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what a terrible year so far  >:(
He will always be remembered.
(Ringo's Twitter)

90 years old and an amazing legacy.  The passing of time has sadness but my inclination is towards celebration of a life.

just read somewhere it may be a 'hoax'.  The man is 90.  If it is, I hate these pathetic people.
also no media coverage yet. 

Someone named George Martin Visich, jr. of Madison, Wisconsin seems to have died.

George Martin's Wikipedia has just been updated to say he has passed  :-\

If George is gone...it's sad...SO sad...but 90 years ain't bad.  And it's NOT like he wasted them.  He made a mark and was a key component to the success of those 4 guys who hailed from somewhere along the Mersey River.  A rather impressive legacy really.  Some might rightfully suggest that he was as important to it all as any of the other 4.

On the other hand ... if this is one of those hoax death thingys...George is still the man and those who presented him in this way are pure unadulterated assholes.  A pox on them and theirs forever.

If this is a confirmed hoax, moderator's please remove this thread. It would be disrespect and inappropriate.
(George's Wikipedia has been updated again, and removed date of death)
what is going on!?
edit: wiki updated again to say he has passed.

??? One of the top trends on Twitter and the Ringo tweet was 1/2 hour ago, but no actual news reports yet.

Edit to add: Hollywood Reporter and The Week are reporting it, but it seems their source is the Ringo tweet.

Edit again to add: Sean Lennon has tweeted too, so it seems to be true. :(
90's a good number of years. He seemed like a fine man, talented, and did great work.

Sean Lennon just put it on Facebook!

yeah. I think that calls it.

Oh, no. Just... no.

That man was a true gentleman, a connection to a kinder age now passed. And a seriously creative, musical fellow to boot. Even The Beatles, in my opinion, underrated him and what he did for them. Maybe Paul came to realise it, a bit, later on. Not sure John ever really did, though.

Funnily enough, I've been seriously obsessed with Mr Martin's soundtrack for Yellow Submarine the last couple of weeks, after years of it sitting on a shelf in my house almost unplayed. What a weird coincidence. (and the soundtrack is incredible stuff, by the way, dismissed by sniffy rock critics for years as contractually obligated junk that the Beatles shouldn't have allowed onto one of their albums — but it's *amazing*)

I will put on 'Love' today sometime, listen to his extraordinary arrangements and mixing work on I Am The Walrus and the arrangement for 'the other George's' slow version of While My Guitar... and feel very sad.

"The lights are going out, all over Europe... we shall not see them lit again in our lifetime."

It's often forgotten, including by me, that he scored all three of AHDN, Help! And Yellow Submarine. Thanks for the reminder. I still have Capitol LPs with the Beatles' songs and the score music on them.

Damn. This sucks. 90 years is a helluva run though. RIP George. This truly leaves Brian as the last true great producer standing of his era.

‍

BBC and the Daily Telegraph have the story now.

Tonight I'll raise a glass to his memory and his achievements. He brought credibility to rock and roll, which is one hell of a legacy.

oddly, I rewatched my dvd of 'produced by George martin' last week.  It is a great documentary of the man
and how he came to be at 'parlophone'. it takes you through the comedy recordings he made, the beatles of course,
and his later work in his own studio etc.  In the doco he admits he never got any financial bonuses with the beatles, and
basically got a minimum wage as the producer even thou everyone else had financial success.
check it out.

Farewell, Sir George.  Thanks for everything.

RIP.

- A

https://www.berklee.edu/commencement/past/gmartin.html (https://www.berklee.edu/commencement/past/gmartin.html)

(https://www.berklee.edu/sites/default/files/images/commencement/past/martin_dizzy.jpg)

George Martin's Commencement Address

April 13, 1989

George Martin and Dizzy Gillespie received Berklee honorary doctor of music degrees in 1989, and Martin delivered the commencement address—transcribed below—to graduates and their families.


I am indeed honored and delighted to be with you today, and I am particularly thrilled to be sharing this moment with someone who has always been a hero of mine, Dizzy Gillespie.

And there is a double honor for me, because of what I am. Some of you may have noticed, if you are really observant, that I do not hail from your country. I am an alien, a foreigner, a limey—actually a cockney, and I think it is doubly generous of you to take to your hearts someone from another land working for another people. But that is typical of the kindness of the American spirit that I have always found.

