Beyond the Pepper Hype: George Martin’s Untold Rock Opera |
George Martin revealed in a 1979 interview something I’d never heard him discuss before or since; he envisioned the Beatles making the first rock opera following Sgt. Pepper.
🗣️ “If they were left to their own devices during Pepper, Pepper wouldn’t have happened ever… because they were high most of the time. I thought we’d set a standard with that (Pepper). What I really wanted to do from then on was treat rock music more like a classical symphony. I wanted to integrate things. I wanted to have the boys write and think in symphonic terms. I wanted to write songs that blended into each other and actually had reoccurring themes that even had canonic devices one after the other and had snippets coming back. And treating it like a foremost full-scale work, where you had a 30-minute length that was actually a cohesive whole. Paul liked this idea very much. John didn’t…” – George Martin, 1979
► 1967 Time Magazine Article “Pop Music: The Messengers”:
https://tinyurl.com/4m47s2p6
► 1979 Interview with George Martin:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VXPzrDxMbcA&t=565s
► 1970 Interview with John Lennon:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ZhBQRzBAa8&t=8487s
✷ Sources:
• All You Need Is Ears: The Inside Personal Story of the Genius Who Created the Beatles (George Martin and Jeremy Hornsby)
• The Love You Make: An Insider’s Story of the Beatles (Peter Brown and Steven Gaines)
• The Lives of John Lennon (Albert Goldman)
• Wikipedia: https://tinyurl.com/3y25k9t6
• Far Out Magazine UK: https://tinyurl.com/3phmhces
0:00 Intro
0:37 Chapter 1: The Beatles That Never Were
3:07 Chapter 2: Why John Disliked the Abbey Road Medley
6:27 Chapter 3: It All Goes Back to Sgt. Pepper
#thebeatles #johnlennon #paulmccartney #georgeharrison #ringostarr #music #sgtpepperslonelyheartsclubband #abbeyroad #beatles #videoessay #analysis
source
Hey, guys! I hope you like this video/essay. And remember, there's no right or wrong opinion here. I know 95% of us would prefer the timeline we already have, and although I'd certainly be curious to see an alternate one, I wouldn't trade it for what we have now. The bottom line is, don't take this as "Paul vs. John, right and wrong," etc. It's just two different points of view, and I tried to be fair to both of them.
Moreover, I've been hearing your criticism that the videos were a bit too "tabloid" and "clickbait", and from this video on, I've been making an effort to do more long-based, well-researched content. I base my opinions mostly on credible biographies, and all of the sources are in the description. I hope you like this new style I've been working on.
Thanks,
Gus
George Martin wrote Pepperland. A beautiful song. March of the Meanies is pretty kick-ass too!
The spreader on the narrator is quite annoying to listen to on headphones. Good video otherwise. Enjoyed the info.
George Martin did not credit Lennon until very late, when it was too late. It wasn't until 1997, when he was working on his album "In My Life", that he realized that Lennon was the main songwriter within the Beatles. Of the 14 songs on the album, 8 were composed by Lennon, 1 by Harrison, 3 by McCartney and 2 by Martin himself. When Lennon met Yoko Ono, he didn't need anyone else, McCartney and Martin ceased to exist directly for him, adopting a destructive behavior of everything to do with the Beatles, despite being the main composer on both "Pepper' s" as in the "White Album" and "Abbey Road", therefore George Martin's point of view that McCartney was more open to symphonic compositions than Lennon was ridiculous. Any professional musician will agree with me that "I Want You (She's So Heavy)" is more symphonic than "Carry That Weight/Golden Slumbers/The End", where its lengthy coda of guitar arpeggios plus organ and the synthesizer sound like Beethoven's Symphony No. 5, without the need for violins, violas and cellos. That was the great merit of Lennon, the guy was an artist.
Amazing to think, that there are so many dedicated channels to The Beatles. All with fab content and intriguing stories…😊
Transcend the boundaries of rock music not the boundaries of music. Have you ever heard a Mahler symphony? The Beatles don't even come close. John wasn't that pretentious.
Ya, but John is dead. He may have hated it then. But he was always changing his mind! He never had the chance to grow old and look back with a smile, did he.
Mean Mr. Mustard and Polythene Pam were unfinished songs that were thrown in the medley mix by Martin. The editing made it work, but you can see the original intention of the songs by Lennon.
If this is junk then the Beatles were junk considering it probably their best track of all time, but to each their own.
Great video! What effects did you please use for George Martin's voice? Thanks!
it must be said that on side b, john did not contribute anything interesting, he himself said that in 69, he had been less good…
If Martin was the puppetmaster, why didn't he find 4 new guys and make them the next biggest thing?
I go along with George Harrison’s remark that Robber Soul and Revolver was a singular process and their highlight.
I'm not sure the narrative presented here fits with what really happened. After a psychedelic period that began with Revolver and ended with Magical Mystery Tour, the Beatles, being the Beatles, would sure move to another landscape, which is what they did with the White Album. Which is also something they tried to do after with Get back/Let it be (with less success) and ended perfectly with Abbey Road, a record where John was less implicated because Yoko and drugs…
Turns out the difficulty and intensity of the long form concept album is such that it manages to destroy the working relationships of most of the bands that try it.
I read somewhere else John saying he thought the Abbey Road medley was some of their best work.
I think a lot of this is bullshit…there is no thematic approach to side b other than the you never give me your money melody comes back a few times…but not developed like a composer would do it just that melody again…. they are mainly just snippets of unfinished songs coz by that time john and George where getting sick of making the album…the first half is great…even maxwell…and a lot of the b is great too. John just was getting sick of paul being leader but truth be told as much as i love lennon…the us at large didnt like john anymore with the whole christ thing…between 66 and 70 it was pauls singles that kept the beatles going in america…and john didnt want that
DONT QUOTE LENNON—HE becomes AN IDIOT when asked to opine on PAUL’s WORK!!! Hey John take your name off of his songs he hate on!!! 😊
Not a rock opera, a rock symphony, as George Martin said. No story line. And classical symphonies have always used an assemblage process. Lennon didn't understand that tock had changed becsuse of the Beatles.
This is very much an AI voice.