Produced by George Martin Blu-ray Review
Love, love him do.
Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman
September 12, 2012
George Martin is one of a very few record producers whose name is generally (and sometimes instantly) recognized by the public at large. In these days of MP3s and downloaded music without documentation, fewer and fewer people seem to care about anyone whose name isn't emblazoned across the front of a virtual CD. But in days of yore, when physical media was still literally large and in charge, some of us used to peruse the backs of LP covers and read every last little jot and tittle to fully immerse ourselves in how whatever we were listening to had come to pass. Some of us really intrepid souls would even take a magnifying glass to the inner label on the album to get songwriter credits, if those happened not to be included on the back cover under the song titles. But Martin's legendary work with The Beatles elevated his name to iconic status, to the point where people simply didn't even really need to worry about the credits. If you were listening to The Beatles, you knew you were listening to a collaborative effort between The Fab Four and their remarkable producer, a producer who also often contributed arranging and orchestrating duties to their albums. What few on this side of the pond may realize is that Martin had already had a long and successful career for years before The Beatles kind of stumbled into his veritable lap, and even when he was producing The Beatles, and for years after they disbanded, Martin continued to churn out an alarmingly wide array of product for the international market. Produced by George Martin is a lovely retrospective of this giant's work, with an elderly but still surprisingly spry Martin reminiscing over a history that saw him working with everyone from Peter Sellers to novelty bans to a who's who of major rock and pop artists of the 1960's, 1970's and beyond.
Within just the first few moments of Produced by George Martin, the viewer (or listener, as the case may be) is alerted to the astoundingly disparate material Martin had a hand in when we're offered little snippets of the swingin' theme to the old David Frost comedy series That Was the Week That Was (a clear precursor to today's Daily Show) and then, accompanying a charming vignette that sees a truck mounted camera driving in front of Martin and his wife of some 45 years, Judy, trundling along in their little convertible sports car, Matt Monro's big hit "Portrait of My Love". But that, as they say, is just the tip of a veritable iceberg of cool (sorry) music, some of which is patently goofy (some of Martin's early novelty acts were decidedly on the comedic side of the spectrum). Martin did everything from light classical to what might be termed "easy listening", but his first real success stories were in fact spoken comedy records.
Martin had wanted to be a classical composer and refers to himself as having had ambitions to be "Rachmaninoff the second" (though truth be told snippets of his piano playing hardly rise to virtuosic levels). He did a stint in the Fleet Air Arm of the Royal Navy during World War II, and then attended the Guildhall School of Music and Drama for three years in the late forties into 1950. In a side note (sorry, no pun intended), one of Martin's teachers at Guildhall was Margaret Eliot, the mother of Jane and Peter Asher. There's a charming little moment of these two elderly people talking about their oboes in the film. Though Produced by George Martin skips over a bit of salient information (including his first marriage to Sheena Chisholm), therefore not really giving us a clear portrayal of how exactly it happened, Martin ended up at the biggest consortium of music labels in the United Kingdom, the vaunted EMI. Martin was hired as the assistant to Oscar Preuss, who headed Parlophone, EMI's budget label that tended to handle the wackier "artists" who weren't deemed respectable enough for EMI's larger labels like Columbia and HMV.
There's a certain undeniable nostalgia factor that runs through a lot of Produced by George Martin, especially when the documentary intercuts between contemporary chats between the still living Beatles and archival footage of The Fab Four in their heyday, both on tour and in the studio with Martin himself. (There's also a rather outré clip from an old television outing with Peter Sellers, bewigged like Richard II, declaiming the lyric from "A Hard Day's Night".) There's also a certain melancholy involved as Martin talks about his increasing hearing loss. He in fact refers to himself as deaf on several occasions, though he certainly seems to have retained a bit of his hearing. He blames a lot of his hearing loss on his studio work, where he would sit in front of massive speakers and listen to playbacks incessantly, often at high volume.
Accompanying the contemporary reminscences, which are all encompassing and are helped along by Martin's producer son Giles, are a glut of fascinating archival clips. We see a lot of vintage footage of Martin back in the day of the burgeoning British Invasion, an incursion he of course helped to spearhead. But there are some great tangentially related moments that will appeal to those with no inkling of some superstars of British pop. A cool little segment shows Cilla Black recording the Theme from 'Alfie', a Martin produced megahit, with none other than composer Burt Bacharach manically leading the orchestra and then quickly sitting at the piano to play the little licks that dart in and out of the orchestral arrangement.
If some of Martin's non-Beatles accomplishments, as notable as they are, pale in comparison to the landmark work he did with John, Paul, George and Ringo, that really doesn't detract from their interest throughout this fascinating documentary. Martin comes off as a gentleman and a scholar, a man who was at the right place and the right time, and forever changed the face of popular music as a result.
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Within just the first few moments of Produced by George Martin, the viewer (or listener, as the case may be) is alerted to the astoundingly disparate material Martin had a hand in when we're offered little snippets of the swingin' theme to the old David Frost comedy series That Was the Week That Was (a clear precursor to today's Daily Show) and then, accompanying a charming vignette that sees a truck mounted camera driving in front of Martin and his wife of some 45 years, Judy, trundling along in their little convertible sports car, Matt Monro's big hit "Portrait of My Love". But that, as they say, is just the tip of a veritable iceberg of cool (sorry) music, some of which is patently goofy (some of Martin's early novelty acts were decidedly on the comedic side of the spectrum). Martin did everything from light classical to what might be termed "easy listening", but his first real success stories were in fact spoken comedy records.
