Introduction - George Martin {
Read }
In June 2006 the show "Love" opened to a wonderful reception in the Mirage
in Las Vegas. Years before, the original idea was born in the most unlikely of
places. George Harrison and Guy Laliberté, the founder of Cirque du Soleil, were
both enormous fans of motor racing and when they met they became firm friends.
As a consequence a unique collaboration was formed between the fantastic world
of Cirque du Soleil and the brilliance of Beatles music. Guy discussed the
concept with Gilles St-Croix, his Head of Creation, and plans were laid, negotiations
commenced and eventually I was approached to work on the music. My brief was to
create a soundscape of around one and a half hour's length using any sound I
needed from the original Beatles multi-track recordings. It was an offer one could
hardly refuse, and I asked my son Giles if he would work with me on this project.
So we embarked on a unique odyssey, travelling with some great artistes and
designers from Cirque du Soleil. A gifted director, Dominic Champagne, was appointed,
heading a team of prodigious creativity. Giles and I were lucky; not only were they
all talented in their respective roles, they were extremely nice people to work with
and we all became firm friends. We started as we meant to continue by pushing the
musical boundaries. It was a risky strategy considering the material we were
experimenting with, but it started to pay dividends immediately. It was Giles who
suggested that we utilise that marvellous and hypnotic drum beat from Ringo to
combine 'Within You Without You" with "Tomorrow Never Knows." It worked brilliantly
and set us on our way.
It took over two years for us to bring the rest of our work to its final form,
but it proved to be a fascinating journey for Dominic, Giles and me. Our collaboration
worked well. Dominic would listen to our experimental mixes and design his scenes
around them and conversely he would describe an idea he had and ask us for a particular
realisation of a song. It was a two-way creation and for us similar to writing music
for a film.
Listening again to all these great tracks in such detail you can't help but be
knocked out by the band's writing and performances. “Come Together” is such a simple
song but it stands out because of the sheer brilliance of the performers. Paul's
bass riff makes a fantastic foundation for Ringo's imaginative drumming, and John's
vocal with heavy tape echo has a marvellous effect when he claps his hand and hisses
into the microphone. George's guitar is equally distinctive, and altogether I believe
this is one of the Beatles greatest tracks.
We agonised over the inclusion of “Yesterday” in the show. It is such a famous song,
the icon of an era, but had it been heard too much? The story of the addition of the
original string quartet is well known, however few people know how limited the recording
was technically, and so the case for not including it was strong, but how could anyone
ignore such a marvellous work? We introduce it with some of Paul's guitar work from
“Blackbird” and hearing it now, I know that it was right to include it. Its simplicity
is so direct; it tugs at the heartstrings.
During the process I was asked to write a string score for an early take of George's
poignant “While My Guitar Gently Weeps.” I was aware of such a responsibility, but
thankfully everyone approved of the result. “Yesterday” was the first score I had
written for a Beatle song way back in 1965 and this score, forty-one years later, is
the last. It wraps up an incredible period of my life with those four amazing men who
changed the world.
Of course, nothing could happen without the endorsement of Paul, Ringo, Yoko
and Olivia, and we would arrange for them to hear what we were doing as we went
along. Their support, advice and encouragement was invaluable and a marvellous
spur to our efforts.
- George Martin.
Introduction - Giles Martin {
Read }
Our work for the music in 'Love' first started in 2003. Apple decided from the
outset that this was to be a project where all the music heard was to be from
original Beatles recordings.
We began by producing a demo behind closed doors in a small room above
Studio 1 at Abbey Road. As soon as I heard the original master tapes I
realised I had been given the best job in the world, the energy of a young
band burst out of the speakers. From then on it was obvious that there was
no need to be retrospective in our approach. All the music was so well
recorded by the EMI engineers that the attitude and the passion were frozen
in time. Had the music not been so familiar, the tapes sounded like they'd
recorded yesterday. The guitar sound on 'Revolution' for example rips your
head off, even today it defines the word 'distortion'. Tape after tape, I was
expecting hiss and crackle and all I heard was the energy of a group of twenty
year olds at the top of their game.
