A book that presents in size (almost) all covers of real Portuguese editions of the Beatles 45 rpm singles and EP in its different variations.
The book is on sale at FNAC (all stores)
13 years ago
Showing posts with label Bookshelf. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bookshelf. Show all posts
Illustrated Brazilian 45 & EP Beatles Discography
A book that presents in size (almost) all covers of real Portuguese editions of the Beatles 45 rpm singles and EP in its different variations.
The book is on sale at FNAC (all stores)
Bookshelf - Garry Berman: Going to See the Beatles
Garry BermanGoing to See the Beatles: An Oral History of Beatlemania as Told by the Fans Who Were There
(Santa Monica Press; US: Apr 2008)
This text is excerpted from the 2008 book, We’re Going to See the Beatles: An Oral History of Beatlemania as Told by the Fans Who Were There by Garry Berman.
The Beatles managed to spend the morning of the next day, Feb. 8th, in relative quiet. John, Paul, and Ringo avoided the mobs of fans awaiting them in front of the Plaza by using a side door, and took a stroll through Central Park (George was stuck in bed with a sore throat). Of course, their “stroll” was really for the benefit of the army of journalists and photographers covering their visit. The streetwise photographers didn’t quite know what to do with the group at first, so they shouted out instructions for poses like “point to the sky!” and anything else that came to mind. Next, the Beatles headed for the CBS theatre on 53rd Street, the home of The Ed Sullivan Show, for rehearsals.
Sullivan had witnessed Beatlemania first-hand during a trip to England back in September, but hadn’t seen or heard the group perform. He was nonetheless impressed with the passion they instilled in their British fans, and in November negotiated with Brian Epstein to have the group perform on three separate Sullivan shows beginning in early February. The group would be paid a total of $10,000 for two live appearances plus a taping of a third performances to be aired later in the year.
The next day, on Sunday afternoon, the group performed a full run-through of the songs they would play on the show that night. They did so in front of a full studio audience, who had the privilege of getting the scoop on the rest of the country by several hours. A different audience was later brought in for the live broadcast. When the program went on the air at 8:00 p.m., it was viewed by an estimated 73 million people—the biggest audience for a television show ever to that date. It was only six weeks after Capitol Records officially released “I Want To Hold Your Hand.”
And it was the night Beatlemania exploded.
June Harvey: My friend’s father worked for an ad agency and it just so happened that he had tickets for The Ed Sullivan Show for that night. A client had given them to him. But he did not want them, so he gave them to us.
Two days before, they came into JFK, and there was quite a bit of fanfare and excitement. I think some of my friends tried to go out to the airport to meet them. I was working on a project for school and couldn’t get off, but I knew we had the tickets. And at that time we thought they were just a passing fad. We had no inkling that they would be some part of music history. It was just so early in their recognition factor. This was February, and their music had only started playing six weeks before. There was some momentum building, but really not any that I thought was over the top, other than when they came into JFK, I remember seeing on the news that there were a lot of screaming fans that had come out there.
The day of the show, my friend and I went down on the subway—we lived in the Bronx—and we’d take the Lexington Avenue line down. We had the tickets, but I do not think they were assigned seats, I think they were just entry tickets into the theatre. We had to wait outside for quite a long time, well over an hour, and it was freezing cold. I do remember that! There were two girls standing right behind us who were British. We struck up a conversation with them. They were on winter holiday, and one of the girls’ brothers went to school with John Lennon, and she knew John. They were from Liverpool, and we talked about their friendship with some of the Beatles, especially John.
It was very electric, it really was, like something exciting was about to happen.
Shaun Weiss: By Sunday I was hooked. Sunday was very interesting for us. My sister and I knew where The Ed Sullivan Show was so we walked down to the theatre with a bunch of friends of ours. As the day progressed, we were trying to find tickets to get in. My sister started to put on crocodile tears, and we had run into these two older people who were standing on line to go in. My sister said, “Do you have any extra tickets?” and they turned around and said, “We actually have tickets for friends of ours, and we don’t know if they’re showing up. But if they don’t show up, you can have them.” So my sister attached herself to them. The friends never did show up, and when it came to getting into the theatre, they only put a certain amount of kids up front. They stuck the rest of us up in the balcony. But it didn’t matter. It was so amazing just to be there and see Ed Sullivan walk out on that stage. We were in the last row of the balcony, by the center aisle. My sister snuck down to the first row of the balcony with one of her friends.
The Beatles kicked off the show with their first set of three songs: “All My Loving,” “Till There Was You,” and “She Loves You.” Later in the show, after performances by the cast of Oliver! (featuring future Monkee Davey Jones), impressionist Frank Gorshin, and other acts commonly seen on Sullivan’s show, the host brought them back to sing “I Saw Her Standing There” and “I Want To Hold Your Hand.”
Shaun Weiss: When they came out to perform, you really lost sight of them onstage. It was just looking around and seeing girls screaming, and girls crying. Being as far up as we were, we really didn’t see them as well as you would on TV sitting in your living room. Being there was a whole different excitement. I was so caught up in this moment, the reality was just being there was the thrill. I don’t even remember the songs that were being played, just that I could not believe these guys from Liverpool were performing, and I was seeing this live. The charm of seeing them for the first time in person, and not really understanding what was happening to me. I was getting caught up in a hysteria that I didn’t understand. Everything else was fogged out.
The theatre had a way of locking you in, so that you couldn’t get out to bother the Beatles leaving. But we just opened the exit door and we all flew out, and tried to get around to the side to see them leave, but obviously they had other ways of getting out that we knew nothing about.
The things I remember about them were just their mannerisms—and how much fun it looked like they were having. But it also looked like they were kind of scared. Just their mannerisms standing there, and Ringo up on the drum set playing and his head shaking… That weekend, walking into it, I was unaware of what I was walking into. For the next five years of my life, I was obsessed with them. And the more I became obsessed with them, the more I geared my life to kind of hang in their corner.
June Harvey: We must have been fairly close-up in line because we were ushered into the balcony and we ended up in the first row. And the Ed Sullivan Theatre was very small, and the balcony hung right over the stage. I think Letterman has taken out the balcony. I was second from the end, and a photographer came in after all of us were seated, and there were a lot of screaming fans directly behind me. We were so close to the photographer that he could not get an angle on us. He leaned in and shot up over us. So all the pictures in the fan magazines were the people sitting right behind us, including the two girls from Liverpool.
The screaming was constant, but I remember hearing them sing, there’s no doubt about it. And we were literally hanging right over the stage so we could see them. It was a memorable experience.
The Beatles managed to spend the morning of the next day, Feb. 8th, in relative quiet. John, Paul, and Ringo avoided the mobs of fans awaiting them in front of the Plaza by using a side door, and took a stroll through Central Park (George was stuck in bed with a sore throat). Of course, their “stroll” was really for the benefit of the army of journalists and photographers covering their visit. The streetwise photographers didn’t quite know what to do with the group at first, so they shouted out instructions for poses like “point to the sky!” and anything else that came to mind. Next, the Beatles headed for the CBS theatre on 53rd Street, the home of The Ed Sullivan Show, for rehearsals.
Sullivan had witnessed Beatlemania first-hand during a trip to England back in September, but hadn’t seen or heard the group perform. He was nonetheless impressed with the passion they instilled in their British fans, and in November negotiated with Brian Epstein to have the group perform on three separate Sullivan shows beginning in early February. The group would be paid a total of $10,000 for two live appearances plus a taping of a third performances to be aired later in the year.
The next day, on Sunday afternoon, the group performed a full run-through of the songs they would play on the show that night. They did so in front of a full studio audience, who had the privilege of getting the scoop on the rest of the country by several hours. A different audience was later brought in for the live broadcast. When the program went on the air at 8:00 p.m., it was viewed by an estimated 73 million people—the biggest audience for a television show ever to that date. It was only six weeks after Capitol Records officially released “I Want To Hold Your Hand.”
And it was the night Beatlemania exploded.
June Harvey: My friend’s father worked for an ad agency and it just so happened that he had tickets for The Ed Sullivan Show for that night. A client had given them to him. But he did not want them, so he gave them to us.
Two days before, they came into JFK, and there was quite a bit of fanfare and excitement. I think some of my friends tried to go out to the airport to meet them. I was working on a project for school and couldn’t get off, but I knew we had the tickets. And at that time we thought they were just a passing fad. We had no inkling that they would be some part of music history. It was just so early in their recognition factor. This was February, and their music had only started playing six weeks before. There was some momentum building, but really not any that I thought was over the top, other than when they came into JFK, I remember seeing on the news that there were a lot of screaming fans that had come out there.
The day of the show, my friend and I went down on the subway—we lived in the Bronx—and we’d take the Lexington Avenue line down. We had the tickets, but I do not think they were assigned seats, I think they were just entry tickets into the theatre. We had to wait outside for quite a long time, well over an hour, and it was freezing cold. I do remember that! There were two girls standing right behind us who were British. We struck up a conversation with them. They were on winter holiday, and one of the girls’ brothers went to school with John Lennon, and she knew John. They were from Liverpool, and we talked about their friendship with some of the Beatles, especially John.
It was very electric, it really was, like something exciting was about to happen.
Shaun Weiss: By Sunday I was hooked. Sunday was very interesting for us. My sister and I knew where The Ed Sullivan Show was so we walked down to the theatre with a bunch of friends of ours. As the day progressed, we were trying to find tickets to get in. My sister started to put on crocodile tears, and we had run into these two older people who were standing on line to go in. My sister said, “Do you have any extra tickets?” and they turned around and said, “We actually have tickets for friends of ours, and we don’t know if they’re showing up. But if they don’t show up, you can have them.” So my sister attached herself to them. The friends never did show up, and when it came to getting into the theatre, they only put a certain amount of kids up front. They stuck the rest of us up in the balcony. But it didn’t matter. It was so amazing just to be there and see Ed Sullivan walk out on that stage. We were in the last row of the balcony, by the center aisle. My sister snuck down to the first row of the balcony with one of her friends.
