Customer Reviews:
GREAT INTERVIEW.......2007-05-12
I had read this book years ago and like so many other things, you lend it out and never get it back. sigh. I was happy to find this online and ordered it straight away. It was ordered at the same time as my Amazon stuff (through a reseller) and it beat my Amazon order by a good 3 days! lol
This is a fantastic inverview. I only wish an audio were available. Maybe someday.
My Favorite book!.......2002-07-27
I love John lennon so i started reading biographys on him and interviews, etc to learn more about him. When I read "The Playboy Interviews With John Lennon and Yoko Ono" I HONESTLY COULD NOT PUT IT DOWN! I couldn't believe it; i started reading it in the afternoon and didn't put it down until late at night where i finished it! It is a wonderful, wonderful book with John's sense of humor and yoko's too and their insight into the world. It really is my favorite book because it is close to a John Lennon autobiography as the world will ever know. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!
A Good Book About John and Yoko!!!!!!!!.......2002-04-09
I think that this book was very good. It took the reader in to the private lives of both John and Yoko. It gives us an inside look on what their own private lives were really like. That being when John was with The Beatles and his life afterwards and up to the end of his life. I recommend reading this book. It takes you into John's thoughts about life!!
essential insights.......2000-11-10
This is the definitive book regarding John Lennon. He reviews almost every song he wrote with or without Paul McCartney, which alone is worth the price of admission. In addition to that, he provides insights into his personal philosophies and world views. One could call it the perfect companion to the recent Beatles Anthology book. Crucial reading. How sad he had to die a little over 2 months after these interviews were conducted. Unfortunately out of print, do yourself a favor and try an out of print book search; you won't regret it.
One of my very favourite books..........2000-01-06
I first read this book back in 1983, to gain a little insight of John...and it quickly became my favourite book. Although I don't think Yoko was or is everything he thought, this was a man who truly loved his wife, and believed with his whole heart and soul in their marriage and life together. He was enjoying making music again, so much (this interview was done in September of 1980) and was looking forward to the future...hoping he'd be there with us. His love for his music, his wife, his sons, and even the Beatles are all there. He gives his opinions on every subject he can think of, both positive and negative, in his usual witty, straight-to-the-point manner that we all know him for. The interviewer did a great job, and was clearly a man who admired John Lennon as much as I do. He did a great job in this book, and it is my absolute favourite, out of all of my collection. Anyone who wants a peek into what John thought and felt and wanted you to know, should read this book...you will treasure it as I do.
Amazon.com
John Lennon could be angry, as he is in Lennon Remembers: The Full Rolling Stone Interviews from 1970, and nasty, as proven by Albert Goldman's brilliant, scathing The Lives of John Lennon.
But he could also be charming, smart, and extraordinarily witty, as he is in his last interview, published in book form as All We Are Saying. Co-interviewee Yoko Ono is charm-free but valuable, because she sparks the conversation and brings up fascinating stuff that Lennon wished she hadn't, like their mad plots to kidnap her daughter from her ex-husband. As interviewer David Sheff's tape rolls, John and Yoko's anecdotes flow effortlessly: the joys of making their 1980 comeback album, Double Fantasy; the mortifying horrors of John's "lost weekend" in L.A. with Harry Nilsson; John's interestingly twisted family life; John and Yoko and Paul's last get-together, watching Saturday Night Live the night producer Lorne Michaels offered the Beatles $3,200 to reunite on the show (they almost got in a cab and did it!).
Best of all is Lennon's song-by-song account of who wrote which famous tunes and where they came from. "Strawberry Fields" contains an entire childhood memoir, and the production reflects Paul's alleged "sabotage" of Lennon's work. "Please Please Me" was based on a Roy Orbison melody and Bing Crosby's punning song title "Please (Lend an Ear to My Pleas)." The "element'ry penguins" in "I Am the Walrus" refer to idiots like Allen Ginsberg who chant "Hare Krishna" worshipfully. "Hey Jude" was Paul's song comforting John's son Julian when John left his family for Yoko, and Paul's unconscious, reluctant farewell to his writing partner ("go out and get her").
Lennon had been publicly silent and artistically dormant for five years before these interviews, and he was just bursting with the exhilaration of the rebirth of his imagination days before his death. Reading this book is like sharing a day in the life of a very happy man. --Tim Appelo
Book Description
Twenty years ago David Sheff climbed the back steps of the Dakota into the personal thoughts and dreams of John Lennon and Yoko Ono. From the kitchen to the studio and up those fateful Dakota steps, Sheff recorded 20 hours of tape, discussing everything from childhood to the Beatles.Sheff gives a rare and last glimpse of John and Yoko, one that seemed to look beyond the kitchen table to the future of the world with startling premonitions of what was to come.AUTHORBIO: David Sheff's articles and interviews have appeared in Playboy, The New York Times Magazine, Rolling Stone, Wired, Outside, The Los Angeles Times Magazine, Esquire and Observer Magazine in England, Foreign Literature in Russia and Playboy (Shueisha) in Japan. He also writes for and is West Coast editor of Yahoo! Internet Life magazine.Other interviews, including those with Ansel Adams, nuclear physicist Ted Taylor, Gore Vidal, Steve Jobs, Tom Hanks, Scott Peck, Betty Friedan, and Keith Haring, received wide recognition, as did his "Portrait of a Generation" in Rolling Stone. His radio documentaries for National Public Radio on John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath and Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird won several awards.When it first appeared in 1981, Sheff's "The Playboy Interviews With John Lennon and Yoko Ono," which has been described as "historic," "compelling and compassionate" and "definitive," was a Literary Guild selection.
