The Beatles Anthology by The Beatles
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Book Reviews of The Beatles Anthology
Book Review: Don't Pass It By!
Summary: 5 Stars
This past weekend, my copy of The Beatles Anthology came from Amazon.com. The deliverer was glad she didn't have to go to the front office with it since it's so heavy!This book is special because the Beatles themselves are the authors! There are also contributing quotes from Pete Best, Stuart Sutcliffe, George Martin, Mal Evans, Neil Aspinall and others.
The stories are great, from their childhood (John being an avid reader in grade school, Paul's father supporting his music skills, George mastering the guitar at a young age, and Ringo being shuffled in and out of hospitals) to their days in Hamburg (John claims that's where he truly grew up!).
In Hamburg, John, Paul, George, Pete, and Stu play various taverns (and meet Ringo) until Stu falls in love and abandons the Beatles. It seems like Ringo fits in better so they eventually sack Best for Ringo.
Funny stories include Mal breaking a windshield on a cold day while driving the Fab Four to their next gig and the Beatles hiding like school kids from an angry George Martin after missing a recording session!
They meet celebrities like Fats Domino, Little Richard, the Queen, and the King (Elvis).
John discusses "Help", "Lucy In the Sky with Diamonds", and "Revolution 9", Paul discusses "Yesterday", "Eleanor Rigby", "Yellow Submarine" and the Abbey Road Medley (particularly its highlight "The End"), George discusses "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" and "Taxman", and Ringo discusses "Don't Pass Me By" and "Octopus' Garden".
There are the sore subjects, too, like Manilla (Paul claims they were the 1st to snub Marcos), John's comments about Jesus, the death of Brian Epstein, the breakup coming close on the White Album and later on Let It Be.
Although some of the photos and interviews here can be seen and heard in the Anthology video series and some perhaps read in other books, this brings most everything you need to know about the Beatles in full circle.
And of course, the Beatles experiment with drugs (and later both John and George get
busted by Sgt. Pilcher for possession of them), seek spiritual guidance from the Maharishi (is he as "cosmic" as they think?), fall in love (John with Yoko, Paul with Linda). Unlike in the video series, there is mention of Paul being "dead" and the final nail in the coffin for the Beatles in late 1969 and 1970.
You can't tell it all even in this one (no mention of the Christmas singles, save for a poem by John called "Wonsapon a Pool Table"), but since the Beatles themselves (and their closest comrades) speak for the Beatles, a lot of myths and legends are put to rest. If you're a Beatles fan, you won't want to pass this by!
Book Review: The Beatles Finally Give us Their Story
Summary: 5 Stars
Although many Beatles fans might already be familiar with Beatles history, this autobiographical account finally gives us the story from the inside out. I must agree that the one drawback of the book, is that some of it is directly taken from the interviews done in the Anthology videos, however, the narrartive does flow very well and one could tell that great pains were taken to preserve the chronological order of the story. It's also interesting to see how all four of them remember some of the same events differently. This becomes evident early on when one reads John's account of how he asked Paul to join the Quarry Men on the very first day, and Paul recalls being asked by one of the other Quarry Men the day after having met John. All of the accounts, though many of them conflict, are told with poignant honesty and there's a lot that one can come away with by witnessing the events from four different perspectives. Having read other books about the Beatles, it's refreshing to read the stories from the Beatles themselves even when reading through events that have been dissected exhaustively in the past. Much like listening to their musical legacy, the book has the affect of giving one the feeling that one is experiencing the story for the very first time. Many previously unreleased pictures and hand written lyrics are also prominently featured throughout the book. Indeed, one could spend entire day just looking at the pictures before reading the narrative. This is also a huge book. 367 pages may not seem like a lot, but there's a lot of information packed into those pages and for the most part, it's very thorough. I'm sure some other Beatles fans will probably find something to complain about or say that it left out such and such a detail, but considering the vast amount of information chronicled on the Beatles, this book does a pretty fair job of compiling all the major details and some little known facts. There are day by day accounts on the Beatles written by people who either barely knew them or didn't know them at all and the quality of those books vary a great deal, but if one is so inclined to know every single last detail about the Beatles I'm sure that there is no shortage of material out there for one to look through. This book, however, does what it was meant to do, which is capture the major events and some little known details from the perspective of those 4 musicians that history will never forget.Book Review: Fabulous!
Summary: 5 Stars
I was going to give this book 4 stars, until half-way through I was struck by the pure genius of it all. Why? It's like a cover song - when someone else plays a Beatles song, does it ever really sound as good as the original? Rarely. "Anthology" is a huge tome of a book comprised entirely of interviews and snippets from the Fab Four themselves, with a very few extras from their manager, studio producer, etc. It seems like a coffee table book, but it certainly isn't - over 350 large pages of fine print. The reason why this book ALMOST got 4 stars is because of the inherent nature of a book made entirely of quotes - natural conversation doesn't translate well onto the printed page, especially when so many people are quoted from different periods in their lives. The book never says "In 1964, the Beatles recorded Rubber Soul" or anything like that. Instead, the quotes gradually roll around to telling you, until you realize "Oh, we're in the studio again". Often this book is disjointed and hard to follow, especially if you don't anything about the Beatles.