Everything they had done was recorded live, without a click and often all
on one track, so the best approach was to recreate a performance that had only
happened in the studio but present it to an audience as though it were live. A
good start would be using a drum solo, so the band could come in one at a time.
Apparently Ringo hated during solos but the one he played on “The End” sounds
great, and it's in stereo! I found that the solo was the same spead as “Get
Back” and so that became the song that started the show, it was really was
as simple as that. As the drum solo comes from a section of a song we had
to disguise the cut so we used the opening chord from “A Hard Days Night”
to hide the edit. And working backwards, to built into the chords we turned
around the end piano from “A Day in the Life.” I guess we thought that as it
made such a great ending, turned around it was bound to make a great beginning.
So in true Beatle tradition, tracks were reversed, sped up and slowed down.
Early on in the project I had turned the cymbal backwards on “Sun King” for an
effect for “Within You Without You/Tomorrow Never Knows” and I realised I'd
turned the vocals around as well. My dad loved the melody line that this
created and said that it's exactly yhe sort of thing that John would have
gone for. From this “Gnik Nus” was born!
The only new recordings are the strings on “While My Guitar Gently
Weeps.” I was surprised to find that my dad was apprehensive about doing
it, there's no one in the world better at this kind of thing, and even after
all this time he still arranges with the same vitality and empathy that has
made his work legendary.
At the beginning of the project, I knew that no one would ever hear my
mistakes as we'd been secretibely shut away, so I thouht I'd start trying to
combine a few tracks to see what the result would be. Feeling like I was
painting a moustache on the Mona Lisa I started work mixing the bass and
drums of “Tomorrow Never Knows” with George's track “Within You Without
You.” The end result is what you hear on the album today, and it is the
Beatles open-mindedness and support combined with my dad's great musical
insight that has made “Love” possible.
- Giles Martin
Album Production Notes {
Read }
Music and Inspiration - john lennon,
paul mccartney,
george harrison,
ringo starr
Produced by - george martin and giles martin /
Remix Engineer – paul hicks /
Assisted by – chris bolster,
mirek dtiles and
sam okell /
Co-ordinator at Abbey Road – allan rouse /
Pro Tools Programming and Sequencing – giles martin /
Additional Pro Tools – paul hicks /
Technical assistant to Giles Martin – richard barrie /
Original engineers – normal smith, geoff emerick, ken scott,
philip mcdonald, glyn johns
Additional Music | String Arrangments and Recording – george martin and
giles martin /
Recorded at AIR Studios Engineered by – nick wollage /
Assisted by – olga fitzroy /
Fixer – isobel griffiths /
Copyist – vic fraser
Packaging design – drew lorimer /
Show logo/artwork – drew lorimer and
philippe meunier/janina bunjamin de diesel marketing
All show imagery © 2006 The Cirque Apple Creation Parthernship
All Beatles photography © Apple Corps Ltd
Artwork © 2006 The Cirque Apple Creation Partnership/Apple Corps Ltd
Stereo Mastered by – steve rooke at Abbey Road.
Special thanks to yoko ono lennon and
olivia harrison.
LOVE show Director – dominic champagne
Many thanks to guy laliberté,
gilles ste-croix,
neil aspinall,
jonathan clyde and
adam sharp.
All songs written by Lennon/McCartney except tracks 9, 18 and 22 Harrison,
14 Harrison/Lennon/McCartney and 16 Starkey
All songs published by Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC. except 9, 18, 22 Harrisongs Ltd.
and 16 Startling Music Ltd.
© 2006 EMI Records Ltd./Apple Corps Ltd under exclusive license to Capitol Records, Inc.
Artwork © 2006 The Cirque Apple Creation Partnership / Apple Corps Ltd. under exclusive
license to Capitol Records, Inc.
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