Customer Reviews:
The Walrus and the Carpenter.......2007-01-09
My favorite Lennon quote comes not from this book, but from the Beatle's set during the Royal Variety Performance for the British Royal Family in 1963: "Will the people in the cheaper seats clap your hands? And the rest of you, if you'll just rattle your jewelry." I love that, though I've been told you need to be raised in the British class-consciousness to fully appreciate the insolence of that.
I grabbed this book just out of curiosity, as a Beatles fan and a Lennon fan in particular. I read in a review that Lennon goes through the whole catalog of Beatles songs and comments on them. I thought that would be interesting to read. Yoko Ono was the least of my concerns, but they were and are a package deal. I bought into the popular cultural conception of Yoko as the villainess who broke up the Beatles. So the first thing that struck me, reading these interviews, is what an intelligent, sympathetic, and likeable figure she is, when heard in her own words, in the comforts of her home base. And the two of them together actually seem like a nice, well-matched couple, decent people who- against the odds- had found contentment amid the surreal circumstances of their lives. No doubt that they are eccentric in some ways, and some of their philosophizing has that post-Hippie, flaky, dated feel, as you might expect. They are artists after all. But at the same time, they surprised me at times at how level-headed they came off. Despite the near deification of the Beatles, it is John who continuously reminds us that they were just a rock and roll band that was in the right place at the right time and wrote some good songs. And they are able to honestly talk about the strain on their relationship caused by their celebrity. With all the typical defiant talk about letting people think whatever they are going to think, Yoko admits to the heartache of bad press: "It's a very strange thing that society can do that much to a relationship, but it does because we're social animals. We're social beings. A relationship is not isolated from society." "Society can break an individual. That is what happened." John, too, often displays the vulnerability buried within the armor of the iconoclast: "We're both sensitive people and we were both hurt by a lot of it." Enough time has passed for them to analyze the hostility garnered by Yoko, as a woman, when she began managing John's business affairs. John talks about the attitude towards Yoko at these meetings where she was the only woman, "They're all male, you know, just big and fat, vodka lunch, shouting males, like trained dogs, trained to attack all the time." Yoko is wonderful, chiming in with "I was emasculated." Then launching into her formulation of male aggressiveness, "you must have the womb-envy thing," she speculates. Men are aggressive to mask their intimidation and jealousy. After all, she notes, "we give life."
The most valuable part of this book, in which John systematically goes through almost every Beatles and solo Lennon song, is a concession John granted after blowing Playboy's scoop by giving an interview to Newsweek magazine. We get John's feelings about each of the songs as well as the memories triggered by them, what was going on in that period of his life and how they were written. Though John continues with the superficial model of `John songs' and `Paul songs,' we see that the truth is more complicated, they wrote the best of the Beatles "one-on-one, eyeball to eyeball... both playing into each other's noses." We see why they were great together (and why George and Ringo are two very lucky men to have been along for the ride) and why neither of them, as solo musicians, could produce songs that measure up well to the Beatles. There are several examples of the two of them contributing little touches to each others songs, the little shadings that profoundly deepen the work. Without Paul, John was mostly a writer of catchy tunes, superficial fluff with great hooks. Some of Paul's solo works come close to the best of the Beatles, but for the most part, he was missing the nuances- the melodies and tenderness- of Paul's sound. A song like "Michele" is a perfect example. Paul wrote a pretty little love ballad. John heard it shortly after hearing Nina Simone sing the blues, and he suggested the bluesy "I love you, I love you, I love you," bridge. Paul writes "It's getting better all the time," and John adds "it couldn't get much worse." Paul writes "We can work it out" and John adds "Life is very short..." Or conversely, John writes about "A Day in the Life," about a man violently killing himself, and Paul adds the sweetest little lick to ever float into a song from nowhere: "I'd love to turn you on." And so on. I particularly recommend this section as a morning commute read, riding the train with Ipod in hand, keeping the songs in your ears as you read John's analysis of them.
Of course, one can't read these interviews without being constantly reminded that John was assassinated just months afterwards. It gave me chills to read some of John's philosophizing in that light, "Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King are great examples of fantastic nonviolents who died violently. I can never work that out. We're pacifists, but I'm not sure what it means when you're such a pacifist that you get shot."
And the heartbreak is palpable when reading of the pride John took in stepping out of the action and becoming a full time father to Sean. "Here we are: I'm going to be forty, Sean's going to be five. Isn't it great! We survived!"
If you are a real fan you will love this!.......2006-08-14
This for me is better than any other book because it is reading the acutual words that John said. He gives his own first hand comments on each song (no guessing what each song was about -- he tells you). When he can't remember (it was the 60's after all) John will say so. The most important thing he says is "get interested in your own life" meant in the very kindest way John wants to remind us that we can identify with him, we can love him, but to please NOT make him to focus of your life -- YOU should be the focus of YOUR life. His insights to life can help you acchieve insights of your own. John rules! But I am thankful that he reminds us it is not important to memorize his height and weight or other "facts" but rather to LIVE the life we have -- as I wish he had the option to do. American must stop naming cruel people and making them famous if we do not want more useful people to be killed by those who have little human value -- of course that is only my take -- I can't rule YOUR thoughts (and for that you should be glad ha, ha).
