The Beatles song that physically destroyed George Martin
There weren’t many outlandish ideas from The Beatles that George Martin couldn’t handle. While most of the Fab Four had a primitive approach to rock and roll music at the beginning of their career, Martin served as the fifth member of the group in the studio, often helping them turn their ideas into a reality on tracks like ‘Eleanor Rigby’ and ‘Strawberry Fields Forever’. By the time Martin had finished working on one song, he was physically defeated by the band’s creative ambitions.
For all of the great music he created for the group, there was only so much that Martin could do for them. By the time the group had begun work on The White Album, the constant tension between every member had caused Martin to walk out on the project, taking a vacation in the middle of the sessions while the rest of them pressed on.
When the band first became a studio-only creation, they were on the verge of musical brilliance when working on ‘Strawberry Fields Forever’. Dipping their toes into studio experimentation yet again, the song would become the mission statement for the group’s next undertaking, Sgt Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band.
Trying to push the outfit further than traditional pop songs, Paul McCartney came up with the idea of making tracks by a fictitious band. Even though McCartney may have been guiding them in specific directions, John Lennon eventually came away with one of the album’s highlights, ‘Being for the Benefit of Mr Kite’.
Looking to capture the sound of an English fairground, Lennon wanted to make a piece that made the listener smell the sawdust of the circus. To achieve that sound, Martin would eventually use various tape loops for the song’s breakdown section, stringing bits and pieces of tracks together to create a kaleidoscope-like effect on the final tape.
Putting the last cherry on top, Martin would also put a harmonium on the final track, spending hours working away to get just the right sound for the bridge. By the time that he had finished, though, Martin was far too exhausted to continue for the rest of the night.
Having worked for nine hours, engineer Geoff Emerick recalled in The Beatles Recording Sessions how drained Martin was when he finally came to the end of the tracking, saying, “You have to pump the harmonium with your feet, and he was pumping away for four hours. He collapsed onto the floor after that, spread-eagled and exhausted”.
Even though it may have been hard work, Martin finally got the right take after all that work, combined with the various tape loops at the end to make the song sound like it’s slowly grinding to a halt. That wouldn’t be the last surprise from Sgt Pepper, though, with the band eventually bringing in a massive orchestra to create a controlled sense of chaos towards the end of ‘A Day in the Life’. Martin may have been able to follow his muse wherever it went, but no track got to its final stage without a little bit of elbow grease.
