-
By Instrumentation
Books on Music
-
-
-
Accessories
|
|
|
|
| 
 enlarge | Authors: George Martin, Jeremy Hornsby
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
Category: Book
List Price: $17.95
Buy New: $10.28
You Save: $7.67 (43%)
New (24) Used (15) from $7.57
Avg. Customer Rating:  29 reviews
Sales Rank: 121679
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 288
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 9.2 x 6.1 x 0.8
ISBN: 0312114826
Dewey Decimal Number: 781.66149092
EAN: 9780312114824
ASIN: 0312114826
Publication Date: October 15, 1994
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Brand New, Perfect Condition, Please allow 4-14 business days for delivery. 100% Money Back Guarantee, Over 1,000,000 customers served.
|
| Customer Reviews:
 One of the VIP's in Contemporary Music October 10, 2007
The book is full of insights and is very fun to read.
It also has a lot of good pictures too.
I strongly recommend it.
Posted Bio April 4, 2007
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
Just to point out --
The biography posted is for George Martin, the sci-fi writer,
who isn't the same person (as far as I know!) as the Beatles'
producer. FYI.
 A good book that should have been great March 4, 2007
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
George Martin was the 5th Beatle. He gave them their first break after they had been turned down by all the labels. Without the break he gave them, Martin muses that the Beatles may have just given it up and gone their separate ways. Apparently George Martin was the only one around that was willing to take a chance on these scruffs from Liverpool that would change the world.
It seems that Paul was the one Beatle that could have made it on his own, but if not as one of The Beatles, then as what? Could he have been a backup for Tony Sheridan, or a bass player for Little Richard? Thankfully, we will never know. Would the other Beatles have likely gotten working class jobs, and/or just self-destructed? As always, the whole was greater than the sum of its parts.
It is hard to imagine a world without the Beatles, but that just underscores the importance of George Martin in giving them their lucky break. George Martin played all positions with the Beatles, except for vocalist. He produced, directed, arranged, and even played piano and harpsichord on many records. He brought that classical influence of strings and horns into the Beatles music, starting with Yesterday. Any die-hard fan will want to read this book, however, beware: it is diluted a bit with stories about other recording artists that have little relation to the reason why I bought the book in the first place, i.e., The Beatles. Nevertheless, it does have a few anecdotes that have not been seen elsewhere, so yes, it is worth buying and reading. You can always skip the parts that you don't care about.
George Martin is very informative on the evolution of multitrack recording technology, so that should be of interest to anybody that wonders how they got all those "layer cakes" out of the primitive equipment of the day.
I enjoyed the book immensely, but I think George Martin could have done better given his intimate knowledge of one of the greatest cultural phenomena of all time. Sometimes he seems a little aloof in the book, as if he hardly cares, but it is probably just old-school English understatement at its best, or maybe a futile attempt to downplay that he is probably their biggest fan, if not one of their oldest.
On a side note, it is too bad that George Martin was never rewarded financially (at least up to 1979 when this book was published) on a level that would have been commensurate with the important role he played in not only discovering, but also developing the greatest band of all time. As always, the Beatles come off as cheap, uncharitable and self-indulgent on this score. As the book explains, Martin was offered some royalties under the table, (as a kickback from an unscrupulous publisher) but he never compromised his ethics. Eventually I'm sure he made a nice living through his long association with the Fab 4, but not what one might expect, according to the book, at least up to 1979. A lot has happened in the financial world of The Beatles since this book was written, including the huge Vegas production of Love, in which Martin played an integral role along with his son, Giles. It's nice to see a music producer that is more driven by quality and innovation than the lowest common demoniators. I wish we had more like him.
My rating says 3 stars, but that was a mistake. I really gave it a 4.
Beatles January 18, 2007
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
A must read for anyone involved in the making of music as it pertains to production and recording. It however exhibits George Martins conservative nature and is someone bias from his perspective. A much superior book is Here,There, and Everywhere by Geoff Emerick. It is the same subject matter but much more detailed and objective.
Okay but not all that I wanted January 5, 2007
I wish there were more technical specifics in the descriptions of various sessions. Sir George gets you into Abbey Road studio #2 and lets you know about his experiences with various artists.
|
|
|
| |
