Steve Turner (1) (1949–)

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.… (más)

3.25 stars

This book tells the biographies of the eight musicians on the Titanic. They were split into two groups on board, playing in different areas of the ship, but it seems that they joined together to play on deck as the ship sank.

I usually like biographies, but this one had eight. That’s a lot, and it was a small amount of information on each one, so as we continued on in the book, it was easy to forget who was who. It was more interesting once they boarded the ship to read about that. Much is speculation, including what songs were played, but that part was still more interesting to me.

The book continued on after they died with some information on their families, regaining any items found (though only three of the musicians’ bodies were recovered), and stories of (in one case) the father not acknowledging an illegitimate child (and therefore any compensation money should come to him, not to his son’s girlfriend and child); I can’t remember now if it was the same family (I think it was), but a sister who was mentally unstable and played a nasty “joke” on the rest of her family (that was one I believe I’d already heard about).

Overall, I’m rating it between ok (the biographies) and good (the disaster and aftermath).… (más)

The Complete Beatles – The Story Behind Every Track Written by the Fab Four is a wonderful index of all the songs authored by the Beatles with tidbits of back story included, who wrote the song, how it came together and the inspiration, if known, for each song. While perhaps not everyone wants to know the details behind such songs as “Polythene Pam” or “Dear Prudence”, I was totally engrossed.

Beatle music is the soundtrack of my teen years, and every Beatle song evokes a memory, an occasion or an event. It is obvious that the author, Steve Turner, was also a fan as he exclaims, ““the elements of surprise in the tunes that made them so captivating when they were first released still sound unexpected. They have a magical capacity for retaining their freshness.” Along with supplying all the lyrics of their songs, this book is a timeline for the group itself. The early songs reflect their original enthusiasm and excitement while later on John’s jaded poetry and Paul’s world weary attitude as the group dynamics are unwinding combine to produce some amazingly complex and original music.

The Complete Beatles is large book, with hundreds of both color and black and white photographs, and information on the four members of the group, their various partners and friends, associates and fellow artists. During the course of reading this book, I often found myself digging out my old Beatle tunes and hearing them in a different way. Lots of good information here and although this is a book that will mostly appeal to die-hard Beatle fans, it was a five star read for me.… (más)