The Soundtrack Of Our Lives Sir George Martin

[johnfowles]

I was checking an old floppy disc and found some screenshots from 2 years ago which were tied to a draft of a posting I made on corfid regarding this project that was reported somewhere at the time with the exciting news that it involved Gord and the band. I could have sworn that it was discussed or at least mentioned right here on corfid but neither google nor the corfid search systen could locate it.No surprise there because I repeatedly find that the corfid search system is very definitely unreliable ,
eventually I googled for a sample phrase from my draft and found that the thread was about a 2008 concert in Northampton MA at:-
http://www.corfid.com/vbb/showthread.php?t=18878
in that thread I had posted in response to a comment from sunshine who had ssked if anybody knew any details about a particular project that Gord had mentioned during the concert (which I also attended).

Originally Posted by johnfowles

yes well I can certainly shed some light on this point just in case nobody else picked up that Gord did refer to working on "The Soundtrack Of Our Lives" a project that a few of us heard a few details of some months ago but it was definitely in confidence at the time.Now that Gord himself has mentioned it I guess it is now OK to break the news and knowing just a little more than the project title a suitable google found for me
http://video.accesshollywood.com/pNayer/?id=274249
from the description on that web page you can use your imagination to speculate on Gord's involvement with this project

That IS the correct link to a 5+ minute interview with Sir George Martin

Google did find
http://www.pbs.org/aboutpbs/news/20080207_onrecord.html
Which web page is the same now as when I saved it in September 2008 and the following text from that page as it now is reveals some striking tidbits of info:-
February 7, 2008; Washington, DC) PBS in conjunction with Wildheart Entertainment announced today the greenlighting of a major new television series, ON RECORD: THE SOUNDTRACK OF OUR LIVES, an eight-hour series that traces the history of recorded music and its impact on popular culture. Featuring hundreds of artists from all genres of music, ON RECORD: THE SOUNDTRACK OF OUR LIVES is slated to air nationally as a primetime series in the Fall of 2010 on PBS; Sir George Martin, legendary producer of the Beatles, will host. Two-time Academy Award-winning actor Kevin Spacey will narrate
The television series and an extensive educational outreach initiative, including the companion Web site on pbs.org, will be the centerpiece of an ambitious multi-pronged project expected to include a companion CD box-set and branded CD series, 12-hour DVD/home video series, accompanying books, a multi-genre worldwide radio show and broadcasting through internet portals globally
Note that it specified "Fall (Autumn) of 2010"!
Judging by the accumulating dead leaves in our yard fall ain't too far away now so you would expect there to be some details by now on the PBS website wouldn't you??
But a search on pbs.org was also largely fruitless
Your search for ""SOUNDTRACK OF OUR LIVES"" returned about 75 results:
Your intrepid reporter checked them all but except for four of the first 10 the results were merely multiple references to or repeats of that 2008 statement
Makes me wonder if sadly the project has been shelved or forgotten
I fancy that there is somebody here who is used to enquiring at their local PBS station. and /or somebody might be able to ask the man himself at an upcoming concert .I'll try to remember when I hope to talk to him in October (soon now) in New Jersey
the video still runs at:-
http://video.accesshollywood.com/pNayer/?id=274249
To start it you have to click on George's image and you should firstly get a short commercial followed by the 5+ minute interview with George
George said about the series that it'll take a while it won't come out until 2010 hope I am still around to see it
and he marvels at the fact that today's kids can carry around
"10,000 songs on a postage stamp"
According to his wiki he is still around (now 84)
the wiki makes (at the moment anyway) no reference to the soundtrack project but it does say:-
"He was granted his own Coat of Arms in March 2004 by the College of Arms. His shield features three beetles"
(I can't help but wonder why the designer chose three not four! Perhaps he didn't consider that Ringo counted or maybe that since John's untimely demise there were only three Beatles?? No it cannot be that since George died in 2001)

[johnfowles]

OK hrmmph i guess the PBS website's search is as poorly organised as corfid's becsuse a further google this morning for "soundtrack of our lives" afrer searching within the 289,000 results for "PBS" which weeds out a lot of results pertaining to a stoopid punk band from Sweden,one result reveals that the series has been put back a year
http://pressroom.pbs.org/Programs/o/...OUR-LIVES.aspx
Coming to PBS in Fall 2011
ON RECORD: THE SOUNDTRACK OF OUR LIVES is an eight-hour series that traces the history of recorded music and its impact on popular culture. Featuring hundreds of artists from all genres of music, ON RECORD: THE SOUNDTRACK OF OUR LIVES is slated to air nationally as a primetime series in the Fall of 2011 on PBS. Sir George Martin, legendary producer of the Beatles, will host. Two-time Academy Award-winning actor Kevin Spacey will narrate.
and handily provides two contacts
Alisse Kingsley
Muse Media
323-467-8508
alissethemuse@aol/com
Carrie Johnson
PBS
703-739-5129
cjohnson@pbs/orga
another result is at
http://pressroom.pbs.org/Search.aspx...ram&sort=score
ON RECORD: THE SOUNDTRACK OF OUR LIVES
Program
Coming to PBS in Fall 2011 ON RECORD: THE SOUNDTRACK OF OUR LIVES is an eight-hour series that traces the history of recorded
also a webpage by the producers
http://www.wildheartgroup.com/onRecord.asp
which reports:-
On December 7, 1877, the world of music changed forever – and with it human history.
Standing in his kitchen laboratory in a small New Jersey town, Thomas Edison had no idea that he had just ignited the most powerful, the most pervasive mass medium of the twentieth century; one that would change forever the way we live, think, work and play.
On that fateful day, with the invention of a quirky little tin-foil contraption to record sound, a revolution was born. Not since Gutenberg’s printing press more than 500 years ago, has a single invention so completely transformed western civilization.
Today, we cannot imagine what our world would be like without recorded music. It is the invention that spawned radio, movies, television, the digital age, computers and the internet.
On Record is a television series that tells the story about the impact of recorded music for the first time; how the world’s most universal mass entertainment medium gave birth to popular culture; how music became immortal.
Told as a narrative tapestry, weaving the words of today’s living legends together with the memorable musical moments, the landmark cultural events, the inspiring inventions and innovations, the extraordinary creative genius of yesterday and today; the wow moments.
On Record illustrates how, in little more than a century, recording technology has moved from the first wax cylinders to digital downloads. And how these extraordinary changes have come to re-define, not only music, but who we are.
It is the story of the twentieth century. On Record, The Soundtrack of our Lives
The "small New jersey town" was Menlo Park a township since renamed Edison in his hono(U)r but the name lives on as the name of a large shopping center nearby a few miles south of me now in Roselle NJ
on
http://www.boroughofroselle.com/history.htm
is this note on Roselle's claim to fame:-
Roselle was the first village in the world to be lighted by Thomas Edison’s incandescent light bulb. Set up as an experiment to prove that a town could be lighted by electricity from a single generating station, the generator was started on January 19, 1883. From its location on the north-east corner of Locust Street and West First Avenue it sent power through overhead wires to a store, railroad station, about forty houses, and one-hundred-fifty street lights. In April of that year the First Presbyterian Church of Roselle became the first church in the world to be so lighted when the thirty-bulb "electrolier" was installed within it. Although damaged by fire in 1949, the electrolier was salvaged, restored and re-hung in the church where it can be seen today. The steam-driven generator which stood on the corner of Locust and West First Avenue no longer exists, but the people of the town operated it for nearly ten years after Edison went on to other things, and bigger generating stations took over the task of lighting much larger areas

Thomas Edison's first successful light bulb model, used in public demonstration at Menlo Park, December 1879