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The Beatles: The Biography
2007 Audie Award Winner for Non-Fiction, Abridged
Even before the Beatles hit the big time, a myth was created. This version of the Beatles legend smoothed the rough edges and filled in the fault lines, and for more than forty years this manicured version of the Beatles story has sustained as truth -- until now.
The product of almost a decade of research, hundreds of unprecedented interviews, and the discovery of scores of never-before-revealed documents, Bob Spitz's The Beatles is the biography fans have been waiting for.
Never before has a biography of musicians been so immersive and textured. We are there in the McCartney living room when Paul and John learn to write songs together; backstage the night Ringo takes over on drums; in seedy German strip clubs where George lies about his age so the band can perform; and at the Ed Sullivan Show as America discovers the joy and the madness. From Shea to San Francisco, through the London night, on to India, through marmalade skies, across the universe-all the way to a rooftop concert and one last moment of laughter and music.
It is all here, the highs and the lows, the love and the rivalry, the drugs, the tears, the thrill, the magic never again to be repeated. Bob Spitz's masterpiece is, at long last, the biography the Beatles deserve.
Even before the Beatles hit the big time, a myth was created. This version of the Beatles legend smoothed the rough edges and filled in the fault lines, and for more than forty years this manicured version of the Beatles story has sustained as truth -- until now.
The product of almost a decade of research, hundreds of unprecedented interviews, and the discovery of scores of never-before-revealed documents, Bob Spitz's The Beatles is the biography fans have been waiting for.
Never before has a biography of musicians been so immersive and textured. We are there in the McCartney living room when Paul and John learn to write songs together; backstage the night Ringo takes over on drums; in seedy German strip clubs where George lies about his age so the band can perform; and at the Ed Sullivan Show as America discovers the joy and the madness. From Shea to San Francisco, through the London night, on to India, through marmalade skies, across the universe-all the way to a rooftop concert and one last moment of laughter and music.
It is all here, the highs and the lows, the love and the rivalry, the drugs, the tears, the thrill, the magic never again to be repeated. Bob Spitz's masterpiece is, at long last, the biography the Beatles deserve.
Audiobook
First published October 10, 2005
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About the author
Bob Spitz
17 books158 followersBob Spitz is the award-winning author of The Beatles, a New York Times best seller, as well as seven other nonfiction books and a screenplay. He has represented Bruce Springsteen and Elton John in several capacities. His articles appear regularly in magazines and newspapers, including The New York Times Magazine; The Washington Post; Rolling Stone; and O, The Oprah Magazine, among others.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 675 reviews
February 10, 2017
The Bob Spitz biography of The Beatles was the first musical biography that I read a few years back. Not sure that I would be all that interested and yet having read some very positive reviews, I picked up this one and had a really hard time putting it down. The story is absolutely fascinating - from their humble beginnings, the sad and shameful way they disposed of Pete Best for Ringo Starr, the song writing teamwork of Paul and John and the charm and genius of George...it is just amazing the revolutions and evolutions of music that these four musicians achieved in such a relatively short recording career. One thing I found particularly interesting was the tension between the romantic Paul McCartney who was always looking for the big commercial hit or love song and John Lennon who - if he had had the choice - would have made The Beatles into the first punk band like the Sex Pistols. It was also a bit shocking that both love song Paul and sleep/love-in John were so incredibly abusive of their women early in their careers. Of course, we also learn of how their original and ill-fated manager Brian Epstein screwed them over forever on the rights to their music but also how the production by George Martin gave them the freedom to experiment and create masterpieces like Rubber Soul, Revolver, and Sgt Peppers. The book is a page-turner and the reader learns something on nearly every page. My first musical biography became my favorite musical biography in this case!
Still several years after reading this, Spitz' bio of the Fab Four still reigns over the other rock n roll biographies I have read. The anecdotes, the disastrous tour, the recordings (one of which a deceased aunt of mine was actually in the studio for, it os all vivid in my memory and has incredibly enhanced my listening experience of this, the greatest band of the 60s and probably most influential of all time. A must!
Still several years after reading this, Spitz' bio of the Fab Four still reigns over the other rock n roll biographies I have read. The anecdotes, the disastrous tour, the recordings (one of which a deceased aunt of mine was actually in the studio for, it os all vivid in my memory and has incredibly enhanced my listening experience of this, the greatest band of the 60s and probably most influential of all time. A must!
January 22, 2024
Holy crap is this book long. And informative. Also fun to read, so yay. Here's some fun stuff I learned:
1. They all had gonorrhea when they recorded "Love Me Do."
2. John was a huge asshole.
3. Brian Epstein would invite really rough dudes back to his house to beat the crap out of him.
4. Yoko was even worse than John.
5. Paul was kind of a dick, too.
6. But Ringo was a nice guy.
7. During early Beatles concerts, theater owners or whoever would wheel disabled kids into the front row until John started making fun of them by putting a plastic bag on his foot and limping around. Also, sometimes the parents of said kids would like, bring their kids backstage and then leave them alone. With the Beatles.
1. They all had gonorrhea when they recorded "Love Me Do."
2. John was a huge asshole.
3. Brian Epstein would invite really rough dudes back to his house to beat the crap out of him.
4. Yoko was even worse than John.
5. Paul was kind of a dick, too.
6. But Ringo was a nice guy.
7. During early Beatles concerts, theater owners or whoever would wheel disabled kids into the front row until John started making fun of them by putting a plastic bag on his foot and limping around. Also, sometimes the parents of said kids would like, bring their kids backstage and then leave them alone. With the Beatles.
August 16, 2013
The opening chord of A Hard Day's Night. George, on a twelve string, plays a Gsus chord. From bass to treble that's G,C,F,A,C,G. On a twelve string guitar, the bottom four notes get doubled at the octave, while the top two are doubled in unison. Underneath, Paul plays a D. And John strums a Dsus chord, ADADG, leaving out the bottom string. So from bass to treble we get the following: D, G, A, C, D, F, G, AA, CCC, DD, F, GG, A. The result is a perfect collaboration, and a beautiful example of the Beatles ability to come up with something that is both chaotic and suberbly balanced all at once. If you've heard it, you remember it, and you know what I mean. If not, then why are you reading this far?
Spitz describes this chord in some detail, and quite differently. He says George plays a G7 chord with an added ninth, and a suspended fourth, and leaves it at that. I bring this up for two reasons. First, if Spitz gets this wrong, then it casts into doubt the accuracy of much of his "definitive" biography. This example is important for me, because I have always cared most about the Beatle's music, and much less about all the surrounding stuff.
Second, Spitz attributes this chord to George, instead of highlighting what a brilliant group effort it was. That's about the only time in the book that George gets put in the forefront, and on this rare occurrence, Spitz gets it wrong. This book is mostly about John, then Brian Epstein. Paul is still a large figure, but not as much as the first two. George is a strong supporting character, and Ringo hardly gets much attention at all. The amazing thing about this is that the amount of attention a person gets is inversely proportional to his likability.
John is a dick. Spitz tries to attribute much of this to his various drug addictions. But he was being a dick to his audiences even before the drugs became an issue. It's pretty amazing that such an inconsiderate asshole could write and perform such brilliant, sensitive music. Well maybe not so much. I have a whole list of artists whose work I adore, but who I would never want to meet, and Lennon doesn't even get close to the top of this list.
Epstein didn't interest me back then, and he doesn't interest me all that much now. I guess its worth seeing how he screwed up so many deals for the Beatles. But his character seems almost stereotypical. If someone made him up for a novel, I think most people would roll their eyes at the cliches. And that's pretty sad for him.
Paul comes across as controlling, a perfectionist, self-centered, terrible to women, but mostly a decent mate to his buddies. Except then there is the point where the new manager has Paul's longstanding assistant fired. The guy worked for Paul basically all the way back when they played in the Cavern in Liverpool, for over seven years. And when the manager had him fired, Paul refused to even return the guy's phone calls. So, in the end, Paul showed no loyalty at all. But his music, when not corny (does anyone actually like "Someone's Knocking at the Door"?), can be glorious.
George is painted as insecure, but growing and spiritual. By the end, he is at least acknowledged as a good song writer. But as the Beatles retreated into the studio, John and Paul treated him more and more as a hired hand. And Ringo is barely seen here as a full Beatle. He doesn't enter the scene until the book is half done, and he doesn't fit. He treats his wife well, and cares about her. And he seems like a nice and stable person. What Spitz does show about Ringo, is how important he was for their live sound. He wasn't the most technically accomplished drummer, but he had an uncanny musical sense and the ability to fit himself in perfectly.
The book inevitably tries to answer two questions: First, why the meteoric rise? Here, I don't think the book comes up with any good explanation. In Outliers, Gadwell attributes the rise to the Beatle's time in Hamburg, where they put in the 10,000 hours needed for mastery. That certainly helped them, but there were lots of other groups with their own 10,000 hours. In the end, I think the Beatle's were just a black swan. There really isn't any explaining the sudden mass hysteria that surrounded them. If it had not happened to them, it probably would have been someone else. But I have to admit that its awfully difficult for me to imagine some others in the same role.
The second question is why the break-up. The book mostly blames John's envy of Paul, and Paul's need to control things. Add to this the drugs, and their seclusion, and the break-up becomes almost inevitable. The book also lays out another scenario. The Beatles became a truly great live band with all of their experience in Hamburg and at the Cavern and on tour through England. Once they hit the big time, their shows topped out at 35 minutes or so, instead of several hours a night. They played in huge venues to girls who threw jelly bellies at them, and screamed over the music. No-one listened, and the Beatles couldn't even hear themselves. The shows were unsatisfying and became more and more dangerous to them. So they quit.
But the energy, and their first love, came from the live playng. Once they retreated into the studio, George and Ringo were no longer as much a cohesive part of the group. And Paul and John could go more and more their seperate ways. So they lost their energizing source, and they lost the feeling of being a band. And that led to them breaking up. Spitz doesn't put it in so many words, but that's what I was left with. In the end, the fans broke up the Beatles.
Spitz describes this chord in some detail, and quite differently. He says George plays a G7 chord with an added ninth, and a suspended fourth, and leaves it at that. I bring this up for two reasons. First, if Spitz gets this wrong, then it casts into doubt the accuracy of much of his "definitive" biography. This example is important for me, because I have always cared most about the Beatle's music, and much less about all the surrounding stuff.
Second, Spitz attributes this chord to George, instead of highlighting what a brilliant group effort it was. That's about the only time in the book that George gets put in the forefront, and on this rare occurrence, Spitz gets it wrong. This book is mostly about John, then Brian Epstein. Paul is still a large figure, but not as much as the first two. George is a strong supporting character, and Ringo hardly gets much attention at all. The amazing thing about this is that the amount of attention a person gets is inversely proportional to his likability.
John is a dick. Spitz tries to attribute much of this to his various drug addictions. But he was being a dick to his audiences even before the drugs became an issue. It's pretty amazing that such an inconsiderate asshole could write and perform such brilliant, sensitive music. Well maybe not so much. I have a whole list of artists whose work I adore, but who I would never want to meet, and Lennon doesn't even get close to the top of this list.
Epstein didn't interest me back then, and he doesn't interest me all that much now. I guess its worth seeing how he screwed up so many deals for the Beatles. But his character seems almost stereotypical. If someone made him up for a novel, I think most people would roll their eyes at the cliches. And that's pretty sad for him.
Paul comes across as controlling, a perfectionist, self-centered, terrible to women, but mostly a decent mate to his buddies. Except then there is the point where the new manager has Paul's longstanding assistant fired. The guy worked for Paul basically all the way back when they played in the Cavern in Liverpool, for over seven years. And when the manager had him fired, Paul refused to even return the guy's phone calls. So, in the end, Paul showed no loyalty at all. But his music, when not corny (does anyone actually like "Someone's Knocking at the Door"?), can be glorious.