The Beatles kicked off the show with their first set of three songs: “All My Loving,” “Till There Was You,” and “She Loves You.” Later in the show, after performances by the cast of Oliver! (featuring future Monkee Davey Jones), impressionist Frank Gorshin, and other acts commonly seen on Sullivan’s show, the host brought them back to sing “I Saw Her Standing There” and “I Want To Hold Your Hand.”
Shaun Weiss: When they came out to perform, you really lost sight of them onstage. It was just looking around and seeing girls screaming, and girls crying. Being as far up as we were, we really didn’t see them as well as you would on TV sitting in your living room. Being there was a whole different excitement. I was so caught up in this moment, the reality was just being there was the thrill. I don’t even remember the songs that were being played, just that I could not believe these guys from Liverpool were performing, and I was seeing this live. The charm of seeing them for the first time in person, and not really understanding what was happening to me. I was getting caught up in a hysteria that I didn’t understand. Everything else was fogged out.
The theatre had a way of locking you in, so that you couldn’t get out to bother the Beatles leaving. But we just opened the exit door and we all flew out, and tried to get around to the side to see them leave, but obviously they had other ways of getting out that we knew nothing about.
The things I remember about them were just their mannerisms—and how much fun it looked like they were having. But it also looked like they were kind of scared. Just their mannerisms standing there, and Ringo up on the drum set playing and his head shaking… That weekend, walking into it, I was unaware of what I was walking into. For the next five years of my life, I was obsessed with them. And the more I became obsessed with them, the more I geared my life to kind of hang in their corner.
June Harvey: We must have been fairly close-up in line because we were ushered into the balcony and we ended up in the first row. And the Ed Sullivan Theatre was very small, and the balcony hung right over the stage. I think Letterman has taken out the balcony. I was second from the end, and a photographer came in after all of us were seated, and there were a lot of screaming fans directly behind me. We were so close to the photographer that he could not get an angle on us. He leaned in and shot up over us. So all the pictures in the fan magazines were the people sitting right behind us, including the two girls from Liverpool.
The screaming was constant, but I remember hearing them sing, there’s no doubt about it. And we were literally hanging right over the stage so we could see them. It was a memorable experience.
© 1999-2009 PopMatters.com
Bookshelf: The Beatles Paperback Writer
2009, 350 p., Plexus Publishing (UK) "The Beatles: Paperback Writer" collects the most illuminating interviews, articles, reviews, and essays on the rock icons, from contemporary accounts of the group's rise in 1962 to recent analyses of their enduring cultural legacy. The band's influence on the Baby Boomer youth culture and its descendants is discussed by figures from all places on the pop culture spectrum: mainstream reporters, rock journalists, cultural commentators, performers, and the band's acquaintances and friends. Provocative articles cover the Beatles' pop-redefining experimentation with song structure and recording techniques and their embracing of psychedelic drugs, hippie utopianism, and pacifism -- all set against the dramatic backdrop of the counterculture. Editor Mike Evans includes penetrating pieces on such fascinating byways as the right-wing claims that the group was communist and the "Paul is dead" myth. The band's acrimonious split and each member's disparate, post-Beatles path are also profiled in this book that's a must-have for any serious Beatles fan.
Arguments included:
John Lennon 1940-1980
Ray Connolly
A Twist of Lennon
Cynthia Lennon
The Arty Teddy Boy
Mike Evans
Art into Pop
Simon Frith and Howard Horne
John Lennon 1940-1980 (2)
Ray Connolly
A Cellarful of Noise
Brian Epstein
Beatle! The Pete Best Story
Pete Best and Patrick Doncaster
Why the Beatles Create All That Frenzy
Maureen Cleave
The Sound of the City
Charlie Gillett....
and many more...
Bookshelf: The Beatles - After The Break-Up
The Beatles - After The Break-Up 1970-2000by Keith Badman
ISBN Number 0-711-97520-5
Printing Year 1999 First Edition
Original U.K. Cost £19:99
"Until now, The Beatles story has been simply incomplete"
From 1970 onwards the disbanded Beatles were at last free to follow their individual interests. From that point on there were four separate stories... but they were stories that would form a complex overlapping history of quarrels and reconciliations, personal projects and sporadic collaborations.
For the first time ever, a noted Beatles expert has meticulously documented the entire period of The Beatles after the break-up.
Keith Badman has produced a dazzling and astonishingly detailed day-by-day chronicle of what each of the ex-Beatles did from April 1970 onwards.
It's all here, day by day. All the ... concerts ... solo releases ... known meetings between ex-Beatles ... film, TV and radio appearances ...business deals,legal battles and personal feuds ... Beatles-related births, marriages and deaths.
Starkly punctuated by the murder of John Lennon, here is the as-it-happened story of four individuals emerging from the straitjacket of pop music's greatest ever success story. And for the first time ever their solo careers are shown to be every bit as fascinating as their legendary decade together.
With an introduction by Miles, author of The Beatles: A Diary and Many Years From Now, the authorised biography of Paul McCartney.
Fully illustrated with scores of pictures documenting John, Paul, George and Ringo... after the break-up.
The Beatles After The Break-Up 1970-2000 is the first book ever to catalogue just about everything that John, Paul, George and Ringo did after the group disbanded ... every record, every concert, every TV and radio appearance, every interview ... and much more besides. Every Beatle related event is covered, whether it be as awesome as thetragic death of John, or as predictable as the staggering prices reached in yet another auction of memorabilia.
Author Keith Badman has listed every known encounter between John, Paul, George and Ringo, for whatever reason, whenever and wherever it took place. Included are details of meetings both important and trivial, in the studio, on stage and in their lawyers' chambers. Here are extracts from key interviews which explain the ebbs and flows of the complex relationships between the four, and later three, surviving Beatles.
Here is the ongoing saga of popular music's most enduring 20th Century romance... a comprehensive history of the greatest pop group of them all.
Carries on where Lewisohn's "Chronicle" leaves off. Simply a diary of EVERY Beatle event from 1970 to the present day.
Bookshelf: Lennon Revealed
Lennon Revealedby Larry Kane
2007
Paperback
US $14.95
CAN $18.00
UK £8.99
ISBN: 9780762429660
ISBN-10: 0762429666
Published by Running Press
Description
A quarter of a century after his death, the questions remain: what was John Lennon really like, what drove him to the heights of creativity and the depths of despair, and why do his music and message still resonate for millions around the world? Now acclaimed broadcast journalist and author Larry Kane uncovers the mysteries of Lennon’s life and implodes the myths surrounding it. Kane definitely has the right credentials for the job. He was the only American reporter to travel in the Beatles’ official entourage to every stop on their history-making first American tours, and he stayed in touch with Lennon until an assassin ended the former Beatles’ life in 1980. Lennon Revealed is filled with revelations about John Lennon’s path from public glory to personal crisis, and ultimately to his inspiring rebirth and the triumph of his spirit. Drawing on extensive personal accounts and extraordinary new interviews with more than 100 confidants-most notably, Yoko Ono-Kane presents stunning revelations and brings the reader closer than ever to the man who, in life and in death, has had an incalculable impact on humanity. Includes an exclusive DVD featuring the final interview with Lennon and Paul McCartney, conducted by Larry Kane.
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
In this breezy collection of remembrances, journalist Kane (Ticket to Ride) fondly-if a bit too reverentially-remembers his times with enigmatic Beatle John Lennon. In 1964, Kane, then a radio reporter, was assigned to follow the Beatles in America, beginning a relationship with Lennon that lasted throughout the musician's short life, and one that obviously engendered some real affection. In brisk, entertaining prose, Kane, with a supporting cast of many Beatles associates, assesses the many faces of Lennon from a journalistic yet intensely personal perch. "Was John Lennon a mean bastard? A foolish prankster? An aggressive sex fiend? A musical tyrant? A gay man?" The answers, Kane says, are as complex as Lennon himself. Kane shares his take on the man and the pivotal moments in his life, including Lennon's relationships with his bandmates and Yoko Ono, his involvement in the peace movement, and the infamous "lost weekend" and the Yoko-ordained affair with secretary May Pang. A final chapter of letters written by Lennon fans, however, feels tacked on. There are certainly better books on Lennon, but readers should enjoy Kane's personal, honest recollections. "My reporting of Lennon and his adult life will no doubt vary from others," Kane aptly notes, "but it is mine."
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc.
From Booklist
Kane met John Lennon when he traveled with the Beatles on their American tours, which he chronicled in Ticket to Ride (2003). Now, 25 years after Lennon's murder, he offers an affectionate but clear-eyed look at the musician's life, based on his recollections and interviews with many of Lennon's friends and associates. Eschewing chronological treatment, Kane proceeds somewhat disjointedly, dividing the book into chapters on such aspects of Lennon as his significant relationships (including with second wife Yoko Ono and paramour May Pang), wild streak, peace activism, love for New York City, and relations with the other Beatles, particularly Paul McCartney. Perhaps because Kane is a reporter rather than a critic, he downplays Lennon the musician; otherwise, he reveals many facets of a complex figure. If the book ultimately doesn't constitute a definitive portrait, it demonstrates why expecting one is probably futile. Yoko Ono told Kane that Lennon "didn't want people to just adore him. He wanted people to know what he [was] made of." Kane's account hews to that wish. Gordon Flagg
Copyright © American Library Association.
Larry Kane
Larry Kane is the “dean of Philadelphia television news anchors,” having had a 45-year career covering domestic and world events. He previously wrote an account of his tour experiences with the Beatles in his book Ticket to Ride. Kane lives in southeastern Pennsylvania.
