Entertainment For Lively Minds
The Real Fifth Fab?
Who would get your vote for the definitive Fifth Beatle? Neil Aspinall, Brian Epstein and Pete Best all built, buffed and polished The Beatles legacy - but for me the person that really brought out and bottled The Beatles magic was George Martin.
His adapatability, sensitivity (and seemingly endless patience) for the songs and songwriters, rather than employing a generic off-the-peg production technique, gave the group room to bellow, breathe or be themselves. All recorded on jet-age equipment, less sophisticated than most of todays home studio shareware.
Lennon and McCartney are almost untouchable as songwriters, but would their true untapped potential ever been realized, and their output endured if George Martin hadn't captured The Beatles songbook so pitch perfectly
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George Martin
He had obvious talent as a producer and arranger and he recognised in The Beatles their genius and he was able to help them maximise their gifts, but I think his greatest achievement would be his ability to show them such endless patience. They must have driven him up the wall.
Yoko Ono?
Come on, she .... Nah.
Is that
Charlie or Craig Proclaimer, having a crafty half of Mackeson beside Paul?
and the chap on the left
appears to be a very young Mick Jones
George looks about 12...
Paul's left-handed a right-hander guitar.
And isn't that Uncle "I 'eard that. Pardon" Stavely on the right?
Napoleon Dynamite
is that his long lost Father on the right ?
George Martin
I wasn't around when The Beatles were together so the legacy for me is simply the recordings. Although a few other people pop up here and there (Preston, Clapton etc) George Martin is the one constant with the 4 so he get's my vote every time.
Other "5th Beatles" are generaly named because of their influence on the business side or there presence at the bands beginnings, but that can't compete with George Martin's presence in the studio for me.
Neil Aspinall
He was there at the start, the middle, the end, and beyond. He was Maccas best mate at school, he drove the van, he ran Apple, he played on several tracks.