George is painted as insecure, but growing and spiritual. By the end, he is at least acknowledged as a good song writer. But as the Beatles retreated into the studio, John and Paul treated him more and more as a hired hand. And Ringo is barely seen here as a full Beatle. He doesn't enter the scene until the book is half done, and he doesn't fit. He treats his wife well, and cares about her. And he seems like a nice and stable person. What Spitz does show about Ringo, is how important he was for their live sound. He wasn't the most technically accomplished drummer, but he had an uncanny musical sense and the ability to fit himself in perfectly.
The book inevitably tries to answer two questions: First, why the meteoric rise? Here, I don't think the book comes up with any good explanation. In Outliers, Gadwell attributes the rise to the Beatle's time in Hamburg, where they put in the 10,000 hours needed for mastery. That certainly helped them, but there were lots of other groups with their own 10,000 hours. In the end, I think the Beatle's were just a black swan. There really isn't any explaining the sudden mass hysteria that surrounded them. If it had not happened to them, it probably would have been someone else. But I have to admit that its awfully difficult for me to imagine some others in the same role.
The second question is why the break-up. The book mostly blames John's envy of Paul, and Paul's need to control things. Add to this the drugs, and their seclusion, and the break-up becomes almost inevitable. The book also lays out another scenario. The Beatles became a truly great live band with all of their experience in Hamburg and at the Cavern and on tour through England. Once they hit the big time, their shows topped out at 35 minutes or so, instead of several hours a night. They played in huge venues to girls who threw jelly bellies at them, and screamed over the music. No-one listened, and the Beatles couldn't even hear themselves. The shows were unsatisfying and became more and more dangerous to them. So they quit.
But the energy, and their first love, came from the live playng. Once they retreated into the studio, George and Ringo were no longer as much a cohesive part of the group. And Paul and John could go more and more their seperate ways. So they lost their energizing source, and they lost the feeling of being a band. And that led to them breaking up. Spitz doesn't put it in so many words, but that's what I was left with. In the end, the fans broke up the Beatles.
January 10, 2024
I just realized I got sucked into another abridged version. How the hell do I know if this was good or not when I didn't read the whole thing? I HATE ABRIDGED VERSIONS! Okay, so I got that off my chest.
On the plus side, I have read reviews that complained about how long this book was, but I didn't feel that way at all - I wanted more. I loved having Alfred Molina read to me while I was walking around the lake in my neighborhood. Then I would go home and play whatever Beatles album had just been discussed, hearing many songs I haven't listened to in years. It was a joy to revisit all of their incredible music, enhanced by recognizing a little lyric or chord or bit of trivia from the book.
One thing that kind of surprised me because I've known about this forever - reading about their early days, it hit me like a ton of bricks how absolutely heartbreaking it was for Pete Best to get kicked out of the band on the very eve of their success, and in such a sleazy, cowardly way. I don't have enough of my own real problems, I have to walk around in a funk for days about what happened to a guy from Liverpool who played the drums 60 years ago? For some reason I just could NOT let it go. But I'm okay now.
A complaint I have about the book, and this is again possibly unfair because of the abridgment, is that the writing was a strange combination of flowery and detached; over-familiar (e.g. describing what George thought or Paul felt at a particular moment) yet removed and impersonal. For all the detail provided, I somehow felt like the author didn't bring these very famous men into clearer focus as real people (Except for Pete Best; see previous paragraph.) He also didn't go into much depth about their relationships, which disappointed me - give me more about Pattie Boyd and George and Eric Clapton any day of the week! He devoted a lot of vitriol towards John and Yoko, who based on this account were terrible people who deserved each other.
The bulk of the narrative, and where the author did the best job, was in describing each album and how it evolved, and who wrote which songs, and how the lyrics were inspired. That was fascinating and as I said before, it really made me want to take a listen to these well-loved songs from a fresh perspective.
The story ends with the Beatles break up in 1970 and their lives after are only briefly summarized. If you're a Beatles fan and love their music, I think you will enjoy this.
On the plus side, I have read reviews that complained about how long this book was, but I didn't feel that way at all - I wanted more. I loved having Alfred Molina read to me while I was walking around the lake in my neighborhood. Then I would go home and play whatever Beatles album had just been discussed, hearing many songs I haven't listened to in years. It was a joy to revisit all of their incredible music, enhanced by recognizing a little lyric or chord or bit of trivia from the book.
One thing that kind of surprised me because I've known about this forever - reading about their early days, it hit me like a ton of bricks how absolutely heartbreaking it was for Pete Best to get kicked out of the band on the very eve of their success, and in such a sleazy, cowardly way. I don't have enough of my own real problems, I have to walk around in a funk for days about what happened to a guy from Liverpool who played the drums 60 years ago? For some reason I just could NOT let it go. But I'm okay now.
A complaint I have about the book, and this is again possibly unfair because of the abridgment, is that the writing was a strange combination of flowery and detached; over-familiar (e.g. describing what George thought or Paul felt at a particular moment) yet removed and impersonal. For all the detail provided, I somehow felt like the author didn't bring these very famous men into clearer focus as real people (Except for Pete Best; see previous paragraph.) He also didn't go into much depth about their relationships, which disappointed me - give me more about Pattie Boyd and George and Eric Clapton any day of the week! He devoted a lot of vitriol towards John and Yoko, who based on this account were terrible people who deserved each other.
The bulk of the narrative, and where the author did the best job, was in describing each album and how it evolved, and who wrote which songs, and how the lyrics were inspired. That was fascinating and as I said before, it really made me want to take a listen to these well-loved songs from a fresh perspective.
The story ends with the Beatles break up in 1970 and their lives after are only briefly summarized. If you're a Beatles fan and love their music, I think you will enjoy this.
January 24, 2011
Rating for the quality of the book: 4 out of 5
Rating for how much I enjoyed the book: 2 out of 5
I realized as I was finishing this book that I wished I hadn't read it. Don't get me wrong - it was well-written and well-researched and I learned a great deal I didn't know about the Beatles. And therein lies the problem.
There is a whole lot I learned in this book that I wished I didn't know. I mean, I knew there was drug use. I knew there were countless affairs. I knew that none of them were standup human beings. But I guess I didn't know just how bad things got. John, in particular, I found to be utter repulsive. Incredibly talented, true, but reprehensible. I think he is the most selfish person I have ever read about this extensively. Not that any of the rest (with the possible exception of Ringo - who knew?) are that much better. But John's treatment of his wife, child, manager, and bandmates was awful. I could continue with the adjectives, because there's a long list, but I won't, don't worry.
I think one of the reasons I feel this way so strongly is there is no redemption for anyone at the end of the book. The book ends with the end of the Beatles, when everyone was behaving badly. I think that if I'd been able to follow their lives a little longer, they generally clean up their acts a little bit and become a bit more tolerable. However, I understand that this is outside the book's purview. It just would have given me a bit of catharsis.
I will give a tip of the hat, though, to the last line, which manages to re-instill in me a bit of the respect that I've always had for my favorite band. These are the closing words from Spitz regarding the Beatles:
"And from them, a flood of song and love and pain and beauty, a flood that cascaded out of the Cavern and Hamburg and London town, into the world, a flow that pushed aside what had come before, that cleansed and battered and in the end nourished. Water."
Beautiful.
Rating for how much I enjoyed the book: 2 out of 5
I realized as I was finishing this book that I wished I hadn't read it. Don't get me wrong - it was well-written and well-researched and I learned a great deal I didn't know about the Beatles. And therein lies the problem.
There is a whole lot I learned in this book that I wished I didn't know. I mean, I knew there was drug use. I knew there were countless affairs. I knew that none of them were standup human beings. But I guess I didn't know just how bad things got. John, in particular, I found to be utter repulsive. Incredibly talented, true, but reprehensible. I think he is the most selfish person I have ever read about this extensively. Not that any of the rest (with the possible exception of Ringo - who knew?) are that much better. But John's treatment of his wife, child, manager, and bandmates was awful. I could continue with the adjectives, because there's a long list, but I won't, don't worry.
I think one of the reasons I feel this way so strongly is there is no redemption for anyone at the end of the book. The book ends with the end of the Beatles, when everyone was behaving badly. I think that if I'd been able to follow their lives a little longer, they generally clean up their acts a little bit and become a bit more tolerable. However, I understand that this is outside the book's purview. It just would have given me a bit of catharsis.
I will give a tip of the hat, though, to the last line, which manages to re-instill in me a bit of the respect that I've always had for my favorite band. These are the closing words from Spitz regarding the Beatles:
"And from them, a flood of song and love and pain and beauty, a flood that cascaded out of the Cavern and Hamburg and London town, into the world, a flow that pushed aside what had come before, that cleansed and battered and in the end nourished. Water."
Beautiful.
February 21, 2024
I've read some other books about the Beatles, but certainly nothing this extensive. Over 800 pages long, Bob Spitz spent almost a decade of research putting this book together. Some of the material I knew, much I didn't know. Spitz also presents the material in a logical conversational style that is easy to read. The book includes three sections of black and white photos, and extensive notes on his research materials. I know there are books written by various persons associated with the group, but this is perhaps the most comprehensive book out there. If your a Beatle fanatic, or just want to learn more about the boys from Liverpool you can't go wrong with this one.
August 29, 2009
Well, I only read the last half, to see what jolly Bob Spitz could do with the tale of hippy woe which is the decline & fall of the four jolly boys. I was expecting a whole lot of fun to be had in the style of Bob's outrageous biography of the other Bob, Dylan. In that one, Spitz makes up whole conversations, assumes things when he hasn't got any facts or sources, jumps into Dylan's head to riff on what he "probably" would have been thinking, kicks him when he's down, and all in all has a right good laugh. But in this Beatles tome disappointingly he plays it completely straight. So it comes off as pretty good, pretty comprehensive, nothing that you didn't already know but you can probably give half of your other Beatles books to Oxfam now because it's all in here.
December 10, 2007
Inconsistent, riddled with errors, inaccuracies and wrong information. Lots of mistakes. Such as photos from 1960 and 1961 being labeled as being at the Star Club, which didn't open until '62. States that George met Pattie Boyd on the set of "Help!" when they actually met on the set of "A Hard Day's Night". Just a couple of examples. Terrible book. And when the list of errors was pointed out to the author, he just insulted those who were telling him. Isn't that nice? Wanker.
February 9, 2026
De Beatles haalden in de herfst van 2023 in Nederland het achtuurjournaal met een nieuwe plak-en-knipsingle (Now and then). Een goed moment om deze dikke Beatlesbiografie nog eens te pakken. Wat mij betreft de compleetste en best vertaalde Beatles-bio (5 vertalers werkten er aan mee).
Het bijna 1000 pagina's omvattende werk van Bob Spitz (muziekjournalist en oud-manager van Bruce Springsteen) kostte 7 jaar om te onderzoeken en schrijven. In die tijd:
+ zag Spitz tal van documentaires over de Fab4
+ beluisterde hij geluidsopnames van biograaf Albert Goldman met John Lennon (die schreef dat Lennon een verhouding had met manager en ontdekker Brian Epstein).
+ bladerde hij door ruim 300 (!) muziekbiografieën over de band.
+ las hij talloze niet eerder gepubliceerde brieven en dagboeken van Brian Epstein
+ beluisterde hij zo'n 60 radiointerviews met de Beatles
+ sprak hij zelf met 'Beatles-souteneurs' Derek Taylor, Alistair Taylor en Bob Wooler
+ interviewde hij zelf George Harrison.