Music has always been of special importance in the United States, not least because you have contributed so much to the musical culture of the world. I can think of no other people whose musical influence has been so profound and universal, no other country which has melded its folk music into a new language and developed the most popular form of music in the world today. It is impossible to conceive what our lives would be like today without that musical heritage. From the blues created by the American Negro, the lineage of jazz has grown steadily, taking influences from folk and country music along the way, and in turn developed the vigorous offspring of rock and roll. And that melting pot has brewed the sounds that fill our ears today.

All this music demanded new sounds and technology, and Americans found a way of designing new instruments like the electric guitar, the Hammond organ, and more recently electronic instruments and synthesizers. Even the saxophone was adopted and transformed from an orchestral novelty into a vital new band sound, and the trumpet, in the hands of masters such as Dizzy here, has become a new and important voice expression of his genius.

For many years we folk across the pond tried hard to keep up with you, but found it difficult to match the quality of your writers like Gershwin, Porter, Rodgers and Hammerstein, and Ellington. Pop music was an American art form. But we kept trying, and in the 60s made our breakthrough. Learning from you, taking the best of your music, we worked at it, gave it a bit of European gloss and sent it back to you as a new sound, and we keep trying to do that today. You were generous; without that acceptance I would not be here today. And for that I thank you.

I like your attitudes, too. I do not find snobbishness here between different kinds of music. This college is a superb example of a healthy impartial approach that knows no barriers, no pigeonholes, no classical looking down the nose, no rock and roll sneering at their opposite numbers. You show the existence of only two kinds of music: good and bad. I have always believed that one form of art can learn a great deal from another, and I have always tried to incorporate, where appropriate, influences from other sources. Cross-fertilization was bound to improve the breed.

But technology has not always been to our advantage. In many ways it is harder today for young musicians starting out on their careers than it was for me when I began.

Coincidentally, it is 40 years almost to the day since I left music college to begin my career in music. And I tell you right now I would hate to be starting out in 1989.

For one thing, for music to improve it has to be created live. This may seem a paradox coming from someone who has spent most of his life in a recording studio. But I believe in the spontaneity of performance and the ability to move the soul of the listeners with music that happens at the time.

In Europe there is a sinister growing dependence on visual entertainment. TV and video have become the opium of the masses, with prerecorded and programmed sound satisfying their eternal hunger. The staple diet of millions of people is junk music. Like junk food, it may fill their bellies, but it doesn't improve their style. They are hearing with their eyes and listening to nothing.

Well, maybe that is a bit pessimistic, but I think we have to do our darnedest to counter this trend and get people to realize that mimed performances are not as good as the real thing.

I am often asked if any of the records I have made would have benefited by modern technology. I love technical wizardry, and I am enormously excited at the potential that is available today. Our tools are so much more sophisticated these days, and of course they can make life easier. But we have to remember that they are just tools nothing more and true art, true music comes from the heart and soul of the human being. So the answer to the question posed is: I believe my productions may have been easier to make if I had had today's technology. They may even have been quicker—they would probably have been a little different—but better? I seriously doubt it. Something like Sgt. Pepper may even have been not as good because different techniques would have altered its style. I cannot contemplate what a liberal use of sampling would have done to it. I would have lost a lot of those lovely human imperfections which add up to a roundness that clinical correctness fails to give.

Oh, and while I am on it, let me tell you that there is no way Pepper could have seen the light of day if Geoff Emerick and I had used drugs of any sort. That kind of crutch never improves art, no matter how glamorous it may seem at the time.

Pete Townshend said to me the other day when we launched a new school in London for the performing arts, "George, tell the young ones how to cope with success." I knew what he meant. Success and its hand in glove partner, failure, are equally difficult to handle, and everyone has to deal with both in different quantities in their lifetimes. The despair of rejection, or failure, is easy to imagine and is well documented. The perils of success are less evident. For one thing, it is a mirage, and you never really ever get to it. There is always more to do, more to learn, and always someone better than you are. Mind you, there's always someone worse as well! But public approval is a heady wine, and too much can be not only intoxicating, but downright harmful. Keep a sensible opinion of your own worth true to yourself, without the honeyed words of your admirers. They can eat you alive if you are not careful, yet drop you like a hot brick if you dare to go out of fashion.