Get the book if you are a Beatles or John Lennon fan... ;-)
I COULDN'T PUT THIS BOOK DOWN!! 10 STARS!!!.......2005-12-30
INCLUDES AN AMAZING SERIES OF QUESTION AND ANSWER SESSIONS, THAT YOU WILL NOT BE ABLE TO PUT IT DOWN! I WAS SURPRISED AT SOME OF JOHN'S ANSWERS; BUT IT DID MAKE SENSE COMING FROM HIM. I WON'T SPOIL IT FOR EVERYONE....SO EVEN IF YOU'RE NOT A DIE HARD LENNON FAN, YOU WON'T BE DISAPPOINTED BY THIS FUNNY AND TOUCHING PIECE OF WORK...JUST BEAUTIFUL!
Listen to this Book!.......2005-11-16
John Lennon and wife Yoko Ono give an excellent interview by pulling out all stops. Sheff's interview in "Playboy" with the pair is a vital oral history about the former Beatle's life and his insight on each Beatle song. Sheff takes readers on a Magical Mystery Tour through the recording studio; the Dakota and in and around the neighborhood. The interview is candid and direct; readers are given a clear look of and at John and Yoko.
John is shown, warts and all in real, living color. He is not glamorized nor vilified; he is presented as the man that he was. John Lennon was many things to many people; Sixties icon; musician extraordinaire; artist; spouse; father; author; actor; joker; interviewee; "militant pacifist," an oxymoronic term. John was a very complex man and this Rubik's cube of a book puts the pieces together in such a way that readers can readily assemble their image of John Lennon.
John makes no bones abut the Beatles being part of his past; he appears to want to move further down the Long & Winding Road without further Hard Day's Nights in re his Beatle history. It was also interesting to learn what groups and artists John liked and how he felt they influenced him.
Hats off to Sheff for introducing readers to each person in the interview. If there is one literary pitfall to avoid, it is never, repeat, never spring characters or real people onto readers without introducing them. That weakens a work and Sheff is quite adept at dodging this trap.
John appeared to be moving at a quicker pace in this interview; whereas Sheff wanted to discuss the Beatles more in depth, John gave one word answers to Beatle related questions and seemed eager to discuss his 1980 album, "Double Fantasy" as well as works he was planning after that.
This is a bittersweet book for Beatle and Lennon fans because of John's untimely death in late 1980. Even so, the book remains an excellent source of information about the man who founded the World's Number One Band, the Beatles and the man who made the world listen.
Listen to John Lennon.
"She doesn't need a Beatle. Who needs a Beatle?".......2005-08-31
Indeed, All We Are Saying: The Last Interview with John Lennon and Yoko Ono pulls out the punches. The book shows how far former Beatle, John Lennon, had come and where he was headed. David Sheff's "Playboy" interview with John Lennon and Yoko Ono is the most fascinating piece of oral history about Lennon's life as well as the story behind every Beatle song. Sheff intimately takes reader through the studio, John and Yoko's Dakota apartment, and down the neighborhood coffeeshop sharing a cappuccino. All We Are Saying presents an extremely candid and frank interview that was held two months prior to Lennon's passing. Sheff reveals Lennon's growth and new beginning that would unfortunately be cut short.
All We Are Saying does not lack in humor and seriousness. This was the man, not the Sixties icon who sang against a "Revolution," who still had dreams and aspirations to accomplish at the time the interview was conducted. For fans of Lennon as well as the Beatles, this was Lennon stripped down and open for questions, and he merely tells it like it is or was. He expresses the breakup of the Beatles, and emphasizes that they were great, but they were in the past. He talks about the ups and downs of his individual experience from being a heroin addict to a househusband. He was living in the here and now, and the music that he was making at the time reflected that mantra. Though the references he made about the music scene now appear dated, Lennon was ahead of his game and kept up with bands, such as the Clash, Pretenders, and the B-52's. He even raves how the B-52's rip-off Yoko's style of music.
Sheff writes the interview in clear and picturesque narrative. For every new chapter, he introduces the reader to where the interview is going. However, the concluding portions of the book appear too rushed. Sheff appears to have wanted to discuss or at least learn about every tidbit about each Beatles song, which almost portrayed a to-do list, and at times it appears as if he did not want to run out of tape. From the transcript of the interview, Lennon appears too tired to talk about each and every Beatle song as he answers with yes and no answers. For the most part, Lennon wanted to speak about his new album at the time, "Double Fantasy", and new projects he was planning.
All We Are Saying is an important document of the life of John Lennon. For Beatle and Lennon fans, the book is quite ironic and sad due to the circumstance, but that should not stop any one from learning more about one of the most legendary artists of the twentieth century.
Customer Reviews:
A Treasure.......2004-04-07
I'm pretty surprised about the few people here who have actually bashed this book. As a big Beatle fan and one who's read tons of books about them, I don't recall any inconsistancy's in this book whatsoever. Though short, this is probably one of the most prized Beatle books in my collection. My only complaint is I wish George Martin would do the same thing he's done here with Sgt. Pepper and write books about the sessions for the White Album, Revolver and Abby Rd. : ) A treasure to own. A book to read and re-read over and over.
