Good Beatle Reading

Looking for suggestions for GOOD books on the Beatles.......help me get
through the New York winter..........thanks

fattuchus...

The one by Bob Spitz is quite good . . . some critics point to a few
tiny mistaken facts here and there, but overall it is very good . . . .
and thick.

I also found Bramwell's Magical Mystery Tour very entertaining. It
offered a good insider's view.

Are you also intersted in books about the individual Beatles? If so,
let me know and I can give you some ideas.

fishandchips...

Read Coleman's Lennon, actually met Tony Bramwell, will get the
book..........Spitz title?
Did Shout, John by Cynthia,.........was wondering what Yoko was waiting
for? bookwise

fattuchus...

IIRC the book by Spitz is simply called "The Beatles." If you go to
any bookstore and just mentioned The Beatles by Bob Spitz I would think
they'd know what you mean. It is a pretty massive work.

As far as what is Yoko waiting for . . . . good question. I had read
somewhere (I don't know if this is true) that when she published her
book Grapefruit (which is before she was very famous) she had signed
some contract with the publishing company that they would have some
property interest in the next book she wrote . . .and the monetary deal
was not good for Yoko at all. In other words, according to this
source, she is beholdent to this other publisher if she writes an
original book.

has been involved during the past fewyears in many, many books. She
has certainly acted as "editor" of Memories of John and has great
control over the Lennon material used for other books. However it may
be that if she actually writes an entire book about John or her life
with John, she may be bound by this old contract which does not have
favorable terms.

fattuchus...

I just thought of another couple of books to add to your library. There
are several by Keith Badman, Beatle "expert." There are two
essentially called "Off the Record" (Volume 1 and 2). These are not
biographies (such as the Hunter Davies book) Instead, these are
essentially chronologically arranged quotes by the Beatles and those
associated with them such as their wives. The bad thing about these
books is they are not indexed. Further they are not trmendously
organized by subject, but instead are organized by date.

However the big plus is they contain quote after quote after quote from
supposed reliable sources such as movies, videos, newspapers, etc. So
if you ever get involved in a "disagreement" such as one here at rmb
about who said what, you can pull out a quote.

The first volume in particular contains many "off the record" and
otherwise outrageous quotes. In other words, even though the Beatles
worked hard in their early days to have that clean cut image or that
image that they were universally loved and life was grand, Off the
Record I contains quotes and reflects incidents that were less than
perfect (i.e. such as Paul and John having a little tiff, John losing
his cool, John embarrassing poor Jane Asher, the Manilla disaster, etc.)

terra...

There's no such thing as "good" reading on the Beatles. Cuz you know
what "reading" comes from? Books. And you know what books are? Lies,
fictions, falsehood, and a big ole dollop of the ole unverifiable
fiction.

If you must read, there's John's own words, Yoko's own words, and my
own words right here in this ole group. But beyond that...karma keeps
a close eye on watcher doin. Karma knows if you've been reading what
you shouldn't...karma knows and watches. Sorta like santa claus. So
read Johns own words for goodness sake :)