© Free Rare Mp3 Music Downloads
Bookshelf: Ticket To Ride
Ticket To Ride
by Larry Kane
2003
Hardcover
US $22.95
CAN $34.95
UK £14.99
ISBN: 9780762415922
ISBN-10: 0762415924
Published by Running Press
by Larry Kane
2003
Hardcover
US $22.95
CAN $34.95
UK £14.99
ISBN: 9780762415922
ISBN-10: 0762415924
Published by Running Press
Description
It was 40 years ago -- more or less -- that a 22year-old broadcast journalist from Florida was invited by manager Brian Epstein to travel with the Beatles to every stop on their first North American tours. The only American reporter in the official press party, Larry Kane obtained exclusive, revealing interviews with John, Paul, George, and Ringo. Fortunately, Kane saved his original notes and tapes, and shares them here for the first time. That material provides the basis for his intimate look back at the phenomenon of the Fab Four, and insights into the humor and personality of each group member. Ticket to Ride, illustrated with more than 30 photographs, captures a rare time in history, gracefully melding the story of the Beatles revolution with the changing tenor of the country. Hear John Lennon's early public criticism of the Vietnam War, and learn about the night the Beatles met Bob Dylan. ""We had a crazy party the night we met [Dylan],"" Paul recounts. "" I thought I got the meaning to life that night. Ticket to Ride includes a 60minute audio CD featuring rare interviews.
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
John Lennon once said that the Beatles on tour were as debauched as the ancient Romans in Fellini's Satyricon. Outside of a description of a "happy" Lennon urging his band mates to "take your pick" from a group of hookers provided by an Atlantic City concert promoter, this highly entertaining account by broadcast journalist Kane, who covered the tour at the time, is as discreet about the Fab Four's sexual adventures as they were, although Kane notes that "women came and went from the Beatles' floor in most hotels." But in all other respects, from fiery airplanes and rioting fans to encounters with Bob Dylan, Joan Baez and Jayne Mansfield (the latter two seem to spend "quality" time with Lennon), this is a fantastic insider's look at the cultural explosion that was Beatlemania. It helps that Kane was only 21 at the time (the same age as Paul McCartney); unlike "dull-witted" reporters whom the Beatles came to disdain, Kane quickly noted "their indisputable naturalness and, to varying degrees, the depth of their humanity and their lack of phoniness." In turn, the Beatles rewarded Kane with many in-depth interviews through the tour (60 minutes of which are included on an accompanying CD), which Kane skillfully uses throughout provide the Beatles' own insightful view of the ongoing craziness surrounding them, as they travel from one chaotic hotel and concert scene to another. This is the most detailed description yet of the Beatles' American tours, and one of the few books on the band written in the past decade that can be considered indispensable.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
Tell-all books by Beatles insiders have become as numerous and indistinguishable as hairs on a Beatle wig. But Kane's journalist's eye--he was the only American reporter to travel with the group for every stop of their 1964 and 1965 tours--sets this one apart. There had never been a cultural phenomenon to match Beatlemania--and nothing has quite equaled it since--and Kane vividly portrays its familiar trappings, from riotous fans whose screaming drowned out the music to chaotic postconcert escapes. More fascinating are Kane's behind-the-scenes views of "the boys," extracted from many interviews (excerpted on an accompanying CD), that disclose, for example, that Kane managed to insult John Lennon during their initial meeting--and wound up eliciting eloquent criticism of the war in Vietnam. Kane gradually fell for the music, and he provides valuable perspective on the performances, which are often neglected in other Beatles tour accounts. Less successful are Kane's attempted pontifications on the band as a harbinger of '60s dissent. Terrific fly-on-the-wall stuff about a unique pop-cultural event.
Gordon Flagg
Copyright © American Library Association.
Copyright © American Library Association.
© Free Rare Mp3 Music Downloads
Bookshelf: John Lennon sold his soul to the devil? :-))
Did John Lennon sell his soul to the devil in exchange for his worldly musical success with The Beatles and beyond? That's the theory set forth by Joseph Niezgoda in his new book The Lennon Prophecy, A New Examination of the Death Clues of the Beatles.
The Lennon Prophecy offers a new interpretation of the hidden messages and symbols that have ornamented Beatles mythology for years and offers the view that Lennon joined historical figures such as Mississippi "Crossroads" blues guitarist Robert Johnson, Dr. Johann Faust, Pope Sylvester II among others who entered into a pact with the devil to exchange their souls for earthly successes. Niezgoda dissects and examines the Beatles' and Lennon's recordings and album artwork and follows a fascinating and unique trail of sorcery, mysticism, numerology, backward masking, anagrams and literary and theological writings to explain his conclusions.
The Lennon Prophecy puts forth the theory that a 20-year-old Lennon, so disillusioned with a life of sadness and disappointment where he was abandoned by his father and stricken with the death of his mother, entered into a deal with the devil to achieve fame and fortune. Niezgoda alleges that a 20-year pact began in December of 1960, shortly before a night when Beatlemania first struck audiences on December 27, 1960, when the Fab Four played at Town Hall Ballroom in Litherland, England. During that performance, as Niezgoda writes, "The Beatles evoked a response noticeably different from anything in their past." From there, The Beatles inexplicably and immediately shot to global fame at a level never seen before or since. The 20-year pact came to its tragic conclusion on December 8, 1980, when a man who later testified he was possessed by demons, fulfilled the end of the contract by murdering Lennon outside of his apartment at The Dakota in New York City.
Clues foretelling the death of Lennon are revealed in album covers such as Rubber Soul, Yesterday and Today, A Collection of Beatles Oldies, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, Yellow Submarine, Magical Mystery Tour, Abbey Road as well as Lennon solo albums Imagine and Walls and Bridges. Songs that also reveal the mysterious prediction of death and connections to the devil include "Tomorrow Never Knows," "I Am The Walrus," "Come Together," "One After 909," "Let It Be," "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" and "Revolution No. 9," which Niezgoda reveals is in itself a step-by-step preview of the actual assassination. The video for the biggest hit off Lennon's last album "(Just Like) Starting Over" also reveals an intriguing clue that brings the literary world of James Joyce into the myriad clues.
Lennon's alleged anti-Christian behavior as well as his infamous declaration that the Beatles were "Bigger than Jesus" are also presented as evidence of a possible pact. Niezgoda also dispels the "Paul-is-Dead" mythology that theorized that the Beatles inserted clues in their songs how Paul McCartney was killed in a car crash.
A lifelong Beatles fan, collector and scholar, Niezgoda has researched John Lennon and the band for more than 25 years. He works in analog and digital music recording with an extensive background in music theory.
The Lennon Prophecy offers a new interpretation of the hidden messages and symbols that have ornamented Beatles mythology for years and offers the view that Lennon joined historical figures such as Mississippi "Crossroads" blues guitarist Robert Johnson, Dr. Johann Faust, Pope Sylvester II among others who entered into a pact with the devil to exchange their souls for earthly successes. Niezgoda dissects and examines the Beatles' and Lennon's recordings and album artwork and follows a fascinating and unique trail of sorcery, mysticism, numerology, backward masking, anagrams and literary and theological writings to explain his conclusions.
The Lennon Prophecy puts forth the theory that a 20-year-old Lennon, so disillusioned with a life of sadness and disappointment where he was abandoned by his father and stricken with the death of his mother, entered into a deal with the devil to achieve fame and fortune. Niezgoda alleges that a 20-year pact began in December of 1960, shortly before a night when Beatlemania first struck audiences on December 27, 1960, when the Fab Four played at Town Hall Ballroom in Litherland, England. During that performance, as Niezgoda writes, "The Beatles evoked a response noticeably different from anything in their past." From there, The Beatles inexplicably and immediately shot to global fame at a level never seen before or since. The 20-year pact came to its tragic conclusion on December 8, 1980, when a man who later testified he was possessed by demons, fulfilled the end of the contract by murdering Lennon outside of his apartment at The Dakota in New York City.
Clues foretelling the death of Lennon are revealed in album covers such as Rubber Soul, Yesterday and Today, A Collection of Beatles Oldies, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, Yellow Submarine, Magical Mystery Tour, Abbey Road as well as Lennon solo albums Imagine and Walls and Bridges. Songs that also reveal the mysterious prediction of death and connections to the devil include "Tomorrow Never Knows," "I Am The Walrus," "Come Together," "One After 909," "Let It Be," "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" and "Revolution No. 9," which Niezgoda reveals is in itself a step-by-step preview of the actual assassination. The video for the biggest hit off Lennon's last album "(Just Like) Starting Over" also reveals an intriguing clue that brings the literary world of James Joyce into the myriad clues.
Lennon's alleged anti-Christian behavior as well as his infamous declaration that the Beatles were "Bigger than Jesus" are also presented as evidence of a possible pact. Niezgoda also dispels the "Paul-is-Dead" mythology that theorized that the Beatles inserted clues in their songs how Paul McCartney was killed in a car crash.
A lifelong Beatles fan, collector and scholar, Niezgoda has researched John Lennon and the band for more than 25 years. He works in analog and digital music recording with an extensive background in music theory.
Product Details
Paperback: 240 pages, from $12.34
Publisher: New Chapter Press (December 1, 2008)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0942257456
ISBN-13: 978-0942257458
Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.9 x 0.6 inches
NOTE FROM THE MUSEUM: Please DO NOT take it seriously. Moreover, if you want to laugh a bit, see http://www.thelennonprophecy.com/Free Rare Mp3 Music Downloads
Bookshelf: The Beatles: The Biggest Bastards on Earth?
Before you reach for your Revolver, let us explain. The title of "Biggest Bastards on Earth" was bestowed on The Beatles by none other than John Lennon in an interview conducted months after the legendary band's 1969 breakup. It has since resurfaced in Philip Norman's massive biography John Lennon: The Life, out now from Ecco Books."Things are left out, about what bastards we were," Lennon explained in the interview. "You have to be a bastard to make it. That's a fact. And the Beatles were the biggest bastards on Earth."
To be sure, Norman's book takes a critical look at Lennon's influential if short time on our planet for over 850 pages, charting the trajectory of his ego and creativity as it escaped Liverpool for the world-at-large. And it is a given that few among us are true innocents. But do you really have to be a bastard to make it in music? And was the quartet really that bad?
From optimistic classics like "We Can Work It Out" to arresting compositions like "Day in the Life" and all the way the band's calls for social and economic justice, before and after its disintegration, I would argue that the Beatles did more than most to pull humankind's head out of its collective ass.
Browse inside...
