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I'm trying to reconcile that 'plumber' against George Martin with the Beatles. He was paid like a plumber for the first couple years, and... EMI treated him wi

I'm trying to reconcile that 'plumber' against George Martin with the Beatles. He was paid like a plumber for the first couple years, and... EMI treated him with such disdain that he ended up leaving. I'm sure the money was much better after he left, but... had EMI just been slightly nicer to him, they'd have owned him for many more years. That said, I think his relationship with his bands opened up areas for him to contribute to the core product more than Albini perhaps did (Martin played piano on some tracks, scored out any classical parts for other musicians, etc). Martin may have been the middle ground between the 'producer-as-top-billing' and 'paid like a plumber' spectrum Albini seems to identify.

TylerE 2y ago
Martin was so involved in the creative process he was closer to a 5th bandmember, and was sometimes called such by the Beatles. He had more involvement in the creative product than most producers, including writing and arranging the strings, brass, and winds parts that are all over later Beatles records, and appeared as an instrumental performer on over 25 Beatles tracks.
- gizajob 2y ago
  So much that EMI have been fixing his work for 60 years now, in particular his decision to split the Beatles tracks arbitrarily between the two speakers for all the stereo mixes, despite the Beatles personal involvement in the mixing process for the mono mix downs which sound infinitely better.
  - mgkimsal 2y ago
    There just wasn't much focus on stereo until the late 60s. Most acts back then have stereo mixes that are not much more than an afterthought.
  - TylerE 2y ago
    That was how everything was mixed in the early days of stereo. Beatles actually got away from it sooner than many. Radio was all AM, which is mono.
    - gizajob 2y ago
      Everything wasn’t mixed like that actually. It was a poor decision seen through to its end.
tptacek 2y ago
It's not hard to reconcile: Albini didn't want to be George Martin.

TylerE 2y ago

Martin was so involved in the creative process he was closer to a 5th bandmember, and was sometimes called such by the Beatles. He had more involvement in the creative product than most producers, including writing and arranging the strings, brass, and winds parts that are all over later Beatles records, and appeared as an instrumental performer on over 25 Beatles tracks.

gizajob 2y ago
So much that EMI have been fixing his work for 60 years now, in particular his decision to split the Beatles tracks arbitrarily between the two speakers for all the stereo mixes, despite the Beatles personal involvement in the mixing process for the mono mix downs which sound infinitely better.
- mgkimsal 2y ago
  There just wasn't much focus on stereo until the late 60s. Most acts back then have stereo mixes that are not much more than an afterthought.
- TylerE 2y ago
  That was how everything was mixed in the early days of stereo. Beatles actually got away from it sooner than many. Radio was all AM, which is mono.
  - gizajob 2y ago
    Everything wasn’t mixed like that actually. It was a poor decision seen through to its end.

tptacek 2y ago

It's not hard to reconcile: Albini didn't want to be George Martin.