New Book States Beatles "froze out" George Martin during 'White Album' Recording
A new biography states that The Beatles producer, George Martin, was "frozen out" when the band recorded 'The White Album' in 1968.
According to The Guardian, writer Kenneth Womack claims that a "cold war" broke out between Martin and the band, and the producer spoke "only if the Beatles called him."
Gathering testimonies from sound engineers and tape operators who worked on those sessions, the biography also states that Martin went to the recordings with "a large stack of newspapers and a giant chocolate bar," and sat in the back of the study.
Womack said: "I asked [the sound engineers] what George was doing when John (Lennon) was playing a particular guitar part or when Ringo (Starr) was working on a drum part ... they said 'nothing', He was in the back of the booth, reading the newspapers, sharing his chocolate with us. I was in a kind of chocolate strike and newspapers."
In the biography, Womack also argues that the reasons behind the "freezing" were double, blaming the uncertainty caused by the death of Brian Epstein, the Beatles manager, which occurred the previous year and an article in Time magazine that accredited to Martin as the intellectual author of the Beatles album "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band".
Womack said: "It had a lot to do with a 1967 Time magazine article, where George was credited with being the child prodigy and the brain behind 'Sgt. Pepper.' They did not take it very well and they let him know ... I think this was the beginning of the struggle to see who was the genius behind the Beatles."
He added: "This was a revenge for taking credit for the myth of the Beatles ... but they convinced him to take back the reins in (the recording of) 'Abbey Road'".
Martin, who passed away in 2016 , was known as the "fifth Beatle" because of his great influence on the production of all Beatles albums.
Womack's book, entitled "Sound Pictures: The Life of Beatles Producer George Martin, The Later Years, 1966-2016", will be published on September 4 in the United Kingdom and is available for pre-order now at Amazon.com.
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