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this book is full of tons of facts and if your intrested in the beatles i suggest you read this book but i warned you it is about 990 pages long so read it if you have tons of time on your hands but if you have a limited amount of time choose another book
McCartney wanted Eastman to manage the Beatles after Epstein's death, but Lennon would have none of it. His writing captures the drama inherent in the facts of the lives of his subjects as well as the humanity and genius of this fantastically successful group of artists. Bob Spitz's exhaustive and well-researched biographical study of the Beatles carries an aura of authenticity enhanced by his admissions that some of the "facts" are unverifiable. McCartney, on the other hand, appears to have had a reasonably normal childhood for a lower middle class Liverpool kid and consequently emerges as a more well-adjusted adult than Lennon. This uncivil behavior almost certainly contributed to the ultimate schism between McCartney and the other three.Spitz's entire account is riveting and exciting, the only failing being inability to provide examples of the group's music. Linda herself was a well-educated and sophisticated young woman. As such, he held Eastman in contempt.
fishwife by insulting Eastman to his face, at a meeting in Klein's office, with various abusive names. Nonetheless, John lowered himself to the level of a (working class).
The father and brother of Paul's bride, Linda Eastman, were prominent lawyers and New York sophisticates. He was also opting for a "tough guy" who had successfully managed another British act, the Rolling Stones.
The portrait of Lennon as the victim of incompatible parents but later apparently happy teenager growing up under the watchful eye of his mother's sister and her husband contrasts with the adult Lennon, opinionated, moody, and often seen as a loner. Opting for Allen Klein, John was opting perhaps for someone he thought of as a mirror image of himself.
Charles Tillinghast, author of How Capitol Got the Beatles, and Then What Happened Yet McCarthy is accused by other Beatles of always doing what's best for Paul without regard to the others.These aspects of these two brilliant and famous young men is highlighted by the relationship that developed between Paul and the other three as McCartney chose to marry into a prominent New York family.
These unquestionable characteristics of the Eastmans apparently presented no difficulty for McCartney, a child of lower middle class Irish Catholic parents.Lennon, though, chose to view himself as a man of the working class.
It does have some interesting information. George and Ringo didn't have personalities at all.I don't hate the book. John came across as a bully.
It starts off fantastic, going into great detail about John's and Paul's early lives. He wrote more about Brian Epstein than he did George and Ringo put together. I'm such a huge fan of The Beatles that I received two copies of this book as a gift during the winter holidays.
Frankly, Brian could be summed up with "Uneasy with being gay and terrible at handling money." Paul came across as a whiny, manipulative, pushy overachiever. I'm just sure it's not the best Beatles book available. I was excited to get to Ringo's section, since he's my favorite Beatle.
Yet, the author barely mentioned George or Ringo at all in the entire book.
It just isn't well written. Quotes are added in places that were spoken long after the incident being recounted took place, which doesn't let the story stay in a time frame long enough to get a sense of being there. It's not worth space on any serious Beatle fan's shelf, unless you're just collecting all the books about them. I've read a ton of Beatles bios, and this is not one of the better ones. The author tries to make it an academic work, bogging down in minute details and completely losing the charm of the Beatles story.
It turned into a feeding frenzy and lots of print went back and forth, especially the poor way the author responded to the criticism. Not much of that is in this book.As a first time read or gift, The Beatles: The Biography will be an entertaining and pleasant journey for the millions of other non-hardcore fans and casual first time wonderers who haven't read it yet. Hardcore Beatles fans instantly caught that and then started to look for any other error in the book. Now there will always be errors in books.
But if you are buying for one of the millions of other casual to enthusiastic Beatles fans who loved their music during the 1960s, and then grew up and followed them from a distance since then, this is THE book to buy for them, again, if they haven't already read it, now that's it's been out for awhile.Why not for the fanatic. It just doesn't seem possible. He can get wordy and his choice of terms can get old after awhile. If he would have stated it as opinion, then that would negate any feelings against an observation. This book is NOT for the die-hard, already know everything hardcore Beatles fanatic.
For a book that took eight years of research and writing, it appeared with 6 glaring photo caption errors. The myth debunking has not been altered. That's part of the controversy and I'll speak briefly about it. It's the gift giving time of year again and everyone will be looking for books of interest to place under the tree.
So he was attacked for that too.This still doesn't excuse the out and out errors in the book but they are few and not many, and mostly timeline mistakes concerning when a song was recorded or an event happened. And that's a good thing.What the first time reader will get is an earthy, overwhelming look at where the Beatles story began, how it progressed, how close it came to NOT happening (ie John's father returned for him to take him forever to Australia before the band happened) and a taste of what it was like to be born in and grow up in Liverpool during and after WWII. Spitz does lend his own grease to things he writes about and this is probably my only real complaint about the book as he does it a great deal. From what I understand, the later editions of The Beatles: The Biography have had all factual errors corrected so that should no longer be a problem. And for those who still see the mop tops as the squeaky clean quartet the way they were marketed in the sixties, get ready for a wild and revealing ride.Also recommended as a companion book to this one is Here, There and Everywhere: My Life Recording the Music of the Beatles by Geoff Emerick, which reveals The Beatles on the inside of the recording studio, dealing with many of the same issues, from the eyes of those whose job it was to put their music on tape.
That is when I usually get the latest tomes on what my family members know is my favorite subject: The Beatles.You'll read a lot here about this book from different reviewers and I think it's important to make a quick distinction before you go on. So if you are buying for them, chances are they have already read it when it first came out. But this is a nit pick.What the reader will have to sift through is personal opinion. That's what we want. The reader will marvel at how from such a spot on the earth, a musical ensemble could rise within a few years and shake the cultural foundations of the earth.
Biographies by Hunter Davies and others have gone pretty much unchallenged for the false truths, made up stories, and deliberate omissions and those books that have come afterward have included these myths. In fact, Spitz could have gone a lot tougher on all of them, especially after Lennon came out with his Rolling Stone Magazine interviews and revealed pretty much everything to the world. Again, this is more of a nit pick than anything else.The story of the Beatles gets very gritty and we see all of the Beatles in a real light in this book then in most and that's okay. But it didn't stop there.Part of what Spitz wanted to do with his book was two fold: 1) Tie the whole Beatles story together into one book so that those who have not read any or most of the 500 books on the group could walk through their lives from beginning to end and feel like they've walked there with them and now understand a great deal more of the "why" and "how" of this pivotal cultural story of the 20th century, but also 2) Dispel a large part of the Beatles mythology that was purposely perpetrated on the unsuspecting public not only during the band's day in the sun but every since.
But to just throw out something as fact when it really is an opinion on a song or an event violates that unbiased place a journalist or reporter is supposed to report his story from. And no doubt they have some strong opinions about it. Spitz' writing is easy and casual and relaxed, though not always economical. Spitz set out to debunk the myths and reveal the truth and a lot of traditionalists weren't happy with it.
When this book first appeared, it was rushed out for the Christmas season. Spitz admitted that there was no excuse for the incorrect photo captions and they were corrected in the second printing.
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