Giles Martin AXS interview: The Beatles' White Album was made by a united group, not a separate one

By: Steve Marinucci  
Oct 16, 2018 

A constant theme in discussing The Beatles' White Album in the almost 50 years since it was released in November 1968 was that it was made by a group on the verge of splintering. But Giles Martin, son of The Beatles' original producer George Martin, told a recent gathering at the Capitol Records building in Los Angeles previewing a new Beatles White Album box set the group was very much together while making the album.

“The White Album is very different (than Sgt. Pepper) because, in a way, my dad, when he went to do Sgt. Pepper, in essence being the A&R man as well as the recording producer, was kind of an architect. And Sgt. Pepper was the climax of being the architect of the band of creating a sound that no one had heard before. And with the White Album, the Beatles decided they wanted to build something from the ground up. The perception of The White Album is that it's the sound of the Beatles breaking up. The most surprising take away (from working on these tapes) is the fact that it's the band working very very long hours and collaborating on making songs. They took the songs in and they worked with each other.”

On Nov. 9, Universal Music and Capitol Records is re-releasing The Beatles' The White Album in multiple sets featuring a 2018 remix and unreleased tracks from the sessions. The most extensive of these is the Super Deluxe, a seven-disc numbered (like the originals were) set with six CDs (a two-disc 2018 remix, a disc of the 27 mainly acoustic Esher demos recorded prior to the album that included several unused songs and three full discs of outtakes), a Blu-ray with the album in Hi-res PCM stereo and 5.1 mixes in DTS-HD Master Audio and Dolby True HD, and a direct transfer of the original mono mix, plus a hardcover book. A smaller Deluxe set of 3 CDs or 4 180-gram vinyl LPs will have the 2018 remix and the Esher Demos. A Standard 2-LP 180-gram vinyl version will also be available.

In a one-on-one interview with AXS.com, he explained his comments on the album further. “I think that there's a view of The White Album being this unhappy time. And I don't think it wasn't an unhappy time for them. But Ringo said last year when we were doing Sgt. Pepper ' – actually before we started work – that we should do The White Album because that's the band album. And this is the person (who) walked out of those sessions!”

And Martin said wasn't initially for doing it unless it was going to sound good. “We actually started listening to stuff at the end of November in 2017,” he said. “And then I suppose I finished the last thing and signed off on everything in May 2018. But it wasn't constant otherwise you'd go mad. But (it was) a long time and there (was) a lot of as a lot of material to go through,” he said. “It's not it's important that I don't just don't just work on stuff so people can collect them and put them on shelves. I want people to listen to things and feel love and feel emotion and feel inspired by things and that's why I do it.”

Featured in the sets are 27 Esher demos recorded at George Harrison's house and found by George's widow, Olivia. They presented a special problem. “You'll notice when the Esher Demos started (playing at the session), there's hiss. I can't take away the hiss because it takes away. the sound slightly. We cleaned them to a certain degree, but it's because of mix and EQ.”

Though the fabled 27-minute “Helter Skelter” isn't included in the Super Deluxe version (a 12-minute version that he said is similar is), Martin said it's the love of the fans that inspires projects like this.“That love that comes back towards the Beatles and us that work on the Beatles projects we can't take that for granted.” You can hear more audio from this Giles Martin interview on this episode of our Beatles News Briefs podcast. Also included is an interview with actress Jane Lynch, who attended the session.