Book Description
John Lennon: The Life
By Philip Norman
Price:$34.95
Format: Hardcover
For more than a quarter century, Philip Norman's internationally bestselling Shout! has been unchallenged as the definitive biography of the Beatles. Now, at last, Norman turns his formidable talent to the Beatle for whom belonging to the world's most beloved pop group was never enough. Drawing on previously untapped sources, and with unprecedented access to all the major characters, here is the comprehensive and most revealing portrait of John Lennon that is ever likely to be published.
This masterly biography takes a fresh and penetrating look at every aspect of Lennon's much-chronicled life, including the songs that have turned him, posthumously, into a near-secular saint. In three years of research, Norman has turned up an extraordinary amount of new information about even the best-known episodes of Lennon folklore—his upbringing by his strict Aunt Mimi; his allegedly wasted school and student days; the evolution of his peerless creative partnership with Paul McCartney; his Beatle-busting love affair with a Japanese performance artist; his forays into painting and literature; his experiments with Transcendental Meditation, primal scream therapy, and drugs. The book's numerous key informants and interviewees include Sir Paul McCartney, Sir George Martin, Sean Lennon—whose moving reminiscence reveals his father as never before—and Yoko Ono, who speaks with sometimes shocking candor about the inner workings of her marriage to John.
Honest and unflinching, as John himself would wish, Norman gives us the whole man in all his endless contradictions—tough and cynical, hilariously funny but also naive, vulnerable and insecure—and reveals how the mother who gave him away as a toddler haunted his mind and his music for the rest of his days.
Bookshelf: Revolution in the Head: The Beatles' Records and The Sixties
Description
This “Bible of the Beatles” captures the iconic band’s magical and mysterious journey from adorable teenagers to revered cultural emissaries. In this fully updated version, each of their 241 tracks is assessed chronologically from their first amateur recordings in 1957 to their final “reunion” recording in 1995. It also incorporates new information from the Anthology series and recent interviews with Paul McCartney. This comprehensive guide offers fascinating details about the Beatles’ lives, music, and era, never losing sight of what made the band so important, unique, and enjoyable.
About the Author
Ian MacDonald was a songwriter, a record producer, and the author of The Beatles at No. 1, The New Shostakovich, and The People’s Music. He died in 2003.
Editorial Reviews
From Booklist
There's certainly no shortage of books on the Beatles. In this latest one, MacDonald--musician, composer, and former New Musical Express editor--purports to do something different by putting the group in the cultural context of its decade. His observations on the 1960s, fortunately confined largely to an introductory section, are, however, too often distressingly obvious. He's far more successful when he focuses on the music with a song-by-song chronicle of the group's career. Other Beatles books have taken the same approach, but MacDonald's incorporates session information from Mark Lewisohn's Complete Beatles Recording Sessions (1988), and it details the group's musical development and growing reliance on the recording studio and then makes some cogent observations on both the culture and the music. He makes the tie-in to 1960s culture most effectively through a month-by-month time line that follows the song-by-song main text and places the Beatles' history next to developments in world affairs and pop culture. Even if your Beatles shelf is groaning, MacDonald's work will be a useful addition. Gordon Flagg --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Kirkus Reviews
An ideal pathfinder on the Beatles' long and winding road from moptops to magi--insightful, informative, contentious, and as ambitious and surprising as its heroes. Popular music criticism is often a thankless task, falling uneasily between mindless hype and lugubrious academicism. MacDonald, former deputy editor of New Musical Express, adroitly bridges that gap, taking the factual chassis--recording session data, itineraries, etc.--laboriously assembled by Beatlemaniacs like Mark Lewisohn and bringing to bear a fan's enthusiasm, a musicologist's trained ear, and a critic's discernment to produce the most rigorous and reliable assessment of the Beatles' artistic achievement to date. Advancing chronologically through the songs, MacDonald provides an encyclopedic wealth of biographical, musical, and historical detail, yet always keeps his eyes on the prize--the uniquely rich elixir the group distilled from these disparate elements. He considers the Beatles on their own musical and cultural terms, taking his cue from contemporary influences (rhythm-and-blues, soul, and the supercharged social crucible of the '60s), rather than straining for highbrow parallels in Schoenberg or Schubert--you'll find no reference to the infamous ``Aeolian cadences'' of ``This Boy'' here. MacDonald makes no bones about his own critical convictions: He prefers the artful structures of pop, its ``energetic topicality'' that ``captures a mood or style in a condensed instant,'' to rock's ``dull grandiosity,'' a shift he attributes to a general retreat since the '60s away from depth and craftsmanship into spectacle and sensation. Accordingly, he champions the pop classicism of the Beatles' early-middle period, culminating in Revolver and Sgt. Pepper, and in his most memorably acerbic passages deplores the rockist leanings of their later work: ``Helter Skelter,'' for instance, is dismissed as ``ridiculous, McCartney shrieking weedily against a backdrop of out-of-tune thrashing.'' The ultimate Beatles Bible? Certainly a labor of love, and all the more valuable for holding the Fabs to the highest critical standards. -- Copyright ©1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
This “Bible of the Beatles” captures the iconic band’s magical and mysterious journey from adorable teenagers to revered cultural emissaries. In this fully updated version, each of their 241 tracks is assessed chronologically from their first amateur recordings in 1957 to their final “reunion” recording in 1995. It also incorporates new information from the Anthology series and recent interviews with Paul McCartney. This comprehensive guide offers fascinating details about the Beatles’ lives, music, and era, never losing sight of what made the band so important, unique, and enjoyable.
About the Author
Ian MacDonald was a songwriter, a record producer, and the author of The Beatles at No. 1, The New Shostakovich, and The People’s Music. He died in 2003.
Editorial Reviews
From Booklist
There's certainly no shortage of books on the Beatles. In this latest one, MacDonald--musician, composer, and former New Musical Express editor--purports to do something different by putting the group in the cultural context of its decade. His observations on the 1960s, fortunately confined largely to an introductory section, are, however, too often distressingly obvious. He's far more successful when he focuses on the music with a song-by-song chronicle of the group's career. Other Beatles books have taken the same approach, but MacDonald's incorporates session information from Mark Lewisohn's Complete Beatles Recording Sessions (1988), and it details the group's musical development and growing reliance on the recording studio and then makes some cogent observations on both the culture and the music. He makes the tie-in to 1960s culture most effectively through a month-by-month time line that follows the song-by-song main text and places the Beatles' history next to developments in world affairs and pop culture. Even if your Beatles shelf is groaning, MacDonald's work will be a useful addition. Gordon Flagg --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Kirkus Reviews
An ideal pathfinder on the Beatles' long and winding road from moptops to magi--insightful, informative, contentious, and as ambitious and surprising as its heroes. Popular music criticism is often a thankless task, falling uneasily between mindless hype and lugubrious academicism. MacDonald, former deputy editor of New Musical Express, adroitly bridges that gap, taking the factual chassis--recording session data, itineraries, etc.--laboriously assembled by Beatlemaniacs like Mark Lewisohn and bringing to bear a fan's enthusiasm, a musicologist's trained ear, and a critic's discernment to produce the most rigorous and reliable assessment of the Beatles' artistic achievement to date. Advancing chronologically through the songs, MacDonald provides an encyclopedic wealth of biographical, musical, and historical detail, yet always keeps his eyes on the prize--the uniquely rich elixir the group distilled from these disparate elements. He considers the Beatles on their own musical and cultural terms, taking his cue from contemporary influences (rhythm-and-blues, soul, and the supercharged social crucible of the '60s), rather than straining for highbrow parallels in Schoenberg or Schubert--you'll find no reference to the infamous ``Aeolian cadences'' of ``This Boy'' here. MacDonald makes no bones about his own critical convictions: He prefers the artful structures of pop, its ``energetic topicality'' that ``captures a mood or style in a condensed instant,'' to rock's ``dull grandiosity,'' a shift he attributes to a general retreat since the '60s away from depth and craftsmanship into spectacle and sensation. Accordingly, he champions the pop classicism of the Beatles' early-middle period, culminating in Revolver and Sgt. Pepper, and in his most memorably acerbic passages deplores the rockist leanings of their later work: ``Helter Skelter,'' for instance, is dismissed as ``ridiculous, McCartney shrieking weedily against a backdrop of out-of-tune thrashing.'' The ultimate Beatles Bible? Certainly a labor of love, and all the more valuable for holding the Fabs to the highest critical standards. -- Copyright ©1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Available starting from $ 9.99
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Bookshelf - Can't Buy Me Love: The Beatles, Britain and America
Can't Buy Me Love:
The Beatles, Britain and America by Jonathan Gould
Piatkus, £10.99
Just another Beatles book? Not quite...
Finally, what the world has been crying out for: a book about the Beatles. This is forgivable sarcasm when you consider that there are more than 500 of them already. I must have about a dozen of them myself, and have read a dozen more. These range from the indispensable - Ian MacDonald's Revolution in the Head, Bob Spitz's The Beatles, the Hunter Davies and Philip Norman works and, for my money the most fascinating of them all, Devin McKinney's inspirational, insanely ambitious Magic Circles - to some of the shoddiest and most opportunistic verbiage you will encounter in the course of a reading life. Anyone with any sense of professional pride now writing about the group must feel like a treasure hunter going over ground that has been thoroughly ransacked by hundreds of people, some armed with pretty sophisticated detection equipment.
But still they keep coming out - and we still want to read them. Well, some of us, and some of them. The group still fascinates. A friend of mine, asked whether he liked them, replied that asking him whether he liked the Beatles or not was like asking a priest whether he liked God or not: the question was all but meaningless. They're there, and you can, should you wish, accommodate yourself to the fact by inhaling every available datum of information about them.
Jonathan Gould, who by his account spent some two decades writing this, his first book, might have felt a certain despair when Spitz's near-1,000-page biography of the band came out in 2005; but Gould plodded on, and we can be glad that he did. For it is not so much that he brings anything really new to the party - he says his book concentrates on the music more than the others, but this is true only if you ignore about two dozen of them - as that he manages, almost miraculously, to retell a story that could hardly be called unfamiliar in a way which actually manages to illuminate.
