The quite superb AW podcast on the new Beatles film has me of a mind to read a book on Les Fabs. The last one I read was “You never give me your money” (which I enjoyed enormously) and before that “Recolution in the head” yonks ago. What’s a good general purpose balanced perspective? Obviously this is the place to ask.
Which Beatles book?
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The Hunter Davies book is a must.
Due to when it was written, we know what will happen eventually, and there is a certain “refreshing innocence” to the writing as a result.
Hunter Davies, Revolution In The Head and You Never Give Me Your Money are (to me) the definitive texts (for “general” stuff).
Mark Lewinsohn’s All Those Years Ago is a weighty tome, but worth the effort.
Individual biographies (preferably authorised) are also a way to get a different view (depending on when they were written)
Another vote for the Hunter Davies book. A must read.
I even based a third year music project on it whilst at school in the late 1970’s!
My faves:
Hunter Davies
Lewisohn
Beatles Forever – Schaffner
Illustrated Record – Carr and Tyler
The latter two were from mid 70s and may be hard to find.
I’m glad you mentioned the Schaffner book, don’t know many who’ve read it, it’s a great read.
Its’ a good one, indeed. Read it when I was 16 or 17. I should also mention The Man Who Gave The Beatles Away by Allan Williams, naturally all about the early Liverpool and Hamburg days.
Yeah, “met” Williams a few times around Liverpool, he’s not my cup of tea I’ll be honest.
Yeah, I`ve met Mr Williams once in Liverpool, avoided him since.
I`m a sucker for buying loads of Beatles books, so the Schaffner book interested me enough to seek it out on yonder net. £8.01 inc. P&P, well pleased : ))
I like it as it’s from a fan who grew up with them.
I must be the only one who is decidedly meh about the Hunter Davies book.
It’s alright considering when it was written but the Lewisohn book is far superior in my opinion.
That said, in fairness to Davies, Lewisohn has the benefit of retrospect but his attention to detail is meticulous and has to be admired, it’s a labour of love for him.
Having met him and hear him speak about my city (in relation to The Beatles) was very interesting, learnt some stuff that, much to my chagrin, I didn’t know about.
I“ll agree about the Hunter book. I was a bit underwhelmed after reading it, maybe because of the rave reviews the book received.
“The Beatles” by Bob Spitz. Contains a lot about the very early years, very well researched. A few funny cultural things – English customs that the author doesn’t get (he’s American). Worth a read definitely
It’s not that well researched, Spitz mentions them coming back from a gig in Litherland, along the dock road passing the container terminal. Would that be the container terminal that opened in 1975 ?
🤔
That was the secret reunion gig that nobody had heard about?
The bastards !!
By no means balanced, but the Anthology book is absolutely wonderful
It’s a fantastic object. There are a lot of Fabs coffee table books, like those ones by the insane Geoffrey Guilano – the Anth’ absolutely hammers all of them. The text is completely incidental.
Hear hear
It has to be the Mark Lewisohn book.
I was so blown away by the mini (800 page) version that I immediately paid out a small fortune for the 1600 page Author’s Cut !!
The attention to detail is amazing. Such a labour of love from Lewisohn. I can’t wait for volume 2.
I recommend Love Me Do by Michael Braun. Written at the height of Beatlemania it’s reportage, but really, really good.
Reminded me of Antony Scaduto’s Bob Dylan book in that it was written early before the “legend” became all overbearing.
Oh yes, that’s a good one too.
I listened to the Doggett Word podcast today and the Hep recommends the Braun as one of the three indispensable Beatles books (the other two being Hunter Davies and Doggett).
Philip Norman’s ‘Shout!’ and Peter Brown’s ‘The Love You Make’ for scurrilous tabloid revelations and purple prose
Lewisohn for thrilling narrative and insanely-accurate facts
MacDonald for opinionated song by song analysis
‘The Longest Cocktail Party’ for anecdotal colour
‘Love Me Do’ by Michael Braun for early, fly on wall reportage
‘Anthology’ for the pics
It has to the Mark Lewisohn book hands down for the sheer attention to detail and jaw-dropping research.
Speaking of details, I’m currently listening to the audiobook of Philip Norman’s recent Paul McCartney biography. It’s a fine piece of writing and I’m really enjoying it, except for a Nobel Prize-winning howler I just stumbled across in chapter 29.
It’s 1971 and having finished Ram Paul is looking to form a new permanent group of his own. Almost the very first mention of Denny Laine tells us that the former Moody Blues singer had also been “a leading light in the Incredible String Band”.
OK, it’s an easy mistake to make (Laine’s pre-Wings band was actually called the Electric String Band) but it conjured up a fabulous image of the Go Now hitmaker thrilling hippies across the land with his distinctive brand of wobbly-voiced acid folk.
I stress, I heard this on the audiobook version. Anyone with a physical copy might like to check chapter 29 to confirm if the mistake has found its way across all platforms.
Apparently there are many errors in the book.
Not least due to the fact he seemed to completely ignore the wads of fresh material unearthed in Lewisohn’s book
I read the Norman bio a couple of weeks ago and was worried I’d missed the fairly sizeable DL/ISB gaffe.
However, I checked my soft, digital copy and … it’s not there.
Incidentally JC, who’s narrating the book?
Narrated by Jonathan Keeble. The ISB thing must have been a gaffe of his own making.
He deserves the sack, if it was.
He does a good job with the accents though including the individual Fabs, plus Yoko and Linda and all the US protagonists
I thought Norman captured Paul pretty well. Incredibly talented and complex.
