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daja57's review against another edition
3.0
A voluminous book about the Beatles. Brown's technique, already displayed in his book 'One on One', is to assemble a collage of snippets, offering peeks into events in the history of the Beatles. These include comments from celebrity and non-celebrity fans, Brown's own experiences as a boy growing up to the background of the Beatles, and Brown's notes taken while on tours of National Trust properties linked to the Beatles. There are even some counterfactual pages. This can be quite endearing, and it is easy to read a few of the mostly short chapters and then put the book down, but I found it annoying in the end.
The author is clearly a wordsmith. He spends a great deal of time tracing the provenance of lyrics, sometimes explaining what they mean. He very rarely says anything about the music, except sometimes quoting often pompous musicologists. And yet these lads were, first and foremost, musicians. It seems an enormous blind spot.
Easy to read but how can you miss out the music?
The author is clearly a wordsmith. He spends a great deal of time tracing the provenance of lyrics, sometimes explaining what they mean. He very rarely says anything about the music, except sometimes quoting often pompous musicologists. And yet these lads were, first and foremost, musicians. It seems an enormous blind spot.
Easy to read but how can you miss out the music?
benedettal's review
2.5
I guess this is a fine biography, if you can call it that when the focus really isn’t on the individuals at all. I don’t think I know the band any more intimately, but I think the goal of this book was to more so give a sense of their meteoric rise to fame. It does give a lot of things for granted, which maybe is okay because it means that it’s less descriptive. I guess I just don’t necessarily care so much about the thoughts of random fans or even some more famous one who were mentioned by one name only to be explained further in a footnote, idk I just thought it was a little clunky.
I think the problems likely have to do with market saturation. Did anyone really need another beatles biography? Probably not, so this one is trying to do something different. Or maybe I’m just not used to the focus having to be split between so many people.
What I did appreciate was the lack of sugarcoating of the whoring and drug use of the early days, that was funny. But I don’t think the author kept that edge throughout, idk. Anyways, still good enough.
I think the problems likely have to do with market saturation. Did anyone really need another beatles biography? Probably not, so this one is trying to do something different. Or maybe I’m just not used to the focus having to be split between so many people.
What I did appreciate was the lack of sugarcoating of the whoring and drug use of the early days, that was funny. But I don’t think the author kept that edge throughout, idk. Anyways, still good enough.
joko88's review against another edition
funny
informative
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
4.25
Lots of small moments about the Beatles and their world at large, as well as their impact on fans and some of their legacy
radikaliseradgroda's review against another edition
3.0
This is a fun biography, if a bit over-padded with lists and trivia (who reads a Beatles biography to find out what new words were coined in 1964?). Also there was a lot of repetition, and a surprising amount of vitriol spewed about Yoko Ono - and the whole fluxus movement for that matter. How can you praise "I am the Walrus" for its whimsical nonsense, and then tear apart Grapefruit for playing the same game, only in a different medium?
gregmorton's review against another edition
4.0
It's a well written book with great stories and couldn't put it down, so 4 stars, but I equally abandoned it fairly early on because it focuses on the seedy and negative elements of the Beatles story and life's too short for that
greybeard49's review against another edition
4.0
I grew up with them and this book took me right back to those times and the emotions and atmosphere that we all experienced then. The book is superbly written and the information, short anecdotes and historical detail are wonderfully rolled out. I was born in '49 so was at the age were the 'phenomenon' which was the Beatles really made an impact.
I vividly remember the early records up to the concert on the roof and the the day I heard that they were breaking up. I, too, bought the 'White Album' after scraping together the cash to do it. Singing 'Hey Jude' in dance clubs or walking down the street with my mates going 'Na-na-na-na'. Well done Criag Brown.
I vividly remember the early records up to the concert on the roof and the the day I heard that they were breaking up. I, too, bought the 'White Album' after scraping together the cash to do it. Singing 'Hey Jude' in dance clubs or walking down the street with my mates going 'Na-na-na-na'. Well done Criag Brown.
toniclark's review against another edition
5.0
Oh, just wonderful And the audio version is FANTASTIC!! “Though fifty years have passed since the breakup of the Beatles, the fab four continue to occupy an utterly unique place in popular culture. Their influence extends far beyond music and into realms as diverse as fashion and fine art, sexual politics and religion. When they appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show in 1964, fresh off the plane from England, they provoked an epidemic of hoarse-throated fandom that continues to this day.” [from the Amazon summary]
The Beatles’ music is the soundtrack of my life and it’s really hard to believe that 50 years have passed since they broke up. It’s easy to think we know all there is to know about them, but I learned a lot. In the end, my opinion of John changed quite a bit (for the worse) and I have a new appreciation for Ringo, who I found to be the most endearing. It’s impossible not to love Paul, right? And George? I’m still ambivalent.
The book was published in the UK with the title “One, Two, Three, Four: The Beatles in Time” (better title!). Do listen to the audio if you can. It’s a magnificent production.
The Beatles’ music is the soundtrack of my life and it’s really hard to believe that 50 years have passed since they broke up. It’s easy to think we know all there is to know about them, but I learned a lot. In the end, my opinion of John changed quite a bit (for the worse) and I have a new appreciation for Ringo, who I found to be the most endearing. It’s impossible not to love Paul, right? And George? I’m still ambivalent.
The book was published in the UK with the title “One, Two, Three, Four: The Beatles in Time” (better title!). Do listen to the audio if you can. It’s a magnificent production.