All Together Now (2008)

George Martin: Self

Quotes 

• George Martin : He was a marvelous man, but he was never really satisfied with anything he did. In the year before he died, I spent a night with him and we talked about our times. And we had a lovely evening. And then suddenly, out of the blue, he said to me, "You know, George, if I could, I'd record everything we did - again." I said, "You can't be serious, John." I said, "We did some great stuff; what are you on about?" He said, "We could have done it better." I said, "What about 'Strawberry Fields'?" He said - he looks at me over his glasses and said - "ESPECIALLY 'Strawberry Fields.' " And I thought, gosh, you know, I practically bled for that song.

• George Martin : It's very difficult to escape this heritage that we have. I've been having memories brought back every day of my life, you know. There will be a little knot of Beatle fans somewhere who says, they shouldn't do that; they should leave the masters as we know them. But we're embarking on a new direction here.

• Giles Martin : [of the "While My Guitar Gentle Weeps" backing track recording at AIR Studios]  The string players, they realized the significance of, d'you know, being your last string session...

  George Martin : Yeah. Absolutely.

  Giles Martin : ...and playing, you know, a Beatles string session, and at the end of it, they gave you a big bouquet of flowers.

  George Martin : They gave me two dozen red roses. Musicians!

  Giles Martin : Normally, they hand out invoices.

  [both laugh] 

  George Martin : I was knocked out by that.

• George Martin : But we're also changing the actual tracks themselves; and this is a tightrope of taste that we're walking, because once you start tampering with Beatles material, you're tampering with the Holy Grail.