The Beatles : The Biography

The Beatles : The Biography
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Binding: Hardcover
Format: Bargain Price
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 992
Publication Date: 2005-11-01
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Editorial Reviews:
" Irresistible....A captivating picture that hasn't been seen before....THE BEATLES amplifies and corrects some of what is known about the band's formative years.... It powerfully evokes both the excitement and the price of such a sudden rise." --NEW YORK TIMES At last in paperback: the biography the Beatles deserve. It's all here, raw and right--the highs and the lows, the love and the rivalry, the awe and the jealousy, the drugs, the tears, the thrill, the magic never to be repeated--in a vast, exuberantly acclaimed book that's as brilliant and joyous and revelatory as a Beatles record itself.
Spotlight customer reviews:
Customer Rating: Average rating of 5/5Average rating of 5/5Average rating of 5/5Average rating of 5/5Average rating of 5/5
Summary: This about that
Comment: I've read 'em all, and just bought Norman's latest Lennon tome. I have a bookshelf dedicated to the Fab. Am I an expert? Do I know every date, jot and tittle? No, and I don't care to, frankly. I'll leave that to the others so inclined. As for me, I just relish the pure joy of the Beatles, their legend AND their myths. For my money, Spitz does an exceptional job of conveying the same. That's good enough for me. Buy it. Read it. Enjoy.
Customer Rating: Average rating of 3/5Average rating of 3/5Average rating of 3/5Average rating of 3/5Average rating of 3/5
Summary: Great starting point; not-so-great ending point
Comment: I have read maybe ten books about the Beatles, and Mr. Spitz's effort is a "tweener." It's better than some, not as good as others, and would make a great "if-you-could-only-read-one-Beatles-book" book. If, however, you are a true Beatles nut, I don't think you'll find much new here.

I have a few little points. One: the first third of the book moves with glacier-like speed through the founding and launch of the band. Some will love this near-obsessive detail, other will find it too slow. I LOVED it. But by the final third of the book, things are moving in fifth gear, and the forward thrust leaves the late-period Beatles' cultural significance--amazingly--on the borders.

Second: Mr. Spitz is smug about how good his book is. Here's a few thoughts: while Mr. Spitz bashes Albert Goldman's biography of John Lennon, I have to say that I got a much better idea of who Lennon was from Mr. Goldman's effort than from that of Spitz. This is a little weird, because Mr. Spitz wrote his tome roughly two decades after Mr. Goldman (and therefore had about 20 extra years to find things out), and Mr. Spitz announces in his work that he worked partially from tape-recorded interviews that Mr. Goldman had made much earlier but mined only triflingly for his Lennon biography.

In sum, this is a solid, very well-researched effort, but one that lacks an overall harmony and that will have little new information for true Beatles junkies.
Customer Rating: Average rating of 4/5Average rating of 4/5Average rating of 4/5Average rating of 4/5Average rating of 4/5
Summary: Must-Read for Beatles Fans
Comment: This is an excellent and engrossing all-around history of the Beatles. It starts with the life of John Lennon as an infant and moves along as Lennon meets up with various people who become his band mates. The band becomes the Beatles as Paul and George are added and Pete Best and other are shunted aside and as Ringo is added. The details of the lives and activities of the Beatles - the imperfect musicianship, the arguments, the drugs, the venereal disease picked up in Hamburg, the formative experiences that serve as inspiration for many of their best-known - is well-detailed.

If you are a music scholar or have scrutinized the Beatles' backgrounds, then this book is probably not for you. But if you're a big fan and would like to know something of the backgrounds of the Big Four, their personalities, what Beatlemania was all about, who they slept with, how they got inspiration, and so on, you'll really enjoy this. It's a fun read.

It is completely accurate in all respects? Judging by the other reviews, probably not. But I doubt it is possible to assemble a comprehensive and accurate biography. So much happened and most of that is 40-plus years ago. But the book provides an compelling and absorbing picture of the dynamic of the group, the forces that drove them to make great music, the forces that drove them to compete against one another and that ultimately drove them to break up. Even at approximately 900 pages (hardback verson) it was impossible to put down.


Customer Rating: Average rating of 5/5Average rating of 5/5Average rating of 5/5Average rating of 5/5Average rating of 5/5
Summary: The Beatles Rock History
Comment: Bob Spitz's biography of the Beatles is perhaps the finest, best researched, and most tantalizing analysis of how and why this group intersected with history in such a powerful way. Details are lavishly arranged to give the reader a sense of the sheer talent and blinding ambition that made the Beatles a cultural and musical phenomenon. Spitz does not sugar coat the one-tracked vision that guided the group's rise to fame. The Beatles had a killer instinct for success that was evident from their earliest days. They were also prodigious learners, intent upon absorbing the lessons from other stars about how to write hits and wind up an audience. Immensely entertaining and thought provoking, Spitz's biography places us in the center of the maelstrom called "Beatlemania" and also dissects the frenzy with the keen wit and observations of a talented social psychologist. Spectacular from start to finish. A meditation wrapped in electric sparks.

Donald Gallinger is the author of The Master Planets
Customer Rating: Average rating of 5/5Average rating of 5/5Average rating of 5/5Average rating of 5/5Average rating of 5/5
Summary: Best Beatles Book
Comment: Best book I've ever read about the Beatles. Bob Spitz writes very well and puts you right there in the room with them. It's a delight to have so many pages to go. I don't want it to end. It's Fabulous!
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