Beatles biographies?

otm. Seem to recall that he is the one who came up with the crazy theory that Paul was right-handed but only played left-handed, or something like that.

I believe that is true. Sure Paul has said it just felt more natural that way.

Our Alice used to mess around with guitars when little and would play them either way round, but she's settled on right-handed now.

Anyway, most of the Beatle books lock down the facts and put a little narrative between them. And most of them rattle through the early years to get to "Love me do" and beyond, where the facts are easier to lock down.

The Lewisohn book is great for people who already know everything about the Beatles because more than any work it places them in the context of the times and places where it happened. (Revolution in the Head tried to do this and completely failed imho). As mentioned by everyone the detail is tremendous and lots of it is about Liverpool/England/The World at the time, not specifically the Beatles. So ultimately it enriches and contextualizes all the information we already have consumed about the Beatles.

http://www.beatlesagain.com/breflib/lefthand.html

I didn't grow up in Liverpool in the late fifties, more South Shields in the early sixties, but I definitely felt the time and place for real. And playing pubs and clubs with three guitarists and one amp with 2 guitars through it, yes.

i got the lewisohn out of the library earlier this year, but only got about 1/3 of the way through it before i had to return it.
might have to buy it. or i might just wait for the next volumes when things start getting serious.
tbh i kind of want someone to re-do revolution in the head -- which i like a lot, but i disagree w/ the author so much that it's sometimes frustrating to pick up.

I really like the song summaries and the recording info in Revolution In The Head, though I don't agree with a lot of it, but I think the timeline stuff at the back is just pointless.

revolution in the head is a great book imo but you have to sort of take a lot of what he says with a grain of salt. there's a lot of misplaced anger and general misanthropy in there, but a lot of his insights are brilliant and it's very well written. it was one of the last beatles books i got around to during my teenage-fan days and it was kind of bracing to read after a lot of indifferently written and gossipy books that tended to ignore the music.

Tried to read that book but
1) It was at least twenty years after my youthful Beatles fandom and
2) I had already been reading Alan W. Pollack's Notes On...: http://www.icce.rug.nl/~soundscapes/DATABASES/AWP/awp-notes_on.shtml

Love his relatively light touch so far - he knows that he can just say "known as Penny Lane" and it's ka-BOOM.

Paul is left handed, but it's actually Ringo who was born left handed but taught to be right handed, which may be one reason his playing has this nice awkward quality to it.

The Lewisohn book talks a lot about how John originally played guitar with banjo chords, so Paul would have to teach him the correct guitar chords, playing left handed in front of him while John mirrored the finger positions. There are lots of stories of John and Paul (or maybe Paul and George?) taking the bus for hours to some part of England just to see a guy who supposedly knows some chord they can't figure out.

Book also notes - which is obvious once you think about it - that the standard John, Paul, George and Ringo (which sounds weird any other way you say it) is the order they joined the band.

Another neat epiphany in the book is that Paul more or less ended up playing the bass by default. He grew up playing piano, then took up guitar, even played drums on the occasions that Pete didn't show, and would sometimes switch back to piano in the early days when one of the piano players wouldn't show, but took up bass only as a last resort when Stu dropped out. He used Stu's bass, which is only a Hofner because it was the cheapest domestic bass he could find while they were playing in Germany.

The book also tallies up the total number of hours the Beatles logged in Germany, some ungodly number that was the equivalent to a year and a half of steady gigging in Liverpool or some such wild total. All squeezed into just a few months. Maybe the equivalent of 1200 gigs at home? Something like that. It explains how the Beatles got so good, and certainly so much better than any other band in Liverpool. Though curiously fails to explain how Pete Best didn't manage to improve nearly as much as his bandmates.

