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Over the past 40 years or so I have heard comments from Beatle detractors (yes they're out there) that if it wasn't for George Martin's producing the Beatles would have been also rans or just another band here today and gone tomorrow.
I think the talent of Lennon/McCartney was too enormous to ignore and that they would have basically taken the same path by a different route! Perhaps less classical style production in their songs ????
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Their career may have taken a very different path, but I think you're generally right, Steve.
However, the title of Fifth Beatle isn't for nothing. Without George, I don't feel they'd have scaled quite the heights they did.
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It is interesting to speculate............I thibk we are all claer that there were five Beatles John Paul George H Ringo and George M................but
How about this one: there is firm evidence that The Beatles might have been under the wing of producer Joe Meek........
How might that have turned out ?
Lets not also forget that they also cut a few tracks with Phil Spector too............What would they have been like if he had done the early tracks?
Dick Rowe from Decca had go too and this shows that without a talented producer , it was hard to get the Beatles at their best.
Finally, Richard Hewson ( He did some of the early mid Clifford T. Ward SteveO!) did oversee "She's Leaving Home" ................Paul and George M both admit that this did not give he sound and finesse that George M would have given ..but Paul was in a hurry
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I think you find the lnk to this interview with Martin intersting with a view to the OP's post and posit. Based on what he has to say late in the interview about the White Album is very instructive. I don't think it would have worked out well without George Martin.
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Did I miss the point ? I found the interview but I found little specific to The White Album !
Nice to be able to go back to trust and friendship!!!!!!!!!
It's a mixed up sensation this being alive
Oh! it wears a man down into the ground
It's the strangest elation
I can't describe it
Oh it leaves a man weary
It makes a man frown..............................Chris Simpson ( "Mixed Up Sensations" 1975 Martin's Cafe )
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George Martin had a huge influence on their productions. Likewise with Ultravox.
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I'll go the self-produced route.
I believe there would have been a greater focus on the Rock & Roll sound Lennon songs embodied, more than the melodic offerings of McCartney. Paul loves oldies (read as depression-WW2 era, and standards) music, and has ideas drawn from those influences which were much more adaptable to Martin's embelishment with orchestration and production techniques. I think a listen to John's "Rock & Roll" album would give one insight into the lean sound the band would have had without Martin in the chair, despite being a covers album. I could be wrong, but there you have it.
Kinda like "Let It Be" vs "Let It Be Naked", sort of...
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