You wait ages for a Beatles thread, and then they start turning up like the proverbial bus. I was going to post this anyway, before the Anthology thread came up, as I wanted to talk about my collection of Beatles books. It was after I posted a thread the other day about a Beatles book on a kindle deal, that got me thinking about my collection. The post had mixed reviews, with some people bored rigid with the subject, and others saying you can never have too many. Dai and Diddley posted their top 5 Beatles books, which made me look at my own collection, which I will post here for anyone interested. If you’re not, there’s no need to read on.
My obsession started at a very young age, I was 9 in 1970, knew nothing of the band breaking up, but had already become very familiar with their music. My first LP was Sgt Pepper bought in 1972. Anyway on to the books. I still owe them all, bar one, but didn’t realise I had so many until I counted them the other day. This is roughly the order I bought them in, with the later ones being just kindle books.
The Paul McCartney Story George Tremlett. 1975
The John Lennon Story George Tremlett 1976
Beatles Complete for Easy Guitar.( This is the only one missing, which I lent to a friend but never got back)
An Illustrated Record 1978 edition
A Twist of Lennon Cynthia Lennon
The Beatles 10th Anniversary Hunter Davies
In their own words
Beatles Forever
Paul McCartney and Wings Tony Jasper
Shout Philip Norman
Complete Recording Sessions 1st Edition 1988
Complete Beatles Chronicle Lewisohn 1996 Edition
Anthology
Many Years from Now
I Me Mine
Lennon Ray Coleman
John Cynthia Lennon
Revolution in the Head
Beatles Complete Chord Songbook ( A different one to the one I lost)
The Story Behind the Songs Steve Turner
Beatles Box Alan Clayson
As Times go By Derek Taylor
The Beatles 40th Anniversary edition Hunter Davies
Abbey Road Brian Southall
Beatles in 100 Objects Brian Southall
Lennon in America 1971-80
Wonderful Today Pattie Boyd
The Beatles, Football and Me Hunter Davies
Beatles Lyrics Hunter Davies
Paul McCartney Howard Sounes
Paul McCartney- The Life Philip Norman
Paul McCartney The Lyrics
Get Back
The following are all kindle books:
Tune In Extended Edition
John Lennon Letters Hunter Davies
One Two Three Four Craig Brown
George Harrison The Reluctant Beatle
McCartney Legacy Volume 1
McCartney Legacy Volume 2
Living the Beatles Legend Kenneth Womack
John & Paul A Love Story
With a Little Help from my Friends Stuart Maconie
I also have about 50 Beatles Books which were reissued in the mid 70s, and lots of Mojo, Uncut etc, special editions of Beatles or solo Beatles magazines.
I think this is a bit obsessive, but aren’t we all obsessive to some degree with our hobbies and interests. Apart from the books and magazines, I also have all 13 Beatle studio albums, all bought on vinyl in the 70s, the Red and Blue albums, Rock and Roll Music from ’76, Hollywood Bowl from ’77, and lots of other vinyl compilations. I also have a box set of all the singles, bought with one of my first pay packets.
Also the 2009 stereo and mono remastered box sets, and all the special editions since. I also have The Anthology TV Series on Dvd, and also every Beatles film as well.
God, I’m starting to get bored myself writing all this, but I didn’t deliberately start out to collect. It just happened slowly over 50 years. We plan to downsize in a few years, so I’ll probably end up selling the lot anyway. But to be honest with you, it has given me great pleasure reading and listening to the records over the years, that I don’t ever regret buying it. I’m sure I’m not the only one on here who has an obsession with one band or another. Anyway that’s it for now, and I promise not to post another Beatles thread, for at least…
Being a fan is great, don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.
Thanks Leffe, it certainly is great. Sod the naysayers I say!
What you need is a copy of Pete Doggett’s You Never Give Me Your Money – I think it the best (of the few there are/I know of) “What happened to the band immediately after the split” books
Thanks Rigid. It’s been on my radar for ages, but I’ve never got round to buying it. It might be my next purchase.
Another vote for You Never Give Me Your Money
And another.
and another. It’s just great.
I’m not particularly interested but I’ve read a few books about them and the Doggett is very good at exposing how the mid 60s idealism degenerated into greed, self interest, selfishness and eventually pure spite. Very sad. I particularly remember St. George with his Greek villa which he never visited because his campaign to get a long established footpath across a much loved beach removed. Or something like that. Hardly the hippy ideal in the end.
Never trust a hippie. Words to live by.
Great book, but quite depressing.
It’s not an obsession (as Mrs D refers to it), it’s about enjoyment of “stuff”.
On a similar note, I do wonder what my kids would do with 5 copies of Cater USMs 20 Something, or 13 copies of Never Mind The Bollocks
Quite right. It is the enjoyment of stuff. The trouble is, us music nerd blokes have far too much “stuff”. There again, I don’t have four wardrobes full of clothes and shoes!
A school friend gave me a first edition copy of the Authorised Biography by Hunter Davies in 1973 when I was 14. This is what started my life long interest in The Beatles. I still have the book and will be re reading it over the next few days. I also remember buying a second hand copy of The Love You Make by Peter Brown which is also very good.
I think I will re read it as well, as I haven’t read it since 2008. Dai has it in his top five books. Thanks for the recommendation of the Peter Brown book.
Apart from Revolution in the Head, which got a bit samey after a while, the only Beatles book I have is Bob Spitz’s 2005 biography, which had a thrilling prologue about their early pre-fame Hamburg years*, but tailed off a bit once it got into the well-worn EMI years.
Mind you, it was good enough to lug around as reading material on a walking trip to Trier some years ago, that I didn’t mind its 5kg weight in my rucksack.
* that was what sold it to me in the bookshop.
