The Beatles Literary Anthology

By: Evans, Mike

Compiles accounts of the Beatles by mainstream reporters, rock journalists, cultural commentators, acquaintances, and friends to trace the group's rise to stardom, unique song structure and recording techniques, embrace of psychedelic drugs and pacifism, and much more.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0859653153
• ISBN13: 9780859653152
• Release Date: September 2004
• Publisher: Plexus Publishing
• Length: 448 Pages
• Weight: 1.92 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.6" x 6.5" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

ANTHOLOGY OF THE LITERARY KIND

Before the Beatles,anthologies such as this were usually reserved for Dickens,Sherlock Holmes or Shakespeare. Now we have one for the Beatles-which was followed by a seperate one for Lennon-and its one of these kind of books where you can dip in anywhere. Interesting to read what the critics in Philadelphia thought of the new English group

This Gets a Rave Review, Yeah, Yeah, Yeah!

This is a book of extraordinarily high caliber. Like the Beatle book by Mojo, this one includes a myriad of magazine articles spanning the Beatles' careers as well as musical analyses, comprehensive biographies and analytical dissections of each Beatle. One drawback the book has are some inaccuracies, e.g. that George Harrison did not contribute in a musically significant way until 1969 with the release of the Abbey Road album. That just isn't true. George Harrison was a gifted guitarist and extraordinary lyricist who had been writing songs for years prior to 1969! Just LISTEN to the 1966 stellar gem "Revolver" which has 3 songs by George Harrison. The intensity of his lyrics and his unique guitar playing helped define the Beatles as the extraordinary band that they were. Suggesting otherwise is counterproductive. On the plus side, this book digs quite deeply into history and provides fascinating accounts of the inception of the Beatles; Pete Best's dismissal from the group in 1962 and his replacement Ringo Starr; personal accounts from Best himself; Beatle manager Brian Epstein's first encounter with the boys in 1961. Each Beatle and the influences that helped shape and guide him down his individual Long & Winding Road are discussed in depth; their philosphies; political ideologies and core values and beliefs are explored as well. If you are on a quest for buried treasure, you will find plenty of it in this book. You will uncover anecdotes about Beatle conventions; Murray the K, a New York disc jockey who followed the Beatles around during their first trip to America in 1964; his views on John's wife Yoko in later years; John's and George's tragic and untimely demise as well. Even with the death of two Beatles (at the time of this review), the book does an excellent job of portraying their staying power and how they continue to influence music and other art media. All in all, a solid job. I highly recommend this one, yeah, yeah, yeah!

Essential to any Beatles library

Obviously this book should be picked up by any hardcore Beatles fan, but it might be even more essential if you're just a casual Beatlemaniac. Why? Because it contains excerpts from the vast volume of writing on the Fab 4 which you'll probably just dip a toe in otherwise. This anthology compiles magazine articles, both contemporary and retrospective, excerpts from biographies and autobiographies, analysis of music, "I was there" recollections, and dissections of the Beatles as a cultural phenomenon. The last category is often the weakest, since it tends to combines pompous extrapolation with incorrect "facts" and worthless repetition of conventional wisdom, i.e. that George Harrison didn't write any worthy songs till Abbey Road. Yeah, right: even leaving aside his love 'em/hate 'em Indian experiments, the White Album contains gems like the underrated & chilling Long, Long, Long and the widely acknowledged masterpiece While My Guitar Gently Weeps. But that's a minor quibble, and the book is full of buried treasures, too many to mention. I'll focus on the cream of the crop here. Culled from original drummer Pete Best's autobiography, we hear the tale of how Best got sacked for Ringo, this time from the horse's mouth (including an interesting anecdote about Best and manager Brian Epstein). Epstein himself has an entry, a truly fascinating account of discovering the Beatles in a sweaty Cavern performance. Then there's an eyewitness account of the Elvis-Beatles meeting which, contrary to press releases of the time, did not go well. Primarily due to Lennon's acerbic mouth. Speaking of John, we get to see how far left he swung after expressing doubt about politics in "Revolution": in an interview with British radicals, he pledges admiration for Chairman Mao and is brimming with angry Marxist rhetoric. A quote included in this section brings him down to earth by describing the room full of air-conditioned fur coats he and Yoko kept around this time that they were attacking capitalists. Future feminist Gloria Steinem submits a circa '64 interview with John Lennon which spends more time painting a vivid picture of the Beatles' chaotic stage show and backstage milieu than talking to the "sarcastic Beatle." A Q & A with George Harrison expresses his spiritual views, and the best interviews in the book are taken from Playboy, including one with all the Beatles in '65 in which they come off as surprisingly frank and honest. They describe themselves as agnostics and freely discuss topics ranging from sex to religion. Also included is Maureen Cleave's 1966 portrait of Lennon which caused all the controversy by quoting his thoughts on Jesus. And though I've already criticized a lot of the Beatles punditry, there are exceptions: mainly stuff written at the time, before the Beatles legend was set in stone. Pieces by Paul Johnson and John Gabree debunk the Beatles as musicians and pop icons, Gabree a tad more effectively than Johnson, whose arrogant vitriol i