Tip jar

If you like CaB and wish to support it, you can use PayPal or KoFi. Thank you, and I hope you continue to enjoy the site - Neil.

Buy Me a Coffee at ko-fi.com

Support CaB

Recent

Welcome to Cook'd and Bomb'd. Please login or sign up.

March 29, 2024, 11:09:06 AM

Login with username, password and session length

Post Beatles Beatles relationships

Started by biggytitbo, November 24, 2018, 10:20:20 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

Ballad of Ballard Berkley

Quote from: the science eel on January 03, 2019, 10:02:59 AM
I wish he'd fucking get on with the second volume and stop parading all these other ideas on SOC MED. Workshy Yank clown

He's a workshy British clown.

Replies From View


I'd like him to write volume 2 rather than keep compiling yet more material. He could always revise it later if any significant sources came his way. Publishing it might be the best way to jog some people's memories about events or materials.

Replies From View

I always like to think that the music video for 'Little Willow' would have been built around footage of Warwick Davis if McCartney could have got the clearance to use it.

SteveDave

Quote from: Satchmo Distel on January 03, 2019, 11:02:45 PM
I'd like him to write volume 2 rather than keep compiling yet more material. He could always revise it later if any significant sources came his way. Publishing it might be the best way to jog some people's memories about events or materials.

You do get the feeling that he's going to cark it before finishing it. Or lose his mind and then write that the Beatles were broken up by Benny Hill.

non capisco

I hope he doesn't, I'm just coming to the end of 'The Beatles Tune In' (they've just sacked Pete Best) and I'm absolutely ravenous for more. What an addictively readable rock tome that doorstop has been over the past two weeks. I've revised my 'three fantasy goes on a time machine' list to put 'Beatles in Hamburg' now just above 'dinosaurs'.

Maurice Yeatman

The publishing industry will go before Lewisohn does.

I regret not buying the extended version of Vol 1 when it first came out.

This is a good podcast (Fabcast) with Lewisohn recorded in November but it's on 1976 and another example of him doing stuff that's not writing the fucking book:

https://soundcloud.com/fabcast-870039074

Nowhere Man

He's 60, so depending on when book 3 comes out he could already be in his mid to late 70s! Hope he's got good genes in his family..

pigamus

Quote from: non capisco on January 05, 2019, 12:42:33 AM
I hope he doesn't, I'm just coming to the end of 'The Beatles Tune In' (they've just sacked Pete Best) and I'm absolutely ravenous for more. What an addictively readable rock tome that doorstop has been over the past two weeks. I've revised my 'three fantasy goes on a time machine' list to put 'Beatles in Hamburg' now just above 'dinosaurs'.


Seriously, thanks for recommending this. £3.99 for the Kindle edition! Fantastic! By which of course I mean, "Poor bastard - Amazon are clearly ripping him off". So I shouldn't give them money, should I? But I'm going to, aren't I? Grrr, I hate myself/the modern world.

Nowhere Man

Quote from: pigamus on January 05, 2019, 03:34:04 AM
Seriously, thanks for recommending this. £3.99 for the Kindle edition! Fantastic! By which of course I mean, "Poor bastard - Amazon are clearly ripping him off". So I shouldn't give them money, should I? But I'm going to, aren't I? Grrr, I hate myself/the modern world.

He's probably not doing too badly, I read somewhere that he was given a million pound advance to write his books..

biggytitbo

Why does it take him so long to write them, does he keep misplacing his pen?

Replies From View

Quote from: biggytitbo on January 05, 2019, 01:10:43 PM
Why does it take him so long to write them, does he keep misplacing his pen?

He keeps wasting time on the phone to Shearman and Hadoke.

the science eel

He's arguably doing more research than he really needs to, especially if you consider the length and the amount of detail in the jumbo edition of the first volume.

I mean, of course there's a market for it with a band like The Beatles, but if it takes him the best part of a decade to put the thing together I'm not sure it's worth it. The enthusiasm built up by the release and the subsequent chat about the first book has died down already and I'm not sure expectations will be raised when the new one's out - it's not like a Sinatra comeback. I find it all a little odd.


I'm surprised the publisher doesn't demand a bit more haste.

I think you're underestimating how much Beatle wonks would spunk their load over a meticulous retelling of their prime fame years - 63-66 - which I suspect this will be if the first volume is anything to go by. It clearly takes him forever to compile his research together but it's absolutely worth waiting for. I imagine the trilogy will become Beatles gospel so we might as well be patient about it.