Compliment voor Nieuw Amsterdam
Het boek leest door de liefdevolle vertaling onder toezicht van Ulysses- en Dylan-hertaler Erik Bindervoet als een trein. Daarmee verdient uitgeverij Nieuw Amsterdam wat mij betreft een groot compliment. Het inhuren van vertalers en redacteuren maakt de kostprijs van een vertaling immers hoger en de winstmarge lager.
Twist & auw
Ook als je geen fan bent van de Beatles ken je het nummer Twist & Shout (het nummer dat begint met 'She was just seventeen, you know what I mean'). Vanaf pagina 424 legt Bob Spitz uit waarom John Lennon op dit nummer zo ruig en rauw klinkt. Dit nummer dat deel uitmaakt van het debuutalbum van de Beatles moest binnen 10 uur worden opgenomen en tot overmaat van ramp was John ziek toen ze aankwamen. Met keelpastilles, sigaretten en melk (...) probeerde Lennon zijn stem te smeren. Terwijl de studiotijd erop zat overtuigde producer George Martin Lennon en de overige Beatles ervan dat ze nog één nummer moesten doen en dat was Twist & Shout.
De beschrijving van die sessie is weergaloos: 'Iedereen in de studio wist dat het meteen bij de eerste take raak moest zijn...Nadien zou er namelijk niets meer over zijn van Johns stem.' ...'Vanaf de allereerste noten was het wel duidelijk dat John worstelde om zijn stem onder controle te krijgen te krijgen. 'Shake it up bay-be-eee...'was eerder een hese schreeuw dan zingen... Zijn stembanden en keel waren kurkdroog en compleet rauw, elke resonantie was dof omvloerst en hij klonk meer als een kwade, schore voetbalfan bij een voetbalwedstrijd.'
Conclusie
Ben je een fan van de Beatles en wil je de hele geschiedenis ondergaan alsof je er zelf bij was? Laat je niet afschrikken door het aantal pagina's (bruto 1088 pagina's, netto 950, gewicht 1200 gram) en neem dit boek mee naar je volgende vakantiebestemming of je quarantaine-onderkomen.
Het bijna 1000 pagina's omvattende werk van Bob Spitz (muziekjournalist en oud-manager van Bruce Springsteen) kostte 7 jaar om te onderzoeken en schrijven. In die tijd:
+ zag Spitz tal van documentaires over de Fab4
+ beluisterde hij geluidsopnames van biograaf Albert Goldman met John Lennon (die schreef dat Lennon een verhouding had met manager en ontdekker Brian Epstein).
+ bladerde hij door ruim 300 (!) muziekbiografieën over de band.
+ las hij talloze niet eerder gepubliceerde brieven en dagboeken van Brian Epstein
+ beluisterde hij zo'n 60 radiointerviews met de Beatles
+ sprak hij zelf met 'Beatles-souteneurs' Derek Taylor, Alistair Taylor en Bob Wooler
+ interviewde hij zelf George Harrison.
Compliment voor Nieuw Amsterdam
Het boek leest door de liefdevolle vertaling onder toezicht van Ulysses- en Dylan-hertaler Erik Bindervoet als een trein. Daarmee verdient uitgeverij Nieuw Amsterdam wat mij betreft een groot compliment. Het inhuren van vertalers en redacteuren maakt de kostprijs van een vertaling immers hoger en de winstmarge lager.
Twist & auw
Ook als je geen fan bent van de Beatles ken je het nummer Twist & Shout (het nummer dat begint met 'She was just seventeen, you know what I mean'). Vanaf pagina 424 legt Bob Spitz uit waarom John Lennon op dit nummer zo ruig en rauw klinkt. Dit nummer dat deel uitmaakt van het debuutalbum van de Beatles moest binnen 10 uur worden opgenomen en tot overmaat van ramp was John ziek toen ze aankwamen. Met keelpastilles, sigaretten en melk (...) probeerde Lennon zijn stem te smeren. Terwijl de studiotijd erop zat overtuigde producer George Martin Lennon en de overige Beatles ervan dat ze nog één nummer moesten doen en dat was Twist & Shout.
De beschrijving van die sessie is weergaloos: 'Iedereen in de studio wist dat het meteen bij de eerste take raak moest zijn...Nadien zou er namelijk niets meer over zijn van Johns stem.' ...'Vanaf de allereerste noten was het wel duidelijk dat John worstelde om zijn stem onder controle te krijgen te krijgen. 'Shake it up bay-be-eee...'was eerder een hese schreeuw dan zingen... Zijn stembanden en keel waren kurkdroog en compleet rauw, elke resonantie was dof omvloerst en hij klonk meer als een kwade, schore voetbalfan bij een voetbalwedstrijd.'
Conclusie
Ben je een fan van de Beatles en wil je de hele geschiedenis ondergaan alsof je er zelf bij was? Laat je niet afschrikken door het aantal pagina's (bruto 1088 pagina's, netto 950, gewicht 1200 gram) en neem dit boek mee naar je volgende vakantiebestemming of je quarantaine-onderkomen.
March 4, 2019
I’m *finally* done after reading this book for two full months.
I really wanted to give this book a five star rating, but I just couldn’t. There are such great moments in here, and as a music and production nerd, I was in love with how well Bob writes their recording sessions and explains the songwriting process in a reasonably accessible way. Many other moments are also written so well- travels and German shenanigans and agent meetings and everything. The thing that I am most impressed with is the ridiculous level of detail that went into researching this book, which was a seven year project.
However, I didn’t like the bias in how John and Paul were treated next to George and Ringo. John gets three chapters and some change devoted to his childhood, actually reaching back some generations to how his grandparents met and lived, with a surprising amount of detail. Paul gets about one chapter, and then George and Ringo really only get enough to bring you up to speed with how they ended up meeting each other. The spotlight is on Lennon-McCartney, and if you’re a George or Ringo fan, this book will infuriate you. This biography also continually paints John in a bad light- a moody, drug addled narcissist, and tries to redeem Paul’s faults by explaining that he was just trying to make the music he loved, or trying to bring the band back together. The book also screeches to a halt mere pages after the release of Abbey Road, and it almost feels like Bob is out of breath as he tries to explain how the band broke up. We then get a page an a half describing all four of their lives, which feels very lopsided compared to the 300 pages that are written before the Fab Four come together.
I still had a fantastic time reading this, and can’t express how impressive this work is. It has its faults, but in the end, it made me re-listen to the entire Beatles discography, so it did something right.
I really wanted to give this book a five star rating, but I just couldn’t. There are such great moments in here, and as a music and production nerd, I was in love with how well Bob writes their recording sessions and explains the songwriting process in a reasonably accessible way. Many other moments are also written so well- travels and German shenanigans and agent meetings and everything. The thing that I am most impressed with is the ridiculous level of detail that went into researching this book, which was a seven year project.
However, I didn’t like the bias in how John and Paul were treated next to George and Ringo. John gets three chapters and some change devoted to his childhood, actually reaching back some generations to how his grandparents met and lived, with a surprising amount of detail. Paul gets about one chapter, and then George and Ringo really only get enough to bring you up to speed with how they ended up meeting each other. The spotlight is on Lennon-McCartney, and if you’re a George or Ringo fan, this book will infuriate you. This biography also continually paints John in a bad light- a moody, drug addled narcissist, and tries to redeem Paul’s faults by explaining that he was just trying to make the music he loved, or trying to bring the band back together. The book also screeches to a halt mere pages after the release of Abbey Road, and it almost feels like Bob is out of breath as he tries to explain how the band broke up. We then get a page an a half describing all four of their lives, which feels very lopsided compared to the 300 pages that are written before the Fab Four come together.
I still had a fantastic time reading this, and can’t express how impressive this work is. It has its faults, but in the end, it made me re-listen to the entire Beatles discography, so it did something right.
March 23, 2023
Bob Spitz, ex-manager van Bruce Springsteen en Elton John, kent wel wat van muziek. En van The Beatles. Hij schreef 7 jaar aan deze meer dan 1000 pagina’s tellende biografie, en wat ben ik daar blij om.
Als echte Beatles-fan vond ik het heerlijk om in dit boek te duiken. Je wordt meegenomen vanaf het prille begin, van bij de geboorte van de afzonderlijke Beatles, de geboorte en evolutie van de band, en tenslotte ook het einde ervan. En wat een rit was het. Tijdens het lezen luisterde ik naar het album waarover het ging en tussendoor herbekeek ik de films.
Ik heb heerlijk genoten van dit Beatles-bad, Spitz geeft zeer veel gedetailleerde info, over de muziek, de sfeer, de politieke en culturele ontwikkelingen, enz… waardoor er zeer veel te halen valt uit dit boek, the good and the bad, zelfs voor Beatles-kenners. Jammer dat het boek uit is, op de één of andere manier mis ik die jongens… Gelukkig kunnen we nog even de Anthology-serie herbekijken..
Als echte Beatles-fan vond ik het heerlijk om in dit boek te duiken. Je wordt meegenomen vanaf het prille begin, van bij de geboorte van de afzonderlijke Beatles, de geboorte en evolutie van de band, en tenslotte ook het einde ervan. En wat een rit was het. Tijdens het lezen luisterde ik naar het album waarover het ging en tussendoor herbekeek ik de films.
Ik heb heerlijk genoten van dit Beatles-bad, Spitz geeft zeer veel gedetailleerde info, over de muziek, de sfeer, de politieke en culturele ontwikkelingen, enz… waardoor er zeer veel te halen valt uit dit boek, the good and the bad, zelfs voor Beatles-kenners. Jammer dat het boek uit is, op de één of andere manier mis ik die jongens… Gelukkig kunnen we nog even de Anthology-serie herbekijken..
April 12, 2025
Spitz's colossal seven year labor of love is a fantastic and concise voyage from start to finish. The humble beginnings of the band that changed the face of rock n' roll demonstrates the importance of management, production, persistence, and being in the right place at the right time.
The Fab Four clicked into place once they had Ringo, but would not have achieved such levels of exalted fame without the years of effort of manager Brian Epstein's almost OCD like behavior and producer George Martin (often known as the "Fifth Beatle")'s presence in the studio.
For a long time scotch and coke was the preferred libation of the group and Bob Dylan can certainly take a lot of the credit for introducing the boys to smoking marijuana regularly. Did this good fortune lead to the "happy accident" of discovering amplifier feedback in the studio and changing the way music is recorded?
Despite often saint-like martyrdom, this book reveals a lot of John Lennon's darker sides and behaviors. "John was almost unsparing about gays as he was about cripples and the retarded." (403) When visiting Elvis Presley in his humble abode, Lennon was quite rude and felt the need to try and bring down "The King," by critiquing his chops.
The band's crossings with The Rolling Stones were interesting forks in music history, including Mick Jagger's presence for a handful of recording sessions.
Lennon's love affair with drugs certainly coincided with his personal stability and perhaps infidelity as well. He confessed to his first wife, Cynthia that he had had hundreds, perhaps thousands of international sexual affairs. Paul usually strayed away from the heavy drugs and psychedelics. The brilliance of Lennon-McCartney's hit parade of original songs might not ever be contended, but also forged a life long jealous feud between two friends.
Meditation is an excellent substitute for drug abuse, but Lennon's use of heroin with Yoko Ono pushed them onto a long and winding road.
Lennon's first encounter with Ono at an art exhibit was really intriguing. Lennon finally found someone to play along with his avant garde mind games. Their exchange of written letters, post cards, poetry and puzzles was good folly. Most women can't sustain that type of creativity (or minimal written communications) anymore. I think Lennon and Ono's love was strong, but she certainly had greedy motives a lot of the time and altered the entire dynamic of the band when she wouldn't leave future studio sessions.
Safe to say, none of the members of this treasured band so associated with love have had a great track record in the marriage department...
