Beatles biographies?

macca's 'many years from now', ace ace ace.
paul in full-on honesty mode, totally different from his pain-in-the-arse-at-times persona in 'anthology' tv show. he talks about everything from taking smack to w*nking competetions with lennon.

dom delillo's 'longest cocktail party' was re-released lately to much hoo-ha. not read it, meant to be ace. it's all about the 67-69 era.

then there's michael braun's eye-witness '64 tour report
'love me do: the beatles progress' which purported to show them
'as they really are' at the time, seemed pretty revelatory in it's day
(" do the boys really swear this much" asked NME) but seems tame now.
good though, as it's a one-of-a-kind job, and they never did it again because lennon said he made them look 'like a bunch of bastards because we are...'

the Q official beatles mag (4.99 from q online) is about as good as a
starter for the full story as you could get. it really is fantastic.
every major bit of their career in detail, loads of opinion, loads of
piss-take, eyewitness accounts, reviews etc. much of it culled from peak-era of Q writing (yes there was such a thing).

their own anthology book should be out soon in pprback too.

mark lewishon's books are a bit too technical and dry i find, though they get lots of critical appraisal.
also it goes without saying that the latest, up-to-date version
of ian macdonald's 'revolution ion the head' is the bible, but there's
obviously no 'story'.

Should I read Norman or Spitz?

If Norman hates McCartney as stated upthread then not only do I hate him but also he should be slowly roasted and killed while "Simply Having a Wonderful Xmas Time" blares in his ears

also curious about the new mccartney bio Fab.

Paperback Writer seconded.

I recently finished Peter Doggett's You Never Give Me Your Money, which covers approximately Abbey Road through to the present day. It's simultaneously fascinating and depressing, and there are a number of revelations (the one that stayed with me most was that the knife attack on Harrison was far worse than it was made out to be at the time). About two-thirds of the way through you realize, wait, this band he's writing about, where each member almost went bankrupt, who got cheated out of millions and millions of dollars...is the BEATLES.

must read that! You Never Give Me Your Money seems to be the most critically acclaimed fabs book in a very long time. no end of scholars repping for it all over the place.
can't wait for Lewisohn's books though, the first of which is due out this Chrtistmas. 3 volumes over the next decade! (although supposedly Lewishon was only "up to Hamburg" about 6 months ago.) seems Philip Norman's recent Lennon book is another winner, perhaps the most even-handed *decent* Lennon book written since his death.

i can only apologise for my '03 posts being written like i was EE Cummings.

by the way we had a few chats about biogs (and indeed every thing else Fabs related under teh sun) on this thread
I have had it up to here waiting for the Beatles catalogue to be remastered

'The Love You Make' 1983. By Peter Brown and Steve Gaines. The authors were there as it happened, and aren't afraid to paint an honest picture of the "boys in the band".

I love how fucking trashy this book was. Just loved it. Gaines wrote an equally OTT Beach Boys bio.

so what are these new lewisohn books?

As mentioned upthread "Many Years From Now" is A+++.

Love Richie Unterberger's "Unreleased Beatles".

Bought Christopher Sandford's "McCartney" cheap and soon figured out why it was a bargain. Crappy.

xp to tylerw
a 3 volume set coming out over the next decade covering the whole story in insanely exhaustive detail. volume 1 pushed back and back, but recently there has been some activity:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0316729604?ie=UTF8&tag=thebeabib-21 terrible title!

ADVANCE INFORMATION The Beatles – The Complete Story

Key Editorial Points: UK Publication Date: 01 September 2011 Edition: Hardback

First part of the definitive three-volume biography of the Beatles

ISBN-13: 978 0 316 72960 4

UK Pub Price: £25.00

Classification: Biography

The Book: Format && Size: R (234 x 153 mm)

Illustrations: 16pp of b/w photos Extent: 800 pp

The Beatles are the cultural phenomeon of our time, arguably – unarguably? – of all time.

In addition to their outstanding and clearly timeless music, their influence still pulses around the world in unaccountable aspects of everyday life. FAB has one aim: to be the all-tile standard word on the Beatles. Comprehensive, objective, unexpurgated and the product of definitively deep-level research, it will set down the whole story, easily, in three volumes.

