“George gives a fairly limited
view in his books,” explained
Womack, author of Maximum
Volume, The Life of Beatles Pro-
ducer George Martin (The Early
Years, 1926-1966). “He gives
you his version of The Beatles
story, but it’s a very selective
one… I include warts and all, so
you can see George Martin as a
more well-rounded person. The
one who’s a real person; who
has failings, who has successes,
who bristles and is jealous of
Norrie Paramor. I don’t know
that Martin’s been as revealing
as he could be.”
One of the main differences
between Martin’s books and
Womack’s is the addition of oth-
er voices. Martin tells the story
he wants us to hear; Womack
seeks additional perspectives
from people who were there
like Geoffrey Emerick, a record-
ing studio audio engineer who
was in the chair next to Martin in
NJ STAGE 2017 - Issue 40
the studio for several of their al-
bums, and members of The Bea-
tles themselves. He also doesn’t
shy away from comments by
people who may have been in-
different to Martin or those who
disliked him.
“I believe it gives a different
kind of shape to Martin’s story,”
said Womack.
Even die-hard Beatles fans can
be excused for not knowing the
early history of Martin or any-
thing prior to the days before
he met the Fab Four. Maximum
Volume takes you all the way
back to his working class child-
hood when he was a musical
prodigy. This is much more than
just biographical information,
it’s sort of the blueprint to the
George Martin story. Learn-
ing about how he had “perfect
pitch” but struggled to read
sheet music gives us insight into
how he was able to be innova-
tive in the recording studio and
INDEX
NEXT ARTICLE
65