Interviews

Please listen!

This interview with George Martin was conducted in July of1998 and was originally intended for The Tracking Angle. Unfortunately, we ceased publication before it could be run. It appeared later in Art Dudley’s wonderful Listener magazine, also sadly defunct. Martin was in New York on a media tour publicizing In My Life his farewell production. It wasn’t particularly well received in the press, but it was what Martin wished to do, and that was good enough for him and for me. Meeting Martin was a memorable experience that I shall never forget.

The hotel door cracks open and you're startled to see Sir George Martin has answered your knock, looking just as you've seen him in the photographs, only taller and even more imposing. He welcomes you sincerely, in a polished voice that's soothing yet terribly aristocratic and proper sounding.

Foolishly, involuntarily, (and you hope surreptitiously) your eyes momentarily lose contact with Martin's to dart around the room looking for those other familiar faces always in the photos. You lock onto Martin's eyes, which say to you, "Don't worry. We're used to it. You're not the only one who's looked."

Listening session conducted at Listen Up! (thanks to Walt Stinson), 685 Pearl Street, Denver, Colorado.

Equipment:

Goldmund Dialogue Speakers
Double Kimber TC-8
Mark Levinson ML 20 amps
Mark Levinson ML 10A preamp
Goldmund turntable, T-3F arm
Carnegie Cartridge

The longevity of Blondie is proof of the triumph of substance over image. The new-wave icons made quite a name for themselves when they emerged as the platinum-blonde darlings of the New York scene in the 1970s, unabashedly buttressed by the can’t-look-away visual iconography of lead vocalist/songwriter Debbie Harry — but they also had a special knack for transmogrifying the aesthetics of punk, the tenets of bubblegum pop, and their own deep-seated performance chops into something new. The first phase of Blondie’s career is now properly feted in Against the Odds 1974-1982, a massive 10LP/1EP/1 7-inch 45 Super Deluxe Collector’s Edition box set. Blondie drummer Clem Burke got on the line with AP editor Mike Mettler to discuss how the box set came together and why it acts as a “muse” for the band today, how the 7/4 shift in the back half of “Heart of Glass” gave an extra dimension to such an indelible No. 1 song, and how important producers Richard Gottehrer and Mike Chapman were in capturing the Blondie sound in the studio — and, of course, much, much more. . .