Lord knows that it is hard to get to the top, but it is a darned sight harder staying there. The music business is littered with shooting stars that have burned out. So pace yourselves. It is not a sprint that you are running; it is more like a marathon. And remember, you have to keep running.

Obviously talent is required. It goes without saying. Equally obvious is the need for constant application, plain hard work. Every first-class musician that I have known works hard at his talent, not because he has to, but because he enjoys it. Someone like my friend Mark Knopfler seems to enjoy talent that requires no effort, but I promise you he practices on his guitar everyday to keep his technique up to scratch.

Timing is everything. When I left college all those years ago, I earned my bread playing the oboe, but I wanted more than anything to succeed as a composer. It was the time of the grand film scores, and I thought if only I had a break, I, too, could write terrific film music. It was my idea of heaven.

Well, I did write for films eventually, and very different it proved to be to my imaginings. And a lot happened on the way there. I had my share of success and failure, rejection, and acceptance.

I was lucky enough to join the record industry at a time of change, just before its big expansion. I took a job at Abbey Road studios to give me a bit more money, and I became hooked on the fascination of recording. I was lucky enough to arrive at the right time, and to become part of a team that was learning as it was developing. It was hardly science in those days. We flew by the seat of our pants, and improvisation was the order of the day. That timing, that luck, is something that we all need. Everyone has opportunities of one sort or another throughout their lives, and one cannot expect to benefit from every one. The trick is to recognize the break when it comes and to take advantage of it.

And when luck goes against you, don't let it get you down; it will all even out in the end. Try and relax with your art. Everyone is allowed a little failure now and again. The reassuring thing I have learned from working with geniuses is that no one is perfect; no one is so good that he does not need help.

I said you were running a race, a marathon. Well, on second thought that marathon is relay race, and I am close to passing on the baton. A lot of you are going to take up the baton passed to you by those ahead of you. Music of the future is in your hands. Cherish it; it is a vital part of humanity.

Thank you again for this great honor. I am deeply grateful.

I had no use for that soundtrack music when I got the album as a kid, but I love it now. There are certain musical meetings that could be called "a match made in heaven" - certainly true for the Beatles themselves, but also true for their pairing with Martin.

2016 has claimed yet another victim   :'(

The only producer I hold in higher regard than Brian himself. Along with a certain four individuals, this man shaped modern music. Can't express how big a fan I am of his work, not just with the Beatles, but elsewhere as well. Rest in peace.

Suuri puu on kaatunut. RIP.

George Martin is one of my biggest musical influences. Man...this one is hitting me hard. What a tremendous talent and legacy.

Todellakin.


I was lucky enough to meet George Martin in 2004 and he was an absolute gentleman.  RIP.

RIP

Maestro and Maestro


https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=CnVyCuc9_P8

So true. RIP mr. Martin.

For once this is far from a worn out remark: one of the greats has left the planet.

Oh yes, and of course:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CnVyCuc9_P8

A good age. A sad day. A true gentleman. Goodbye, Sir George.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HEE-30FSNJY

This is lovely and sad too, for a great actor and comedian who left us is in it with GM:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pbSDcan7WWE

One of the shapers of this thing we call pop music, the Fifth Beatle and so much more. A true legend in a world that's forgotten the meaning of the word.

A full life, certainly for Sir George Martin - still a terrible loss to all of us - a genuinely gifted, elegant man.

A full life to be sure. As a big America fan I sure do appreciate his contributions to that band.

Thanks, GF - that was amazing.  And, Berklee rocks!   ;)

Thanks for posting it.

Rest in Peace to a man who has left us with an immortal gift, beautiful music. He will never be forgotten in the annals of music history for the skill and professionalism with which he used to craft and create a beautiful gift for us all. Deaths like this always make me think of one of my favourite poems by Mary Elizabeth Frye:

Do not stand at my grave and weep. I am not there; I do not sleep. I am a thousand winds that blow. I am the diamond glints on snow. I am the sunlight on ripened grain. I am the gentle Autumn rain. When you awaken in the morning's hush. I am the swift uplifting rush. Of quiet birds in circled flight. I am the soft stars that shine at night. Do not stand at my grave and cry; I am not there; I did not die.

