![\"John](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/John-Lennon-Paul-McCartney-George-Harrison-Ringo-Starr-1967-George-Martin-The-Beatles-Far-Out-Magazi.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
(Credits: Far Out \/ Alamy)<\/p>\n
Tue 10 June 2025 20:30, UK <\/p>\n
The idea of a finished product in art is a weird one, because how do you know when you\u2019re done? How do you know when the thing itself has reached its final form, perfect and free from any additional tweaks, for better or worse? Most of the time, you don\u2019t, which is also why most musicians get to a point where they decide it\u2019s as good as it can be, on the brink of being destroyed by perfectionism. George Martin<\/a> was never really sure what to think of this.<\/p>\n As much as we don\u2019t talk about it, this is overwhelmingly common in the music world. U2, for example, knew just how much aiming for the finish line was pointless, not only because it doesn\u2019t really exist, but it\u2019s usually the difference between something impactful and butchering good art. Usually, as casually resigned as it might sound, this means just deciding on an endpoint regardless of whether it\u2019s actually \u201cfinished\u201d or not.<\/p>\n This sometimes bleeds into the start, too. Some might prefer a more regimented approach, while others sort of go in blind, equipped with nothing more than a handful of vague ideas that they hope will eventually come into more focus the more they chip away at them. This can manifest differently depending on who it is (from David Byrne\u2019s improvisations to Rick Rubin\u2019s genius nonchalance), but usually, it\u2019s a brave road that requires patience and perseverance, or for those who feel there\u2019s no structure with rules.<\/p>\n Because that\u2019s exactly what it is: no rules. No set routine, no clear direction, just pure exploration, with the hopes that it\u2019ll lead somewhere good. Peter Gabriel explained it best when talking to Real World Studios in 2002. While discussing his long working days and how he usually likes to work by throwing around countless ideas until something sticks, he said it\u2019s the messiness that sets him off at first before he\u2019s able to stumble upon something that makes more sense. He also explained why George Martin absolutely hates the idea.<\/p>\n \u201cI have a sort of messy, sprawling technique of writing really where you throw all this stuff at the wall and then you just chip away and spiral inwards and try to find the centre,\u201d he said. Continuing, \u201cI remember talking to George Martin about this as a sort of production technique and he was appalled, because of the waste involved.\u201d Adding: \u201cHe could only envisage having a definite result in mind that you went straight to, and you knew how to get there. I\u2019ve tried that too, but I\u2019m not very good at it. I work this other way.\u201d<\/p>\n To be fair, it would make sense for anybody to have managed a band as big as The Beatles to need some semblance of order with any other project, especially if they\u2019re conscious of the cultural context and the need to meet deadlines in order to keep the whole thing running smoothly. If you\u2019re someone like Peter Gabriel, or anyone else who works from the mess of their own mind<\/a> and nothing else, you can get away with the disorder. But someone like Martin needs it, not just to keep focused but to keep in line with his own version of a steady flow.<\/p>\n Suppose that\u2019s the difference, then, between approaching art like it\u2019s some sort of military operation and like it\u2019s more of a vague attempt at grasping something real. The outcome might be the same, but it shows how some prefer not to be boxed in by a beginning, middle, and an end, knowing that, in the end, none of those categories ever really existed to begin with.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Related Topics<\/p>\n The Far Out Music Newsletter<\/p>\n All the latest music news from the independant voice of culture.
Straight to your inbox.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(Credits: Far Out \/ Alamy) Tue 10 June 2025 20:30, UK The idea of a finished product in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":40154,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3936],"tags":[77,12657,269,72408,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-175091","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-george-martin","10":"tag-music","11":"tag-peter-gabriel","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114663622516042631","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175091","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=175091"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175091\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40154"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=175091"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=175091"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=175091"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}