What is the difference between George Martin and Phil Spector?
George Martin… I don’t know. You see, for quite a few of our albums, like the Beatles’ double albums, George Martin didn’t really produce it. In the early days, I can remember what George Martin did. What did he do in the early days? He would translate… If Paul wanted to use violins he would translate it for him. Like “In My Life” there is an Elizabethan Piano solo in it, so he would do things like that. We would say “play like Bach” or something, so he would put 12 bars in there. He helped us develop a language, to talk to musicians. I was very, very shy, and there are many reasons why I didn’t like very much go for musicians. I didn’t like to have to see 20 guys sitting there and try to tell them what to do. Because they’re all so lousy anyway. So, apart from the early days — when I didn’t have much to do with it — I did it myself. Why did you use Phil now instead of George Martin? Well it’s not instead of George Martin. That’s nothing personal against George Martin. He’s more Paul’s