RIP Sir Martin, 2016 has been a rough year for music buffs for sure :(

wow, I've never read that before. Beautiful expression of death. I'll miss George.

I've just started on my Beatles journey, so I'm sure I'll feel the weight of this more as time passes.

Off topic kinda though... I know why the British dub people knights, but I've never really liked it.  The guy was a genius, but a knight? Really?  I always chuckle a bit when I hear musicians mentioned with their "Sir" title.

Let the flaming begin.

Back on topic, it's interesting how we collectively have some sense (and maybe a misplaced) sense of assurance when people we admire and love are still with us-- even if they very old or very ill.  Then there's such a sense of loss when they ultimately pass.

Hearing about the passing of Sir George Martin gave me the chance to reflect on one of the truly unexpected and mind-blowing moments of my life. Back in 2007 I was in London with David Marks promoting our Lost Beach Boy book, our wives Nadia and Carrie were on the trip too so it was a fun family time, and Dave and I totally geeked out on the Beatles thing when we visited the location of Abbey Road studio. A few days later we went to see the band America perform at the Hammersmith Odeon which is an auditorium that the Beatles, Stones and so many other British Invasion groups performed at in the 1960's. Again, I was completely in a state of wonder and awe just soaking up the vibe of this historic place, when suddenly we were backstage saying hello to the America band members, and somebody (I think Jeff Foskett) says to me, "Jon...have you met George Martin??" I turn to my left and he's standing right there, giant of a man, quite old even then, but very noble and bright...a massive presence. And he's looking at me...and he puts his hand out and shakes mine, says hello...and And my brain is frying...splattering all over the dressing room. Not literally, but you know, i was BLOWN AWAY. HOLY sh*t!!! George f'n Martin...talking to me. Looking me in the eye. As if I had any significance to a dude who stood side by side with Lennon and McCartney as they changed the world, changed my world. I was a fumbling, stuttering, grinning mess, and Sir George could not have been more gracious in our 20 seconds of interaction. And for me this was one of the truly HUGE moments in my life. The chance to say hello to George Martin, I'll never forget it. RIP Sir. And thanks for all you did to make my life better.

Y'know I'd been thinking somewhat often the past year or so about George, knowing he was getting pretty old. In fact I just wondered about him a few days ago. Looks like his time finally came. RIP George Martin. :(

RIP, George Martin.

awesome story jon  8)

agreed - I would have had the same reaction at meeting the man

Beautiful story and what an honor.

Truly he made all of our lives better and our culture richer.

It shows you just how HUGE The Beatles impact has been on the world that their producer (one of the greatest of all time, I might add) dying at the age of 90 is the Breaking News Story the world over. Thankfully he was always celebrated in his lifetime, and he will continue to be years after we've all gone to the other side.

R.I.P George, you accomplished so much in your long and distinguished lifetime.

Brian posted this on his instagram:

"When I heard that George Martin died, I felt a real sadness in my soul. The records that George produced with the Beatles were some of the greatest ever made and they inspired me to greater heights. We were young and anything was possible. George and I became friends later on and when he said nice things about me, it made me very proud. He was a kind and gentle soul. I wish the best for George’s family and friends.
Love & Mercy, Brian"

Brian wrote this for the In Memoriam section of the latest issue of TIME magazine

He had a fantastic innings and left behind a legacy that'll travel forward in time.

We all know his work with the fab four but he also produced a lovely album with Neil Sedaka called 'A Song' (1977), it deserved to be a notable hit but slipped between the cracks.

RIP to a great Musicologist ...

And then there's this:


from March 2001, Radio City Music Hall.  Sir George Martin honoring Brian Wilson, elegant, eloquent and humble, as always.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJTLu4UiJ7o

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/event/article-3485947/Beatles-producer-George-Martin-known-fifth-Beatle-argues-Event-s-music-critic-Tim-Lisle-Beatle-man-band-truly-fab.html?ITO=applenews

A nice little tribute from the Daily Mail. Thank you Sir George for all the magic! RIP. Better yet, reincarnate with John and George and do it all over again!