To celebrate the 50th anniversary! This is one of my all-time favorite movies. I’ve see it at least twenty times and still love it completely. For all ages to enjoy too.
The Book I Read: The Beatles – A Hard Days Write
Are you a major Beatles fan? Not just liking their music, but wanting to know a lot more about it. If so, then this thorough but easily-readable book is just the thing. The author, Steve Turner, takes a look at every single song that they wrote and the story behind each song. Some song explanations take less than a page, others a few pages. Most of the song stories are quite interesting and informative If you wanted to know about any (or all) of their songs, then start with this book. It reads so easy but it is packed full of Beatle knowledge. I really enjoyed it.
Every song they wrote is represented here, up to and including the ones on the Anthology albums. It’s all chronological so you also get a sense of the increasing complexity and maturity of their music as time went on.
OK, yes, I know the picture here is the german version but believe me I read the English version. The German cover was a better graphic so I used that one. I got this book in the bargain books section of Barnes and Noble. So run down there and get one!
Shout: The Beatles In Their Generation
Have you read this book? It’s by Philip Norman and I finished it recently. I’m a pretty big Beatles fan but I still learned a lot from this book. It starts with when they first met each other and goes chronologically through the breakup and a little after. It’s divided into sections of their career as a group: Wishing, Getting, Having, and Wasting.
The four of them are not saints and all of them did things they might want to take back, and of course the strain of their huge fame took a toll on their relationships within the group and also without. The author has some biases and opinions that are not hidden. As with most biographies, you can tell fact from opinion and disregard the opinion if you want to. He does have an interesting writing style and the sheer amount of information makes it well worthwhile. There’s John the caustic but gifted one, Paul the sometimes sappy but melodic one, George the decent guitarist who comes into his own as the group begins to fall apart, and Ringo the good time guy who was everyone’s pal and had a fun ride. Is this the definitive book about the Beatles? Maybe not but it’s got a lot. Is it unbiased? Not all the time. Is it a fun and entertaining read with a LOT of great stuff about the fabs? Yes!