A must read for all music producers.......2001-01-22
It is a well accepted fact that two of the best produced pop/rock albums to date are Sgt. Peppers and Pet Shop. The reason for owning this album is to gain an inside look into the master mind of one of these most important albums. It may be true that our recording equipment has improved our flexability but nothing can replace a truly great producer and great musicianship. George Martin is one of the truly great hero's of our ART and this book gives us a wonderful look into one of his master pieces. I am a big Beatles fan but this book is really directed to producers rather than The Beatles fan base...and I love it. This book has become very hard to get a hold of but it is a MUST HAVE for the library of every producer.
You place your bets, you takes your chances.......2000-03-17
This book isn't perfect. As a previous reviewer has remarked, it's inconsistent with Martin's previous books, not to mention other books that have been written about the Beatles. Still, it provides a contrasting point of view, and as such is worth looking over. Nobody's perfect, and Martin admits in so many words that his memory isn't ironclad. Just don't bet the ranch on what Martin has to say.
Read "All You Need Is [ouch!] Ears" instead........1999-10-14
There is very little here that isn't also in George Martin's earlier and much superior (and ungrammatically entitled, alas) "All You Need is Ears". The stories retold are altered, seemingly to jibe with Paul McCartney's relentless post-Lennon rewriting of Beatle history. Veracity aside, this tends to make them banal and humorless.
Recommended: PENTATONIC SCALES FOR THE JAZZ-ROCK KEYBOARDIST by Jeff Burns.
crudely written, redundant, and of questionable authenticity.......1999-10-11
It's amazing to think the author needed the services of a ghostwriter to write this badly. You'd think a reasonably intelligent twelve-year-old could have accomplished it by himself. Those who "[assume] the TRUTH [sic] will be 'good enough' [sic] entertainment for any sensible reader" may appreciate the Andy Warhol documentary in which the exterior of a building is filmed for twenty-four hours (the film lasts twenty-four hours). The art of the memoir is knowing what to leave out. McCartney's habitual trick is to damn John Lennon with faint praise. He loves to tell (and retell and retell again) how John Lennon contributed to his "It's Getting Better" the line "It can't get no worse", while completely ignoring the sophisticated and innovative harmony of "Julia" and "Because", etc. Rather a coincidence then that George Martin treats us to here to yet another rehearsal of this insipid story. (John Lennon was murdered December 1980. Interviews with John Lennon appeared in the December issues of "Playboy" and "Rolling Stone". In neither of these interviews does John Lennon attribute any bit of "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" to Paul McCartney. In 1965, on the other hand, the Beatles were still pretending that the attribution "Lennon-McCartney" necessarily implied a collaboration.) I can't help suspecting that in this case "research"--in contradistinction to believing your own eyes and ears--meant letting your book be edited by Paul McCartney's propensity for dissimulation and enormous ego.
Customer Reviews:
Not perfect, but a great read for any Beatles fan.......2007-04-07
Essentially this was a great book until I reached the latter part. The first 3/4ths were highly entertaining and kept me hooked. Bramwell relates stories that I personally had never heard before; stories that could only be told by someone who knew the members of the Beatles so intimately. Despite this I felt that Ringo and George could have been mentioned a bit more throughout. Additionally I thought that the last quarter of the book dragged a bit more than the beginning. Personally I had no problem with Bramwell's perceptions of Yoko. It was based on his experiences and how he interpreted the events that occurred. Can't quite fault the man for that.
I think that almost every Beatles fan should read Magical Mystery Tours. It's really quite the read.
Top Three Beatles Book.......2007-02-10
Fabulous insider's look at the real Fab Four, not the media myth. Bramwell was a Liverpool peer, grew up with these kids and started lugging their equipment when still wet behind the ears. He saw it all, from the creation. Superbly evocative writing recreates 60s scenes as though they happened yesterday. Sure, I wondered how Bramwell could recite 40-year-old dialogue from memory. It's probably made up, but as a memoir, it's his best memory of who said and did what. He sears Yoko and claims Lennon may have been about to leave her when he died. Details inside this can't-put-down book eclipse most of the rival volumes like Bob Spitz's recent history.
I loved the behind-doors details in this book!.......2006-08-12
Tony Bramwell wrote a marvelous book, sparing no detail on his decades long friendship with the Beatles. Hundreds and possibly thousands of books have been written over the years, but Tony related intimate details that I've never heard elsewhere, such as when was the exact moment Paul and Linda fell in love, and what was going on outside the recording studio that made George so crazy. (Answer to #1, during one of Paul's visits to Beverly Hills, and answer to #2, Pattie was clubbing till all hours while George was on the phone begging her to go home.) It's these details and many many more that give Tony's book a place on every Beatles' lover's book shelf. Well done!
Interesting but flawed.......2006-08-03
A chatty book. The focus in the first half seems to me to be on Brian Epstein and his long slide towards an early death from nervous and physical exhaustian and, of course, drug use. The second half of the book is by and large dedicated to showing what a monster Yoko Ono was with absolutely no attempt at portraying her with any sense of balance and often becomes tiresome. Allen Klein (deservedly?) is also skewered. John's character descends into some sort of hopelessly naive, drug and love addled lunatic who has been 'hynotized' by the dastardly Ono. The book portrays Paul (and later, Linda) far and away in the most positive light. Ringo is rarely mentioned and George doesn't fare much better. That said, Bramwell does give the reader a good taste of what the early to late '60s were like. His depiction of the early years of the Beatles' career is usually amusingly gossipy, mildly informative and generally entertaining. I'd recommend the book though this is certainly not an essential work as far as the Beatles go. Geoff Emerick's new book is far more noteworthy.
