The Beatles' Authorized Bio by Hunter Davies

Cafe Society
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All right - I am on vacation and sprained my foot on the first morning - ::sigh::

So everybody is off doing stuff and I have my foot up and iced, stuck at our rental house with the Olympics and my new BlackBerry Curve, which has decent web acces - but posting to the Dope is tough with just my thumbs!

ANYway, I finished the Beatles’ bio. There was a post some time ago where we discussed it vs. the more recent bio bt Bob Spitz. I can’t figure out how to post a link with my BB - if anyone reading this knows the thread or can search CS on “spitz” and get a link that would be great.

Bottom line: IMHO, it is not even close - the Spitz book is far better. The Davies book stops at 1968 (although the Forward and Afterward try to add closure) so it is fatally incomplete - and even tho it has the benefit of inside access it is unfortunately a bit too close - it pulls punches on their shotcomings, conflicts, Epstein’s poor business decisions, etc. The Afterward dishes a big spoonfull of Paul’s bitterness at John and John’s transformation to Saint in the public’s eyes right after getting murdered - something I am sure Paul wishes he could take back later.

The book is worth reading - its inside perspective is good and its willingness to delve into drug use and show the Fabs kinda warts and all (we read about Lennon’s tough personality but Yoko isn’t really in the book - John is still married in '68 - and the discussion of drugs is amazing in '68 but then to claim they are all off drugs at the end of the book? Yeah right) is interesting - but read it after the Spitz book to put it in a better context.

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If you can’t get enough of the Beatles you might consider the book "Here There and Everywhere. My Life Recording the Beatles"by Geoff Emrick.

This is purely what happened in the EMI Abbey Road studios. But it’s an easy read and you get to go behind the scenes to see how they put everything together.
The growing animosity between McCartney and Lennon became such a strain to put up with that Emrick quit in the middle of the White Album. The unexpected loss of their chosen engineer shocked the 4, and they would later apologize and bring him back to the final albums.
He would go on the be the master recorder for the Apple Studios (you’ll be surprised at what ruined the place).
After his association with Apple cooled Emrick would be asked to record McCartney in Africa…and that’s an interesting story, too.

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Yep - I started a thread about his book a few months ago and would link to it but for my weak BBerry skillz.