An Angel of Sound

Those of you that read my silly little stories about my silly little life, in my silly little house, in my silly little town, when I was a silly little kid, know that I grew up in Memphis Tennessee. Memphis was a musical heritage to the world and those that lived in Memphis had strong opinions about the music of the day which, for me, was Rock 'n Roll. Now how do you categorize rock 'n roll when there were so many genres of music being listed as rock 'n roll. Even in the 60s there was flower power, folk rock, hard rock, pop, rhythm and blues, soul, Motown and even bubblegum categorized as rock 'n roll.

One thing that I do know is there was a king of rock 'n roll and the crown princes of rock 'n roll. They were Elvis Presley, the King of rock 'n roll, and the Beatles, the crown princes of rock 'n roll. Even to this day, people argue about who is better, Elvis or the Beatles. The music that came from both of them freed a musical generation to be innovative and to search for the best music they could possibly present to their fans. We have lost so many of the rock 'n roll music stars over the years and, unfortunately, we have just lost another, Sir George Martin, whom a lot of people considered to be the fifth Beatle. I personally think he was much more than the fifth Beatle, he was the one that freed the creative minds of the Beatles. He introduced them to musical instruments that they had never heard of and the wizardry of postproduction that they had never considered or realized was available before. He was as much an artist in his own right as John, Paul, George and Ringo were.

He gave them the sounds that they were searching for and helped them achieve perfection in each and every song they put out.

You cannot help but hear the difference between the Beatles and their counterparts that did not have the influence of George Martin when you hear the trumpets or a string quartet backing up a rock 'n roll band like the Beatles. George Martin went on to produce many other artists with great success. In my mind’s eye, he will always be remembered as the man who perfected the art of producing and arranging studio rock 'n roll. I don't intend to argue the point about produced music and unplugged music here because personally I love them both. I also love the music that George Martin produced and he not only created some of the best sounds in rock 'n roll music but he influenced generations to come on how to create wonderful music and great sound.

He was, himself, a musical genius with all of the poking and prodding and tweaking and whatever else he did that made a huge difference in the sound of music and musicians past and present. He will be missed greatly by all music lovers everywhere. Being a techno-geek myself, I love being able to make things happen with the technological advances we have today.

I can only imagine how he came up with the sounds that he came up with, in a more primitive time, that blew us all away when we heard what he had added to the music we call rock 'n roll. He is one of the greatest and most influential people in the music industry of the last seventy years.

God bless you, George Martin, and I am sure the music in heaven has a much better sound today. John and George welcome you home with open arms.