One of the best Beatle memoirs.......2006-07-03
Bramwell's Beatle memoir is detailed, more or less accurate, and often humorous. What else do you need?
Product Description
applelog 5th edition: a guide for the U.S. and Canadian Apple Records Collector!
Applelog 5th Edition is the only complete resource for collectors of U.S. and Canadian Apple recordings and related material, including:
Albums, Singles, E.P.'s, Compact Disc's, 4-Tracks, 8-Tracks, Cassettes, Reel-to-reels, Apple reissues, Apple Advertisements, Apple Studios, Details on unreleased items, Apple Memorabilia, Foreign Apple Records, Special Interest Items and more.
Applelog also provides values for specific Apple items, and releases by:
The Beatles, Badfinger, Bill Elliot & The Elastic Oz Band, Black Dyke Mills Band, Brute Force, Delaney & Bonnie, Elephant's Memory, George Harrison, Chris Hodge, Mary Hopkin, The Hot Chocolate Band, The Ivey's, John Lennon, Jackie Lomax, Paul McCartney, Yoko Ono, David Peel & The Lower East Side, Billy Preston, Ravi Shankar, Ronnie Spector, Ringo Starr, Sundown Playboys, John Tavener,
James Taylor, Doris Troy, White Trash... all apple artists.
The LIMITED EDITION volume comes with a bonus CD which contains over 40 tracks, from interview clips and commercial promo spots, to unheard acetate excerpts!
Each volume is hand numbered and signed by the author. 380 pages.
Customer Reviews:
Exceptional reference guide to Apple Records.......2007-02-02
This is a reference guide to the products, mostly recordings, put out in the US and Canada by Apple Records, the Beatles' own record label. The Apple label began operations in 1968 that continue to this day. This well-illustrated book covers not just Beatles on Apple and solo Beatles on Apple; ALL artists released on Apple get equal and thorough coverage. (Even some unreleased, like Richard Brautigan and Delaney and Bonnie.)
If you are a collector of Apple Records materials, this is a must-have. If you are not a collector, it will be of lesser interest.
The "Special Interest" and "Apple Corps" sections in particular contain info that is hard to come by otherwise. The bonus CD contains material of interest to completists.
Compared to an earlier edition of AppleLog that I have, the images of the record labels are far superior in this new edition.
I have two main quibbles with this book:
1) not every label variation is well-covered
2) the estimated prices listed by the author differ from what I see in record stores and at on-line auctions. They are significantly inflated in this guide, both at the VG and NM levels, in my opinion.
If not for those issues, I would give it 5 stars.
If you read this book plus Bruce Spizer's books on Apple Records, you are well on the way to knowing much of what there is to be known about Apple Records products, advertisements, etc. I recommend all three books.
If you want to read a history of Apple Records, "Apple to the Core" and "The World's Longest Cocktail Party" are titles to look for.
Customer Reviews:
review.......2004-03-01
It was the most interesting beatles book i've ever read. It had inside information and opinions of each beatle. I felt like i knew them personally. It wasn't helpful in writing my papers but it was the most intriguing. Once I have the time i'd like to read it from cover to cover. It is good for pleasure reading but not for research.
authoring made easy: use auto-generate book on your PC.......2003-10-13
This time Geoffrey Giuliano decided to make life easy for himself and present a book full of interviews, press conferences, letters, FBI memos etc., and so he didn't have to write a lot himself (Bob Wooler wrote the foreword). The book consists of 8 parts; The Beatles (interviews & articles from 1964 - 1996), John Lennon (1963 - 1983), Paul McCartney (1968 - 1998), George Harrison (early 1960's - 1991), Ringo Starr & Pete Best (lumped together for all of 2 articles; 1976 - 1985), Family (1979 - 1984), Friends (1961 - 1984) and Newspaper Reportage (1967 - 1998).
Of course this book will almost certainly feature some interviews that you haven't read before and at 349 pages this book is thicker than the average GG book, but why the interviews etc. provided in this book were selected, when there is so much more to choose from, remains a mystery (the author's introduction doesn't shed any light on this either). There is no specific `theme' in any of the sections, so it's not a book you could easily use as a reference. It includes things that I just can't place in a book like this, for instance `Forty Beatles Trivia Questions' (answers provided) - why? And there is also a single page that claims to be All About Apple Corps Ltd (when there are complete books about Apple alone). Once again - why when the subtitle is The Beatles In Their Own Words? And there are many more puzzling examples.
A lot of the interviews don't have the exact date and/or location where they were recorded and this limits their value somewhat.
The photo sections include quite a few snaps I hadn't seen before, so I found that part interesting (of course the author has made sure he features in a few of them, like he does in most of his books).
I read in another review of this book that it probably took him a weekend to put this one together. If he gets himself a faster PC, he could probably do 3 of these in one weekend.