And he does it subtly (compare Henry W Sullivan's The Beatles with Lacan, a title you could be forgiven for thinking was some kind of joke, but isn't). The trick is in an easy fluency of writing combined with a sense of when not to dwell too much on stuff we already know. He is very good on the political backgrounds of both Britain and America - particularly, in fact, on the differing sociologies which accounted for the differing versions of British and American Beatlemania. (Interestingly, it is only when that phenomenon kicks off that the book itself wakes up; it does take a while to get going.) He has a nice line in clear-headed assessments of the group's faults as well as their virtues, and the occasional, never intrusive way with a nice simile. By the time he says that "Tomorrow Never Knows" is "oddly reminiscent" of their version of "Twist and Shout", you know exactly what he's getting at.
It is a measure of the worth of the book that there is so little you could find in it to take issue with. So here are some pettifogging quibbles. The song "A Hard Day's Night" is more like two and a half minutes long than "a full three". Lennon and McCartney's decision not to put Harrison's "Not Guilty" on the White Album was not "churlish" - it was sensible, considering how dire it is. And that's about it. If he skates over McCartney's tomcatting or how close they came to being murdered in the Philippines, then that is probably because he knows full well you can go elsewhere for that. He doesn't even slip up when considering matters of British heritage, culture and politics - quite a feat when you consider that I have read respected American authors dealing with the subject who think that Private Eye is a TV show, or that London still suffers from pea-soupers.
But it is in his descriptions of the songs that Gould really shines. He knows his terminology and is not afraid to use it - but he is not intimidatingly knowledgable, and when he describes a song it really is as if you're hearing it, too. And if you ask: "What's the point of that, then?", maybe this book isn't for you.
Thanks to by Nicholas Lezard @ The Guardian
But still they keep coming out - and we still want to read them. Well, some of us, and some of them. The group still fascinates. A friend of mine, asked whether he liked them, replied that asking him whether he liked the Beatles or not was like asking a priest whether he liked God or not: the question was all but meaningless. They're there, and you can, should you wish, accommodate yourself to the fact by inhaling every available datum of information about them.
Jonathan Gould, who by his account spent some two decades writing this, his first book, might have felt a certain despair when Spitz's near-1,000-page biography of the band came out in 2005; but Gould plodded on, and we can be glad that he did. For it is not so much that he brings anything really new to the party - he says his book concentrates on the music more than the others, but this is true only if you ignore about two dozen of them - as that he manages, almost miraculously, to retell a story that could hardly be called unfamiliar in a way which actually manages to illuminate.
And he does it subtly (compare Henry W Sullivan's The Beatles with Lacan, a title you could be forgiven for thinking was some kind of joke, but isn't). The trick is in an easy fluency of writing combined with a sense of when not to dwell too much on stuff we already know. He is very good on the political backgrounds of both Britain and America - particularly, in fact, on the differing sociologies which accounted for the differing versions of British and American Beatlemania. (Interestingly, it is only when that phenomenon kicks off that the book itself wakes up; it does take a while to get going.) He has a nice line in clear-headed assessments of the group's faults as well as their virtues, and the occasional, never intrusive way with a nice simile. By the time he says that "Tomorrow Never Knows" is "oddly reminiscent" of their version of "Twist and Shout", you know exactly what he's getting at.
It is a measure of the worth of the book that there is so little you could find in it to take issue with. So here are some pettifogging quibbles. The song "A Hard Day's Night" is more like two and a half minutes long than "a full three". Lennon and McCartney's decision not to put Harrison's "Not Guilty" on the White Album was not "churlish" - it was sensible, considering how dire it is. And that's about it. If he skates over McCartney's tomcatting or how close they came to being murdered in the Philippines, then that is probably because he knows full well you can go elsewhere for that. He doesn't even slip up when considering matters of British heritage, culture and politics - quite a feat when you consider that I have read respected American authors dealing with the subject who think that Private Eye is a TV show, or that London still suffers from pea-soupers.
But it is in his descriptions of the songs that Gould really shines. He knows his terminology and is not afraid to use it - but he is not intimidatingly knowledgable, and when he describes a song it really is as if you're hearing it, too. And if you ask: "What's the point of that, then?", maybe this book isn't for you.
Thanks to by Nicholas Lezard @ The Guardian
Bookshelf: The Beatles Christmas Book
Happy Crimble!Belmo and Garry Marsh are pleased to announce the publication of their new book, The Beatles Christmas Book: Everywhere It's Christmas. The book will ship in August and is available now for pre-orders. The 236 page book retails for $30.
The Beatles Christmas Book is the first and only book presenting a comprehensive and entertaining look at everything Beatles and Christmas. Here is a brief overview of a few of the chapters...
The Fan Club Christmas Flexis: From 1963 to 1970 British and American fan club members were treated to special Christmas flexi-discs featuring the Fab Four singing Christmas tunes, telling stories and jokes, wishing fans happy holidays and more.
The Beatles Christmas Shows: During the holiday seasons of 1963/64 and 1964/65 The Beatles headlined 60 holiday concerts in England. The Fab Four entertained their fans with skits and music. Other performers on the bills were The Yardbirds, Gerry and The Pacemakers, Billy J Kramer and the Dakotas, Cilla Black, Lulu and many others.
On The Radio: The Beatles were the favored pop singing group on BBC Radio in the Sixties. And during the holidays The Beatles appeared numerous times giving hilarious interviews and singing their hits live on the air.
Memorabilia: Some of the rarest Beatles memorabilia are those associated with Christmas - rare glass ornaments from the early Sixties, original fan club greeting cards, records, toys, concert programs, newspaper articles and ads, magazines, photographs and a lot more.
Novelty records and bootlegs: Novelty songs were extremely popular in the Sixties and had such titles as "All I Want For Christmas Is A Beatle" or "Ringo Bells". There were tribute albums, cover songs and numerous bootlegs of The Beatles Christmas Fan Club Flexis. All are covered here.
Alf Bicknell Remembers: Alf was the chauffeur for The Beatles and had kept a diary of his time with them. His holiday entries provide an insider's view of The Beatles during the Christmas season.
Complete Discography (Group and Solo): Every group and solo Christmas release (American and English) is detailed - including dates, labels and descriptions.
Front Cover Art: Beatles artist extraordinairre William Stout created the very special cover painting for the book. He calls his painting "The Beatles As Father Christmas". Truly amazing.
Order information:
United States - $30 per book (free shipping). Includes a free art print.
Canada - $30 plus $8 shipping. Includes a free art print.
Outside the United States - $30 plus $12 shipping. Includes a free art print.
Payment method: PayPal (to Belmo at sfb@fuse.net)/ cash/ check (US banks only and made payable to: S. Belmer (NOT Belmo)/ or International Money Order payable to S. Belmer (NOT Belmo). Mail to: Belmo, PO Box 17163, Ft. Mitchell, KY 41017.
Bookshelf - British Invasion: How the Beatles and Other UK Bands Conquered America
by Bill Harry
Publisher: Independent Publishers Group
Pub. Date: January 2004
ISBN-13: 9781842402474
Sales Rank: 378,855
250pp
Synopsis
The explosion of British bands onto the American rock scene in the 1960s is examined in this thorough history. Marking the 40th anniversary of the Beatles' first trip to the United States, this look at British rock music covers in detail the pre-Beatles music that first gave Americans a taste of the British style, Beatlemania, and the British acts that followed their lead, including the Rolling Stones, the Who, and the Kinks. This account includes in-depth interviews with key figures and fully updated information on this dynamic time in American pop music. Previously unseen photographs and reproduced newspaper front pages provide a visual history of that music explosion.
Buy it here new for 25$ or used for 5$
Buy it here new for 20$ or used for 5$
Bookshelf - Shoulda Been There
Shoulda Been There
by Jude Southerland Kessler
by Jude Southerland Kessler
Published 1994
by OnTheRock Books
Hardcover, 795 pages
ISBN: 978-0-9799448-0-2
Shoulda been there, the first researched historical novel on the life of John Lennon, is truly extraordinary. The book, the first in a promised trilogy of Lennon novels, written by Jude Southerland Kessler, covers John's life from 1940 to 1961, and traces the events that motivated his desire to become a famous rock star and the day-by-day activities of the early Beatles.
No less an authority than Bill Harry, founder of Mersey Beat, the '60s magazine that documented the Liverpool scene of the time, says in the book's foreward that Kessler got it right.
In what Mr. Harry referred to as a "factional" approach, Kessler blends twenty years of research on Lennon with her ability to create authentic Scouse or Liverpudlian dialogue and with an incredible familiarity with the ins and outs of northern England. Jude describes events in Lennon's adolescence as if she were there, as if, as Bill Harry notes, she had been a fly on the wall during these landmark events.
In the pages of this remarkable book, you will experience the Quarry Men's first performance at The Roseberry Street Festival and The Beatles days in Hamburg, you'll walk with John into Liverpool College of Art as a freshman in 1957, and you'll stand beside John at his mother's funeral in 1958. Each moment in John's youth and teen years becomes a moment in the reader's own experience. For 795 pages, the reader is John's shadow. Each reader is John's comrade.
As vivid as these are recounted, the accounts are not fiction. Jude documented these events in over twenty years of research including 7 trips to Liverpool and an incredible number of interviews of the people who were actually there and around at the time. The book is footnoted, and Jude's end notes debate the veracity of past non-fiction research, pointing out contradictions where they exist. Beatle myths are exposed, and new truths are suggested. The book, Shoulda Been There, works to present John Lennon as he really was, not as we've imagined him to be over the last 40 years.
The novel also supplies Beatle enthusiasts with a great deal of documentary material. Jude includes the "Encyclopedia of Real Characters" which provides 125 short biographies of those closest to The Fab Four, and her "Scouse Glossary" gives a necessary insight into the language of Merseyside. There is more at work here than just an extremely good read. The book carefully balances on that tightrope between fact and fiction, plainly telling us when the author leans to one side or the other.
