Beatles‘ Love is all the Beach Boys need
Iain Shedden, Music writer
24nov06GILES Martin seems to have found his niche with the Beatles, just as his father did 40 years ago.
The son of „fifth Beatle“ George Martin shared production duties on the „new“ Beatles album, Love, remixing original material to create new versions of classics such as Get Back and Strawberry Fields Forever.
Now the younger Martin may tackle some of rock’s other classic material. He has been approached by former Beach Boy Brian Wilson about remixing the Californian band’s material, including the album Pet Sounds.Wilson was inspired to write and produce the Beach Boys‘ masterpiece in an effort to top the Beatles‘ Rubber Soul, produced by Sir George. Pet Sounds was, in turn, influential on the Beatles‘ Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, also produced by Sir George.
Wilson approached Giles Martin after hearing Love in the setting for which it was created. Cirque du Soleil’s show Love has been a sell-out in Las Vegas.
„Brian heard the music and saw the show and loved it, which for me is just fantastic,“ Martin said in Sydney yesterday. „They asked me if I would be interested in remixing some Beach Boys stuff, remixing Pet Sounds.“
The latest Beatles album, which was approved by surviving members Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr as well as Olivia Harrison and Yoko Ono, melds snippets of Beatles songs into one track. Martin said he would stop short of doing that to Pet Sounds. „You can only do mash-ups for a reason,“ he said.
„Otherwise it would just be ‚Giles Martin goes and destroys bands‘ projects‘. We did this (Beatles album) for a show.“
Unless the band is Led Zeppelin, that is. „Led Zeppelin interests me. I’d love to sit down with (guitarist) Jimmy Page and discuss doing something like this,“ he said.
Martin said he and his father were given approval to work with all of the Beatles tapes in any way they wished. The only stipulation was that they had to use material that was already on tape, except for Sir George’s new string arrangement on While My Guitar Gently Weeps.
„What I got from this is that as a four-piece band, the Beatles really played. You hear them play Come Together and it’s them playing as a band. There’s no studio trickery,“ Martin said.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/printpage/0,5942,20812275,00.html
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Captain Beefheart to audience: Is everyone feeling all right? Audience: Yeahhhhh!!! awright...!!! Captain Beefheart: That's not a soulful question, that's a medical question. It's too hot in here.