The Beatles recording session that embarrassed George Martin: “It was lunacy”
Throughout every era of The Beatles, George Martin was always there to provide a sense of sophistication. Even though not every song the Fab Four ever released could be described as classy, Martin acted as the musical older brother to the group half the time, suggesting using orchestral accompaniment and transcribing music theory that the band members couldn’t comprehend. Martin did know when to quit, and he thought that the sessions for ‘A Day in the Life’ were more embarrassing than the original projects they had worked on.
Then again, Martin had been the sort of boss in the studio during the beginning of The Beatles’ recording career. He was the one who suggested that the group should turn ‘Please Please Me’ into the energetic potboiler that everyone knows today, and without him, there’s a good chance that the piano figures on their early records wouldn’t exist.
Around 1965, there was nowhere else that the group felt comfortable other than in the studio. The constant touring cycle had been hell for any of them to go through, and even when they weren’t looking to be bothered on the road, they were getting hounded by every single press agent that ever existed, trying to get just one more piece of them.
So when Paul McCartney came into the studio with the premise of Sgt Pepper, this was everyone’s chance to shine. Now, everyone could make the music they were comfortable with, and while John Lennon admitted that he was far from inspired on some of the cuts, ‘A Day in the Life’ is one of the most awe-inspiring recordings they have ever made.
As it stands on record, it feels more like an art piece than an actual song. While it would never be a lead single, hearing Lennon and McCartney sing their independent parts of the piece separated by a chaotic orchestral crescendo is still one of the most triumphant parts of any Beatles record. And yet that orchestral vamp is one of the reasons why Martin had so many problems with the final mix.
According to Beatles acquaintance Dennis Puttnam, he remembered Martin feeling slightly embarrassed trying to show the session musicians how to play with all of the chaos going around the studio, telling All You Need is Love, “I walked in on the recording of ‘A Day in the Life’. I remember it was lunacy. I looked at George Martin, and he went [shrugged]. He was embarrassed. There were a lot of people there, a hell of a lot of people.”
Granted, it’s easy to understand why someone of Martin’s calibre may have been out of his depth. He had spent years honing down his knack for arrangements, and yet here he was with a completely straight face, explaining to the orchestra that all they had to do was play any note on their instrument from the lowest to the highest in its range.
If Martin was embarrassed, it’s even worse to think how the musicians might have felt. Thinking about a session musician’s daily routine, it might as well have been the fourth session some of them had worked on, and when it came time to play, all that was on their sheet music was one line going all the way up to the top of the staff. No matter what kind of group you’re working with, no one will know what the hell that means.
But by collaborating with McCartney on how he wanted everything to sound, ‘A Day in the Life’ was both a watershed moment for rock and one of the foundational pieces of The Beatles’ experimental period that left everything wide open for the rest of the world. Martin started with a load of chaos, but his ability to create something out of it is the main reason he should be considered the true ‘Fifth Beatle’.