Capturing the essence of long-lost, half-remembered conversations is what Jude sets out to do, all while separating fact from fiction with regard to myths and legends that have been handed down for years about Lennon's youth and The Beatles' unimaginable rise. What happens, through the magic of Jude's words, is that readers come to know the younger Lennon and relive his painful childhood.
The book is an exhaustive work for the early Lennon years. It captures the imagination, but tells the truth.
Featured Book Excerpt
Shoulda Been There, pages 376-378
Reprinted with permission
Friday, 6 May 1960
The Jacaranda
23 Slater Street
Liverpool 1
It was Thursday before Al had secured Tommy Moore as their drummer and Friday before they'd decided on a band name. Stu still favoured the Holly hat-tip that "The Beatals" implied, but the odd designation was ridiculed by experienced showman, Brian Casser, and influenced by Cass, Allan put his foot down. "It's fuggin' lunacy - this Silver Beatals! Give it up! Beatals is out!"
Among John, Paul, George, and Stu, there was general grumbling and a string of half-hearted suggestions that inspired no one, and while they were divided, Allan resurrected the Long John Silver tag again. This time he insisted on it.
"Look, Lennon," he raged, "I haven't time to argue about this. I've scads to do before Tuesday mornin', so listen up. It's Gerry and the Pacemakers, as I've said before, Cohn Green and the Beat Boys, Cliff Roberts and the Rockers, Bob Evans and his Five Shillings, Deny and the Seniors..."
"Cass and the Caskets," John snarled.
Allan ignored him. "To select some anonymous band name without delineating group leadership is flagrantly swimmin' upstream, and you know it! In fact, from Manchester to Doncaster - in all the fuggin' musical North - not one fuggin' name like the fuggin' Beatals has ever been heard of!"
"Right." John's nostrils flared. "Now you're catching on, son."
Paul shouldered in, standing beside John without one hint of his usual cheery disposition. "John's not a solo virtuoso 'shoo-bopped' by some insignificant chorus, y'know," Paul said. "We're all in the group, Al. It's all of us, y'know."
"It's a hand-selected band of individual players," John agreed, tactfully re-establishing his leadership without saying so.
"No one sings all the songs," George tossed in.
"Sod that!" Allan stood his ground. "It's Long John Silver and the whatever else you want to call it...or it's nothin' at all."
John stood up. "We'll not be a name and a conjunction, Al... and I won't be Long John anythin' - not for you, Parnes, or the Queen Mother herself - gig or no gig, tour or no tour, audition or the obvious fuggin' alternative!"
"Look," Allan stepped up, equally irate and stubborn, "I don't give a fuggin' rat's ass what you say, Lennon. I've no time for your shenanigans at this point." He pushed a finger in John's chest. "You're not gettin' up there in front of Billy fuggin' Fury and Larry fuggin' Parnes with some harebrained insect name spelled in some jimmied up, ludicrous fashion! It's bad enough you've never even practiced with yer bleedin' drummer yet..."
"And who exactly do we have to thank for that?" John hissed.
"...but at least you'll look legit and act legit and have a name that sounds like an honest-to-goodness musical group!"
"Gerroff, Al," John sneered. "We've work to do."
"Understand me?" Allan tried Paul first for confirmation, but Paul only shrugged and looked away. "Got it, Harrison?" George whistled and twiddled his thumbs. Only John continued to make eye contact, and his rebellious glare promised only defiance. Allan raised his voice in one final threat, "I'm tellin' you lot right here and now...don't fuggin' cross me on this! Don't come into the fuggin' Blue Angel as the bloody Silver, Bronze, Gold, or Iron Beatals, or y'er out on yer bleedin' ears before you even darken the door. Dress professionally! Don't be late! And don't bring this crap up again! You'll not give my management a bad name just because you're all too fuggin' green to know what's what in the music world!"
"And you make sure," John returned, not the least bit intimidated, "that yer fuggin' drummer shows up. You do your job, Manager...and we'll do ours."
"You'd better hope so," Allan turned to leave, "because if any of you so much as begins to embarrass me in front of Larry Parnes..."
"Out!" John pointed towards the door, dismissing Allan from his own coffee bar, and turning to George in the same breath. "One, two...one, two, three, four..."
"Bollocks to you, Lennon!" Allan mouthed while John flashed a malicious Cheshire grin and began to play. Paul smiled and waved goodbye. George gave a slight nod, then turned away.
Quickly glancing at his watch, Allan pulled his "final-final checklist" from his pocket and hurried to the street, shaking his head in disgust.
They need a fuggin' warden, not a manager, Allan swore. And John Lennon needs a zookeeper with a muzzle and a cudgel.
Al unlocked the sleek, navy blue Jaguar parked in front of The Jacaranda and piled in, his heavy cloth coat rumpling about him. He flipped on the radio and pushed the cigarette lighter in with one quick, simultaneous motion. He inhaled deeply. Holding it for a second, Al let the air out slowly with puffed cheeks. He closed his eyes.
Radio Merseyside was playing Rosemary Clooney's '56 hit, "Come Rain or Come Shine." It was a musical martini for the nerves. It soothed. Allan inhaled deeply again, and turned up the volume a notch.
Not my favourite - Rosemary Clooney, he thought, but I'll take a bit of a lullaby after that lot inside! Sing, Rosemary, sing! Work yer magic, girl!
Allan turned on the ignition and revved it three times.
Beatals! he frowned. Idiotic! Silver Beatals! Who 's ever heard of shite like that?
Adjusting his mirrors, settling into the cushy leather, and popping into gear, Allan screamed away from the curb, foot to the floor. A group of pedestrians scattered out of his way as Allan flew down the street at twice the speed limit. And another crowd jumped as he cut the corner short at Slater and Seel. Allan had been warned several times about aggressive driving on the M-6, but no one, he reasoned, could fault him for this. Having to wrangle with the Silver Beatals was, in his opinion, adequate justification for a little vehicular recklessness.
"In fact," he snarled to his reflection in the rear view mirror, "it's far and away the perfect excuse for just about any crime."
All events are actual, including the make and colour of Allan's car (which, by the way, he lost the license to drive a year or so later...you can read the story in The Man Who Gave The Beatles Away. Priceless!) All conversation is conjecture.
Excerpt Copyright © 1994, Jude Southerland Kessler
To order a copy of Shoulda Been There, send a check for $24.95 to OntheRockBooks, P.O. Box 9572, Dothan, AL 36304. Mention you read this review on The Internet Beatles Album and shipping will be free.
Bookshelf - A Day In The Life
A Day In The Lifeby Mark Hertsgaard
The most popular band ever, The Beatles are still loved by millions and their music is as fresh today as when it was first recorded. A Day In The Life is the first serious biography of that music: a hip, intelligent inside account of how it was created, how it evolved over time, what The Beatles said and did in the studio while recording it, and what The Beatles themselves thought about the songs they created.
Remarkably, The Beatles released only ten and a half hours of music in their eight-year studio career. Yet, in The Beatles archives at Abbey Road studios, there are more than four hundred hours of recordings - rough drafts of the songs we all know and love, studio backchat and previously unreleased material. In 1993, Mark Hertsgaard became the first outside journalist to gain access to these archives, enabling him to take readers inside the Beatles creative process like no author before.
Part grand survey, part listener's guide, A Day In The Life is the most illuminating and factually reliable account of the people, events and artistic influences that shaped the music that changed the world.
ISBN Number: 0-333-62824-1
Printing Year: 1995 First Edition
Original U.K. Cost £16:99
Buy at Amazon.com : 25 dollars new, 3 dollars used
Buy: A Day in The Life/ De Beatles en hun muziek at Amazon.com used 82 dollars
Bookshelf - After The Break-Up
The Beatles - After The Break-Up 1970-2000
by Keith Badman
From 1970 onwards the disbanded Beatles were at last free to follow their individual interests. From that point on there were four separate stories... but they were stories that would form a complex overlapping history of quarrels and reconciliations, personal projects and sporadic collaborations.
For the first time ever, a noted Beatles expert has meticulously documented the entire period of The Beatles after the break-up.
Keith Badman has produced a dazzling and astonishingly detailed day-by-day chronicle of what each of the ex-Beatles did from April 1970 onwards.
It's all here, day by day. All the ... concerts ... solo releases ... known meetings between ex-Beatles ... film, TV and radio appearances ...business deals,legal battles and personal feuds ... Beatles-related births, marriages and deaths.
Starkly punctuated by the murder of John Lennon, here is the as-it-happened story of four individuals emerging from the straitjacket of pop music's greatest ever success story. And for the first time ever their solo careers are shown to be every bit as fascinating as their legendary decade together.
With an introduction by Miles, author of The Beatles: A Diary and Many Years From Now, the authorised biography of Paul McCartney.
Fully illustrated with scores of pictures documenting John, Paul, George and Ringo... after the break-up.
The Beatles After The Break-Up 1970-2000 is the first book ever to catalogue just about everything that John, Paul, George and Ringo did after the group disbanded ... every record, every concert, every TV and radio appearance, every interview ... and much more besides. Every Beatle related event is covered, whether it be as awesome as thetragic death of John, or as predictable as the staggering prices reached in yet another auction of memorabilia.
Author Keith Badman has listed every known encounter between John, Paul, George and Ringo, for whatever reason, whenever and wherever it took place. Included are details of meetings both important and trivial, in the studio, on stage and in their lawyers' chambers. Here are extracts from key interviews which explain the ebbs and flows of the complex relationships between the four, and later three, surviving Beatles.
Here is the ongoing saga of popular music's most enduring 20th Century romance... a comprehensive history of the greatest pop group of them all.
Review :
Carries on where Lewisohn's "Chronicle" leaves off.
Simply a diary of EVERY Beatle event from 1970 to the present day.
ISBN Number 0-711-97520-5
Printing Year 1999
First Edition Original U.K. Cost £19:99
Buy used or new here
Bookshelf - A Hard Day's Write
A Hard Day's Write
by Steve Turner
WHO WERE POLYTHENE PAM AND MR. KITE ?