Believe it or not, the band had very little input in the cult classic Yellow Submarine film. Before his unfortunate OD death at the young age of 33, Brian Epstein believed the Bee Gees would be the next Beatles. Coincidentally, they claimed the roles of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band in the film version (not mentioned in the book).
On the original Sgt. Pepper album cover, Lennon wanted Hitler portrayed. Ringo did not offer any creative input.
Did George Harrison's indie film Wonderwall influence the Oasis hit?
This book is an excellent compendium to any casual fan of the band looking to dig deeper. The myths, secret messages, and greater personal meanings of their art can go as far as you want to take it.
https://youtu.be/6Bwx9-913P4?si=YCrG6...
The last song recorded collectively by all four Beatles is quite telling: "And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make."
The Fab Four clicked into place once they had Ringo, but would not have achieved such levels of exalted fame without the years of effort of manager Brian Epstein's almost OCD like behavior and producer George Martin (often known as the "Fifth Beatle")'s presence in the studio.
For a long time scotch and coke was the preferred libation of the group and Bob Dylan can certainly take a lot of the credit for introducing the boys to smoking marijuana regularly. Did this good fortune lead to the "happy accident" of discovering amplifier feedback in the studio and changing the way music is recorded?
Despite often saint-like martyrdom, this book reveals a lot of John Lennon's darker sides and behaviors. "John was almost unsparing about gays as he was about cripples and the retarded." (403) When visiting Elvis Presley in his humble abode, Lennon was quite rude and felt the need to try and bring down "The King," by critiquing his chops.
The band's crossings with The Rolling Stones were interesting forks in music history, including Mick Jagger's presence for a handful of recording sessions.
Lennon's love affair with drugs certainly coincided with his personal stability and perhaps infidelity as well. He confessed to his first wife, Cynthia that he had had hundreds, perhaps thousands of international sexual affairs. Paul usually strayed away from the heavy drugs and psychedelics. The brilliance of Lennon-McCartney's hit parade of original songs might not ever be contended, but also forged a life long jealous feud between two friends.
Meditation is an excellent substitute for drug abuse, but Lennon's use of heroin with Yoko Ono pushed them onto a long and winding road.
Lennon's first encounter with Ono at an art exhibit was really intriguing. Lennon finally found someone to play along with his avant garde mind games. Their exchange of written letters, post cards, poetry and puzzles was good folly. Most women can't sustain that type of creativity (or minimal written communications) anymore. I think Lennon and Ono's love was strong, but she certainly had greedy motives a lot of the time and altered the entire dynamic of the band when she wouldn't leave future studio sessions.
Safe to say, none of the members of this treasured band so associated with love have had a great track record in the marriage department...
Believe it or not, the band had very little input in the cult classic Yellow Submarine film. Before his unfortunate OD death at the young age of 33, Brian Epstein believed the Bee Gees would be the next Beatles. Coincidentally, they claimed the roles of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band in the film version (not mentioned in the book).
On the original Sgt. Pepper album cover, Lennon wanted Hitler portrayed. Ringo did not offer any creative input.
Did George Harrison's indie film Wonderwall influence the Oasis hit?
This book is an excellent compendium to any casual fan of the band looking to dig deeper. The myths, secret messages, and greater personal meanings of their art can go as far as you want to take it.
https://youtu.be/6Bwx9-913P4?si=YCrG6...
The last song recorded collectively by all four Beatles is quite telling: "And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make."
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 27, 2009
This is an excruciatingly poorly written book that still manages to tell a great story. Tiresomely exhaustive near the beginning, it forces you to wade through much flowery language and such unnecessary flourishes as tracing John and Paul's respective ancestry back to Ireland and a discourse on the Liverpool shipping industry; given how much of it is filler, it's unconscionable that the book runs nearly 900 pages. Quotations are unforgivably mangled, with far too much fussily inserted in brackets or (sic)'d; numerous quotations are plunked into the text totally without attribution. A former music manager, Spitz gets the music business abundantly well, which may be why the best drawn character by far is Brian Epstein (with the glaring exception of Epstein's homosexuality, with which Spitz evinces maximum discomfort, handling it as if with tongs). He does not, however, get music or musicians. Attempts at critical explication of the Beatles' catalogue are ham-handed at best and are noticeably less frequently attempted as the book wears on. Having met the boys as children, we never really get a picture of their adult personalities or what drove them as artists. In contrast to the detailed early picture, more and more is glossed over as the Beatles' lives and careers become more complex. It is as if Spitz were writing the book from beginning to end all at once and got more and more tired, until finally he couldn't go on, and the book ends before the release of Let It Be. Nonetheless, even in purely superficial chronicle, the story of the Beatles is a great and powerful one, and this fan, at least, put on Abbey Road and cried while reading the epilogue.
January 13, 2008
It's not a perfect book, but I think this is a decent enough Beatles biography.
It's certainly a long one. I can't believe I just read an 800-page book. It took a little under a month to read.
The good: Spitz really captures the insanity of Beatlemania and the craziness that came with being a Beatle. With all the strange goings-on during the latter part of their career, it's amazing that they pulled it together enough to create such magic on record. Spitz touches on all the biggies - Hamburg, Sgt. Pepper, Paul is dead, Ed Sullivan, the trip to India. The detail is overwhelming, although it starts to lack in the last part of the book.
The bad: This really should have been called John Lennon, Brian Epstein and three other guys: A Biography. John seems to be the 'main character' in the story. I realize he and Paul were the two geniuses in the band, but I was under the impression that The Beatles were four men. Not one, not two, but four. I really could have used fewer depressing details about Brian Epstein (although they help you understand the tragedy of his life and death) and more details about George Harrison and Ringo Starr! Ringo, in particular, comes across in this book as simply a hired hand who was brought out for cheeky laughs and studio drumming. He was certainly much more than that!
Also, some parts of the book could have used much more detail. No discussion of the second-side medley of Abbey Road? Come on.
The ugly: Reviews on Amazon.com make it clear that this book is flawed and contains many errors. This is the first Beatles book I've read, so I know not what is fact and what is not. However, out of 860-some pages, Spitz must have got something right. Is his book any more flawed than any of the hundreds of other Beatles books? Also, when reading nonfiction, it is a good policy to take everything you read with a large grain of salt. Even first-hand accounts will be biased. The best thing to do is read more than one book to get all possible sides to the story.
The presence of errors, though, keeps me from scoring this book higher.
Did I enjoy it? Mostly. The Beatles aren't portrayed as good people. When possible, Spitz will point out a flaw over a virtue. The end of the book, of course, is a downer. But the behind-the-scenes stories and the mostly-good details of the creation of the music make this book worthwhile.
Last thing I'll say - I consider this to be a beginning to my quest for Beatles knowledge. I will not stop here, nor should I.
It's certainly a long one. I can't believe I just read an 800-page book. It took a little under a month to read.
The good: Spitz really captures the insanity of Beatlemania and the craziness that came with being a Beatle. With all the strange goings-on during the latter part of their career, it's amazing that they pulled it together enough to create such magic on record. Spitz touches on all the biggies - Hamburg, Sgt. Pepper, Paul is dead, Ed Sullivan, the trip to India. The detail is overwhelming, although it starts to lack in the last part of the book.
The bad: This really should have been called John Lennon, Brian Epstein and three other guys: A Biography. John seems to be the 'main character' in the story. I realize he and Paul were the two geniuses in the band, but I was under the impression that The Beatles were four men. Not one, not two, but four. I really could have used fewer depressing details about Brian Epstein (although they help you understand the tragedy of his life and death) and more details about George Harrison and Ringo Starr! Ringo, in particular, comes across in this book as simply a hired hand who was brought out for cheeky laughs and studio drumming. He was certainly much more than that!
Also, some parts of the book could have used much more detail. No discussion of the second-side medley of Abbey Road? Come on.
The ugly: Reviews on Amazon.com make it clear that this book is flawed and contains many errors. This is the first Beatles book I've read, so I know not what is fact and what is not. However, out of 860-some pages, Spitz must have got something right. Is his book any more flawed than any of the hundreds of other Beatles books? Also, when reading nonfiction, it is a good policy to take everything you read with a large grain of salt. Even first-hand accounts will be biased. The best thing to do is read more than one book to get all possible sides to the story.
The presence of errors, though, keeps me from scoring this book higher.
Did I enjoy it? Mostly. The Beatles aren't portrayed as good people. When possible, Spitz will point out a flaw over a virtue. The end of the book, of course, is a downer. But the behind-the-scenes stories and the mostly-good details of the creation of the music make this book worthwhile.
Last thing I'll say - I consider this to be a beginning to my quest for Beatles knowledge. I will not stop here, nor should I.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 2, 2007
Still finishing this up, but it's certainly the most comprehensive Beatles bio out there, and very well-written and readable. The best chapters are probably the school years and the Hamburg period which the author fleshes out with much more detail than I've ever encountered. He also has a talent for making it feel immediate when you are reading, with great descriptive passages that give you a sense of what the dives in Hamburg were like and just how grueling the Beatles early touring schedule was (for example). Their drug use is also chronicled in more detail (I don't think I knew that the Beatles smoked their first J with Bob Dylan). Not a book for someone just looking for the Beatles story (you get the full family tree of each Beatle), but fans who have read several Beatles books will find compelling new vignettes here, and be pleasantly surprised at the quality of the prose.
November 29, 2011
A threshold book. If your interest in The Beatles is only so-so, you'll be bored stiff by the book and I suspect you won’t make it to page one-hundred. The writing is only fair--in style not quite historical, not quite journalistic, and not quite pure tabloid-y entertainment--and the substance is frankly too thin to warrant eight-hundred plus pages of reading for all but the most maniacal of Beatle maniacs. For good or bad, I am such a one. And so I raced through it over a long weekend.
It doesn’t lack for effort. In an effort at contextualizing the story and following good historiography, Spitz provides more than enough details of early Liverpool, of each of the families of the Beatles, and their early school experiences. I remarked to my family that I was on page 340 and the Beatles had yet to make their first single, Love Me Do.
Despite the read, the Beatles as a phenomenon are still mystifying. Regardless of a near day-by-day account of every significant decision of the members of the band and their select inner circle, the meteoric rise of Beatlemania remains a mystery. Nor, finally, can the avalanche of tawdry stories of personal lapses and petty feuds satisfactorily account for their dissolution at the height of their creative powers. And despite the author’s truly heroic efforts at getting into the musical mindset of the Beatles, the book cannot adequately explain how, even in the midst of their bitter rancor and drug abuse and unwillingness to communicate with one another, the group continued to produce sublime music—music that always transcended their own respective individual prodigious talents.
The book did nothing to diminish my musical appreciation of The Beatles, but I came away admiring only Ringo more. Not only do I now better appreciate his musical contribution to the group, but I came to appreciate him as the sole likable member of the group. Ringo alone seemed to appreciate that the stars aligned with fantastic good fortune in his favor, and that the fame and money that came with that fortune were not entitlements. George’s eccentric if heartfelt spiritualism was marbled with a mixture of second-banana diffidence, smoldering resentment and, ironically, excessive hedonism. And as for Paul and John, their respective musical talents were genuinely unmatched by anyone else in the 20th century, Dylan included. Except for by one another. And that competition of egos—so instrumental early for fueling the Beatles’ rise to prominence--was in time enough to undo the group, as neither man could stand to recognize the obvious: each man was smaller than The Beatles as a group. In the end, the only thing larger than Beatlemania was their egos.
It doesn’t lack for effort. In an effort at contextualizing the story and following good historiography, Spitz provides more than enough details of early Liverpool, of each of the families of the Beatles, and their early school experiences. I remarked to my family that I was on page 340 and the Beatles had yet to make their first single, Love Me Do.
