Entertainment For Lively Minds
Your favourite Beatles books
I almost feel like apologising for starting another fabs thread but a quick nosey in the recent archives brings up very little on this particular aspect.
So... what are the best Beatles books out there?
Obviously there's Ian Mcdonald's Revolution In The Head which is your set text, stone cold classic for 'stuff' about the actual tunes. SHOUT! is good for giving an overall view of the whole life story (although the last version i read stops just after Lennon died). Also there's the official biog by Hunter Davies, Macca's own biog (which is brilliant but the wilfully anti Lennon bits do my head in a bit). The Longest Cocktail Party is meant to be great but it's been sat on my bookshelf for 5 years and i can't face it for some reason.
Is Mark Lewisohn still doing the whole saga over 3 volumes, each one coming out 3 years apart? It must be a good few years since that was mentioned anywhere.
Which others can people recommend?
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Ray Coleman
There's an excellent book by Ray Coleman on Brian Epstein. Not sure if its still in print but its well worth tracking down. He did other books on other Beatles but this is the one worth reading. Terrific writer.
Here's my list
http://www.amazon.co.uk/plumbs-best-beatles-books/lm/R220I2KT670KHM/ref=...
The Illustrated Record
by Roy Carr and Tony Tyler, revised and updated 1978, flippin' great introduction to the Fabs, witty text and full-size colour(!) album repros, it really changed my life, along with the NME Encyclopedia of Rock, read them both cover to cover about 3 times in as many months, ah, teenage obsessiveness......
NME Encyclopedia of Rock
(2nd Edition, pre-punk) was my guide too ... I recently bought a copy on Ebay and was able thirty years on to recite huge chunks of it by heart. Though I still laughed at the caption under the picture of Wings' "Red Rose Speedway" album - 'too bad there was only room for Paul on the cover'.
I still
have bits of it swirling round my head:
Rush - 'Canadian heavy metal trio'; Slade - 'a band who will undoubtedly come again'; 'No one is as compelling as Dylan. No one'.....
This sounds like what The Rough Guide To Rock was to me
and fellow 'britpop generation' kids. FANTASTIC book but they only did 2 editions and then stopped. LITERALLY amazing book.
http://www.amazon.com/Rough-Guide-Rock-Music-Guides/dp/1858284570
but very dated now.
Rough Guide
I have a third edition (Oct 2003).It's got the White Stripes on the cover. No idea if there's been an update since.
Same here (-ish) !
...except mine was the 'Illustrated Encyc of Rock' from Salamander, which is on my shelf in careworn batteredness above me even as I type. The text in Illustrated Record is terrific - witty, informed, caustic - in fact, I must read it again (for the first time in 25 years I suppose!). Someone should really reissue that one, though perhaps not in a 12x12 format... which just looks sort of wrong or outdated now. I imagine in 20 years people will look at this recent rash of 'tombstone' sized books (from The Beatles, The Puthons, U2 et al) and think 'How on earth did people even contemplate reading these?' I still can't. So haven't...
Oh, and the late 70s 'comedy' Beatle biog 'Paperback Writer' - about an imagined history and reunion of the Fabs - is amusing and almost profound, as welll as slightly irritating, in equal measure...
Was that
the one where John is obsessed with Gilligan's Island, and the lads end up supporting the Sex Pistols in 1979, and go down really badly except for I Want to Hold your Hand, or something? I must have read it, I couldn't have just made that up could I?
Crikey, no, it's NOTHING like any of that....
...Only kidding! Yes, that's the one! It also, from memory, includes a string of gags along the lines of 'In 1974, Ringo enjoyed a number of hit singles....' and then goes on to list a number of hit singles by Elton John, T Rex, The Temptations, etc, which Ringo 'enjoyed'! Simple but brilliant... :-D
Mother of all Beatles studio nerdery
http://www.recordingthebeatles.com/
A quite brilliant book
.
But it's VERY nerdy :-)
If you like the intimate, gory details of studio gear, this is the book for you.
If you want stories about four cheery moptops or Lennon in a bag, look elsewhere.
Keith Badman´s Off The Record
Tells the story in the same way as The Anthology book, ie through quotes, but not as censored. A lot of really funny off topic parts too.
Also David Sheff´s Last Interview. If nothing else John goes through more or less every song from the sixties in a Beatle nerd heaven who-wrote-what. It´s funny, straight forward and with ten years of perspective on the break up not as bitter as the perhaps more famous Lennon Remembers. Good for balancing Miles´ Many Years From Now.
I´ve got more than 20 books about The Beatles, but if anyone can recommend one about George Harrison I´m thankful.
I have been listening to the fabs non stop for weeks now thanks to all those threads. Bastards.:)
I Me Mine
George's own work. I don't know if it's still available, Helter Skelter books used to sell it for over £100, and that's 25-30 years ago, think it was a limited edition thing.
I seem to remember that in one of his last interviews John was angry about it because George hadn't credited him in it, and revealed that he wrote a big part of Taxman. He died without them having resolved it, which must have really hurt George.
still out there cheap it appears
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Me-Mine-Introduction-Olivia-Harrison/dp/07538173...
The Special Edition
It was printed on high quality paper and bound in some ridiculously expensive leather and I think each one was signed by George.
Probably hurt John
rather more (ducks for cover....again).
Paperback Writer
A spoof biog that came out in 1978. Haven't read it in years, but do remember that Brian Epstein was 'in fact' a plumber, who only heard the Fabs when he went to unblock a pipe in the Cavern's Ladies toilets.
