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Former CIO at Steiner Studios (2003–2020)Oct 29
I had the amazing pleasure of talking to Sir George Martin a couple of years before his death. I was having lunch with a BBC producer when Martin walked into the restaurant alone. I was (of course) blown away seeing him when my companion said “I know George a bit. Would you like to meet him?”
Who could say no?
She called to him (I think he was meaning to ask the kitchen to toss something together to take out) and he came over, and we were introduced. He had heard of our Studio, then newly-built in NYC. I wanted NOT to talk about the Beatles – I wanted to know about the concert for Montserrat! Martin had done what NO ONE else might be able to do – he got everyone to perform FREE, and not just the talent but the ENTIRE CREW. Including their travel to London to play at the Royal Albert! I reminded him John Lennon had once been asked “why don’t the Beatles get back together for one tour and donate the money to world hunger. You could change the world!” – and Lennon replied “when we got done with all the people who would grab at the cash – from the agents and support staff, the hangers-on and the leeches, there’d be nothing left over for the poor”. Yet Sir George, in love with the island since he first built his AIR Montserrat studio, pulled it off. He had enough left over to build a cultural center, which was then close to completion.
ANYWAY-
The conversation eventually turned to “the lads” (Ringo was in his mid-60’s and Paul not far behind, but he still called them “the lads”) with me sweating bullets trying not to press it, which I’m sure everyone always did. He ordered and ate (I had finished before he walked in) while I drank a gallon of coffee.
Allowed to chat without me interrupting he said this (to answer your question):
Paul was misunderstood by the others. Losing Brian Epstein – even though they weren’t touring anymore – effected them deeply. They were rudderless. Lennon at that point was too muddled by drugs to lead (Martin seemed to think Yoko indulged him in order to more easily control him) ; George didn’t have the ambition, preferring collaboration over directing, and Ringo just “went with the flow”. Yoko was the Alan Klein fan, who pretended to love Ono’s avant-garde garbage but in reality saw dollar signs dancing in his head, hooking John with the Rock N Roll Circus debacle. So Paul tried to take over, be both performer and leader and tried to focus George and John: and rubbed them both the wrong way in the process. Lennon felt McCartney didn’t think they were all equals anymore, George hated that Paul discounted his ideas, and Ringo (who Martin felt was in the best position to yell ‘cut the crap’) wanted no part of all the conflict, afraid to alienate any of the 3 guys he loved. For Martin, he couldn’t step in – he said ‘the problem was, I thought Paul was being far too abrasive, yet he was dead on about almost everything’ but “he (Paul) didn’t know how to do it properly without angering the others” – Paul choosing to ignore their anger instead. Long term, Paul was really counting on Lee and John Eastman, as well as Peter Asher (Paul apparently had a thing for the family of his bedmates!) stepping up, but Ono and friend Mick Jagger as well championing Klein made that impossible. Bet they’d love a “do over” on that one. Asher as we know went on to take James Taylor from Apple to LA and made him a mega star.
An interesting tidbit: for those who fault George for the lyrics of “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” as being simplistic or trivial – they’re not. Martin said the whole thing is a well-known ‘secret’: they’re thinly-veiled shots at John and the band. The floor needs sweeping because Yoko is always sitting or lying on it, an intruder who shouldn’t BE there. The ‘love there that’s sleeping’ means the band, the love they once shared as brothers now tattered by fighting and conflict that he knows will inevitably soon destroy it. He felt Lennon especially was diverted and perverted by Ono. And the last verse about watching from the wings? It was about John’s drug-addled Yoko-inspired media stunts while George is stuck trying to get his 1 or 2 songs per album and failing – and getting old doing it. And the reason George got Clapton to play it was because the others knew exactly what it was about, and John (with Yoko yapping in his ear over it) refused to have any part of it. It’s NOT that they didn’t think it was any good. They only agreed after realizing he was going forward without them, and once George relented and dropped that last verse.
In retrospect, I wished I’d ask about the “Maxwell’s Silver Hammer” thing but I don’t think I knew what a mess that had been at the time.
Take it all for what it’s worth.
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