George Martin goes 'On Record' with documentary

By Ann Donahue

LOS ANGELES (Billboard) - Nearly six decades after his start in the recording industry, legendary producer George Martin is at work on a documentary about the history of recorded music.

Martin secured a place in that history not only as producer of almost all of the Beatles' recordings, but as a mentor to John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr.

Beyond his formidable track record with the Fab Four, he also has worked with Gerry & the Pacemakers, Jeff Beck, America, Cheap Trick and other acts. He's won six Grammy Awards, including two for "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band," and is a recipient of the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. He was knighted by Queen Elizabeth in 1996. In 2006, working with his son, Giles Martin, he helped develop the Beatles-inspired Cirque du Soleil show "Love" in Las Vegas, which went on to reap his two most recent Grammys.

But Martin, 82, has moved on to his next act. He's working with PBS and Wildheart Entertainment to film "On Record: The Soundtrack of Our Lives," a documentary series with the ambitious aim of chronicling the history of recorded music and its impact on society. It will feature archival performances and interviews with artists from all genres, including Enrico Caruso, Louis Armstrong, Frank Sinatra, Loretta Lynn and Jay-Z. It will air in the fall of 2010.

While in Los Angeles to be honored by the Recording Academy July 12 at its annual Grammy Foundation Starry Night benefit, Martin sat down with Billboard to talk about the Beatles, the rigors of creating an eight-hour documentary series and the future of the music industry.

Q: How did you come to be involved with "On Record?"

George Martin: I guess it's been about five years -- I've done quite a lot already. It's a big project, enormous. And it's a very important project, I think. I don't think there's anything quite like it that's been done before. It was (Wildheart executives) Max Langstaff and Michele (Langstaff) who came to me and spoke about this. They had seen my career and realized that my career had filled up, really, half of the history of recording. Recording started at the beginning of the 20th century, and here we are in the 21st century. I started recording in 1950, which was exactly halfway through.

I was very interested in the background and the history of how sound recording developed. It was a profound business -- that suddenly, for the first time, people could hear other people on record. It's difficult for us to comprehend what that meant. Before then, nobody ever heard music, unless it was there (live). It was a fundamental change, I think every bit as important as the invention of the motor car. It changed our lives and, in fact, it affected us so much that we cannot imagine music being absent from our lives. (It's there) constantly. Probably too much now.

Q: You think so? How can you have too much music?

Martin: I think if you've got an iPod and you're walking across a busy street and ignoring all the traffic. (Laughs)

Q: Speaking of iPods, do you know when the Beatles will make their catalog available online?

Martin: It's still under discussion, and nothing has been determined yet. I think it's inevitable that sooner or later the Beatles will be available, but it's got to be on their terms, really. I think that's the essence of it. There's so much piracy, there's so much illegal downloading. In that way, we're devaluing our history. Young people now say to themselves, "This stuff is free and it should be free. Why should we have to pay for music? Music is free, isn't it?" And that in itself is a belief that shouldn't be there and is encouraged by Internet downloading.

Q: The Beatles did finally relent and allowed their music to be used in the Cirque du Soleil show "Love" at the Mirage casino in Las Vegas. How did that project come together?

Martin: The whole show came about because of two factors: one was a white tiger, and the other was the Formula One motor racing circuit. (Laughs) Now how do you get those? George Harrison was a friend of (Cirque du Soleil founder/CEO) Guy Laliberte because they were both motor racing fans. They met on the circuit, and Guy said, "Why can't we have the Beatles in a show?" And George said, "Well, you've got to convince the others." And it was left like that.

The other thing was ... in Las Vegas there was a great show by Siegfried & Roy, and Roy got his neck bitten up by a white tiger. They closed and the (showroom) was empty and they not only had to find something quick, but they had to find something very, very good that would last. Cirque du Soleil eventually managed to get the Beatles to agree to having a show. The Beatles had to say to Cirque du Soleil, "Well, it will have to have our voices. We don't want other people singing our songs." And gradually, it took me three years working on it -- but it was worth it. And they do death-defying stunts on every performance. It's amazing, really.