I love how Yoko would wind Paul up by not using the definite article when referring to the Fabs. “I think Beatles should do this” she’d say, driving home him wild.
You mean “Where is Beatles band” was her all along? Nooooo!
“Driving him wild”, that should read. Even with the edit function, posting by iPhone is a dangerous business.
Just spotted the Miles McCartney book in my local second hand shop. Any good? Bound to be a bit, ahh, kind, but I think Macca has has bad press, net net, with the sanctification of St. John – P. Mc added the musical experimentation which I suspect is what many enjoy most.
I’ll add votes for the Lewisohn book – the long version is utterly fascinating, if a tad exhausting – and You Never Give Me Your Money.
Another favourite of mine is Waiting for The Beatles by Carol Bedford. She was one of the Apple Scruffs, hanging around outside Abbey Road hoping to see the band. The book paints a fascinating picture of a more innocent pre-celebrity culture world and she tells some interesting tales.
Another vote for the Michael Braun book – Love me do.
Hmm, three more Beatles books for the collection, `Cocktail Party`, `The Love You Make` & `Beatles Forever`, all for less than £16!
If you’re more into detail on their recordings and instruments then Beatles Gear by Andy Babiuk and The Beatles Recording Sessions by Mark Lewisohn are well worth your time
Yes a Fabs fan pal of mine has them so I will borrow them. Somewhere I have the George Martin book which isn’t only Fans but there’s obviously a fair bit about them. I enjoyed it when I first read it.
Be aware, there is some DONOVAN in both…
I still have Philip Norman’s Macca book unread and it’s moving to the bottom of the pile. I did like his Lennon one thou – probably the best of a not too good bunch
I would put a word in for ‘Shout’ – yes Paul gets a right shoe-ing but if you can’t wade through Lewishon part 1 it does the job. Would back up the Braun, Cocktail Party books.
Mark Lewisohn’s Beatles Chronicles is a great day by day account that mixes the essential recording sessions book with live, TV and Beatles trivia
Hunter Davies official biog is marred by whitewashing from the Fabs, their management and Epstein’s family. He had the access but it’s too close to be objective
Absolutely spot on with that last sentence.
The Unreleased Beatles by Richie Unterberger is a really excellently researched book and is great for sorting out the wheat from the chafe bootlegwise. Now probably slightly out of date because of recent archive releases, it details all the known recordings outside of the main canon and is fascinating.
A personal favourite is also Let’s Put The Beatles Back Together by Jeff Walker. His conceit is that the Beatles agree to release their stuff together whilst working apart and comes up with a series of albums from 1970 to 2010. They are huge fun to assemble and create – I’ve given them to friends who think they are great, especially a four disc ‘live’ collection which runs like a reunion concert (starts off with Macca doing Sgt. Pepper and goes into a Ringo version of With A Little Help..). He also has a very interesting take on the Get Back/Let It Be period.
I’ve just bought the Jeff Walker book. I’ve played that game for years without realising someone had written a book about it!
However, he got a one star customer rating on Amazon. He made the mistake of answering back. The exchange is interesting, to say the least.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/review/R1UZPOQFLACN6P/ref=cm_cr_dp_cmt?ie=UTF8&ASIN=0986708003&channel=detail-glance&nodeID=266239&store=books#wasThisHelpful
Track lists here:
http://www.editoreric.com/beatles/index.html
Spotify playlists (3rd incomplete):
spotify:user:seamusr:playlist:3PhYpAcLmNS3af5KXx6erA
spotify:user:seamusr:playlist:1JXYAJlBw5BHK4IG1w1GL0
spotify:user:seamusr:playlist:1kXXoZiFxyp3IxBdGwW7YD
This reminds me that I read about a third of the Goldman book on Lennon before giving up in disgust. I’m quite prepared to believe JL was a fairly unpleasant guy to be around if he wasn’t getting his own way (and psychologists can and have had a field day on why that might be) but the endless negativity was too much.
See also that preposterous BBC4 film with Chris Eccleston playing a 30 year old Lennon, despite (visibly) being 6 years older than Lennon would ever be. (Then there was McCartney being played by that little twerp who plays the current Moriarty… pathetic)
As with the Peter Sellers biopic, it failed any kind of credibility test for this reason: the subject in real life got away with atrocious behaviour because he was funny and charming. Geoffrey Rush and Chris E were neither of these things. They were just actors in silly period clothing.
Yep – echo DFB and others ‘Shout’ is the one to get a good overview in one manageable chunk.
“Tune In” Volume One of Mark Lewisohn’s trilogy is utterly wonderful – forensic detail but never gets boring and he really brings the early years to life. I hope he manages to complete the next two.
Avoid the Bob Spitz one. Lots of errors and a lot of American slang. from memory there’s a bit where he gets very confused about what a chip butty is.
“Gee Jaaarnny” Said Paul, “Let’s get us some French Fries subs!”
If you want errors the Pattie Boyd book is full of them. Just silly things like mixing up car names, so we get “Rolls Royce Princess” for example. Or, she claims Long And Winding Road was one of the Apple rooftop songs. It’s a good book otherwise, just one in need of a proof reader
I read Cynthia Lennon’s autobiography. She comes across as a devoted girlfriend/ wife who along with her son are left behind and then appallingly abandoned by JL. Definitely worth a read for an insiders view of the self centred and fragile phyche of Lennon.
Likewise the Pattie book. She was treated shabbily by George then even worse by Eric. For all the love and peace vibes they were putting out at the time, neither men had any idea how to treat the women in their lives