Big Deal.......2002-11-29
As if we need any more evidence that Geoffrey Giuliano is a opportunist hanger-on disguised as a "expert" - this book is strictly the work of a clerk, not an author. Collate a bunch of old, dubious interviews, insert one's own impressions, call it a book. That great effort of journalism must have taken, what, a weekend to toss together?
And isn't it nice Geoffrey Giuliano can take credit for this "monumental" work and collect royalties off it.
Some expert.
CAN YOU DIG IT?.......2002-10-12
I sure did. So should any serious beatles fan. Great shots too. I keep it a reference book and go through it often.
Looking Through A Glass Onion.......2002-08-05
I have been a Beatle fan for thirty years, and it is great to finally hear the Beatles own story as told in their own words. Not only are the Beatles featured, but so are their closest family and friends. It was a great read, as are all Beatle author Giuliano's works.
Average customer rating:
- A Timeline of Live Beatle Magic
|
The Beatles Live (Book With Record)
Mark Lewisohn
Manufacturer: Henry Holt & Co (P)
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The Unreleased Beatles: Music and Film
ASIN: 0805001581 |
Customer Reviews:
A Timeline of Live Beatle Magic.......2000-12-18
I brought this book and read it from cover to cover a number of years back and I continually pick it up to check the facts. The book has a wealth of information about the live performances of the Beatles from 1957 to the last live performance on the 29th August 1966 at The Candlestick Park San Francisco. It details what songs were played and who sang the lead vocal. A breif history of the period under review. Remember Beatlemaina in Adelaide back in 1964 where more than 300,000 fans lined the streets to see their heros. Its all descibed here. This is a must have book and despite being able to have some of this book reproduced in Mark Lewisohn's The Complete Beatles Chronicles, you still need this book. Its worth the search for it.
Oky, Adelaide, Australia Dec 2000
Product Description
A timeless record of the Fab Four at the height of Beatlemania, as seen though the lens of Dezo Hoffmann.
Customer Reviews:
Some of the best pictures.......2002-10-19
This book is a collection of very early pictures of the Beatles, some of which we have seen on promotional material. In my opinion several of those pictures are the Beatles' best. It is also very interesting to read Dezo's comments as to where and when the pictures were taken. He was their first official photographer. Great memories, great book!
A TREASURE CHEST.......2002-04-09
This book is a treasure chest of professional photographs and anecdotes. This book has something for everyone, from the inveterate Beatles' fan to people who are becoming familiar with them. This book is indeed a masterpiece that will long register in the minds of those who read it.
Paper time machine.......1998-07-21
if you are a Beatles fan you must see it, and return in a paper time machine to the beginning of the most fantastic line of the music story.
For every Beatle Fan, and for the Music Lover!.......1996-11-20
For anyone who is interested in music (and who isn't today?), this book is different in the kind of material in it.
The book is comprised of pictures from the early Beatles' career, and have a captioned story line given by their first professional
photographer,the late Dezo Hoffman.
Any music lover should take a look because if it wasn't for the Fabs, you may still be
listening to your Big Band and Swing Time, with a little Blue-Grass on the side.. (I know most of you probably aren't into that!)
I thought it was entertaining, considering I am a Fab Fan..
Some pictures never-before seen.. Some interesting comments.
Book Description
It was the ultimate 1960s scene: the ashram in Rishikesh, India, where the Beatles, Donovan, Mia Farrow, a stray Beach Boy, and other 1960s icons gathered along the shores of the Ganges-amidst paisley and incense and flowers and guitars-to meditate at the feet of the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. The February 1968 gathering received such frenzied, worldwide attention that it is still considered a significant, early encounter between Western pop culture and the mystical East.
But what went on inside the compound has long been the subject of wild speculation and rampant rumor. The Beatles, for example, have said they wrote some of their greatest songs there . . . and yet they also came away bitterly disillusioned.
While dozens of reporters from around the world flew to the remote location to camp out at the entrance of the retreat, only one journalist was allowed inside: Lewis Lapham, now the esteemed editor of Harper's Magazine, then a reporter for The Saturday Evening Post, who was seen-along with Tom Wolfe-as one of the progenitors of the hip "New Journalism."
Lapham's wry take on what he found inside the ashram won acclaim at the time, but here he includes some surprising material he's never written about before-from hysterically funny descriptions of the Maharishi's daily press conferences, to the high style demands of certain stars upon the hapless local tailor, to impromptu jam sessions and the true story behind the scandal that drove the Beatles out of Rishikesh and led to Lapham's eight-hour cab ride with Ringo Starr.
In Lapham's deft and vivid prose, With the Beatles is an exhilarating and surprisingly intimate look at one of the pivotal moments of pop culture and some of its leading figures.
Lewis Lapham is the editor in chief of Harper's Magazine and the author of numerous books of political and cultural commentary, including, most recently, last year's Gag Rule.
Customer Reviews:
Lapham Strikes Again.......2006-09-11
Ever since last summer's scandal involving the London defamation trial of Roman Polanski vs. Vanity Fair magazine, I'd been curious to find out more about Lewis Lapham, who was quoted in Vaniity Fair as saying that Polanski had propositioned a Swedish model at Elaine's in New York on his way to Sharon Tate's funeral. Polanski's lawyers had made mincemeat out of Lapham, and what was left got kicked to the curb by Mia Farrow, who had accompanied Polanski to Elaine's that evening and said that Polanski had done nothing of the sort.