Despite the read, the Beatles as a phenomenon are still mystifying. Regardless of a near day-by-day account of every significant decision of the members of the band and their select inner circle, the meteoric rise of Beatlemania remains a mystery. Nor, finally, can the avalanche of tawdry stories of personal lapses and petty feuds satisfactorily account for their dissolution at the height of their creative powers. And despite the author’s truly heroic efforts at getting into the musical mindset of the Beatles, the book cannot adequately explain how, even in the midst of their bitter rancor and drug abuse and unwillingness to communicate with one another, the group continued to produce sublime music—music that always transcended their own respective individual prodigious talents.
The book did nothing to diminish my musical appreciation of The Beatles, but I came away admiring only Ringo more. Not only do I now better appreciate his musical contribution to the group, but I came to appreciate him as the sole likable member of the group. Ringo alone seemed to appreciate that the stars aligned with fantastic good fortune in his favor, and that the fame and money that came with that fortune were not entitlements. George’s eccentric if heartfelt spiritualism was marbled with a mixture of second-banana diffidence, smoldering resentment and, ironically, excessive hedonism. And as for Paul and John, their respective musical talents were genuinely unmatched by anyone else in the 20th century, Dylan included. Except for by one another. And that competition of egos—so instrumental early for fueling the Beatles’ rise to prominence--was in time enough to undo the group, as neither man could stand to recognize the obvious: each man was smaller than The Beatles as a group. In the end, the only thing larger than Beatlemania was their egos.
July 24, 2022
First review on Goodreads so have mercy. I am the happy recipient of a Kindle Unlimited subscription which my wife gifted me a few years ago. Amazon includes roughly 80% of the books I'm interested in as Kindle Unlimited choices meaning I don't have to purchase the book just download, read and return.
This book was not included in K.U. so being in the mood to read about The Beatles I paid my $11.99 - I like to go deep on whatever subject I've chosen and this book at around 1,000 pages seemed like a good choice.
Using the Kindle to look up and often listen to a particular Beatles album while reading about it, all on a single device is great little multimedia experience.
This book is extremely thorough on the quick rise and relatively brief life of The Band (this band, not the actual "The Band" artist) and I enjoyed how deep the author went into not only the Fab Four individually and collectively but also their personally tortured manager Brian Epstein. The author also touched on a few other players, family, boy & girlfriends And others that had an impact on The Four. (Five if you include Yoko).
In any case if one is inclined to take a break from "serious" subjects in their reading and in the mood for a little Beatles history I think this particular tome is a good choice.... Now let's move on to the "Beatles vs. Stones" controversy! (I guess that may not be "a thing" anymore.... ;).
PS: I often lament that Amazon doesn't allow for half-stars in it's ratings - I would have given this book a 3.5
This book was not included in K.U. so being in the mood to read about The Beatles I paid my $11.99 - I like to go deep on whatever subject I've chosen and this book at around 1,000 pages seemed like a good choice.
Using the Kindle to look up and often listen to a particular Beatles album while reading about it, all on a single device is great little multimedia experience.
This book is extremely thorough on the quick rise and relatively brief life of The Band (this band, not the actual "The Band" artist) and I enjoyed how deep the author went into not only the Fab Four individually and collectively but also their personally tortured manager Brian Epstein. The author also touched on a few other players, family, boy & girlfriends And others that had an impact on The Four. (Five if you include Yoko).
In any case if one is inclined to take a break from "serious" subjects in their reading and in the mood for a little Beatles history I think this particular tome is a good choice.... Now let's move on to the "Beatles vs. Stones" controversy! (I guess that may not be "a thing" anymore.... ;).
PS: I often lament that Amazon doesn't allow for half-stars in it's ratings - I would have given this book a 3.5
March 14, 2024
This book was a really great read about the Beatles. Serious fans of The Beatles should read this book, I learned so much, it was as well written as any biography about any historical figure I've read.
I decided for this review to copy a Facebook post I wrote recently about the Beatles to explain why I love the Beatles and how I became a fan.
Why do I like the Beatles?
I recently got into the music of the Beatles. I have to tell everyone, I used to dislike the Beatles with a passion. Dressing and listening to music from the 1930s,40s and 50s meant that I have usually stayed away from music after the 50s. No doubt, I’ve always disliked how society in the 1960s started abandoning fancy suits, exquisite hats and the old hairstyles, and although I agreed with the hippy movement about pacifism and peace, I didn’t care for the drug use, the different dress, or the music. One group that I used to point to was the Beatles and scorn them as being one of the musical groups that helped ruin things I liked. Slowly I began to appreciate and enjoy the music of the 60s and 70s; I started with the British mod music style and I slowly began to change my feelings. But I still couldn’t bring myself to listen to the Beatles; I thought they were just a pop group, a boy band, and that although they had one or two songs I dug, I just couldn’t get into their music.
What changed me? I decided to take a class at my college called the History of Rock N Roll. One of our assignments was to write 4 album reviews from 4 different rock n roll artists. The first artist I picked was Rock n roll pioneer Louis Jordan, but I thought for a minute: “I’ve already got my 3 picked out, this seems too easy”, I didn’t like that. I wanted a challenge, so I decided, what the heck, the Beatles Abbey Road album is on the list, I’ll give it a listen. The first song on the album, “come together” I already heard before, and it was my favorite song by them at the time, but as I got through the album, I felt myself warm up to them. The minute I heard the song “Oh, Darling”, I had a WTF moment, and I had to re listen to the song several times, and I knew right then and there, that I was a fan. I then listened to Rubber Soul, Revolver, and the White Album, and I decided to pick up a book on the Beatles and my neighbor gave me a bunch of DVDs of stuff with the Beatles on them. When our professor lectured on them, and he explained about them, and the things they did in music history,
I became more of a fan.
With the Beatles, they really did revolutionize the music industry, and the world, and I’ve grown to see it and appreciate it. Once they began to focus on the studio and less on the stage, they went from being what many would consider a pop rock band into a band that created brilliant sounds, made brilliant studio innovations and weren’t afraid to take risks. The other thing is that the Beatles were avid fans of the same music I like, Jerry Lee Lewis, Little Richard, Hank Williams, Glenn Miller, and stuff like
That. It all goes full circle. They were talented songwriters, talented multi instrumentalists, and they were innovators. Listening to their music, I feel like a man who was color blind for years being able to see color. It has been a moving experience.
You don’t have to be a hippy to appreciate the Beatles. Open your mind and just listen to the music. I didn’t like the Beatles for the longest time, I never gave them a chance, but one day I decided to listen to one album and I became a fan. I plan on doing the same with other bands, I have a long journey ahead of me, and I’m looking forward to it and I can thank the Beatles and my history of rock n roll professor for opening my mind!
I decided for this review to copy a Facebook post I wrote recently about the Beatles to explain why I love the Beatles and how I became a fan.
Why do I like the Beatles?
I recently got into the music of the Beatles. I have to tell everyone, I used to dislike the Beatles with a passion. Dressing and listening to music from the 1930s,40s and 50s meant that I have usually stayed away from music after the 50s. No doubt, I’ve always disliked how society in the 1960s started abandoning fancy suits, exquisite hats and the old hairstyles, and although I agreed with the hippy movement about pacifism and peace, I didn’t care for the drug use, the different dress, or the music. One group that I used to point to was the Beatles and scorn them as being one of the musical groups that helped ruin things I liked. Slowly I began to appreciate and enjoy the music of the 60s and 70s; I started with the British mod music style and I slowly began to change my feelings. But I still couldn’t bring myself to listen to the Beatles; I thought they were just a pop group, a boy band, and that although they had one or two songs I dug, I just couldn’t get into their music.
What changed me? I decided to take a class at my college called the History of Rock N Roll. One of our assignments was to write 4 album reviews from 4 different rock n roll artists. The first artist I picked was Rock n roll pioneer Louis Jordan, but I thought for a minute: “I’ve already got my 3 picked out, this seems too easy”, I didn’t like that. I wanted a challenge, so I decided, what the heck, the Beatles Abbey Road album is on the list, I’ll give it a listen. The first song on the album, “come together” I already heard before, and it was my favorite song by them at the time, but as I got through the album, I felt myself warm up to them. The minute I heard the song “Oh, Darling”, I had a WTF moment, and I had to re listen to the song several times, and I knew right then and there, that I was a fan. I then listened to Rubber Soul, Revolver, and the White Album, and I decided to pick up a book on the Beatles and my neighbor gave me a bunch of DVDs of stuff with the Beatles on them. When our professor lectured on them, and he explained about them, and the things they did in music history,
I became more of a fan.
With the Beatles, they really did revolutionize the music industry, and the world, and I’ve grown to see it and appreciate it. Once they began to focus on the studio and less on the stage, they went from being what many would consider a pop rock band into a band that created brilliant sounds, made brilliant studio innovations and weren’t afraid to take risks. The other thing is that the Beatles were avid fans of the same music I like, Jerry Lee Lewis, Little Richard, Hank Williams, Glenn Miller, and stuff like
That. It all goes full circle. They were talented songwriters, talented multi instrumentalists, and they were innovators. Listening to their music, I feel like a man who was color blind for years being able to see color. It has been a moving experience.
You don’t have to be a hippy to appreciate the Beatles. Open your mind and just listen to the music. I didn’t like the Beatles for the longest time, I never gave them a chance, but one day I decided to listen to one album and I became a fan. I plan on doing the same with other bands, I have a long journey ahead of me, and I’m looking forward to it and I can thank the Beatles and my history of rock n roll professor for opening my mind!
May 28, 2021
This well-written story reveals the underbelly of the beast known as the Beatles. Having grown up through this experience and heard every phase of it with my own ears, I discovered I knew nothing accurate about the Beatles. With the myth busted, those four boys will never be the same to me. It's always a sad moment when hard truth trumps the legend, but this book is so compelling, you'll want to read about every flawed personality.
February 15, 2015
I grew up after The Beatles had already disbanded, so most of what I knew about them was from the music they left behind when they were together.
I found their early music trite and sophomoric and still can't figure out why that music catapulted them to fame as the godfathers of the Liverpool sound (I was surprised at how many bands I did not realize came from Liverpool who went on to make it big here in the US during the British Invasion).
I found their later music very uneven - from really good ("A Day in the Life," "You've Got to Hide Your Love Away," "Eleanor Rigby," "She's Leaving Home," "Girl," "While My Guitar Gently Weeps," and "The Long and Winding Road," to name a few) to, if not really bad, just really weird or asinine ("A Little Help From My Friends," "Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds," "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da," and "Yellow Submarine," etc.).
This biography - it's a tome at almost 1000 pages - gave me a background to each of The Beatles and an in-depth look at how their lives and their music were so inescapably intertwined.
I never cared much for John Lennon as an artist (I always thought he got too much credit within The Beatles and his solo work just never resonated with me). I never thought much of Paul McCartney because he seemed to embody "Silly Little Love Songs" as a songwriter and as a musician. Ringo Starr I probably underestimated (although I liked all his solo work). And George Harrison was always my favorite (fantastic guitarist, deep and intelligent lyrics, and his well-known altruism).
Not much of that has changed after reading this biography in terms of which Beatle I like the best. However, I have a better understanding of the dynamics personally and lifewise that connected these four men.
Surprises? The sheer volume of different kinds of drugs combined with alcohol for a long time should have fried everyone's brains, if not outright killed them. It's mind-boggling to read. Paul McCartney was a massive jerk and a control freak unparalleled. Ringo Starr was perhaps the sanest and the most grounded. George Harrison had a nasty temper and didn't hesitate to show it.