Maurice Yeatman

The long timescale would surely have been explicit in the contract. The publisher's not going to hassle him when this is meant to be the definitive biography to end them all, and a probable goldmine.

the science eel


non capisco

Obvious things you've only just realised Beatles edition: 'Baby's In Black' is probably about Stuart Sutcliffe carking it.

Soup Dogg

So as someone in their mid-twenties who's a fairly big Beatles fan, and who got their first ever book about the Beatles for chrimbo (Doggett's You Never Give Me your Money) which got me totally hooked (and despite my age (Sgt. Peppers was the first album I ever bought and really loved at c. 14 yrs of age)) What would folks say should be my next step into Beatles-ology (ie Lewisohn, Revolution in the Head or A. N. Other.)?

Charcoal-ish

#320
Revolution In The Head is by far the best book about The Beatles' actual music. MacDonald is very opinionated, and the book's all the better for it, but his speculation on meaning, motive and inspiration is sometimes a bit loose. As pure music writing though, it's top class. The other great book about the actual music is Lewisohn's Complete Recording Sessions, but as the name suggests it's only concerned with what went on in Abbey Road, so maybe mostly of interest to musicians and people intrigued by the practicalities of recording.

Lewisohn's Tune In is a genuinely incredible piece of research, but it's a 900-page biography which ends in December 1962, so probably not ideal as a second Beatles book. Read it sooner rather than later, though.

There are lots of other great Beatles books, but they tend to be quite specialised. The Longest Cocktail Party is a lovely evocation of the madness of working for Apple, Derek Taylor's various books are highly entertaining and idiosyncratic 60s memoirs, and Beatles Gear by Andy Babiuk is a fully-illustrated large-format feast of vintage guitar porn.

But the problem with the full-story Beatles biogs is that they tend to be full of inaccuracies. For years, Shout! by Philip Norman was considered the definitive biography, but in fact about 50% of it is bollocks (it's still a nice piece of writing though, despite the notorious pro-Lennon, anti-the-others bias, and his seeming lack of interest in the music itself). Hunter Davies's official biography from 1968 is brilliant, especially the fly-on-the-wall chapters, but it's also a total whitewash. Bob Spitz' biography is riddled with stupid factual errors. Peter Brown's The Love You Make is a nice bit of muckraking but that's about it.

Thinking about it, I might even advise you to go for Anthology, the big hardback that went with the TV series. It's all in The Beatles' own words, and therefore inevitably self-serving with many glaring omissions, but it tells the story, it's a fascinating read, and it's full of great pictures too.

Maurice Yeatman

A contemporary account of the first wave of Beatlemania, Michael Braun's 'Love Me Do' (1964) is absolutely essential.

the science eel

Quote from: Soup Dogg on January 07, 2019, 01:28:17 AM
So as someone in their mid-twenties who's a fairly big Beatles fan, and who got their first ever book about the Beatles for chrimbo (Doggett's You Never Give Me your Money) which got me totally hooked (and despite my age (Sgt. Peppers was the first album I ever bought and really loved at c. 14 yrs of age)) What would folks say should be my next step into Beatles-ology (ie Lewisohn, Revolution in the Head or A. N. Other.)?

Go for the Lewisohn. You won't regret it. It immerses you in their world.

Nowhere Man

Quote from: Charcoal-ish on January 07, 2019, 02:16:04 AM
For years, Shout! by Philip Norman was considered the definitive biography, but in fact about 50% of it is bollocks (it's still a nice piece of writing though, despite the notorious pro-Lennon, anti-the-others bias, and his seeming lack of interest in the music itself).

Or Shite! as McCartney was said to have called it. To Phillip Norman's credit though he did go through something of a repraisal about Paul at least, admitting that his portrayal of him was bollocks and wrote an authorised book about him. (as well as an earlier one on Lennon) It's not a great read though, because as Charcoal-ish said above, he doesn't seem to have a great grasp on the music itself, yet spends about 80 pages on the Heather Mills court case and boring minutae.

I second 'Revolution In The Head', although it can be pretentious. But overall the Lewisohn book series should be the definitive beat all* account of their careers, book 1 is very long, but you feel like you're there with them. God forbid if anything happens to him I hope he manages to get book 2 out at least as it should be very fascinating if it covers the Rubber Soul-Revolver years.