Paul was on the Nerdist podcast today, just casually telling stories from the long ago...having picked up the book yesterday it was just such lovely timing, universe saying YES rereread the book bc here's lovely old macca chatting away about their early years, all the little things I love, the "mach shau!" and john & paul sitting down together "to write a swimming pool", or how they wrote in thd toilet because the acoustics were better, contextualizing the sadness & fear of his parents generation vs the joy & freedom of his teenage generation, being born during bombs & coming of age with rock n roll...i love all that stuff! and hearing it from him is just nice. it makes me so teary!!! he even talked abt him & john at the Dakota watching SNL momentarily toying with going down to 30 rock :)

idk

i think if you have any love or curiosity for the chain of events & cultural forces that brought the lads together, you really really should read Lewisohn

just for the fact that it helps you to re-love them all over again :)

hmm i realize even that overstates it though

for me, it just really is the book i always *wanted* to read sbout the beatles, but i didnt know what i wanted exactly til i read this

I think my favorite part of this book was when poor George got stuck in a car with a wasted and armed Gene Vincent who was trying hunt down an ex-lover or something.

Also, how John and Paul are constantly "pulling birds" and desperately searching for places to furtively hook up while poor George keeps getting drawn into these platonic relationships.

Revolution In The Head the *audiobook*

http://www.audible.co.uk/pd/Arts-Entertainment/Revolution-in-the-Head-Audiobook/B00P2W2YRS?source_code=M2M30DFT1BkSH101614009R

read by David Morrissey, Robyn Hitchcock, Danny Baker, Matt Berry, David Hepworth and a few others i haven't heard of.

One beatle each?

Can't wait to hear Danny Baker's go at Ringo.

Ooh look, Joe Boyd's book narrated by Joe Boyd!

good stuff here for anyone waiting for the 2nd volume of Lewisohn's books. due by 2020 supposedly and possibly going from '63 to '66.

http://www.criticsatlarge.ca/2015/10/beatles-confidential-mark-lewisohn-in.html

i love the cut of his jib i have to say

" I refuse to accept such preconceived views. There are many entrenched opinions about the Beatles history – “this was a mistake, if only that had happened, Brian Epstein squandered all the merchandizing rights, Magic Alex was a charlatan, the Maharishi episode was stupid, Dick James sold them down the river, Allen Klein was the devil, Magical Mystery Tour was a folly, Apple was a waste of money” – all the usual things – but I won’t allow any of that into my head. I refuse to look at things that way.. "

fuck, i thought TUNE IN was the whole project! wasn't it like 10,000 pages or something? this isn't going to be finished until 2025?

fuck, i thought TUNE IN was the whole project! wasn't it like 10,000 pages or something? this isn't going to be finished until /2025/?

That was part one. I read the directors cut version that came in two volumes, forget how many pages it was, like 2000? Flew by.

so excited for next book, vol 1 was such a treat

I'm not so interested in vol 1 but vol 2 covers my favorite period. 10 years from now I should be able to afford a copy lol

i understand he's changed the name of the third volume to Holy Shit, I Am So Sick Of The Beatles

heh

plz tell me volume 2 isn't going to be called "Turn On"

it is!
(but yeah, I agree -- i wasn't toooo interested in the childhood narratives of the first volume, but the rest of it seems like it'll be great)

lol that is terrible

I'm not so interested in vol 1 but vol 2 covers my favorite period. 10 years from now I should be able to afford a copy lol

― Οὖτις, Tuesday, November 24, 2015 7:01 PM (22 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

That's what I thought before I read volume 1. Now I have a new favorite Beatles period. Reading about their earliest days -- as people, not just as bandmates -- has effectively recontextualized their music for me now when I hear it (in a positive way).

jesus christ I have to wait 5 more years for this next book?!!!

;_;

in the meantime we all have each other

I've been waiting almost 15 years for the second volume of Gary Giddins' Bing Crosby biography. No publication date in sight.

That's what I thought before I read volume 1.

Me too. I though Volume 1 would be a chore but it was a real pleasure. Everything felt new.

plz tell me volume 2 isn't going to be called "Turn On"

― Οὖτις, Wednesday, November 25, 2015 12:03 AM (12 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Vol 3 is gonna be called "... Naah!"

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

Vol 3 should just be called "The End"

yes.

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

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

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

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

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

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

gettin vol 1 from the library today

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

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

man the Brian Epstein stuff is so sad

Good interview:

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

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

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

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

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

Another good new interview with our guy:

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

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