George Martin

[halljack]

All You Need is Ears 1979 George Martin. Good Book. Read it alot back in 1980.

 

[rayc]

George spoke in what is referred to in Australia as "received English". It was impossible to get a job with a broadcaster at any level without affecting an "educated English" voice. That requirement slowly slipped away as the 60's brought in a host of linguistically imperialistic US DJ for Pop radio but persisted until the mid 90's in news television.
It was the language/tone/resonance or upward mobility.
Emeric was an astounding engineer and fabulaou producer (his work with Elvis Costello being rich and clear). Mr Martin was, by training and experience, not a music producer. He learnt that craft alongside the Beatles.
Grim, was John really not WC? Dad was an itinerant on ships, Mum was absent, Aunty was a stay at home harradin and uncle I can't recall.

 

[grimtraveller]

Grim, was John really not WC? Dad was an itinerant on ships, Mum was absent, Aunty was a stay at home harradin and uncle I can't recall.

In what I consider to be the definitive Lennon interview, given to playboy about three months before he died, he said "I was the only Beatle that lived in Penny Lane......after I left Penny Lane, I moved in with my auntie, who lived in the suburbs in a nice semidetached place with a small garden and doctors and lawyers and that ilk living around, not the poor, slummy kind of image that was projected. I was a nice clean cut suburban boy and in the class system, that was about a half a niche higher class than Paul, George and Ringo, who lived in government subsidized houses. We owned our own house, had our own garden and they didn't have anything like that. So I was a bit of a fruit compared to them, in a way. I was a suburban kid..........I did my best to disrupt every friend's home there was, partly out of envy that I didn't have this so called home ~ but I did. I had an auntie and an uncle and a nice suburban home, thank you very much. This image of me being the orphan is garbage because I was well protected by my auntie and my uncle and they looked after me very well, thanks........my childhood was not all suffering. It was not all slum. I was always well dressed, well fed, well schooled and brought up to be a nice lower middle class English boy". His Uncle George who died when John was about 12 owned his own business. Definitely middle class. In fact, when he brought George Harrison to meet his auntie, after he'd gone, his auntie complained about George's accent and said "You do seem to like lower class types don't you John ?" !
When he helped McCartney write the lyrics to "Penny Lane" I suspect part of his contribution includes the beautiful line about the 'blue suburban skies'.
In the 60s, it seemed like Lennon was a bit like Sly Stone, a basically good kid that wanted to be bad and be thought of as tough. I can identify with that, it's very prevalent in England. Hunter Davies, when writing their biography spent 18 months with them and he found John's relationship with Mick Jagger fascinating because in the eyes of the establishment of 1967, Jagger was seen as the bad guy and Lennon was quite jealous as that's how he wanted to be seen. But by the time he was 40 he'd wised up, I guess. Then the hammer fell.

 

[rayc]

Excellent explanation Grim, thanks.