There were no groups like the Beatles. Three guitars and drums, all three front-line guitarists singing lead and harmonies, a group who wrote their own songs—it was simple, direct and not done. George Martin’s decision to accept them this way, as a leaderless unit, was, correspondingly, a first too—and precisely what they’d hoped for and Brian had been trying to help them find. They’d lucked into the only producer in London who shared their resistance to convention, the only man with a reputation for sound experimentation and a strong knack for the unusual … and he’d lucked into the Beatles.
