With the passing of Sir George Martin, I began to reflect the influence the man's work has had on me. It was haunting in a sense. I spent a good part of my life studying his work and always considered it the absolute litmus for quality production. His use of the orchestra in breaking new ground bringing a masterful history of musical evolution into the element of the Beatle's creations seemed to chime with my musical upbringing.
At a very early age, I started playing piano...so young I'm not sure if I could speak yet. I didn't know it was something unique as my two older brother's played as well. I remember thinking that everybody played piano. Music was like food. The records my family had covered a gamut of styles...Beethoven, Gershwin, Goodman, Hank Williams etc. Combine this with my much older brother's collections, I thought they were all equally "cool".
When I was about five years old, I could first recall the Beatle rage on NY's WMCA and WABC (WA Beatle C) duking it out to get the official recognition. From that point forward, I was just taking it in as I grew, singing and playing Beatle songs, taking for granted that their music incorporated all the musical influences I was exposed to from the beginning.
By 1966, the use of orchestral instruments only added to my picture...it only made sense to do so in my little world...that's what I knew. These songs became a virtual soundtrack to my life as I watched the older kids change and grow in thought and style, all influenced by this same group. I attended peace demonstrations with my family (my dad an ex-paratrooper in France during WW-II), I spent the summer of '68 mistakenly placed on a hippy commune in Michigan while my parents thought I was in a summer resort with her friend's children. Sgt Pepper was my soundtrack at that time and I remember laying back at night and listening at night to A Day In A Life, thinking how it all seemed to fit my experience...or at least what I could understand at the time.
I remember playing Abbey Road on my brother's record player and thinking about how mystically spacious the mix in "Because" was...Because the sky is blue, it makes me cry... It was like the song was written looking out of my own young eyes on the world.
After high school, I was asked to join a "Beatle's Band" by my friends, Jon and Neil. It honestly hadn't dawned on me to do this, as the music was so engrained in me, I hesitated...it was personal.
Well...from there, as some of you know, it went much farther than I could have ever dreamed. I found myself with the tools in synthesis to dissect and recreate much of the work that was never considered for performance by the Beatles. Now, I dug deep, pulling apart this untapped plethora of my childhood's soundtrack...programming and playing was a challenge and an education all in one. I was more than humbled dozens of times. There were times I would pull off my headset and say, oh my god...
Then to perform at Beatlefest to a crowd of people who knew the music much the way I did was like a dream.
Back to today, as I write, Sir George Martin is gone. That sense of musical understanding I have suffers most...a mentor for lack of a better word.
I will carry on of course. My children have been presented with Mr Martin's magic since birth and now have a acute understanding of quality production and the incorporation of orchestral instruments and vocal harmonies to push that emotion in their music to a whole other level.
Although I never met the man and in all humility, I feel I've lost a father in a sense. I've been so fortunate to have grown up when I did...
rest in peace sir.
Drew
At a very early age, I started playing piano...so young I'm not sure if I could speak yet. I didn't know it was something unique as my two older brother's played as well. I remember thinking that everybody played piano. Music was like food. The records my family had covered a gamut of styles...Beethoven, Gershwin, Goodman, Hank Williams etc. Combine this with my much older brother's collections, I thought they were all equally "cool".
When I was about five years old, I could first recall the Beatle rage on NY's WMCA and WABC (WA Beatle C) duking it out to get the official recognition. From that point forward, I was just taking it in as I grew, singing and playing Beatle songs, taking for granted that their music incorporated all the musical influences I was exposed to from the beginning.
By 1966, the use of orchestral instruments only added to my picture...it only made sense to do so in my little world...that's what I knew. These songs became a virtual soundtrack to my life as I watched the older kids change and grow in thought and style, all influenced by this same group. I attended peace demonstrations with my family (my dad an ex-paratrooper in France during WW-II), I spent the summer of '68 mistakenly placed on a hippy commune in Michigan while my parents thought I was in a summer resort with her friend's children. Sgt Pepper was my soundtrack at that time and I remember laying back at night and listening at night to A Day In A Life, thinking how it all seemed to fit my experience...or at least what I could understand at the time.
I remember playing Abbey Road on my brother's record player and thinking about how mystically spacious the mix in "Because" was...Because the sky is blue, it makes me cry... It was like the song was written looking out of my own young eyes on the world.
After high school, I was asked to join a "Beatle's Band" by my friends, Jon and Neil. It honestly hadn't dawned on me to do this, as the music was so engrained in me, I hesitated...it was personal.
Well...from there, as some of you know, it went much farther than I could have ever dreamed. I found myself with the tools in synthesis to dissect and recreate much of the work that was never considered for performance by the Beatles. Now, I dug deep, pulling apart this untapped plethora of my childhood's soundtrack...programming and playing was a challenge and an education all in one. I was more than humbled dozens of times. There were times I would pull off my headset and say, oh my god...
Then to perform at Beatlefest to a crowd of people who knew the music much the way I did was like a dream.
Back to today, as I write, Sir George Martin is gone. That sense of musical understanding I have suffers most...a mentor for lack of a better word.
I will carry on of course. My children have been presented with Mr Martin's magic since birth and now have a acute understanding of quality production and the incorporation of orchestral instruments and vocal harmonies to push that emotion in their music to a whole other level.
Although I never met the man and in all humility, I feel I've lost a father in a sense. I've been so fortunate to have grown up when I did...
rest in peace sir.
Drew