DOES OB-LA-DI OB-LA-DA MAKE SENSE ?
The first pop performers to write their own material, the Beatles raised the quality of song-writing beyond the banal to stand alongside the greats of the golden age of song, Gershwin, Porter, and Berlin. Their lyrics are among the most analysed in pop history.
Rock music journalist Steve Turner reveals the true tales behind the Beatles' songs. Not hearsay, opinion or sensation - but the truth as revealed through in-depth interviews with the real-life subjects of the songs and the people who were at the heart of the Beatles world.
The Beatles have been in the bloodstream of our culture for the past 30 years. Pivotal figures in the history of popular music, they were the first major pop performers to write their own material. Many of their songs are now accepted as pop classics.
But how did the Beatles come to write their songs, and what inspired them ? A Hard Days Write provides the answers to these questions and reveals for the first time the true stories behind the lyrics, beginning with the songs in the group's first compliation in 1963, Please Please Me and ending with their final collaboration, Abbey Road. Rock music journalist, Steve Turner, author of a recent highly praised biography of Van Morrison and a long time Beatles admirer, has tracked down and interviewed the real-life subjects of the songs, such as the anonymous girl in "She's Leaving Home", to discover how they became to be part of music history. He has searched through public records and newspaper archives. He has also talked in depth to people who knew the Beatles to unearth stories that have never before been made public. Illustrated with over 200 photographs A Hard Days Write, breaks new ground in Beatles literature and in the process explodes many well-worn myths. It provides a unique insight into the Beatles personal world and identifies the concerns and preoccupations which shaped some of the worlds best known pop songs.
Review :
An excellent book that discovers all the origins of every Beatle tune.
The people in the songs, the stories, the real-life subjects.
Buy at Amazon.com for 18.50 $
by Steve Turner
ISBN Number 0-316-91212-3
Printing Year 1994 - First Edition
Original U.K. Cost £16:99
WHO WERE POLYTHENE PAM AND MR. KITE ?
DOES OB-LA-DI OB-LA-DA MAKE SENSE ?
The first pop performers to write their own material, the Beatles raised the quality of song-writing beyond the banal to stand alongside the greats of the golden age of song, Gershwin, Porter, and Berlin. Their lyrics are among the most analysed in pop history.
Rock music journalist Steve Turner reveals the true tales behind the Beatles' songs. Not hearsay, opinion or sensation - but the truth as revealed through in-depth interviews with the real-life subjects of the songs and the people who were at the heart of the Beatles world.
The Beatles have been in the bloodstream of our culture for the past 30 years. Pivotal figures in the history of popular music, they were the first major pop performers to write their own material. Many of their songs are now accepted as pop classics.
But how did the Beatles come to write their songs, and what inspired them ? A Hard Days Write provides the answers to these questions and reveals for the first time the true stories behind the lyrics, beginning with the songs in the group's first compliation in 1963, Please Please Me and ending with their final collaboration, Abbey Road. Rock music journalist, Steve Turner, author of a recent highly praised biography of Van Morrison and a long time Beatles admirer, has tracked down and interviewed the real-life subjects of the songs, such as the anonymous girl in "She's Leaving Home", to discover how they became to be part of music history. He has searched through public records and newspaper archives. He has also talked in depth to people who knew the Beatles to unearth stories that have never before been made public. Illustrated with over 200 photographs A Hard Days Write, breaks new ground in Beatles literature and in the process explodes many well-worn myths. It provides a unique insight into the Beatles personal world and identifies the concerns and preoccupations which shaped some of the worlds best known pop songs.
Review :
An excellent book that discovers all the origins of every Beatle tune.
The people in the songs, the stories, the real-life subjects.
Buy at Amazon.com for 18.50 $
Bookshelf - Recording the Beatles
Recording the Beatles: The Studio Equipment and Techniques Used to Create Their Classic Albumsby Kevin Ryan and Brian Kehew
Never before has there been such an absolutely thorough and definitive look at how the Beatles' albums were recorded. Years of research and extensive interviews with the group's former engineers and technicians shed new light on those classic sessions. With a detailed look at every piece of studio gear used, full explanations of effects and recording processes, and an inside look at how specific songs were recorded, Recording The Beatles is a must-have for any Beatles fan or recording engineer.
Advance Praise for Recording The Beatles
"Five stars...impossible to put down...a major publication."
MOJO, March 2007
"Magnificently produced...everything you could possibly want to know about the equipment used at the Abbey Road Studios when the Beatles worked there, and... how the group made its classic recordings"
New York Times, December 26, 2006
"...a vast, in-depth and amazingly well researched document of recording history."
Sound On Sound, December 2006
"Few books -- if any -- deliver such a thorough, detailed and enjoyable exegesis of vintage recording equipment."
Future Music, January 2007
"Some books stand clear of the crowded field by the contribution they make, and Recording The Beatles is a giant. The intricate technical aspects of the Beatles' recordings have never been better explained. This is a volume that adds considerably to the knowledge, providing a comfortable arm to guide the read up, down, inside and outside the EMI studios at Abbey Road, examining how all those extraordinary tracks came together, identifying the equipment and how it was put to use, looking at the expertise of EMI's superbly trained staff, exploring the techniques and processes. Clearheaded writing, photographs, illustrations, diagrams... it's a masterclass of fine scholarship, a definitive work."
--Mark Lewisohn, renowned Beatles author (excerpted from Foreword)
"...the most definitive and thoroughly researched book ever published about how the Beatles' recordings were actually made. It is an absolute 'must' for anyone who wants to know the true story of their recordings, the equipment used, and the people behind the scenes."
--Ken Townsend, Beatles Technical Engineer 1962-1970, former Director of Operations Abbey Road Studios
"A fascinating and impeccably researched work about the engineers, studios and equipment that contributed to the 'recording revolution' that was The Beatles. An essential Beatles recording bible."
--Alan Parsons, engineer/producer (The Beatles, Pink Floyd, Wings, The Alan Parsons Project)
"Recording The Beatles is quite superb. The research, the content, the overall appearance, are unparalleled. It is a work of art. I have nothing but praise for it."
--Norman Smith, engineer/producer (The Beatles, Pink Floyd, Pretty Things)
"I was at Abbey Road for a number of years and this book tells me things I never even knew. It is amazing and should be requisite reading for anyone with the slightest interest in the making of records. It shows where many of today's commonplace recording techniques originated and what may have been lost in the translation."
--Ken Scott, engineer/producer (The Beatles, David Bowie, Elton John, George Harrison)
"Musicians, producers and engineers of all generations will find this an invaluable guide to the Golden Decade of British Recording. Brian and Kevin's extraordinary research process -- which included intense cross-referencing of recollections and anecdotes by Abbey Road staffers, past and present -- achieves the most accurate document of The Beatles' recording techniques yet published."
--John Kurlander, engineer (The Beatles, Paul McCartney, Lord of the Rings Trilogy)
"An amazingly detailed book that shows -- both in picture and text -- details that have never before been revealed about Abbey Road Studios. A great read for anyone interested in any aspect of recording."
--Richard Lush, engineer (The Beatles, John Lennon, Badfinger, Paul McCartney)
"To this day the question keeps coming up: 'How did the Beatles do it?' Kevin and Brian's book leaves no stone unturned in revealing Abbey Road's contribution to these unique recordings. A magnificent effort. The amount of detail is quite amazing and provides a wonderful insight into the technology and methods used at the studio in the 60s. This is a definitive piece of work."
--Martin Benge, engineer (The Beatles, George Harrison) former Vice President EMI Music Studios
Buy at http://www.recordingthebeatles.com
Many thanks to Lifeofthebeatles...
Many thanks to Lifeofthebeatles...
Bookshelf - John Lennon: Whatever Gets You Through The Night
John Lennon: Whatever Gets You Through The Night
The Stories Behind Every John Lennon Song 1970-1980
by Paul Du Noyer
"I like to write about me, because I know about me." -John Lennon
Idealist, joker, showman, activist, poet and musician. John Lennon influenced a generation with his songs. This is the only book to explore the stories and thinking behind every song he recorded after The Beatles' breakup in 1970 - from the idealism and inner doubt of Imagine to the reaffirming love songs of Double Fantasy. Once free of The Beatles, John's style became more confessional than ever. "Imagine," "Mind Games," "Instant Karma": Lennon approach each song as another installment of his childhood, the bitter legacy of the Beatles, his love for Yoko, as well as his infidelities and his insecurity. There are also the classic anthems of social protest, like "Give Peace a Chance," "Power to the People," and "Working Class Hero." Even his choice of covers like "Standy by Me" and "Be-Bop-A-Lula," tells us much about his musical roots. Finally there are John's accounts of his domestic contentment and optimism for the future.
Illustrated throughout, this is essential reading for everyone who has been moved by the lyrics of one of the icons of pop culture.
Paul Du Noyer was born in Liverpool and educated at the London School of Economics. He is a rock journalist in London, and has written and/or edited for NME, Q, Mojo and The Story of Rock 'n' Roll.
Excerpt:SHINING ON
The world knew him as a man of peace, but John Lennon was born in violence. And he died in violence, too. He came into the world on 9 October 1940, when Liverpool was being bombed to rubble by Hitler's air force. The Oxford Street Maternity Hospital stood on a hill above the city centre; below it were the docks that had made the seaport great, but were now earning it a terrible punishment. Liverpool was Pearl Harbour every night in those war years, and thousands perished in terrace slums or makeshift shelters. But Julia Lennon's war baby survived, and she took it home unharmed. All around them was the din of sirens and explosions.
The Lennons' house was small, in a working class street off Penny Lane; John's father, Freddie, was away at sea. Liverpool was where generations of new Americans took their leave of Europe, and its maritime links with New York stayed strong. Freddie Lennon was like many Liverpudlian men, who knew the bars of Brooklyn better than the palaces of London. "Cunyard Yanks" became a source of the US R&B records that made Liverpool a rock'n'roll town. Black American music found a ready market in this port, which had grown rich by selling the slaves of Africa to the masters of the New World. In a park near John's home stood a statue of Christopher Columbus, inscribed: "The discoverer of America was the maker of Liverpool."
