Archive 2016 · George Martin and Brian Wilson

friscoron
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p.1 #1 · p.1 #1 · George Martin and Brian Wilson

No, this isn't a photo and it has nothing to do with me. George Martin, who produced the Beatles' early hits, meets with Brian Wilson to talk music. At the 3:06 mark, they are in a studio breaking down the arrangement/mixing of "God Only Knows." It's absolutely fascinating to see how they take this plain vocal by Carl Wilson, add a second mix of that vocal, and then add music, to create this beautiful song.

To me, that's how photography works -- though I know many will disagree with that, and that's okay. But I think the shot straight out of the camera is that raw vocal. Then you start mixing it up a bit, bring in some new elements, and then artwork is created. We don't do that, or need to do that, for every shot we take.

Trust me, I'm not saying every genre of photography, or every shot, needs this. Of course not. Documentary work, for example, would be compromised by this. But it just reminded of how I think some artwork in photography is made.

On a fun note, back when I was an entertainment writer in Europe in the early 90s, I got to spend three days with the Beach Boys on a concert tour, including riding on the bus with them to and from their concert. It was definitely good times, and fun to see how they interacted with each other.

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/music/posts/la-et-ms-watch-george-martin-los-angeles-god-only-knows-brian-wilson-20160309-story.html

Mar 10, 2016 at 09:33 AM

Steve Wylie
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p.1 #2 · p.1 #2 · George Martin and Brian Wilson

Thanks for sharing this, Ron. The video piece is incredibly interesting; I'm impressed with how Brian Wilson appears to be a more healthy Brian than in previous years. That's good to see. And I also marveled at the tweaks that George Martin was making to "God Only Knows" and Brian's reaction to that. And what a great opportunity for you to actually tour with them. My favorite memory of seeing the Beach Boys live (and I've seen them several times), was as a grad student in Boston back in the 70's in the dead of winter at the old Boston Garden. Probably ten degrees outside and definitely snowing, but in the Garden, I was in my hawaiian shirt and loving it!

Mar 10, 2016 at 01:10 PM

friscoron
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p.1 #3 · p.1 #3 · George Martin and Brian Wilson

I knew you'd respond to this, Steve.

Mar 10, 2016 at 01:35 PM

Peter Figen
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p.1 #4 · p.1 #4 · George Martin and Brian Wilson

Ron - Having spent more time in recording studios that I can imagine, I have to agree. I often tell the musicians I photograph that there's no real difference between what they do in a recording studio and what I do in a photo studio - just different tools, but the creative process is absolutely identical. What's being illustrated in the video is more the post production correlation, but the actual production process, at least for me, is also identical. Maybe it also explains why quite a few musicians are photographers and vice versa.

Mar 12, 2016 at 02:01 PM

gschlact
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p.1 #5 · p.1 #5 · George Martin and Brian Wilson

Thanks for SHARING Ron.
Peter, Great analogies.

Mar 16, 2016 at 08:19 AM


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