John Lennon, which I already knew because of previous biography I'd read, was on a collision course from an early age with the delusional paranoia and insanity that he descended into the last half of his life, in part from heavy LSD, cocaine, and heroin use (enough that would have killed a normal human being), and in part because of the beyond-insane-craziness of Yoko Ono. That combination just makes me shudder thinking about it. It's still a tragic story though.
Paul McCartney was an sickeningly-sweet optimist - sort of - but he was also the glue that held The Beatles together as long as they were actually together. He was the fixer, the mediator, the prodder.
Ringo Starr lived the most normal and least affected life of any of The Beatles. Unlike the other three, his ambitions were Liverpool working-class ambitions and as soon as his life exceeded those, he was satisfied. I think of the four, he was also the happiest.
George Harrison was enigmatic and under-valued in the band. He was younger than Lennon and McCartney and they treated him, throughout the band's duration, like a nuisance kid brother, instead of valuing his contributions as a guitarist and a songwriter.
The things that became issues throughout their time together led to their breakup and affected their relationships for the rest of their lives (Lennon died in 1980 and Harrison in 2001). They wore the hurts and bitterness of offenses in their lives after The Beatles to the extent that they had little to no contact after the band broke up. When you read how close they were starting out, that is perhaps the biggest tragedy.
Definitely a good read...sad on some many levels, but informative. In the hindsight of reading, the inevitable outcome is obvious to us, but sadly everyone within the band was too close to it all to see it coming and to be able to stop it.
I found their early music trite and sophomoric and still can't figure out why that music catapulted them to fame as the godfathers of the Liverpool sound (I was surprised at how many bands I did not realize came from Liverpool who went on to make it big here in the US during the British Invasion).
I found their later music very uneven - from really good ("A Day in the Life," "You've Got to Hide Your Love Away," "Eleanor Rigby," "She's Leaving Home," "Girl," "While My Guitar Gently Weeps," and "The Long and Winding Road," to name a few) to, if not really bad, just really weird or asinine ("A Little Help From My Friends," "Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds," "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da," and "Yellow Submarine," etc.).
This biography - it's a tome at almost 1000 pages - gave me a background to each of The Beatles and an in-depth look at how their lives and their music were so inescapably intertwined.
I never cared much for John Lennon as an artist (I always thought he got too much credit within The Beatles and his solo work just never resonated with me). I never thought much of Paul McCartney because he seemed to embody "Silly Little Love Songs" as a songwriter and as a musician. Ringo Starr I probably underestimated (although I liked all his solo work). And George Harrison was always my favorite (fantastic guitarist, deep and intelligent lyrics, and his well-known altruism).
Not much of that has changed after reading this biography in terms of which Beatle I like the best. However, I have a better understanding of the dynamics personally and lifewise that connected these four men.
Surprises? The sheer volume of different kinds of drugs combined with alcohol for a long time should have fried everyone's brains, if not outright killed them. It's mind-boggling to read. Paul McCartney was a massive jerk and a control freak unparalleled. Ringo Starr was perhaps the sanest and the most grounded. George Harrison had a nasty temper and didn't hesitate to show it.
John Lennon, which I already knew because of previous biography I'd read, was on a collision course from an early age with the delusional paranoia and insanity that he descended into the last half of his life, in part from heavy LSD, cocaine, and heroin use (enough that would have killed a normal human being), and in part because of the beyond-insane-craziness of Yoko Ono. That combination just makes me shudder thinking about it. It's still a tragic story though.
Paul McCartney was an sickeningly-sweet optimist - sort of - but he was also the glue that held The Beatles together as long as they were actually together. He was the fixer, the mediator, the prodder.
Ringo Starr lived the most normal and least affected life of any of The Beatles. Unlike the other three, his ambitions were Liverpool working-class ambitions and as soon as his life exceeded those, he was satisfied. I think of the four, he was also the happiest.
George Harrison was enigmatic and under-valued in the band. He was younger than Lennon and McCartney and they treated him, throughout the band's duration, like a nuisance kid brother, instead of valuing his contributions as a guitarist and a songwriter.
The things that became issues throughout their time together led to their breakup and affected their relationships for the rest of their lives (Lennon died in 1980 and Harrison in 2001). They wore the hurts and bitterness of offenses in their lives after The Beatles to the extent that they had little to no contact after the band broke up. When you read how close they were starting out, that is perhaps the biggest tragedy.
Definitely a good read...sad on some many levels, but informative. In the hindsight of reading, the inevitable outcome is obvious to us, but sadly everyone within the band was too close to it all to see it coming and to be able to stop it.
October 9, 2009
I’m telling myself, as I pulled Bob Spitz’s The Beatles: The Biography off the bookstore shelf, that reading yet another Beatles book is superfluous. I mean, what else could possibly be new? And I’m not saying that because I consider myself a Beatles expert.
pfft…hardly.
But there is the cynicism that, unless the author had a place in that coveted inner-sanctum of the FabFour, there really couldn’t be any other tidbit that can be dished out that hasn’t been told in the past 3 or 4 books I’ve read.
And YET, as I turned the first page, the excitement began to mount. And I soon realized that no matter how may people have written about the Beatles, no matter how much and how many times their story has been rehashed and retold, it is, after all, a story of the Beatles. And, for me, their incredible journey never fails to fascinate.
If you think I’m overrating the Beatles, then sod off… *cackling an evil laugh*
Details (and inaccuracies) aside, Bob Spitz’s work is actually quite remarkable. His narrative finds engagement under his lyrical and sometimes dramatic prose. Rather than simply telling the story of how John and Paul met, how the band performed in Hamburg, or how Epstein forged an empire under the shadows of the band’s fame, Spitz ‘situates’ the stories, lending color and even feel to the events (notables are his depiction of pre-Beatles Liverpool, the hotbed that was the Reeperbahn, the ominous Marcos ‘snub,’ the “bigger than Jesus” controversy, and the Paul and Linda meeting).
Certainly, of course, these are already very familiar stories to some people. But under Spitz’s pen, the familiar becomes quite unfamiliar—whereas, in the past books I’ve read, a Beatles anecdote was told in a matter-of-fact way, Spitz creates a new spin on things by making me feel like I’m in the same room, studio, or car where events are unfolding. In ‘setting the stage’ by giving a seemingly palpable atmosphere of texture, sound, and light, he enchants a fan by making a faraway encounter come off as deeply personal.
And surprisingly, there were new things I’ve learned about the band (Beatlemaniacs hold off your snort of disdain): their first recording ‘session’ as the Quarrymen, the many kept-under-wraps Lennon rants and rages; Lennon’s close-door reaction to the ‘bigger than Jesus’ debacle, the darker side of Epstein (and sorry, I have not yet read any Epstein biography, so…), and even how a Beatle felt about the many people who tried to get through the airtight Beatles bubble. Some were shocking, while others still were saddening (particularly when it all came apart).
My verdict (such as it is)? Read it.
Sure, there are LOTS of inaccuracies. Really die-hard fans will surely call out for Spitz’s blood. Credibility probably took a backstage in favor of making *his* FabFour story more thrilling than some. So, an advice would be to just read more Beatles biographies. It’s not a difficult suggestion to follow, surely.
Regardless of how many times something about a public persona has been told (particularly if there were 4 of them), either truthfully or otherwise, it just becomes a matter of comprehending how different people ‘see’ the Beatles and accepting the fact that no one can ever really come close to knowing who these four ‘lads from Liverpool’ really were.
The only comfort is the music they’ve left behind. And you know how that is…
As far as consolations go, that isn’t so bad.
pfft…hardly.
But there is the cynicism that, unless the author had a place in that coveted inner-sanctum of the FabFour, there really couldn’t be any other tidbit that can be dished out that hasn’t been told in the past 3 or 4 books I’ve read.
And YET, as I turned the first page, the excitement began to mount. And I soon realized that no matter how may people have written about the Beatles, no matter how much and how many times their story has been rehashed and retold, it is, after all, a story of the Beatles. And, for me, their incredible journey never fails to fascinate.
If you think I’m overrating the Beatles, then sod off… *cackling an evil laugh*
Details (and inaccuracies) aside, Bob Spitz’s work is actually quite remarkable. His narrative finds engagement under his lyrical and sometimes dramatic prose. Rather than simply telling the story of how John and Paul met, how the band performed in Hamburg, or how Epstein forged an empire under the shadows of the band’s fame, Spitz ‘situates’ the stories, lending color and even feel to the events (notables are his depiction of pre-Beatles Liverpool, the hotbed that was the Reeperbahn, the ominous Marcos ‘snub,’ the “bigger than Jesus” controversy, and the Paul and Linda meeting).
Certainly, of course, these are already very familiar stories to some people. But under Spitz’s pen, the familiar becomes quite unfamiliar—whereas, in the past books I’ve read, a Beatles anecdote was told in a matter-of-fact way, Spitz creates a new spin on things by making me feel like I’m in the same room, studio, or car where events are unfolding. In ‘setting the stage’ by giving a seemingly palpable atmosphere of texture, sound, and light, he enchants a fan by making a faraway encounter come off as deeply personal.
And surprisingly, there were new things I’ve learned about the band (Beatlemaniacs hold off your snort of disdain): their first recording ‘session’ as the Quarrymen, the many kept-under-wraps Lennon rants and rages; Lennon’s close-door reaction to the ‘bigger than Jesus’ debacle, the darker side of Epstein (and sorry, I have not yet read any Epstein biography, so…), and even how a Beatle felt about the many people who tried to get through the airtight Beatles bubble. Some were shocking, while others still were saddening (particularly when it all came apart).
My verdict (such as it is)? Read it.
Sure, there are LOTS of inaccuracies. Really die-hard fans will surely call out for Spitz’s blood. Credibility probably took a backstage in favor of making *his* FabFour story more thrilling than some. So, an advice would be to just read more Beatles biographies. It’s not a difficult suggestion to follow, surely.
Regardless of how many times something about a public persona has been told (particularly if there were 4 of them), either truthfully or otherwise, it just becomes a matter of comprehending how different people ‘see’ the Beatles and accepting the fact that no one can ever really come close to knowing who these four ‘lads from Liverpool’ really were.
The only comfort is the music they’ve left behind. And you know how that is…
As far as consolations go, that isn’t so bad.
December 8, 2011
It's all Yoko's fault the Beatles broke up and Bob Spitz does take the time to explain why. Actually, she just brought out the discontent that was already there. My cousin once told me success was the kiss of death to a rock band. The money comes in, you began to believe your own press, etc. What made the Beatles great is that they never rested on their laurels, but that also brought about their demise. They reached a pinnacle no other band will ever reach. They stopped touring, they stopped releasing singles, and yet their popularity never died. They were above the ratings and the charts. Yet, they weren't above themselves. This book makes for compelling reading. Yoko does come off the worst, but why not? She did latch on to the John Lennon train and never truly got off. What would she have been without him? She changed him, this is true. But not always for the better. Their relationship however is compelling for all of its disfunction. John was a portrait of contradictions. I won't listen to my Beatles and John Lennon records in the same way again.
May 17, 2015
This was a Xmas gift that sat on my shelf for a few years before I gave it a chance, and what do you know, it's really good. Spitz did an absolutely hellacious amount of research, but the book has to survive as a narrative, and does. Although a little slight on the music, it evokes the day-in/day-out experience vividly, as well as the dynamics behind this greatest of show-biz myths.
I have to point out that Spitz, rather incredibly, uses the adjective "horseshoe-shaped" three times in just two pages. It comes during the 1965 American tour and is used to describe:
1. Shea Stadium
2. The rental house in Bel-Air where John and George dropped acid with the Byrds and Peter Fonda
3. Elvis Presley's couch
It gets a little compulsive after awhile; you could practically make a drinking game out of it. The way Spitz tells it, America must have seemed like a giant horseshoe to the Beatles. And I guess it kind of was.
