‘Love’: Geoff Emerick on the Beatles album that was “messed around with”
When George Martin was first told about The Beatles, he was hesitant to work with them. He wasn’t sure exactly what it was, but he hesitated to sign with the band. Eventually, he gave in and decided it was worth working with them and seeing how things went. This turned out to be one of the better decisions he would ever make, as, by working together, The Beatles became one of the most famous bands on the planet.
Their relationship was pretty even. It’s clear now, in hindsight, that The Beatles wouldn’t have been as successful if they didn’t work with George Martin, and George Martin wouldn’t be the name he is if not for The Beatles. They had a working dynamic that didn’t rely too much on one factor; each member contributed, producing great work.
Even though the music that The Beatles ended up making was wildly different from what they started out with, Martin was always there on hand, happy to adapt to whatever direction the band wanted to move in. No idea was too out there or too challenging for him to tackle. For instance, when John Lennon and Paul McCartney came forward with songs like ‘Strawberry Fields Forever’, ‘Eleanor Rigby’ and ‘Glass Onion’, Martin was easily equipped to put the orchestration together.
“The writing of the parts is me, and the requirements is them,” he said, “It varied between John and Paul. Paul was generally quite articulate with what he wanted. Mostly we would sit down at the piano together and play it through and work out how it would sound. Paul still doesn’t know how to orchestrate , but he knew what he wanted and would give me ideas, and I would say, ‘You can’t do that’ or ‘You can do this’. We’d talk about it, talk it through.”
There is no doubt that George Martin was a huge part of The Beatles’ success, but it would be unfair to suggest that he was the only person who contributed to their refined sound. Throughout their time as a band, a number of different engineers worked on their iconic music, and one of the most pivotal outside of Martin was Geoff Emerick, who worked with the band from ’66 to ’69.
Emerick was a big fan of everything The Beatles were doing, and he also appreciated how important timing was when it came to their success. He admitted in an interview, “The Beatles were in the right place at the right time. There was an anti-establishment thing in the air, and everybody was looking for a youthful leader to latch onto,” he said, “Everything came together. It just happened, really. And I could never see that happening again.”
Emerick is right that the Beatles were representative of a very specific moment in time, and their music perfectly captured that moment. This is why he was so against tampering with the records once they had been made. Subsequently, he was always set against the Love album, which was released in 2006 and contained revamped versions of classic Beatles tunes.
“I won’t listen to it. People have told me about it. Look, the four artists were present when we did the mono mixes of the original records. And the recordings were fresh in our minds when we did the stereo mixes: even if the Beatles weren’t present, they were involved,” he said, “It’s their record – and now it’s been messed around with. The original records are iconic, they’re pieces of art. Would you go and repaint the Sistine Chapel? You don’t. Just leave it alone.”