However, few people know nothing about the Beatles! After the first 30 pages, you get used to the style of presentation, and later on you realize the beauty of it all - these boys are down-right inspiring. Worked in with all the tours and stories and pranks and bad rumors and other nonsense are wonderful descriptions of their music and how it was written, what its inspiration was, and the trials that were faced to create it. The Beatles didn't idolize themselves, not like their fans do, so the words just flow out effortlessly and pure, just like their music did. This was their lives, no big deal, this is what they did. The creativity is catchy.
If you are a die-hard Beatles historian, I'm positive that nothing new is said in this book. There is no "myth-making" in these pages - their fights and disagreements are very bluntly presented - but you can see a "No Big Deal" kind of attitude formed. It's is only natural, the survivors are turning 60, after all. Like the video series and the CDs, this version of Anthology is a warm revisit of a wonderful little rock'n'roll band. Check it out.
Book Review: Magical mystery tour through the Beatles' career
Summary: 5 Stars
This book purports to tell the Beatles's story in their own words (though augmented by memories from people close to them like Brian Epstein, producer George Martin, roadies Neil Aspinall and Mal Evans, and publicist Derek Taylor), and does the job quite well.I would estimate that at least 80% of the information contained in this book is already old hat for die-hard Beatlemaniacs who have memorized Mark Lewisohn's "Complete Beatles Chronicle" and read every Beatle book out there. But it's not so much the substance of the information as the way in which it is told--it's great to be able read about these events from the Beatles' point of view, even as seen through the prism of the thirty to forty years that have passed. And I am grateful that George was able to participate in the whole Anthology project before his untimely death in 2001.
The modern-day comments from Paul, George, and Ringo were apparently taken from the interviews from the Beatles Anthology circa 94-95 (if you watch the entire video/DVD and compare it to the text in the book it's pretty obvious). Hard-core fans will be able to recognize where many of the other quotes came from, although they aren't sourced, unfortunately--after each such quote there's merely a superscript such as "64" or "70" showing the year it was said, with no reference to the publication or interview it was taken from. That said, the editors had an incredible job piecing this thing together; they could almost be listed as co-writers!
There's a great deal of eye-candy (photographs, memos, handwritten notes, drawings, etc.), which are fascinating to look at. Sometimes, though, the arrangement of text, typeface, and photographs on the page seems rather random and thrown together, and even can make it difficult to read (for example, page 177, which tells about George and John's first LSD trip is printed on a background of garish red with magenta and orange text that all but obliterates the actual text). But it's never dull.
Despite the fact that it may be a bit of a chore to read, since it's large and heavy (even in paperback), it is a joy to read and I heartily recommend it to all Beatle fans.
Book Review: The Whole Story From the Mouths of the Beatles Themselves
Summary: 5 Stars
The Beatles story is an incredibly fascinating one. In so many ways their history is not merely of a musical group, even a great one. The Beatles transcended mere music. From 1962-1970, the entire period of their recording career, the Beatles recorded hundreds ofbrilliant songs, groundbreaking albums and lived enough advenutre to fill a lifetime. When this book was published, the three surviving Beatles had lived more than twice as many years since the breakup as the entire time the group was together. It is really remarkable to read (or see in the video) McCartney, Starr and Harrison talking about the Beatle's times from the perspective of late middle age. The story itself will be familiar to any Beatle's fan. The early days in Britain, the crazy days of Beatle mania, the acid drenched mid-sixties when the times began to influence the Beatle's sound and the Beatle's music so headily influenced the times. The flirtation with Indian religion, the death of Brian Epstein, Yoko Ono, the slowly growing rigt and finally the acrimonious breakup. All in an incredible 8 years. What makes this book unique, even from earlier books that quote the Beatles is the perspective of time which has clearly mellowed the three surviviors. Lennon's quote's are necessarily taken from before his death in 1980 and it is interesting to see how his failure to reach middle age lends a different perspective to his memories of the Beatles, in his case memories less than fifteen years old. How fascinating to hear Paul and George discussing the making of "Let it Be" where the bitterness was clear. Paul essentially apologizes and it is nice to know he and George settled their differences before Harrison's death late last year. Not only do I recommend this book, it cannot be missed by anyone interested in the Beatle's history in their own words. No other auto-biography will be as comprehensive for one reason. It will require much of the book to focus on pre and post Beatles years. As I stated, the Beatles recording career lasted 8 years. Today a top band would record at most three albums in that time. Don't miss the book or the video collection