The Beatles...Have Books Reached the Saturation Point?

If someone told me 25 years ago that I would be saying this, I wouldn't
have believed them...have we reached the point where books on The
Beatles have reached the saturation point? Have The Beatles been
over-analyzed?

In the late 70s and early 80s there was a dearth of books about The
Beatles, but beginning in the late 80s, into the 90s and now, we have a
glut of books. Books by their tailor, chaueffer, the guy who happened
to be in India with them in 1968, former NEMS employees, battling EMI
engineers, and several biographies claiming to be THE Biography. My
head is swimming just thinking of them all.

Is all of this really necessary?

All one needs is a decent biography, history, chronology(personal and
recording), musical and lyric interpretation, and The Beatles talking
about themselves in their own words.

Writing about The Beatles has become a cottage industry. Admittedly,
it was fun in the mid-to-late 1980s having so many new books to choose
from, but now it's just one massive pile, with one book often not
distinguishable from another.

So, what am I saying here? That people should stop writing about The
Beatles...no, of course not. I'm saying that authors shouldn't be
falling all over themselves to find some eccentric point of view just
because it hasn't been done, that we don't need the bartender from
George's favorite pub to write about his life with George, and that we
don't need to browbeat minutia to the point where enjoying The Beatles,
merely becomes an overt clinical exercise or small niche technical
review, missing the joy and wonder of the songs themselves.

Lest anyone accuse me of hypocrisy here, let me state that I have
written about The Beatles myself. In one case they were the central
theme of my book, "As I Write This Letter", written in 1979-1980, and
published in 1982. At the time, no one had done a book like it, but
there is no way I or anyone else could do something similar today
without justly being accused of "milking it". I have also written
about The Beatles in fanzines, and they show up, tangentially, in my
second book(The Giant's Chair) and who knows....they may show up in a
less than starring role in my future writings, most of which are
usually remembrances of The Beatles in real time.

donz5...

I'd submit that the most recent book published, _Recording the
Beatles,_ belies that.

However, it makes me sad to see the plethora of books out today,
repeating or repackaging old ideas, becoming just a hoped for oasis for
the guy who was once a go-fer for them, and not necessarily adding to
our knowledge about The Beatles.

For those of you who buy books about The Beatles...caveat emptor.

fishandchipp...

I am now in the process of writing a book about the Beatles as
zygotes. Hasn't been done, should make a fortune........

Lookingglass...

The answer is a resounding NO.

It has nothing to do with 'uncovering secrets'... it has EVERYTHING to do
with the Beatles impact on our culture.

I remember 'being there' in 1963/4...lots of folks said we would forget
about them in a matter of months...! That statement has turned into a
'cliché'. 43/4 years later we are still talking about them...and writing
about them...and READING about them, and are still trying to understand what
happened.

...WHY...???

dave (...can't you tell me things I want to know...)