieces of music, but to say he was the pop genius behind The Beatles' success is ridiculous. As a producer he was very, very important, but NOT as a writer, c'mon. Your whole attitude towards the band is very telling with your inclusion of "knifing Pete Best in the back", so I shouldn't really take your post seriously, but dammit, good band on good forum needs some defending from silly people. :p