John was of the usual local stock, not so much English as Welsh and Irish. The latter, especially, had dominated Liverpool since the mass migrations of the famine years. They gave the Lancashire town a hybrid accent all of its own, which John never lost. The Celtic stereotypes were always applied to Liverpool - violent and sentimental, lovers of music and words, witty and democratic. Far from breaking the mould, Lennon was that stereotype made flesh.
But his upbringing was traditionally British. His respectable Aunt Mimi looked after John from the age of five. With her husband George Smith she raised the boy in a neat, semi-detached house in Menlove Avenue, on Liverpool's outskirts. Post-war Britain was still subject to scarcity and rationing ("G is for orange," went John's poem Alphabet, "which we love to eat when we can get them"), but his circumstances were comfortable. He had a loving home, and was educated at Quarry Bank, one of the city's better state schools. His background was not as deprived as he sometimes implied.
Yet he could not forget that his natural parents had deserted him. Freddie left Julia, and Julia did not want her infant John. It was not until his teens that John would see his mother regularly, whereupon she was killed in a road accident. The tragedy seems to have compounded John's sense of isolation. As a child, he claims, he used to enter deep states of trance. He liked to paint and draw, and loved the surrealistic, "nonsense" styles of Lewis Carroll, Edward Lear and Spike Milligan. But his quick mind made him a rebel rather than an academic achiever. To Liverpool suburbanites of Mimi's generation, the city accent meant a lack of breeding, while shaggy hair and scruffy clothes awoke pre-war memories of poverty. John made it his business to embrace all those things.
Rock'n'roll was his salvation, arriving like a cultural H-bomb in mid-Fifties Britain when John was 15. But his musical education began earlier. As Yoko wrote in the sleevenotes to Menlove Avenue, a compilation featuring some of John's Fifties favourites, "John's American rock roots. Elvis, Fats Domino and Phil Spector are evident in these tracks. But what I hear in John's voice are the other roots of the boy who grew up in Liverpool, listening to 'Greensleeves', BBC Radio and Tessie O'Shea." As well as the light classics and novelty songs of that pre-television era, John learned many of the folk songs still sung in Liverpool ('Maggie May' among them) and the hymns he was taught in Sunday school. Like his near neighbour Paul McCartney, Lennon's subconscious understanding of melody and harmony, if not of rhythm, was already being formed many years before his road-to-Damascus encounters with Bill Haley's 'Rock around the Clock' and Elvis Presley's 'Heartbreak Hotel'.
By the dawn of the 1960s, when John's old skiffle band the Quarry Men had evolved into Liverpool's top beat group, the Beatles, he'd absorbed rock'n'roll into his bloodstream. The town's cognoscenti were by this time devouring the sounds of Brill Building pop or rare imports of Tamla Motown soul. When Lennon and McCartney made their first, hesitant efforts to write songs instead of copying American originals, their imaginations were a ferment of influences. Country and western was the city's most popular live music, which is why the Beatles' George Harrison became a guitar picker instead of a blueswailer like Surrey boy Eric Clapton. Then there was anything from Broadway shows to football chants, to family memories of long-demolished music halls.
More than all of these, there was Lennon and McCartney's innate creative talent. They inspired each other, at first as friends and then as rivals. Their band, the Beatles, was simultaneously toughened and sensitized by countless shows in Hamburg, the Cavern and elsewhere. And in London they met George Martin, who was surely the most intuitive producer they could ever have worked with. Finally on their way, the Beatles were world-conquering and unstoppable.
All this was not enough for Lennon. Millions adored 'Please Please Me', 'She Loves You' and 'I Want To Hold Your Hand', but John soon tired of any formula, however magical. Hearing the songs of Bob Dylan, he was stung into competing as a poet. Turning inwards to his own state of turmoil, he yearned to test his powers of self-expression. He began lacing the Beatles' repertoire with songs of dark portent, such as 'I'm a Loser' and 'You've Got To Hide Your Love Away'. Attempting his most naked statement so far, he wrote a song that he simply called 'Help!' - but the conventions of Top 20 pop music ensured that nobody guessed he meant it.
As the Beatles gradually began to disappear behind moustaches and a sweet-scented, smoky veil, Lennon's lyrics moved towards more complex and original imagery. And yet paradoxically, there was greater self-revelation. 'Norwegian Wood', 'Tomorrow Never Knows', 'Strawberry Fields Forever' - while these songs were often suffused with gnomic mystery, the emotional presence of their creator remained unmistakable. He disclaimed the everyday, anecdotal songs that had become Paul's hallmark. "I like to write about me," he told Playboy magazine in 1980, "because I know me. I don't know anything about secretaries and postmen and meter maids."
His unthinking honesty almost killed him in 1966. A casual comment to a London newspaper - that the Beatles were more popular than Jesus - was shrugged off in Britain but summoned forth a torrent of death threats from America. "It put the fear of God into him," remembers Paul McCartney. "Boy, if there was one point in John's life when he was nervous. Try having the whole Bible Belt against you, it's not so funny." Coming through that, and having resolved the Beatles would not tour any more, John was ready for something else to happen in his life.
What happened was a woman named Yoko Ono. A Japanese artist, she arrived as if from nowhere and revolutionized John Lennon's life. "She came in through the bathroom window," he joked in 1969.
Look inside the book
Buy (circa $7)
Bookshelf: The Beatles: A Private View
The Beatles: A Private Viewby Robert Freeman
Robert Freeman took some of the most "serious" photos of The Beatles at the beginning of their ascension into worldwide fame and a generous selection of them are beautifully reproduced in this oversized coffee table book.
Freeman's photographic style resonated with The Beatles emerging image as the epitome of everything fab and free and swinging. And the outcome of his many photo sessions with the group was not only an historical documentation of Beatlemania, but a unique artistic expression that captured the Fab Four on a level seldom equalled by his contemporaries.
Freeman traveled with The Beatles, as a photographer and friend, in England, Sweden, France, America, Austria and the Bahamas He designed and photographed five of their album covers from With The Beatles to Rubber Soul, John Lennon's two books, In His Own Write and A Spaniard in the Works, and the title sequences for A Hard Day's Night and Help!
Many of his photos are intimate portraits of the boys at work, at play and at rest. Freeman captured them as indivduals, with all the humor, originality and delightfulness for which The Beatles had become so well-known.
Paul McCartney has said of Freeman's work: "I have a feeling that Bob's photos were amongst the best ever taken of The Beatles." And he just might be right.
Along with the collection of fantastic photos are personal stories about the images, including where and how they were captured.
Lifelong Beatles fans have surely seen these photos before, but their presentation in this new book add up to an artistic treasure that I know you will love. This is undoubtedly the number one Beatles gift book for Christmas 2003 (and beyond).
Freeman's photographic style resonated with The Beatles emerging image as the epitome of everything fab and free and swinging. And the outcome of his many photo sessions with the group was not only an historical documentation of Beatlemania, but a unique artistic expression that captured the Fab Four on a level seldom equalled by his contemporaries.
Freeman traveled with The Beatles, as a photographer and friend, in England, Sweden, France, America, Austria and the Bahamas He designed and photographed five of their album covers from With The Beatles to Rubber Soul, John Lennon's two books, In His Own Write and A Spaniard in the Works, and the title sequences for A Hard Day's Night and Help!
Many of his photos are intimate portraits of the boys at work, at play and at rest. Freeman captured them as indivduals, with all the humor, originality and delightfulness for which The Beatles had become so well-known.
Paul McCartney has said of Freeman's work: "I have a feeling that Bob's photos were amongst the best ever taken of The Beatles." And he just might be right.
Along with the collection of fantastic photos are personal stories about the images, including where and how they were captured.
Lifelong Beatles fans have surely seen these photos before, but their presentation in this new book add up to an artistic treasure that I know you will love. This is undoubtedly the number one Beatles gift book for Christmas 2003 (and beyond).
Big Tent Entertainment 2003, hardcover
Look inside the book
Richard DiLello - The Longest Cocktail Party
The Longest Cocktail Party: An Insider's Diary of the Beatles, Their Million-dollar Apple Empire and Its Wild Rise and Fall is a rock history book by Richard DiLello, published in 1973 by Playboy Press, and reprinted in 1981 and 2005. The Longest Cocktail Party is one man's account of the history of The Beatles' company Apple Corps, the breakup of the Beatles, and the beginning of their solo careers. The title is a reference to the press office's habit of entertaining members of the media, and Apple its potential business partners, with expensive drinks, luncheons and perks — which ultimately led to a financial and spiritual hangover, as did the unrealised potential of the company.
DiLello served as the "house hippie" (formally termed Client Liaison Officer; a sort of in-house youth consultant and gofer) at Apple's Savile Row headquarters, from 1968 until 1970, becoming one-on-one acquainted with each of the Beatles, many of their wives and girlfriends, and also the inner circle of agents, managers, and others who worked for and with Apple. These included business manager Allen Klein, attorneys Lee Eastman and John Eastman, road managers (and Apple directors) Mal Evans and Neil Aspinall, press agent and author Derek Taylor, members of Apple bands Badfinger and White Trash, the staff and the countless visitors to the office.
DiLello covers events including the launching parties for Apple Records and artists like White Trash and Mary Hopkin, the ill-fated Apple Christmas party in 1968 (with two Hells Angels as guests), George Harrison instructing Peter Asher in 1969 to look up the band Raven while in New York, the Beatles's rooftop concert appearing in Let It Be, the lawsuits that began as the Beatles grew apart, and finally the closing of the Apple press office. His reports are described firsthand, always with a sense of humour, and a sense of hope.
The several appendices to the book include the full text of the self-penned 'interview' issued by Paul McCartney with the prerelease copies of his first solo album (McCartney), that effectively announced the band's breakup in April 1970; a discography of Apple Records releases; a list of the Beatles' achievements as recording artists; and text of several British news articles about Apple.
Look inside the book
Buy at Amazon.com (10.20 dollars)
Buy at Amazon.fr (6.44 euro)
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