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| Beatles Books; What recommendations do you have? | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Jul 17 2008, 12:19 PM (602 Views) | |
| Nowhere Man | Jul 17 2008, 12:19 PM Post #1 |
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Level 2
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As someone with a good deal of passion, but a worrying lack of knowledge, I would be interested in which books - or reference material in general - you guys would recommend. Both with regard to The Beatles in general and collecting their recordings in particular. I have a number of books on them, but the two I always return to are Mark Lewishon's 'The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions' and Ian MacDonald's 'Revolution In The Head'. I don't always agree with the latter's assessment of some of the songs (and sometimes find it hard to understand much of what he talks about :D - not being a musician or musicographer), but never the less find this book utterly fascinating. So, is there anything you would particularly recommend? |
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| Pacey | Jul 17 2008, 01:34 PM Post #2 |
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I can't remember the title of one I saw recently... Quite an oldish book, maybe 80s, which analysed the music off Sgt Pepper in GREAT detail. Approaching it from a classical music point of view of analysis and determining compositional techniques... Absolute b******t if you ask me. It's just a bunch of songs!!! :D I suppose The Beatles will be studied alongside Beethoven some day... :rolleyes: Not a recommended book by the way, but I thought I'd mention it! |
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| vinyldisc | Jul 25 2008, 06:34 AM Post #3 |
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http://www.beatlescollecting.com/ http://www.beatlescollecting.com/the-beatles/forums/books/ |
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| billstiggins | Apr 24 2010, 09:40 AM Post #4 |
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Level 3
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I am currently (re-) reading an excellent book by David Quantick, called "Revolution - The Making of the Beatles' White Album". It describes the context of the album, the individuals (Ringo gets a good press!), Rishikesh, Donovan, the demo and recording sessions (briefly) and what was to follow - e.g. Charles Manson & pop music, but the majority of the book is given over to the author's critique of the album's songs. As well as being informative (though there's no real new revelations and it does contain the odd minor error), it is written with passion and humour:
Finally, as a nice touch, the book comes in a gorgeous matt white cover with the title and author's name embossed on it. |
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| servi | Apr 24 2010, 11:55 AM Post #5 |
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Level 5
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Yes, I agree Bill, this is a great book. I have read it 2 times already ! Talking about White Album and the Manson connection, I'm now reading Helter Skelter by Vincent Bugliosi (for sale on amazon for less than 2 pounds), which is also an excellent book. |
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| Will Cambell | Apr 24 2010, 01:20 PM Post #6 |
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Hi, I have a large collection of Beatle books, I went through a period of going to a library of ‘Performing Arts and Entertainment’ in the UK, sadly this library is no longer there, I remember getting one book, I think it was called ‘ Lennon and McCartney’ !, I dont remember who the author was, the book was unique as it studied the Lennon and McCartney relationship…. not the usual Beatle story ( written from a person who was not even there !) ‘Parrot fashion’ story telling format, but I do remember an unfortunate error in the book, re the coming about why John and Paul wrote two songs about Liverpool, the author described this as “a strange coincidence” !, unfortunately the author hadn’t heard a very rare BBC interview where the truth was revealed ! WC. |
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| the57thbeatle | Apr 24 2010, 02:30 PM Post #7 |
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Level 4
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I go for the factual books, mostly. Besides the indispensable Mark Lewisohn books (you need ALL of them and I'm glad vol 1 of his Beatles tomb is scheduled for next year), I have and like all of Bruce Spizer's and John C. Winn's books. Kristofer Engelhardt's Beatles Undercover is a great study of all collaborations of the (ex)Beatles, of which I've just ordered the updated edition. Other than that I like worldwide discographies, such as Samuel Coomans's 5 books with singles and EPs from all over the world, and the odd discography books published in Spain, Italy, France, anywhere in the world actually. Being a musician of sorts, I drool when reading Andy Babiuk's Beatles Gear (guitar porn!). Other fave titles include From Cavern to Star Club (Hans Olof Gottfridson), The Longest Cocktail Party (Richard DiLello) and The Beatles Memorabilia Price Guide (Augsburger/Rann/Eck). My all-time favourite book on the Beatles, though, is Fifty Years Adrift by Derek Taylor. That, and some other Genesis books, made me the poor man I am today, but in my opinion that book has never been surpassed in terms of Beatle books. Very witty, crammed with great photos and memorabilia, and with cooperation by George. Oh yes, and the Anthology book is quite excellent. |
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| servi | Apr 25 2010, 08:26 AM Post #8 |
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Level 5
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Recording the Beatles is one of my favorite books, because of its almost "scientific" style and great design. It is expensive but worth every penny IMO. Furthermore, I like the country-specific discography books, The "Beatles worldwide" books by Christopher Maus and the complete Bruce Spizer series. Apple Log VI by Jeffery Levy is also one I take of the shelf regularly. I have 3 Genesis Publication books (Songs by George II, Postcards and Wilburys). For solo-Beatles discographies "Eight arms to hold you" is unmatched, it has an incredible amount of details not seen in any other book. I have a bunch of books on Beatles/solo bootlegs but the internet is better for that nowadays. |
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| billstiggins | Apr 25 2010, 07:16 PM Post #9 |
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Level 3
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Another book that I have read and re-read for the best part of 35 years is "The Beatles: An Illustrated Record" by Roy Carr and Tony Tyler. It's an LP-sized book that traces the development of the group through critiques of all of their releases from Love Me Do to the mid-70s solo releases. When I first got into the Beatles, aware only of their singles from the family 'oldies' cassette tape, this was an invaluable education. It doesn't therefore add much insight to what we all know now, but the reviews are still an interesting read - and I still flick through it now, from time to time. One of my favourite quotes (taken from the IWTHYH review):
It also has some excellent photos, images of memorabilia and contemporary quotes. I first bought a copy in about 1977 - it was paperback and all of the pages fell out within a day. So I returned it to the shop and received a replacement - which all of the pages fell out of.... A couple of years later, an updated, hardback, version was released, so I bagged that and have treasured it ever since. |
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| servi | Apr 26 2010, 06:17 AM Post #10 |
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Level 5
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Coincidently there was a discussion about this Illustrated Record book you mentioned Bill on another forum I enjoy a lot: Record Collectors Guild |
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