Back in the late Seventies, it had still made sense for Rolling Stone to commission a lavish oversize coffee-table history of the Beatles—cover art by Andy Warhol, introduction by Leonard Bernstein—and put Paul’s smiling face on the front cover, with John relegated to the back. The book was published in November 1980, the last possible moment when it would have been thinkable. It was the worst-timed Christmas product since Jesus was still alive.
