This is a very on-point kind of book; it’s not an encyclopedia of irrelevant factoids or anything like that.

I’d never realized that Paul so welcomed & embraced the evolution into the late-Beatles, or that he actually become more influential in terms of songs penned in that period. John was John, and he was tough and macho and a leader especially in the beginning, but as they evolved, ironically—so strangely—he actually withdrew a bit, since even before the 70s began, he started to think that working on himself meant hating himself, even more….

The book’s also curious for the references to early influences on the Beatles, even if those are basically groups that are, from a lyrical point of view, pretty hokey, you know. It is //possible// to overcorrect though, as that sort of music obvious seems less worthwhile to the prose/print mind; but it is music, too.

…. And there were a few obscure singles that I hadn’t heard of before—‘She’s A Woman’ and ‘I Don’t Want to Spoil the Party’, even though I’d thought I’d heard all the songs before, having heard all the albums and the singles that I’d heard of, you know.

And just in general: it’s much better than trying to understand the songs through YouTube comments, right. It’s a real book, and they deserve a real book. They were human, but they deserve that much respect anyway; and they got it.

…. I think it’s surprising—in the literal sense of hard to predict—that he is so fascinated with John but is borderline dismissive of George. I mean, they’re together the two real men of the Beatles, although I suppose they’re different, too—John’s the king, and George is the prophet. (I guess Paul is the wizard—witch?—and Ringo is…. the jester, I guess.)

…. Although I tend to resist or be skeptical of the Gilderoy Lockhart interpretation of people like Paul—‘Kill rock stars’ etc—it is true that it’s possible to be naive. For a long time, he didn’t know what it was like, not to be Paul.

…. It is interesting or whatever how you can’t prove why someone named a character what they did. (Let alone anything else about the whole process.)

…. It’s just constantly counter-intuitive: you think John is hip but it’s really Paul because Paul adapted and John shut himself down; and yet John wrote some really great songs in the psychedelic years, because he was just naturally psychedelic. He was like a Four (wing 3) who woke up and realized he wasn’t an 8, you know. (Paul was 2 wing 3, and that’s always what he seemed like, even if he grew into himself in other ways.) (And probably George was a 5 and Ringo a 9.)

…. Sometimes the codependency of those years can be surprising. Paul is, you know, certainly sorta a nice guy, and I can totally imagine him being close with John’s son Julian and comforting him during the John/Cynthia divorce and even writing him a song…. But to have the song be, ‘Go get a girl-friend, and everything will be alright’? Is that trauma therapy or a little village nostrum from the middle of the last century?

I mean, as a song it’s wonderful; it’s catchy and musical. But as words, oh my god….

…. And sometimes they could be rather inspired.

…. It’s so Paul that one of his songs could start out as a racism satire—his one political song—but yet the final form just sounds vague and, commonly is seen as them just getting nostalgic, like they weren’t young anymore.

…. I wonder if the Beatles didn’t release “Not Guilty” because John & Paul were marginalizing George songs or if they were concerned about rhyming ‘freak’ and ‘Sikh’, even ironically, you know. I mean, the song is on the literal saying, Well ok if everybody’s gotta be racist I’ll be racist if those are the rules…. ~I mean, irony is not always a good thing, right. “Get Back” got all cryptic and revised for the same reason; the other three were just never going to let him go through with Not guilty of dressing like a freak, making friends with every Sikh; they had to action movie dodge at the last moment. Not everybody understands irony and it’s not always a good thing. When I was ill, I just thought that George had come around, you know…. The Englishman isn’t guilty! Hallelujah!

…. Anyway, although a song and a book necessarily have a different energy/stance, I would indeed say that this is a positive/fun book, and not negative or half-negative or stupid through being analytical. It’s not an opinion I’d extend universally to all Beatles books, lol.

…. And actually, although as a rule of thumb I tend to look more favorably at the ‘paperback writer’ in his struggle to survive academic scorn than some people would, at the same time I have to say that this time, the rational—this rational, if popular book—makes more sense to me than the random fan comments that make out every fawning or irritable thing the boys ever wrote, as words from the lips of the One, and every song they recorded provisionally but ultimately rejected as being a revolution in music even though it was never released during their career, you know…. It’s just better to smile, sometimes earnestly, sometimes indulgently, than to lose your mind over nothing, you know.

…. They had some potential, but I think I like the Cilla Black version of “Step Inside Love” better than the Beatles’. The Beatles muddled through, but Cilla Black had style. :P

…. But since they wrote a song about me—Teddy Boy—ie about me, *Time Traveler version…. I’ll allow that the Beatles are equally as good as…. A Flock of Seagulls.

I loved this book and if you like The Beatles, even a little bit. you will too. Even if you've only heard the melody of "Yesterday" in an elevator you know who they are. They are a part of everyone's sub-conscience.
This compilation of every album and every song on each album, done in chronological order, debunks many a myth and offers enlightening information on how each song came to be and the state of the Fab Four as well as the world when they tunes were written.
The book is begins with the red section and covers their music from their inception in 1959 through to the Revolver album, the point "when the Beatles become recording artists rather than performers." At the point their music became more experimental.
The second blue section highlights the remainder of their years together as a group, Sgt Pepper to Abbey Road.
Reading this book serves to distinguish just what a phenomenal band The Beatles were and how at a young age were pressured to produce music quickly. Download your favorite music App and listen to each song after you've read how it was written and the nuances of the music as it was developed. Your appreciation for The Beatles will surely grow. ( )

While I consider myself a lifelong Beatles fan, I won’t try to lay claim to being a Beatles expert, and I certainly haven’t tried to read each and every book about the Beatles that has ever been published. So, when I say I enjoyed this behind-the-scenes exploration of the history behind the writing of every Beatles song, you’ve got to take that with a few grains of salt — there may have been other books, perhaps many others, which covered this ground before. In fact, the version of this book by Steve Turner reviewed here is, itself, an update of an earlier edition. But, speaking as a casual reader of Beatles-related books, I do recommend this particular book. For each song included, the author explains what the inspiration for the song was, where the songwriter(s) were at the time of the writing, and other little historical tidbits. Where there are discrepancies about the origin of a song, Turner includes all the variant tales, rather than trying to narrow it down to the correct one. The amount of background provided for each song various considerably — from one or two paragraphes of text, to several pages, about the most well-known of the Beatles hits. The text is accompanied by a plethora of rare and obscure photographs, making this a pleasurable read for Beatles fans, even if all you’re doing is browsing. Maybe there are better, more in-depth historical volumes about the Beatles’ song out there, but I found this one to be a fun and informative read!

Originally reviewed for my local library's website in November 2013: http://lincolnlibraries.org/bookguide/staff-recommendations/staff-recommendation... ( )

A great , insightful book on the inspiration for each song in their catalog. Loved reading about my favorite songs and in my opinion the greatest rock group in history. ( )

Story how how each song was written. Where did John and Paul get inspired from, who wrote what
and how their music changed. There are of course some beautiful, unseen photos. ( )