I have to point out that Spitz, rather incredibly, uses the adjective "horseshoe-shaped" three times in just two pages. It comes during the 1965 American tour and is used to describe:
1. Shea Stadium
2. The rental house in Bel-Air where John and George dropped acid with the Byrds and Peter Fonda
3. Elvis Presley's couch
It gets a little compulsive after awhile; you could practically make a drinking game out of it. The way Spitz tells it, America must have seemed like a giant horseshoe to the Beatles. And I guess it kind of was.
February 15, 2021
At 863 pages, this is the heftiest book I've read--meaning it was good enough to hold the attention of a fan who closely followed The Beatles through the `60s but does not live and swear by them. Normally, I feel that life is too short to read such large books.
One thing worth mentioning is the author's correction mania: as if the he had some kind of allowance of '[sic]s' that he had to disburse before the end of the book, regardless of need, alongside a pesky eagerness to crowd every citation with square brackets. On p. 372, he relates that Beatles' engineer Norman Smith was busily trying to capture... "...the sound of the Beatles singing and playing as [if] they'd [be] perfom[ing] on stage."--which reads as well without his intrusive parentheses, and perhaps better.
We also read about how "...hundreds, perhaps even 'thousands[,] of screaming fans' thronged the terraced roof..." etc. (p. 430) Come on, guy: no desperate need for that comma! And no, they _were_ called 'Beatle boots,' singular. And yet Spitz's diction fails him, such as when describing how, after their first LSD trip, "...the two Beatles were too shook up by the experience to..." (p. 567) No; that would be 'shaken up', Mr. Spitz, the Elvis anthem to some beauty notwithstanding. There's more, much more, but you get the drift.
Spitz is openly partial to Paul, but to his credit can also be critical, citing others' grumbles about his massive ego. This is refreshing, since McCartney's clearly a charmer of a high order. Even those who bore with his obsessing over less-than-worthy music--see comments about Geoff Emerick, below--invariably speak well of him.
Downplaying Lennon, on the other hand, comes more easily to Spitz. True, his personality was acerbic and he had the sarcastic wit of one who, for all the mass adoration, was unable to find his footing or to overcome his father's indifference or the awful loss of his mother. Let's be frank: beyond just nasty, Lennon could be vile. Any proof, you ask? "How Do You Sleep?"--powerful music ruined by vindictiveness that would embarrass any ordinary adult.
Still, realizing Lennon may not have been cuddly shouldn't affect recognizing his towering talent, as happens to Spitz at least occasionally. Such as in this review of the strengths of the 3 young Beatles, who still lacked a drummer to set off their critical mass: "Paul picked up instruments the way some people pick up new languages; he had the ear for it, with all the proper accents in place. And George, especially, seemed consumed with fundamentals and technique. Both handled guitars with stunning self-assuredness and possessed the power to make their instruments hum like Maseratis. John had everything else: the right sensibility and taste. And it all fit together in a stylized groove." That's it: "the right sensibility and taste"! As a survey of skills, even a quick analysis, this lacks balance and is plain foolish.
Spitz shows no restraint telling about the destructive effects on the group, through John, of heroin and Yoko ...not necessarily in that order. The fact-checkers must have done all-nighters on this material, as the invective aimed at her, if open to dispute, would have prompted several lawsuits. As we would term it today, Ono originally _stalked_ John, to Lennon's deep annoyance, before establishing her parasitic connection: feeding his insecurities, stoking suspicion and contempt especially for Paul, and alienating his mates in the studio and at business tables.
And yet Spitz paints detailed, well-rounded, mostly fair portraits of those involved, including during the final acrimonious years. The book's main weakness is really in the treatment of the music. One curious observation, for instance, is that 'Back in the USSR' is a tribute to Chuck Berry. The song's title may resemble one by Berry, but its fun, over-the-top celebration of girls, surveyed state by state, the joyous harmonic interweaving, even their opening mention of a US beach, positively scream out a loving tribute to Brian Wilson and The Beach Boys. Generally, however, most musical observations involve not much more than breathless superlatives, usually about McCartney, or lead into an anecdote--such as that Ringo is absent on the mentioned song, since Paul played the drums, as did John and George!
You don't get a sense, in short, that Spitz's hold on the music, qua music, is of much value.
Unlike some reviewers, I don't think Spitz undersells George's role--even though I'm of the view that, until 'Abbey Road,' his part beside those two musical giants could only pale. For welcome counterevidence to my perspective (stemming from dreck like `Piggies'), read David Simons' 'The Unsung Beatle', anthologized in June Skinner Sawyer's Read the Beatles: Classic and New Writings on the Beatles, Their Legacy, and Why They Still Matter. Here we have a convincing argument that Harrison added a musical cohesiveness--the absence of which, alongside some texturing, weakened much of the later, solo output of both Lennon and McCartney. At worst, Simons' case builds a compelling list of just what he contributed to various Beatles numbers.
Spitz has a few good words about Ringo as a peacemaker, and adds a longish bio sketch. Again, for musical acumen I suggest you look elsewhere--such as to Phil Collins in the DVD Rare and Unseen, the Beatles: The Unofficial Account of the Biggest Band in the World, where, still awed, he demonstrates what he considers to be Starr's very inspired drum fills on 'Strawberry Fields Forever.' _That_ is enlightening about his musical talent.
Music lovers crave such insights: except for a few crumbs of trivia and gossip, why else do we read about musicians? For a truly illuminating exploration, spend time with the memoirs of (their second) recording engineer Geoff Emerick, Here, There and Everywhere: My Life Recording the Music of the Beatles. I'm also curious about a bit of non-musical gossip: such as the agony of McCartney's tortuous re-takes and endless touch-ups of 'Ob-la-di, Ob-la-da'--which, not incidentally, was voted in a 2004 online poll the worst song ever composed.
The Beatles' last few, non-touring years were less anecdote-worthy, and this part of the book comes close to perfunctory, with album-by-album assurances about the group's continued dominance of the scene, etc. That's accurate enough, but it's understandably nowhere as compelling as their career on take-off. The flipside of this is some solid coverage of The Beatles' exciting early days, told with verve and in good detail.
In sum, this is worth reading as a biography of The Beatles, especially their exhilarating rise. For less on that but more about the music, I'd recommend especially Emerick's book and the mentioned DVDs.
One thing worth mentioning is the author's correction mania: as if the he had some kind of allowance of '[sic]s' that he had to disburse before the end of the book, regardless of need, alongside a pesky eagerness to crowd every citation with square brackets. On p. 372, he relates that Beatles' engineer Norman Smith was busily trying to capture... "...the sound of the Beatles singing and playing as [if] they'd [be] perfom[ing] on stage."--which reads as well without his intrusive parentheses, and perhaps better.
We also read about how "...hundreds, perhaps even 'thousands[,] of screaming fans' thronged the terraced roof..." etc. (p. 430) Come on, guy: no desperate need for that comma! And no, they _were_ called 'Beatle boots,' singular. And yet Spitz's diction fails him, such as when describing how, after their first LSD trip, "...the two Beatles were too shook up by the experience to..." (p. 567) No; that would be 'shaken up', Mr. Spitz, the Elvis anthem to some beauty notwithstanding. There's more, much more, but you get the drift.
Spitz is openly partial to Paul, but to his credit can also be critical, citing others' grumbles about his massive ego. This is refreshing, since McCartney's clearly a charmer of a high order. Even those who bore with his obsessing over less-than-worthy music--see comments about Geoff Emerick, below--invariably speak well of him.
Downplaying Lennon, on the other hand, comes more easily to Spitz. True, his personality was acerbic and he had the sarcastic wit of one who, for all the mass adoration, was unable to find his footing or to overcome his father's indifference or the awful loss of his mother. Let's be frank: beyond just nasty, Lennon could be vile. Any proof, you ask? "How Do You Sleep?"--powerful music ruined by vindictiveness that would embarrass any ordinary adult.
Still, realizing Lennon may not have been cuddly shouldn't affect recognizing his towering talent, as happens to Spitz at least occasionally. Such as in this review of the strengths of the 3 young Beatles, who still lacked a drummer to set off their critical mass: "Paul picked up instruments the way some people pick up new languages; he had the ear for it, with all the proper accents in place. And George, especially, seemed consumed with fundamentals and technique. Both handled guitars with stunning self-assuredness and possessed the power to make their instruments hum like Maseratis. John had everything else: the right sensibility and taste. And it all fit together in a stylized groove." That's it: "the right sensibility and taste"! As a survey of skills, even a quick analysis, this lacks balance and is plain foolish.
Spitz shows no restraint telling about the destructive effects on the group, through John, of heroin and Yoko ...not necessarily in that order. The fact-checkers must have done all-nighters on this material, as the invective aimed at her, if open to dispute, would have prompted several lawsuits. As we would term it today, Ono originally _stalked_ John, to Lennon's deep annoyance, before establishing her parasitic connection: feeding his insecurities, stoking suspicion and contempt especially for Paul, and alienating his mates in the studio and at business tables.
And yet Spitz paints detailed, well-rounded, mostly fair portraits of those involved, including during the final acrimonious years. The book's main weakness is really in the treatment of the music. One curious observation, for instance, is that 'Back in the USSR' is a tribute to Chuck Berry. The song's title may resemble one by Berry, but its fun, over-the-top celebration of girls, surveyed state by state, the joyous harmonic interweaving, even their opening mention of a US beach, positively scream out a loving tribute to Brian Wilson and The Beach Boys. Generally, however, most musical observations involve not much more than breathless superlatives, usually about McCartney, or lead into an anecdote--such as that Ringo is absent on the mentioned song, since Paul played the drums, as did John and George!
You don't get a sense, in short, that Spitz's hold on the music, qua music, is of much value.
Unlike some reviewers, I don't think Spitz undersells George's role--even though I'm of the view that, until 'Abbey Road,' his part beside those two musical giants could only pale. For welcome counterevidence to my perspective (stemming from dreck like `Piggies'), read David Simons' 'The Unsung Beatle', anthologized in June Skinner Sawyer's Read the Beatles: Classic and New Writings on the Beatles, Their Legacy, and Why They Still Matter. Here we have a convincing argument that Harrison added a musical cohesiveness--the absence of which, alongside some texturing, weakened much of the later, solo output of both Lennon and McCartney. At worst, Simons' case builds a compelling list of just what he contributed to various Beatles numbers.
Spitz has a few good words about Ringo as a peacemaker, and adds a longish bio sketch. Again, for musical acumen I suggest you look elsewhere--such as to Phil Collins in the DVD Rare and Unseen, the Beatles: The Unofficial Account of the Biggest Band in the World, where, still awed, he demonstrates what he considers to be Starr's very inspired drum fills on 'Strawberry Fields Forever.' _That_ is enlightening about his musical talent.
Music lovers crave such insights: except for a few crumbs of trivia and gossip, why else do we read about musicians? For a truly illuminating exploration, spend time with the memoirs of (their second) recording engineer Geoff Emerick, Here, There and Everywhere: My Life Recording the Music of the Beatles. I'm also curious about a bit of non-musical gossip: such as the agony of McCartney's tortuous re-takes and endless touch-ups of 'Ob-la-di, Ob-la-da'--which, not incidentally, was voted in a 2004 online poll the worst song ever composed.
The Beatles' last few, non-touring years were less anecdote-worthy, and this part of the book comes close to perfunctory, with album-by-album assurances about the group's continued dominance of the scene, etc. That's accurate enough, but it's understandably nowhere as compelling as their career on take-off. The flipside of this is some solid coverage of The Beatles' exciting early days, told with verve and in good detail.
