Paul McCartney praises George Martin for elevating The Beatles

Paul McCartney believes The Beatles’ long-standing producer, George Martin, elevated the band.

Martin, who served as McCartney‘s producer in the 1980s on a series of solo projects, was praised by the Wings frontman in The Lyrics. McCartney wrote of the impact Martin had on the group in his book, detailing the source of inspiration for every song he had written. When writing of And I Love Her, McCartney singled out George Martin as a crucial influence on the song and how it was formed by The Beatles. He went on to explain how the song had been written for his at-the-time girlfriend, Jane Asher, who became a sort of muse for All My Loving.

McCartney wrote: “Another thing worth recalling is that George Martin was inspired to add a chord modulation in the solo of the song, a key change that he knew would be musically very satisfying; we shifted the chord progression to start with G minor instead of F-sharp minor – so, up a semitone. I think George Martin’s classical training told him that that would be a really interesting change. And it is.

“And this sort of help is what started to make The Beatles’ stuff better than that of other songwriters. In the case of this song, the two Georges – George Harrison with the intro and then George Martin on the key change into the solo – gave it a bit more musical strength. We were saying to people, ‘We’re a little bit more musical than the average bear.’

“And then, of course, the song – which is now in F major, or arguably D minor – eventually finishes on that bright D major chord, a lovely, pleasing resolution. So, I was very proud of that. It was very satisfying to make that record and to have written that song for Jane.”

All My Loving featured on With The Beatles, and a last-minute guitar addition from John Lennon made all the difference, according to the band. McCartney wrote: “The thing that strikes me about the All My Loving recording is John’s guitar part; he’s playing the chords as triplets.

Source: cultfollowing.co.uk/Ewan Gleadow

Read More<<<