Volume One tells the early part of the story in two parts: 'Passion' from 1940-62 discusses the beginnings of the band, and 'Explosion' focuses on 1963, the year when everything changed.

Mark Lewisohn is the author six previous Beatles books and has been described by the Independent as the band's 'Emeritus Professor'.

Backlist:

The Beatles Live!, The Beatles: 25 Years in the Life, The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions, John Lennon: In My Life, The Complete Beatles Chronicle, The Beatles' London

Reviews: 'Mark Lewisohn stands supreme. His dedication in getting all the true facts, coupled with a style of writing that is most readable, leaves him with no rival. Time and again he has proven that he knows far more about what we did than any of us' George Martin.
-

FAB the working title one presumes.

mark lewishon's books are a bit too technical and dry i find, though they get lots of critical appraisal.

Me too...the only one of his I've enjoyed reading is The Beatles London (one of my favourite Beatles books), and it's notable that it has two co-authors.

so...Spitz

dunno, that bio kind of depressed me -- not that i need a beatles bio to be all la-di-dah aren't the beatles great, but doesn't everyone in it come across as petty jerks?

I'm about 20 pages into You Never Give Me Your Money, and it's so so good so far. Amazing descriptions of Paul in 67, swanning around London charming everyone he meets, followed by him leaving a typewritten note for John saying "You and your Jap tart think you're hot shit" which he left for him "for a lark." Just fucking crazy.

to be fair they did think they were hot shit

(just kidding, that's terrible. is it TRUE, though?)

(you should see what Lennon said about Linda.,)

i am going to read this book.

You should, its so good.

Maybe there's another thread already discussing Mark Lewisohn's Tune In? If so, please point me toward it.

Otherwise just want to say that I am ENTHRALLED. It's as detailed as his other books, except far less technical in nature. I can say now that (aside from a potential future corrected/annotated edition) this will be the ultimate Beatles biography and will stand for all time.

It's 900+ pages and covers the story through 1962. Devouring this and more excited for the next entry than I am about another George RR Martin tome. Yeah yeah yeah!

I thought I'd be bored by this, but I'll be damned if it isn't unbelievably engaging. I'm up to (um, spoiler alert?) the part where they get back to Liverpool after their first Hamburg stint, and how everyone is just completely and utterly stunned at how powerful they'd gotten (especially since they weren't thought much of, if they were noticed at all, before they left for Hamburg).

I put it on hold at the public library months ago. Imagine my surprise when I received an email the week it came out. "Your book has arrived..."

Now scrambling to put a dent in it before the due date. Thing is MASSIVE.

Yeah, but it flies by.

The level of detail is staggering, made especially impressive for how readable and well-organized it all is. At no point so far have I thought "Eh, that part isn't necessary."

And seeing as how he'll presumably have exponentially more documentation to work with for the future volumes, I can easily see 900+ pages covering, for instance, just 1963-1965.

damn you guys, i've been trying to convince myself i do not need to read another huge beatles biography.

It's actually a little tough going at the very beginning, with Lewisohn going all the way back to great-great-grandparents. But whereas standard Beatles bios would, for instance, sum up Ringo's upbringing with "he grew up in the slums of Liverpool, and he was sick a lot," this one really digs into just how bleak his living conditions were, how many times he was in the hospital, the frustration at his lack of schooling...and it all just adds another fascinating layer to a story we think we already have a handle on. You really start to think, wait, how is it going to be physically possible for this kid to even lift a drumstick, much less play with a band?

I have the two volume "director's cut" of this and can't wait to dig in!

It's impossible to fathom that any detail was left out, let alone 800 motherfucking pages of details.

I believe the expanded edition traces each of the Beatles' family lineage to single-celled amoeba.

ha ha, yes, the expanded edition is 1,728 pages....