Mia Farrow appears in Lapham's new book, WITH THE BEATLES, and she comes across like a nitwit! Revenge for the London testimony? I'm sure Lapham, a principled journalist, had heavy misgivings before painting Mia Farrow's portrait in this book, and yet Mia, when you joined the Beatles and the Mahharishi in Rishikesh, Lapham makes you look like a nut.
He remembers things verbatim that occurred more than 40 years ago, and whole conversations too. Of course he was there as a journalist, and wrote the whole thing up for the once popular magazine SATURDAY EVENING POST. The Beatles aren't in the book very much, more's the pity, and the social satire that Lapham offers seems curiously out of date. The person Lapham finds most articulate and intelligent is Candice Bergen--that's saying a lot! If you are a Candice Bergen fan, and to a lesser extent a White Album period Beatles fan, you'll find much to amuse you here. I know I'm both!
Lapham's Slight Coat-tail Report.......2006-06-04
I just finished the book...and I am extremely disappointed and somewhat angry with it.
The Maharishi and his followers come off as rather silly, which is perhaps very accurate. But the main portrayal of them is as sycophants - the Maharishi's followers and their vapid adoration for him, and the Maharishi's courting and over-praising of celebrities. There is an implication that celebrity-followers of the Maharishi meant a lot of money would come his way.
But I must question whether or not Lapham is engaged in exactly the same thing. All of the Beatles come off quite well, but hardly anyone else does. There is very little contact between Lapham and the Beatles, and virtually nothing of substance in the book about the Beatles and the meaning and consequences of their involvement with the Maharishi. There is very little about the Beatles themselves, but there is a lot of revealing table-setting.
However, the book is called "With the Beatles", and it features a rather extraordinary cover with each of the Beatles and the Maharishi in lotus position floating over flowers. And it is never clear in the book how Lapham sees or feels about the Beatles and their involvement with the Maharishi.
But the presentation and subject of the book clearly link Lapham to the Beatles and the Maharishi. It sheds very little light, and it is for sale. Is Lapham selling out his connection in the same way most of the characters in the story are doing?
It certainly seems that way to me. VERY DISAPPOINTING. I almost purchased the book, but got it from the library instead. I'm very glad I didn't spend money on it.
more illuminating than books 10 times its length.......2006-02-27
This book does a number of things with grace. To my taste, the most important thing it does is to capture the moral and cultural confusion, doomed innocence, and lively idealism of the cusp of the 1960's. Lapham's prose is lapidary: clear, precise, vivid, dryly witty. And his mind has the same qualities as his prose. He does not make snap judgments, or wild accusations. His fairness is a moral quality, and so he never calls the Maharishi Yogi a charlatan, because he was not. Lapham was present in Rishikesh at the moment when the forces of good, as exemplified in Eastern spiritual consciousness, attempted to convert the world to peace and sanity via a Western cultural and musical phenomenon called the Beatles. Lapham observes closely and judges charitably, and freely admits that he plumbed no mysteries. But the scrupulous care with which he reports the scene at Rishikesh and the personalities he became slightly acquainted with sheds more light on what happened there than three hundred hours of taped interviews would have. In a brief afterward, he says "The scene retains its force because I now know that it occurs at almost the precise moment, late in February 1968, at which the flood tide of generous thought and optimistic feeling that formed the promise of the 1960's turns on the ebb--toward the assassination on Martin Luther King in April, followed by the assassination of Bobby Kennedy in June, in July by the riots engulfing the Democratic National Convention in Chicago."
It's a small book, beautifully designed, with very good photographs which capture the sadness of Cynthia Lennon, the increasingly absent presence of her husband, the gayety of the Maharishi, the good cheer of Paul McCartney, the sanity of Ringo Starr, and the dignity and humor of George Harrison. Every important personality reported on in the book retains his or her separateness and complexity and individuality. Lapham is a grown up reporting on grown ups, even when they behave like exotic species of animals, as a few of them do.
This book is highly recommended for students of the 1960's, or of the Beatles, or of life in general.
Within or Without the Beatles.......2005-11-03
This book effortlessly demystifies several of the largest icons of the period. How important it is, too, in an era of plastic transfigurations of art and music, to see the Beatles as skeptics of their own idolaters. Not to mention the book is beautifully designed and a pleasure to hold. Lapham is as modest an author as he must have been an observer when he reports the habits and considerations of the Beatles, yet leaves the iconoclasm, if cleverly critiqued, still quite intact. The culture of TM, Timothy Leary and other 1960s superstition-bound followings only magnify the true savvy of the band, and what it managed to accomplish politically, by refusing to 'drop out' even in the midst of feverish popularity and spiritual support, manifested in the figure of the Maharishi himself. This story quietly invokes the slant and movement of young religious seekers in India without the use of historical accounts or an artificial lens. It is a great piece of cultural reportage.
A slim, yet rewarding read........2005-10-30
Contrary to the assertion made on Melville House's web site, "With The Beatles" isn't the book to "...finally (tell) the whole story" of what went on inside the Marharishi's compound when the Beatles came to India to learn Transcendental Meditation between February and April 1968. At 147 pages it's a slim volume, the first 28 pages devoted to photographs taken by Larry Kurland (which accompanied the text when it first ran in the "Saturday Evening Post") and Paul Saltzman, whose excellent photo book "The Beatles in Rishikesh" is now sadly out of print. Lapham doesn't even relate his first observations of the group in the widely spaced text until page 96.
