‘Because’: The Beatles song George Martin struggled to play
When you listen to a lot of music, you begin to appreciate that nobody will ever see eye to eye on the same artist. Some opinions might overlap, sure, but it’s rare that people’s mindsets will completely align when discussing something so subjective. There is an exception: when someone says they don’t like The Beatles, it remains an opinion that persistently perplexes.
When people claim that The Beatles were overrated, that becomes slightly easier to understand. Chances are, they’ve listened to their music and said, “It’s fine,” but then struggle to see why it is so timeless. The truth is, as most Beatles fans know, it wasn’t just their music that made them so timeless; it was the foundation they set in releasing that music.
The Rolling Stones manager Andrew Loog Oldham best described the impact The Beatles had on other musicians who wanted to make it in America. Before them, it was borderline impossible for UK artists to make a name for themselves in the States.
“There was no real future for a British band before The Beatles appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show in February 1964. That was the turning point, after which there was an avalanche,” he said, “It totally transformed the possibilities, and as usual, The Beatles were the frontrunners. In music, there is The Beatles, and then there is everybody else.”
So, while it might be easy to understand why people misconstrue The Beatles and end up calling them overrated, it still doesn’t make sense when people say they don’t like them. The reason is that, throughout the ten years that the band released music, they tapped into so many different styles of music that there truly is something for everyone. Whether that was standard pop music in the early days, singer/songwriter music on Rubber Soul, or more experimental concept music on Sgt Pepper, you’ll find a Beatles album that is right for you.
The vast array of music for which The Beatles were responsible is a testament to the band and the fifth Beatle George Martin. Their resident producer, George Martin, was always on hand to ensure that The Beatle’s music could be executed regardless of how ambitious. While this usually gave rise to great music, some songs were out of Martin’s reach. One of these was the track ‘Because’, as the minimalist nature of the song meant it was tough for Martin to keep time.
“That particular track started off with John having the idea, the sort of riff on the guitar, which he played to me, and the basic song which he sang to me,” recalled Martin, “And what we did then, we created a backing with him still playing the guitar, that riff, and I duplicated exactly every note that he played on the guitar, on an electric harpsichord, and Paul played bass.”
The band managed to find a way around these technical issues. While there weren’t any drums, they decided to still use Ringo Starr to keep time. It’s likely that the song wouldn’t have come to fruition without Starr helping everyone keep time.
“There was nothing for Ringo to do, because we’d not got drums in. But in fact there was something for him to do. Because it was so slow, and meticulously, the question of ensemble between the guitar and the harpsichord, each note had to be exactly together,” he said. “And I’m not the world’s greatest player in time, and I would make more mistakes than John did. So we had Ringo beating a hi-hat all the time, to us in headphones, so we had a regular beat. We didn’t have drum machines in those days. So Ringo was our drum machine, and that was the way we did the track.”
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