*pun intended

Nowhere Man

I don't believe it's been mentioned in this thread yet but there is a MASSIVE podcast series thats about 28 hours long that describes the entire Beatles saga up until just a few years ago, someone clearly put a lot of effort into it, and the interesting thing is that it uses only audio interviews with the fabs and those in their closest circle, as well as concert and music excerpts. As good as the proper Anthology series is, a lot of stuff got cut, and they whitewash over a lot of interesting stuff. Here's a Pitchfork article about it, and there's a huge thread on Stevehoffman.tv talking about the podcast. (if you're obsessed with talking about all things Beatles, that's the place to go btw)

https://pitchfork.com/thepitch/1388-this-28-hour-beatles-podcast-is-a-new-kind-of-historical-fanzine/

QuoteIn late 2015, some anonymous maniac began uploading installments of an 18-part podcast titled The Beatles Anthology Revisited. It's an impressively over-the-top achievement, even by the bonkers standards of Fab Four super-fandom. As the title indicates, *Anthology Revisited *is basically an extended audio-only remix of The Beatles Anthology, the multipart TV documentary that originally aired on Britain's BBC and America's ABC in November 1995. *Anthology Revisited *was released to coincide with that special's 20th anniversary.

A year later, what remains remarkable about Anthology Revisited is how thoroughly it expands its source material—and how it could inspire fans of other sprawling musical topics to do the same. The extended DVD version of *The Beatles Anthology *plays for ten hours, and much of the material on the podcast is gleaned from it, with additions coming from the more interview-heavy rough cut of the same special completed in 1993. (Like all Beatles material, the rough cut has been widely bootlegged.) But *Anthology Revisited *only begins there; it lasts a full 28 hours, and unlike the series its remit extends well beyond the Beatles' lifetime, with the last two episodes covering the post-breakup years: 1970 to 1976 in part 17, 1977 to 2015 in part 18.

But rather than merely glossing the already existing document, *Anthology Revisited *is a feast of secondary sourcing. It doesn't contain a single line of overdubbed narration; everything on it, including news-hour headline summaries, comes from existing interviews, broadcasts, and recording sessions. There are tons of outtakes and studio chatter, from all Beatles in all eras—evidently, no potential source was spared. Amazingly, this unauthorized work made it onto a handful of podcast sites—namely, Podbean and Player.FM—before it got yanked from official channels as soon as word reached the Beatles' offices. (Needless to say, the episodes can still be found and downloaded by the intrepid Googler.)

SteveDave

The Anthology Revisited is great until it gets to about 1967 and then the interviews become fewer and the songs (albeit alternate/out-take versions) are featured more. By the time it gets to the 80s and you're listening to a live reggae influenced version of "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" by George, Ringo and Elton John (amongst others) I'm done.

The Beatlemania years are fascinating though. You get to hear Paul and Ringo singing "Don't Pass Me By" (or "This Is Some Friendly") in 1964 or sutin.

I found out on the weekend that I'm going to be on a Beatles podcast at some point this year talking about Nilsson's "Pussy Cats". I can not wait.


studpuppet

Quote from: Charcoal-ish on January 07, 2019, 02:16:04 AM
Revolution In The Head is by far the best book about The Beatles' actual music. MacDonald is very opinionated, and the book's all the better for it, but his speculation on meaning, motive and inspiration is sometimes a bit loose. As pure music writing though, it's top class. The other great book about the actual music is Lewisohn's Complete Recording Sessions, but as the name suggests it's only concerned with what went on in Abbey Road, so maybe mostly of interest to musicians and people intrigued by the practicalities of recording.

I'd argue that both of these are eclipsed by Recording The Beatles when it comes to the actual music. Learned more from this than Lewisohn about how everything was put together in the studio. You think it's going to be very technical, but it's actually the story of the band members learning how to capture the sound they're looking for by using (and abusing) the technology to hand. It's well worth the $100 when it's back in print (but maybe not the £700 it is on Amazon at the moment...) - here are a couple of pages (hopefully at a legible size) I've used in the past to illustrate (for example) why Ringo had teatowels on his snare. Below those are the links to the high-res samples of the book's website.





http://recordingthebeatles.com/1963ProductionPreview.pdf

http://recordingthebeatles.com/1968ProductionPreview.pdf

http://recordingthebeatles.com/PersonnelExcerpt-TapeOp.pdf

http://recordingthebeatles.com/IsoScreens-excerpt.pdf

http://recordingthebeatles.com/RS106-FilterExcerpt.pdf

grassbath

Surprised to see no mention of Geoff Emerick's Here, There and Everywhere in the list of Beatles 'must-reads' - a first hand account of their studio work from someone who had his hands on the controls. It's a bit of a love letter to 'consummate professional' McCartney, but given the closeness to the source I'd take his account any day over the likes of Norman.

Charcoal-ish

It's because that book's a pile of mince. Most of the historical detail is provably wrong, and a lot of the insider stuff has been refuted by other Abbey Road staff, as well as not really fitting with a lot of what we already know for certain. Great engineer, but a very unreliable source.