Even so, Mr. Lapham's studied and erudite prose provides an engrossing summary of the Marharishi's brand of TM within the context of the Sixties, the Beatles and, to a lesser extent, the Beach Boys. While you still won't know precisely why the Beatles and the Marharishi parted company, Beatles scholars will appreciate Lapham's period overview of the group's involvement in TM, gleaning intriguing bits of Beatles minutiae: George Harrison's declaration that his mantra was a word that appears in the lyrics of "I Am The Walrus" and John Lennon opining that while he wasn't sure if the Marharishi was any wiser than Lewis Carroll, "...he knew that if a person could find within himself an inner wonderland impervious to the pressures of space and time,'then nothing's going to shake my world'."
Book Description
Millions of words have been written about The Beatles, but nobody knew them quite like Alistair Taylor. Originally published as
A Secret History, and now in paperback, this is a unique insider portrait of the Fab Four.
Customer Reviews:
You can call him Al.......2007-02-15
Well. The poor bugger got sacked after having sacrified most of his life fixing things for the boys. The story is clattered with errors but that's probably because it is told straitght from the heart. This is probably also why you have to read some stories at least three times. Having complained before about this publishing house I will once again urge J.Blake to invest in a senior editor.
with the beatles.......2006-11-04
Mr Taylor would be one of the closest people in the world to give us some insight into the hectic lives of the Beatles in the 60's. His narrative in insightful and interesting, revealing unknown facts & opinions that are not found anywhere else.
Meh...it's okay........2006-09-24
Taylor's book is a quick read, and a decent way for a Beatle fan to pass the time. It is packed with interesting (if not-very-detailed) anecdotes about the Fab Four that I have not read elsewhere. However, it is poorly edited. The author tends to group unrelated anecdotes together. Strangely, on page 52 he references Ringo as a member of the band, waiting with the others for Brian Epstein to get them a recording contract, but Pete Best is not sacked until page 59! Speaking of Pete, he is barely mentioned in this book.
Once or twice, the author completely contradicts himself. Interestingly, the first half of the book seems to be organized and written better than the latter half; perhaps the author was up against a deadline? Still, this does not excuse the poor editing job.
I do not recommend this book for readers who do not already know the Beatles' basic story, as the author skips around quite a bit, and does not give adequate background information on some of the lesser-known "characters" in Beatle history.
I give this book two stars, as it *is* somewhat entertaining, and has several neat photos I have not seen elsewhere. Alistair Taylor's story has the potential to be very interesting, but he needs a) an EDITOR and b) to expand upon his anecdotes with more detail. Perhaps this book could be polished up and re-released??
Sacked by Allen Klein.......2006-05-14
Another reviewer characterized this book as a hodge-podge of anecdotes. That's just about right. The anecdotes are definitely of interest to the hardcore Beatle enthusiast--certainly this fan of books on the fabs learned a few things--but Taylor is not a master of chronology and in a few cases the ensuing decades since these events took place may have become garbled in the grey matter. To wit: on page 206 Lennon has "just discovered" acid in 1967 and pesters Taylor to try it. However, if we flip back to page 142, we have Lennon in Oct 1965 plotting to drop tabs of acid into the Queen's drink during their MBE awards ceremony. Had Lennon even heard of acid in 1965? What about the celebrated dinner party with the dentist, the inspiration for "Dr. Robert(s)"...? Is that no longer the "true" introduction of the Beatles to acid? Did that occur before the MBE awards? What gives, Taylor? Contradictory and confusing.
Nonetheless, an entertaining, if slight, volume. Its particularly strong on Brian Epstein and McCartney's relationship with Jane Asher. Taylor provides plenty of details on other topics as well, of course.
Taylor's book belongs in a special category of books by those who were sacked by Allen Klein. There may be others, but Richard DiLello's excellent "The Longest Cocktail Party" comes to mind. (Actually, both belong to a slightly larger category: those who were sacked by any edition of the Beatles management..then we can include "Beatle: The Pete Best Story" as well).
Don't hesitate to buy and enjoy.
All Icing and No Cake.......2006-04-10
As the owner of a fairly large collection of Beatle-related material, including a vast library of albums, guitars and books, and as one who has visited Liverpool and London on many occasions, I speak from some base of knowledge when I say that Alstair Taylor's book, "Meet the Beatles", adds absolutely nothing new to the story of "the boys", as those closely associated with "The Beatles", liked to call them. This primer on "The Fab Four" is all icing and no cake, an effort that simply skims the surface and lacks any depth or fresh perspectives whatsoever. Taylor's book reads as if he focused solely on the headlines and skipped the story in, say, "The Liverpool Echo". Anyone even remotely interested in "The Beatles" could have penned this book without even resorting to research. There was not one single insight of any value. For one who was supposed to be part of the inner circle, Taylor's view of events seemed very dim and distant. As a glorified gofer, Taylor must have been out of the room getting tea and jam butties for John, Paul, George or Ringo whenever anything of significance occurred. My understanding is that Taylor is on the dole and in a bad way financially, which might explain why this book was published at this time, but it does not excuse this most cursory and disappointing piece of veneer.
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