Amazingly, after my long list, this is the third book mentioned that I haven’t read. It just goes to prove how many there are. Thanks for the tip off anyway.
Not much of a fan. The only book I have is the Fifth Beatle by Vivek J Tiwary and Andrew C Robinson. The colours are great – very reminiscent of the times – not the obviously psychedelic yellow submarine palette, but the cold damp northern 60 hues.
Thanks for that. Another one I haven’t read.
I thought I had a lot of Beatles books (around 20), but this is very impressive, and there’s nothing wrong with that. Their story is endlessly fascinating, and their impact on popular culture almost without peer.
I enjoyed Jonathan Gould’s Can’t Buy Me Love, and I’d recommend George Martin’s Summer of Love, the story of the making of Sgt. Pepper. It’s out of print, but still crops up on eBay. I’ve read all the Philip Norman biographies, which often repeat themselves but all are pretty good.
Martin’s “All you need is ears” is excellent.
Thanks Twang, that sounds great. Is there much about the recording techniques used, as I’m very interested in that aspect of The Beatles as well. There are also two volumes of a biography of Martin by Kenneth Womack. One goes from 1926-66, the other 66-2016. I don’t own them, but they have had great reviews.
It’s a while since I read it but AFAIR it’s great on the specific sessions etc. Plus his other sessions etc.
Two more recommendations I’ll look into. Thanks!
I’ve just realised I missed one out. I also have The first edition of Beatles Gear by Andy Babiuk. It is a wonderful book all about the instruments used. It covers all the guitars used, drums, mics, amplifiers, and has some wonderful photos too. It’s a must for any guitar geek!
This is one of my favourite books. I strongly recommend you pick up the latest edition as a lot of new content has been added.
Thanks for that, I really shouldn’t but I am tempted. I can’t believe I left it off my list, as like you it’s one of my favourite books. The trouble is my Beatles books are not all in one place, as they are on different bookshelves around the house. Maybe a project for this weekend to organise them all in one place.
Well. Your post piqued my interest. I am a sucker for all things Beatles so I thought I would have a count up and crikey, I have 49 Beatles ( and related ) books.
My favourite is the Mark Lewisohn fantastic extended edition of “Tune In”.
I have given up on volume 2 ever appearing. Don’t think it will happen now after all this time.
Chiming with other comments “You Never Give Me Your Money “ – I also thought this was an excellent read.
I notice on the music front 4 remastered Anthology volumes are to be released this autumn.
I have the 3 originals both on CD and Vinyl. That is enough for me and I won’t be buying.
Sadly the new vol.4 will not be released on its own but only as part of the set of 4.
That’s a fine collection you have there. I think Tune In has to be the best of the bunch, as it’s just superbly written, with research that is second to none. I’ve also given up on Vol 2, as it’s just been too long since Vol 1. Hopefully, I’ll be proved wrong!
Few of mine (together with Beatle book issues and appropriate magazines)
Well music in general is my obsession. Your collection is very impressive – I have all of their albums but don’t really feel the need to read about them. I did enjoy the Get Back film.
My obsessions are Elvis Costello, Martin Stephenson and Osees (in all their iterations).
Each of these artists has an extensive catalogue that it would be very difficult to become a completist. I have however bought a cd from Japan of The Boy named if alive at Memphis magnetic cd that cost me £30.00 – it has got some intriguing covers of the Byrds, Stones and the Beatles that I really need to have.
That’s a great collection you have there dai!
Thanks. A few missing and I also have a number of more recent ones in Kindle format (99p purchases)
@SteveT I have quite a lot of their music too! I am almost equally obsessed with Stones, Kinks, Dylan, Young, Morrison etc but am less interested in reading about them for some reason
@dai yep all of the above too. I do read quite a few music biographies but tend to steer away from the more obvious ones I recently read Heartbreaker by Mike Campbell but my favourite has still to be Diary of a Rock and Roll star by Ian Hunter although when I re-read it a couple of years ago it wasn’t quite as captivating as first time.
Having said that I steer clear of the obvious ones I have to say the Elton John one was excellent.
Beatles, and Beatles adjacent …
Stefan Granados: Those Were The Days 2.0 – The Beatles & Apple
The story of the intentions, losing interest, losing time, and losing cash.
Another very interesting book that I don’t think has been mentioned – Riding So High: The Beatles And Drugs by Joe Goodden.
@Alan33, you’d better start saving up! 😉
Ha! I think I have enough for now, but thanks anyway. I’ll probably never read all the books I own, either physically or on my kindle. I have a kindle full of novels, bought on the daily deal (another obsession), and I’m also a Tolkien and Stephen King obsessive, but maybe that’s for another thread.
Tell me about the Daily Deals! More addiction than obsession…good job I’m living until I’m 193.
You shoud get Amazon Prime ‘Directive’ – when you buy a media product (book/album/movie), you automatically get allotted a ‘window’ in time sufficient to read/listen to/watch it without subtracting from your 24/7 routine. It’s a great deal.
‘Dreaming The Beatles’ by Rob Sheffield is a good read. As is ‘Beatles 66’ by Steve Turner.
I like the sound of the Steve Turner book. Good recommendation.
This must have been among the earliest Beatle books. I have a copy somewhere, but haven’t reread it since 1964.
I actually published this one, in 1984. It’s a book of photographs taken the summer before he was killed. Pretty dubious publishing project, it turned out, but I couldn’t resist it.
Love me do is an excellent book. Lennon’s favourite I believe
The Walrus Was Paul: The Great Beatle Death Clues by R. Gary Patterson is another good one. I thought I knew all the clues until I read this.
I’m a Beatles fan through and through, since I can remember… but, I did enjoy getting a contrary opinion from Gary Hall : https://www.equinoxpub.com/home/living-life-without-loving-beatles/