This'll probably be my first-ever ebook purchase when I finally cave and buy a reader sometime around mid-decade

nate you're a genius, my library has it too -- am going to put in a hold request for it :D :D

Does the director's cut include an in-depth history of each individual plank of the stage John & Paul first performed together on? Cause if not, gtfo.

i think that one appendix with biographies of everyone who attended their shea stadium concert is what pushed it over 1,700 pages

Man I had no idea there was an expanded edition. Fiddlesticks.

Also want to clarify that it doesn't really begin with great-great grandparents. That info is certainly in there in depth, but Lewisohn wisely opens with the first time Lennon and McCartney played music together. Only then does he reel back in time. I think it's a very graceful approach and I have not been bored.

I got it on the UK site, don't think it's been released in the US (that doesn't help you, I know--sorry, Nate :(

If I have any complaints, it's the number of notes which require 2 bookmarks and constant referencing of the appendix. A bit of a hassle given the size of the book. Wish these notes were more often on the bottom of the page or in sidebars, but I suppose that would be less scholarly.

I remember one of the beautiful things about the Ian MacDonald book was his use of footnotes.

Anybody know exactly why Mccartney and the rest (of the living) refuse to cooperate with Lewisohn on this project?

For a moment I even though perhaps the BBC Sessions 2 disc was released the same day in order to steal thunder from this book but when I checked again they were released a few weeks apart.

I don't think they refused did they? I think he wanted to try to remain independent but ran things buy them now and then when I needed a specific question answered.

Josh reveals himself to be Mark Lewisohn!

yes, iirc lewisohn has said he deliberately did not seek anyone's approval.

i've picked this up several times in the store and it's very very very tempting -- but, erg, not yet.

From Amazon:

Q. You have a long professional association with the Beatles, and some of them individually. Are they involved in Tune In and is this book authorized?

A. No. I received the odd tiny bit of help which I specifically asked for and they didn't have to give – but substantially no, they're not involved. That's fine, because it's what I expected and what I wanted. This has to be an independent and impartial book. But are the all main players appearing and speaking at the book's core? Yes, constantly. Paul McCartney decided not to talk to me for this particular project, and I completely respect and understand his reasons – but I've interviewed him maybe fifteen times in the past and I've also sourced other quotes of great strength and immediacy for all the players.

One of many reasons the Beatles' achievements and reputation sustain with such integrity is because they were true. They stood for truth, projected truth and lived truthfully as best they could. It's entirely right that their history is written as true as possible, with no embroidery, nothing faked or glossed, nothing stupidly interpreted, everything transparent, everything attributed. Of course my attachment to this subject is deep and lifelong, but I'm not the least bit interested in writing a book simply to say how great they were. They certainly don't need that, and I certainly wouldn't do it. It'd be a waste of my time. My passion is for learning everything I can about this subject, understanding it, and doing my best to set it down clearly so it can be understood relative to what happened.

I still think Japage3 is some sort of proto-indie 80's bandname.

Vol 3 should just be called "The End"

yes.

I managed to get Vol 1 for €5 but haven't read any of it yet.
I think it's vol 2 or 3 that will most interest me though. Psych era which is probably more 65-68 so probably overlaps the 2 volumes.
So when is volume 3 due? 10 years from now? & if so, do wonder if he is just working totally chronologically or if he is adding parts as research leads him. I think research is unlikely to wind up with information in strict chronological order. THings turn up at unexpected times. Just wondering what happens if he gets in an accident between here and when he has the Beatles split, if his wealth of information might be useful to somebody else who wanted to pick up the reigns.

& I also really want to get a book of the Robert Whittaker photos, so wonder what the best one is.

There is something weird about his project i.e. the non-zero chance he will die or get ill before everything is complete, and whether that happens or doesn't how his information is laid out for future biographers.

Like, he is trying to be definitive in the last period in which this might be possible for the Beatles specifically, but also the first period in which it is truly possible information-wise. Like, he's nudging at the edging of the period when all primary sources are available forever.

On my phone so hard to type this crap. But seems tragic. The search for the truth and all that.