That's on my list too
Paperback Writer is a great fake Batles history, other than that I like the Complete Beatles Recording Sessions by Mark Lewishon, John Lennon's 1970 Rolling Stone interview and 1980 Playboy interview and Tim Riley's Tell Me Why, a musical anaylsis of the UK discogarphy and Beatles solo albums up to 1986.
Someone gave me George Martin's companion book to the South Bank Show/ Buena Vista Televison Sgt. Pepper's special, it's quite good. I'd love to get a hold of George Martin's All You Need is Ears. I wonder why that's never been reissued.
Hunter Davies
I've always liked his book, written when they were still a pop group and all of the other nonsense had not yet been invented (ref. David Hepworth's comments in the mag about the application of adult qualities as a retrospective justification for liking them.)
"How Do You Find America?"
Can't Buy Me Love: The "Beatles", Britain, and America, loved it.
Agree - this was excellent.
Agree - this was excellent.
Currently out of print
but Alan Williams's The Man Who Gave Away The Beatles was very interesting. I read it about 30 years ago. Not the best written book you'll evr read, but the story of pre Epstein Beatles by their first manager is an easy read.
Seconded
One of my favourite music books not simply one of the best about the Fabs
Thirded
I love Williams' book. Gives a vivid sense of those early days and best of all, Williams has no particular axe to grind.
If it's Beatle eye candy you're after
Anthology is a treat. A beautifully designed insiders' take on the greatest story ever told.
This looks good
Get it here... http://www.freespeechbooks.com/
Blurb...........
Frequently falling foul of some form of Fab Four fanatical faction? Constantly ridiculed for your radical yet rational views? At last, help is at hand...
This book is a satirical and sometimes surreal self-help guide, which as well as challenging the orthodox perception of the Beatles' status, presents an oppressed minority with a complete defence strategy for dealing with any Fab Four fans reluctant to give peace a chance.
By breaking Beatles' fans down into seven key groups, the author offers an invaluable insight into the mindset of each individual strain. Why would anyone claim to enjoy the Beatles' music? What's in it for them? (The reasons the Nostalgic Impolitic, for example, will choose to become a fan will vary greatly from those of the Latecomer or the American. They all long to fit in, but where and with whom?) Once you learn to identify which fan type is harassing you, simply follow the advice suggested in this book for dealing with that particular strain, and before you can say Pet Sounds, the fan will be retreating in defeat.
The groundbreaking research expounded in these pages is also recommended reading for any form of Fab Four fan (apart from the Beatle Head), who may be interested in learning how to distinguish between articulate, cutting edge rock 'n' roll and bombastic, bubblegum claptrap.
Philip Norman's
John Lennon, The Life is good. Though am starting to lose interest the longer it goes on. Excellent for the early years, though. Worth the price of admission for Norman's willingness to go deeper than the usual thumbnail sketch of Freddie Lennon the Hapless Seafarer; he was apparently a far more respected and admirable figure than he's usually given credit for. (Lennon, not Norman). And it deals well with the complexities of John and Julia's relationship. Once they record Please Please Me, however (which, as indication of the depth of analysis of the early years, is more than a third of the way through the book)it tends to become "just" another retelling of the story. The greatest story ever told, sure, but we've read it nonetheless.
Beatles Gear by Andy Babiuk..
..goes into detail about the intruments they used, not just guitars but keyboards and drums as well, loads of photos including close-ups on the original guitars such as John's stripped down natural finish Epiphone Casino.
Fantastic when paired with Mark Lewisohn's recording sessions book
Michael Braun's...
...Love Me Do: The Beatles' Progress is excellent. It's a behind the scenes account of the 63-64 period of Beatlemania. Out of print but a second hand copy is available for £3.99 here.
Seconded
Was available in Partners-style remainder shops until quite recently. Mine was 99p (exclam/ smiley thing required here)
yep
that's a winner. there was a reprint in the anthology/1995ish era. a big influence on chris heath's pet shop boys books.
Albert Goldman
They've got the Goldman book on Lennon in hardback in my local second hand shop if anyone wants it. Not interested personally but someone told me it was out of print and hard to get.
I love Oxfam
Goldman's The Lives of John Lennon is next on my list to read, once I've finished California Dreaming by Lawrence Donegan (ex Bluebell and Commotion).
I suspect the latter will prove to be more fun, as well as a considerably faster read - the Goldman clocks in at around 700 pages.
Yes
I tried to read the Goldman a few years ago and got fed up of the endless sniping at Yoko and bloody smackhead John dripping about their apartment. Dismal.
A hard days Write
like 'Revolution in the head'..but glossier and with more pictures.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Hard-Days-Write-Stories-Beatles/dp/185868806X/re...
Mark Lewisohn's Opus
I met Mark, recently, at my Dad's funeral(Ron Richards). He told me that he was well under way with the project. I believe he may be publishing the first volume in 2010 and that he had new stuff to reveal,not generally known about how the Beatles were signed to EMI ,and how George Martin, who was not especially keen to sign them, was prevailed on to work with them.
I know he interviewed my late dear departed father at length.
Though my father was disappointed to have had them taken away from him,by his boss, at the time, he always said that George did a fine job with the Beatles and was the right guy to get the best out of them as they developed their music as time went on.It was just a shame that he was not prepared to share the credit with others.
Literature.
Although it's been said already, MacDonald's "Revolution In The Head" is the must have book, and my favourite book across the universe.
I've always been impressed with Bob Spitz's biography, and the chapter in the Hunter Davies biog. about writing "With a Little Help.." is worth the admission alone.
There's a book called "Beatles For Sale"(I think) which is basically "Revolution In The Head" written by a GCSE student. Errors everywhere, if I remember correctly.
I'm rather fond of the "Anthology" too.