Martin had wanted to be a classical composer and refers to himself as having had ambitions to be "Rachmaninoff the second" (though truth be told snippets of his piano playing hardly rise to virtuosic levels). He did a stint in the Fleet Air Arm of the Royal Navy during World War II, and then attended the Guildhall School of Music and Drama for three years in the late forties into 1950. In a side note (sorry, no pun intended), one of Martin's teachers at Guildhall was Margaret Eliot, the mother of Jane and Peter Asher. There's a charming little moment of these two elderly people talking about their oboes in the film. Though Produced by George Martin skips over a bit of salient information (including his first marriage to Sheena Chisholm), therefore not really giving us a clear portrayal of how exactly it happened, Martin ended up at the biggest consortium of music labels in the United Kingdom, the vaunted EMI. Martin was hired as the assistant to Oscar Preuss, who headed Parlophone, EMI's budget label that tended to handle the wackier "artists" who weren't deemed respectable enough for EMI's larger labels like Columbia and HMV.
There's a certain undeniable nostalgia factor that runs through a lot of Produced by George Martin, especially when the documentary intercuts between contemporary chats between the still living Beatles and archival footage of The Fab Four in their heyday, both on tour and in the studio with Martin himself. (There's also a rather outré clip from an old television outing with Peter Sellers, bewigged like Richard II, declaiming the lyric from "A Hard Day's Night".) There's also a certain melancholy involved as Martin talks about his increasing hearing loss. He in fact refers to himself as deaf on several occasions, though he certainly seems to have retained a bit of his hearing. He blames a lot of his hearing loss on his studio work, where he would sit in front of massive speakers and listen to playbacks incessantly, often at high volume.
Accompanying the contemporary reminscences, which are all encompassing and are helped along by Martin's producer son Giles, are a glut of fascinating archival clips. We see a lot of vintage footage of Martin back in the day of the burgeoning British Invasion, an incursion he of course helped to spearhead. But there are some great tangentially related moments that will appeal to those with no inkling of some superstars of British pop. A cool little segment shows Cilla Black recording the Theme from 'Alfie', a Martin produced megahit, with none other than composer Burt Bacharach manically leading the orchestra and then quickly sitting at the piano to play the little licks that dart in and out of the orchestral arrangement.
If some of Martin's non-Beatles accomplishments, as notable as they are, pale in comparison to the landmark work he did with John, Paul, George and Ringo, that really doesn't detract from their interest throughout this fascinating documentary. Martin comes off as a gentleman and a scholar, a man who was at the right place and the right time, and forever changed the face of popular music as a result.
Produced by George Martin Blu-ray, Video Quality
Produced by George Martin is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Eagle Vision, Arena and Grounded Productions with an AVC encoded 1080i transfer in 1.78:1. While there's nothing really overly remarkable about the video presentation here, the contemporary interview and "confessional" segments pop rather nicely, with good clarity and sharpness, pleasing fine object detail and very good contrast and stability. As should be expected, the various archival footage is sourced from different formats and varies widely in quality. Some of the older Beatles footage frankly looks pretty ragged, and some old color footage of them in the studio has faded pretty badly. Some of the other snippets vary from horrible (That Was the Week That Was) to actually pretty good (the Cilla Black Alfie snippet). Overall, though, this may not be a "wow" video offering but as a documentary which includes so much footage of incredible historical interest, it suffices very well indeed.
Produced by George Martin Blu-ray, Audio Quality
Produced by George Martin's uncompressed LPCM 2.0 audio option sounds excellent and it also has one of the widest stereo separations in recent memory, something that really rings out in several key sequences (listen to when Paul McCartney and Martin are discussing hearing loss and various oscilloscope playbacks are included to how clearly various frequencies are panned way right or left). Fidelity is excellent throughout this enterprise, with the contemporary interview sequences sounding great, and the older archival elements sounding as good as could be hoped for given their age.
Produced by George Martin Blu-ray, Special Features and Extras
As has been the case with a lot of Eagle Rock releases lately, all of the Bonus Features (1080i; 52:28) are authored together as a block, and accessing the separate titles simply takes you to chapter stops within that block. The individual titles are:
- George and the Producers: How George Martin Changed the Rules For Producers andThe Art of the Producer features other notable producers like Rick Rubin and T-Bone Burnett discussing Martin's contributions to his craft.
- George and Giles: Father and Son in Conversation covers a broad scope of subjects, including George's tendency toward meticulousness, more on George's music education and early career (which actually clarifies some information left out of the main documentary), and a lot more on the Parlophone years.
- Miscellaneous Interviews. These little snippets all bear titles relating to their subjects, and include some exceptionally interesting sidebars including such collaborators as Jimmy Webb, and a bit more of the delightful interactions between Michael Palin and Martin as they discuss Martin's great comedy records.
Produced by George Martin Blu-ray, Overall Score and Recommendation
Produced by George Martin is a lovely trip down memory lane for those of us who grew up with some of Martin's now legendary work. What a sweet, mild mannered yet impeccably brilliant man Martin seems to be throughout this documentary. While there's an undeniable sadness just beneath the surface here, the triumph of Martin's incredible accomplishments makes this piece a celebratory triumph of spirit and determination. Those of you who know Martin's name and work will certainly want to watch this; those of you who are part of the download generation and wouldn't recognize a producer's name if it reached out and grabbed you by your lapels should do yourselves a favor and get to know one of the most important men in 20th century music. Highly recommended.
Video
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVCVideo resolution: 1080i
Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.78:1
Audio
English: LPCM 2.0
Subtitles
English, French, Spanish
Discs
25GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Playback
Region A (B, C untested)
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