His 20 years or more of research will be quickly superseded by regular contemporary précis, rewritten according to the age.

gettin vol 1 from the library today

i'm about halfway through revolution in the head[.

when i started it, i was unaware of the author's depression issues but keep thinking: jeez, this guy is relentlessly/unnecessarily negative. and now i just feel bad.

man the Brian Epstein stuff is so sad

Good interview:

www.travelsinmusic.com/episode-01-mark-lewisohn/

Thanks for posting that. Really interesting stuff. When asked "Why Liverpool?" Lewisohn points out that, among other things, Liverpool was the only city in the world in the 1950s with a rock 'n' roll scene. That is, many cities (in the US, obviously less so in other parts of the world) had jazz, blues, and rhythm & blues scenes, but none had (and Lewisohn does leave himself open to correction) a rock 'n' roll scene.

He also talks about how the India trip was the real turning point in terms of them starting to get sick of each other.

There was some other thread where we were talking about the Ron Howard film, but I can't find it. In lieu of that, the full trailer:

https://www.facebook.com/hulu/videos/10154397830312188/

Another good new interview with our guy:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z0fXa1DTR6U

Watched Eight Days a Week over the weekend. Good fun, but not a lot of new ground covered.

really enjoying this book:

https://books.google.com/books/content/images/frontcover/8geICwAAQBAJ?fife=w300-rw

Some really entertaining anecdotes including Paul playing Tomorrow Never Knows for Bob Dylan before Revolver came out (Bob's response "Oh I get it. You don't want to be cute anymore."), interesting context around Yellow Submarine / infantilism in mid-sixties London and infighting during the recording of She Said She Said.

interesting -- jon savage also recently wrote a book about the year 1966.

Just listened to audio book of Barry Miles' new Zapple history. Very cool history but the Fabs - at least John, Paul and George - come across a bit assholish at times.

is there a worse contemporaneous critical body of work than the stuff written about the Beatles? Granted rock crit was in its infancy, but going back and reading reviews from the time (esp as the Beatles got further into their career) the amount of misguided invective and just retrospectively bizarre opinions is mind-boggling. Feels sort of similar to how Zep and Sabbath eventually got ret-conned into the canon at Rolling Stone - at some point critical consensus coalesced into acceptance + much higher degree of acclaim

(tbf this occurred to me while scanning the critical reception of McCartney's first two solo albums but larger point stands)

nik cohn famously panned both the white album and abbey road:

https://static01.nyt.com/packages/pdf/arts/nikcohn1968.pdf
http://www.nytimes.com/library/music/100569lennon-beat.html

and then there was this gem: http://screwrocknroll.tumblr.com/post/482115454/we-still-need-the-beatles-but

I know they got a lot of positive press too, but sometimes that isn't any better, as it's just vapid and adoring. Rolling Stone did p well in general, but some of the other stuff that was floating around is p dire.

Nice take on Beggars Bandquet in that first Cohn link though

i'd seen that richard goldstein pan of pepper mentioned countless places but had never actually read it till now -- i don't agree w/ most of his take on the album but it is actually a more thoughtful, less kneejerk dismissal than i would've assumed. i did kind of lol at this line --

Musically, there are already indications that the intense atonality of “A Day in the Life” is a key to the sound of 1967.

-- because it reminds me of the "maybe he's an early clue to the new direction!" scene in a hard day's night.

Golstein piece isn't dumb but it does reach bizarre conclusions. Like tying their aesthetic legitimacy to their willingness to be shouted at by masses of teenagers, for ex.

We need the Beatles, not as cloistered composers, but as companions. And they need us. In substituting the studio conservatory for an audience, they have ceased being folk artists, and the change is what makes their new, album a monologue.

I'm not a big Beatles fan, one way or the other, but I've got to give a lecture on them as part of a wider course on the sixties this week, so I've been digging around. I'd read both the Norman book and Revolution in the Head before, and had reasonable memories of them, bu returning to them....Shout! is wildly inaccurate about lots of details, which make you doubt the whole thing - Dick James had a office on the corner of Denmark St and Old Compton St? they don't intersect - Epstein wend to school in Beaconsfield, which Norman carelessly relocates in Kent etc. loads more. RitH is full fo journalistic cliche - McCartney and his celtic blood etc....everytime I read something now by the NM writers I grew up with I realise how bad that shit was.