In sum, this is worth reading as a biography of The Beatles, especially their exhilarating rise. For less on that but more about the music, I'd recommend especially Emerick's book and the mentioned DVDs.
Read
December 27, 2023after 296 days, let it be known that on december 26th, 2023 i finally finished the godforsaken beatles biography
June 1, 2020
Never really been into the Beatles, other than enjoying a couple cover bands - one in Las Vegas, and one in the Layton Amphitheater. While I listened to this book, I paused it every time it mentioned a new song and listened to it on Spotify. So reading this was a deep dive into the Beatles' history and music catalog.
Takeaways: very catchy tunes, and the songwriting got better and better. I had no idea how into drugs they were, or how abrasive John Lennon could be to broader society. They were incredibly talented, and they put out songs at an impressive rate. Happy to have filled in a historical gap in my pop culture knowledge bank; 4 stars.
Takeaways: very catchy tunes, and the songwriting got better and better. I had no idea how into drugs they were, or how abrasive John Lennon could be to broader society. They were incredibly talented, and they put out songs at an impressive rate. Happy to have filled in a historical gap in my pop culture knowledge bank; 4 stars.
October 2, 2010
This Beatles biography (now considered the "definitive" one) is very well-written and full of a lot of colorful, interesting detail. As a long-time Beatles fan, I thought I was already pretty familiar with the Beatles' trajectory, but I learned many things I hadn't known about the boys before. And a lot of it I kind of wish I had remained ignorant about.
While this book gave me a new appreciation for the Beatles as musicians, I felt really disappointed and even a little disgusted at who they were as people. I learned awesome facts about their innovative musical techniques -- for example, they were the first pop/rock group to use a synthesizer, the first band to print the lyrics to their songs on the album sleeve, and the first band to ever make a music video for their songs. They also did all kinds of things in the studio that no one had ever tried before. In terms of their professional skill, I couldn't have been more impressed.
But, alas, the Beatles -- especially John and Paul -- were not very nice people. Most of them (Ringo being the pretty consistent exception) were extremely greedy, self-centered, egotistical, impractical and naive with money, materialistic, ambitious, misogynistic, and unkind. They all treated their wives and "friends" very crappily. And John didn't just experiment with drugs, like the other three did, but became a full-on violent alcoholic and heroin addict, to the point that he could barely function and write music anymore. And while I had gone into the book with a pre-conceived dislike of Yoko Ono, I had no idea just how self-indulgent, bossy, manipulative, and superficial she was until reading in detail about how she derailed John's musical and personal life.
So my recommendation of this book is ambivalent. On the one hand, it has everything you could want to know about the Beatles in it, which is wonderful in many ways. And the author couldn't have done a better job of presenting his material. But on the other hand, you'll never be able to think of the band with quite the same level of respect again. And at 850 pages, it's kind of a beast to get through, so you'd have to be really committed to finish it. So thumbs half-up/half-down?
While this book gave me a new appreciation for the Beatles as musicians, I felt really disappointed and even a little disgusted at who they were as people. I learned awesome facts about their innovative musical techniques -- for example, they were the first pop/rock group to use a synthesizer, the first band to print the lyrics to their songs on the album sleeve, and the first band to ever make a music video for their songs. They also did all kinds of things in the studio that no one had ever tried before. In terms of their professional skill, I couldn't have been more impressed.
But, alas, the Beatles -- especially John and Paul -- were not very nice people. Most of them (Ringo being the pretty consistent exception) were extremely greedy, self-centered, egotistical, impractical and naive with money, materialistic, ambitious, misogynistic, and unkind. They all treated their wives and "friends" very crappily. And John didn't just experiment with drugs, like the other three did, but became a full-on violent alcoholic and heroin addict, to the point that he could barely function and write music anymore. And while I had gone into the book with a pre-conceived dislike of Yoko Ono, I had no idea just how self-indulgent, bossy, manipulative, and superficial she was until reading in detail about how she derailed John's musical and personal life.
So my recommendation of this book is ambivalent. On the one hand, it has everything you could want to know about the Beatles in it, which is wonderful in many ways. And the author couldn't have done a better job of presenting his material. But on the other hand, you'll never be able to think of the band with quite the same level of respect again. And at 850 pages, it's kind of a beast to get through, so you'd have to be really committed to finish it. So thumbs half-up/half-down?
March 31, 2024
I should give this 4 1/2 stars- I really didnt like how a lot of the time Spitz would end a section or a chapter with 'But they didnt know what was about to come' or some such nonsense, and its not that the book is inaccurate, far as I can tell, except for little things he leaves out (ie the Beatles did NOT exclude all of Georges stuff from Sgt Peppers, Within you without you is very George, also, Magical Mystery Tour was a full Lp album, not a six song EP as he states ).
These reservations aside, this is worthy of the group it's about. It's an epic work, not unlike a Stephen King book that might have a similar length and with as many a myriad of characters. Indeed Spitzs real intelligence is giving us a LOT of backstory on these guys and the Liverpool they grew up and became Quarry Men then Silver Beetles and then Beatles (with an A), all the tragedies, all the music, all the joy, all the women and art and various people who either didnt quite make it (Stuart Sutcliffe, Pete Best), so that by the time Beatlemania hits and they are the Biggest Band in the World, we know who they are and what they are capable of.
You of course get a full psych profile- and understand what horrors could come from, say, Brian Epstein (who had some redeeming qualities when focused on managerial stuff) or Yoko Ono (who was artistic but no didnt break up the Beatles)- but how the music came about, the sourcs and accidents, how song recording time grew the bigger they got, is a rich gold mine the author gets at. And by the time I get to 68/69 and The End of all beatles, it's as compulsive as anything I've ever read, money troubles, and accounting blunders (of which there were many) included. a must reed for a Beatles fan wanting to see what it was like, warts and all. Suffice to say, you'll certainly get a better glimpse at the tragic-comic mess that was John Lennon, who was really along with Bob Dylan, the first punk rocker.
These reservations aside, this is worthy of the group it's about. It's an epic work, not unlike a Stephen King book that might have a similar length and with as many a myriad of characters. Indeed Spitzs real intelligence is giving us a LOT of backstory on these guys and the Liverpool they grew up and became Quarry Men then Silver Beetles and then Beatles (with an A), all the tragedies, all the music, all the joy, all the women and art and various people who either didnt quite make it (Stuart Sutcliffe, Pete Best), so that by the time Beatlemania hits and they are the Biggest Band in the World, we know who they are and what they are capable of.
You of course get a full psych profile- and understand what horrors could come from, say, Brian Epstein (who had some redeeming qualities when focused on managerial stuff) or Yoko Ono (who was artistic but no didnt break up the Beatles)- but how the music came about, the sourcs and accidents, how song recording time grew the bigger they got, is a rich gold mine the author gets at. And by the time I get to 68/69 and The End of all beatles, it's as compulsive as anything I've ever read, money troubles, and accounting blunders (of which there were many) included. a must reed for a Beatles fan wanting to see what it was like, warts and all. Suffice to say, you'll certainly get a better glimpse at the tragic-comic mess that was John Lennon, who was really along with Bob Dylan, the first punk rocker.
December 31, 2014
An exhaustive look at The Beatles by a writer who obviously loves music and (some of) the folks who make it. There's great background about Liverpool and the circumstances from which the band members came. But Spitz is best when writing about the music:
"Please Please Me may have been unpolished, but not unexceptional. Only a sigh longer than two minutes, it rocked the lofty studio like a small explosion, its beat unleashed to startling intensity: a bass throbbing faster than an accelerated heartbeat, a cascading harmonica riff as joyful as birdsong, a lead vocal that drives like a sports car with a hole in its muffler, harmonies that soar and clutch each other for dear life, a convulsion of 'c'mons' that churns up tension and desire. Throughout, the song sends spikes of exclamation and falsetto raging through the lyric. Not since Little Richard had vocals raged so viscerally in a pop song."
Listening to the songs while reading about them enhances the experience. (There are a lot of video clips, too.)
The view from backstage is interesting and limited at the same time. I found the songwriting collaboration the most interesting part of the Beatles' phenomenon. And Paul, who comes off as churlish at best, gets the last word, though Bob Spitz includes a lot of archival material from John (and George). Lennon and McCartney both take more credit than they likely deserve. Like most idols, these fellows are not attractive up close. The same could be said for Yoko Ono. Ringo is the exception.
If you lived through Beatlemania or love the music, this book is for you. But, get an electronic edition. The hardcover book weighs more than three pounds. At 856 pages of text, it's a commitment -- and a workout.
"Please Please Me may have been unpolished, but not unexceptional. Only a sigh longer than two minutes, it rocked the lofty studio like a small explosion, its beat unleashed to startling intensity: a bass throbbing faster than an accelerated heartbeat, a cascading harmonica riff as joyful as birdsong, a lead vocal that drives like a sports car with a hole in its muffler, harmonies that soar and clutch each other for dear life, a convulsion of 'c'mons' that churns up tension and desire. Throughout, the song sends spikes of exclamation and falsetto raging through the lyric. Not since Little Richard had vocals raged so viscerally in a pop song."
Listening to the songs while reading about them enhances the experience. (There are a lot of video clips, too.)
The view from backstage is interesting and limited at the same time. I found the songwriting collaboration the most interesting part of the Beatles' phenomenon. And Paul, who comes off as churlish at best, gets the last word, though Bob Spitz includes a lot of archival material from John (and George). Lennon and McCartney both take more credit than they likely deserve. Like most idols, these fellows are not attractive up close. The same could be said for Yoko Ono. Ringo is the exception.
If you lived through Beatlemania or love the music, this book is for you. But, get an electronic edition. The hardcover book weighs more than three pounds. At 856 pages of text, it's a commitment -- and a workout.
October 29, 2014
One of the better rock biographies I've read as of late, this one really gets down into the history of the Fab Four and all the dirt and eccentricities that came out of the Beatles, Beatlemania, and the eventual personality clashes as they grew older.
Personally, I've never quite understood the popularity; until Rubber Soul and Revolver, their music was pretty staid and lackluster - some good riffs and licks, a good backbeat, but nothing out of the ordinary. I know it was their Beatlemaniac arrival that "changed" pop music all over the world, but until they started experimenting in the studio, I didn't really hear anything that special. But when they started raising the bar, they opened the floodgates for everything and everyone out there, as they legitimized rock music as art.
Bob Spitz's book covers all aspects of their careers, from their individual life histories in Liverpool, the myriad early groups and gigs they performed there and in Germany, to Pete Best, Stu Sutcliffe, Brian Epstein, George Martin, and all the major figures in their lives, and to the strangeness: The drug use, Yoko Ono, and the blatant fear for their own lives they had when performing on some tours.
This is definitely a good read for any Beatle fan, and I think it provides a good look as to how the pop music industry used to work (originally and post-Beatles), which shows a marked contrast to the pap of today.
Personally, I've never quite understood the popularity; until Rubber Soul and Revolver, their music was pretty staid and lackluster - some good riffs and licks, a good backbeat, but nothing out of the ordinary. I know it was their Beatlemaniac arrival that "changed" pop music all over the world, but until they started experimenting in the studio, I didn't really hear anything that special. But when they started raising the bar, they opened the floodgates for everything and everyone out there, as they legitimized rock music as art.
Bob Spitz's book covers all aspects of their careers, from their individual life histories in Liverpool, the myriad early groups and gigs they performed there and in Germany, to Pete Best, Stu Sutcliffe, Brian Epstein, George Martin, and all the major figures in their lives, and to the strangeness: The drug use, Yoko Ono, and the blatant fear for their own lives they had when performing on some tours.
This is definitely a good read for any Beatle fan, and I think it provides a good look as to how the pop music industry used to work (originally and post-Beatles), which shows a marked contrast to the pap of today.
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