Maximum Volume: The Life of Beatles Producer George Martin by Kenneth WomackMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
This biography explores a "fifth Beatle" as his career interleaves with theirs. He starts from a time of limited technology with 10" records for pop and the 12" LPs for classical, etc. which also got the cutting edge technology, such as it was. Martin embraced variable speed recording and other tricks required for comedy recordings which fed into the advanced techniques that surfaced with Beatles recordings. It is interesting to see the arc of British popular music crushed by American trends -- performers expected to cover American songs, and then see the eventual domination of the US by The Beatles. This "Early Years" volume ends with Rubber Soul. Included is, of course, a career biography of Martin including how he was compelled to strike out on his own when under appreciated by EMI.
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