I don't regret reading the first part of Mark Lewisohn's All These Years, will probably read the next volume when it's out. You can't fault him for accuracy, it's such a tome that any great insight tends to get lost somewhere, but still plenty I remember, especially as two of the Beatles grew up just round the corner from my mum, so I know all the places. The only real complaint I have is the way he tries to lighten the tone with bits of scouse slang, this really begins to grate after a few hundred pages.

nothing touches Lewisohn for scope and accuracy imo

agree

I'm just about finished the Lewisohn book. The nearest analogue in my experience is the Lord of the Rings — it's an astonishingly detailed epic, in a vivid setting (complete with map!), with its own dialect, amazing characters and a propulsive narrative that just builds and builds.

Been seeing Lewisohn commenting on Youtube in a couple of interviews that Vol2 won't be ready for next year, more like 2020 or later :(

Many Years from Now is a good one for McCartney's perspective.

I think I said this upthread but the biggest achievement of the Lewisohn book is re-investing me in their story. Like, I pretty much know how they met and I was still excitedly anticipating the moments when they meet up in the book. and peeling the mythology back to them being fairly normal teenagers etc.

Yeah, that whole "three guitarists, one amplifier" stuff put me right in the room.

Like, I pretty much know how they met and I was still excitedly anticipating the moments when they meet up in the book.

That was a big part of what I loved about the book, too. But also, there were the parts of the story I thought I knew being turned on their head, e.g., "George Martin heard them and said, 'not great, but not bad, I'll sign you'" is now "George Martin was having an affair with his secretary, which his bosses punished him for by forcing him to record a band EMI had only signed for songwriting publishing purposes."

To say nothing of "Japage 3" and all those other band names that pre-date the Qs

I thought the story in Lewisohn of "Love Me Do"'s climb and run on the charts was equally compelling and shocking in how much it had never been told before.

yeah i agree

https://open.spotify.com/episode/66u8d0xhy1mDMAxzpYkibZ?fbclid=IwAR0aRIrcVwMRiRfN27c9qX1LlkS2DTvzk82QTnt081KFJ2sKNd_tBNj2BXg

There's a first part to this, too, but I was just listening to this.

(Lewisohn on Beatles '69)

Thanks a lot for that! It's hard enough to wait for the next volume, much less whichever one will cover the final years, so that was a nice taste. I too tried to go through all the Nagra tapes but fell behind a day or two and never caught up. Here's hoping whatever companion to the Jackson film or anniversary sets will cherry pick the best of it (including conversations). Some incomplete but pretty interesting efforts here: Get Back to Let It Be Dissected and They May Be Parted. Definitely for the hardcore only, but I found it engrossing.

Thanks so much for that! I love Dutch radio DJ voices!

i think of myself as fairly hardcore in terms of the beatles, but close readings of the nagra tapes are just too much for me. can't get past the writing style on "they may be parted" or the appalling web design on "dissected".

Yeah, the web design on "dissected" is like a peek into a world where GeoCities still rules the net. And those goofy images!

fbclid=IwAR0aRIrcVwMRiRfN27c9qX1LlkS2DTvzk82QTnt081KFJ2sKNd_tBNj2BXg

I teetered on the edge of exploring those nagra tapes and then said fuck it I'll let the hobbit guy explain it all to me later

Lewisohn's narrative is kinda interesting, he's examined the nagra reels and suggests that the Twickenham sessions (and by extension, most of the events of '69) weren't at all as gloomy as history has made it to be, far from it, in fact.

i don't know, maybe it wasn't! what i've heard from the sessions is dire, miserable music, but they certainly could have been enjoying themselves while indulging in those terrible aimless jams! i mean i guess it's not actually _worse_ than "thanks for the pepperoni"...

kind of curious as to what lewisohn makes of "a toot and a snore in '74"

I enjoyed that They May Be Parted site but lol that 7+ years later and he's still only covered the first week of recordings