The Beatles - An Obsession

I think I have always, right from a very early age, had the tendency to be obsessive about certain things.

First obsession that I recall was for all things dinosaur related. I can still remember the acute sense of disappointment I felt when my father told me that instead of the book on dinosaurs that I had been craving he had bought me instead a book on chickens. He was, of course, kidding but  it took me a good few minutes before I realised that.

Next was Famous Five books, then the books of Michael Hardcastle. As I got older the obsession became football, one team with the huge capacity to disappoint in particular, and I had (sorry, have) the football programme collection that is almost a timeline of that particular obsession.

Recently, thanks to some cheaply acquired tickets for Paul McCartney’s concert at Hampden Park, the obsession has become The Beatles. And not just the music either, but rather anything and everything that has been written and said about them. It is fortunate, or perhaps not, that there is so much material out there to help fuel the obsession.

This morning another couple of books arrived, adding to my ever increasing library of Beatles literature. The fact that my Beatles books are already occupying a whole shelf in my bookcase prompted me to cast a critical eye over my Beatles book collection.

Hunter Davies’ ‘Authorised Biography’ seemed a natural place to begin my Beatles reading with. During 1967 and 1968 Davies was given unparalleled access to The Beatles which gave him an unique insight into their lives. Given that it is an authorised biography it is naturally a sanitised account of the band. There’s no mention, for example, of them dabbling with LSD and the obvious impact that had on their music. Davies’ preface to the 40^th anniversary issue of the book though helps create a more balanced picture, but even allowing for the ‘flaws’ that being an authorised account inevitably brings this remains a fascinating account of The Beatles. If it isn’t already in your Beatles library then rectify that as quickly as possible.

‘Balanced’ isn’t a word that immediately springs to mind when reviewing Philip Norman’s ‘Shout – The True Story of The Beatles’. As many authors have done he appears to have used Hunter Davies’ book as a source for much of his information meaning that there is little new, or especially insightful, contained within its’ pages.

It’s Norman’s obvious bias though towards John Lennon in preference to McCartney that really irks. That Paul can be a little ‘prickly’ and a bit of a control freak is a pretty well established fact but if the picture that Norman tries to paint of McCartney is any way accurate it would seem almost impossible for The Beatles to have operated as a cohesive group. Additionally his view that George Harrison and Ringo Starr were basically lucky to be in the right place at the right time is harsh, especially with regard to Harrison’s contribution, in the extreme.

An altogether better account of Paul McCartney can be found in the pages of Howard Sounes’ ‘Fab: An Intimate Life of Paul McCartney’. This book benefits from being the most recent account of his life dealing with his tempestuous relationship with Heather Mills.

A further strength of the book lies with the relatively brief account given of The Beatles early years given how well documented that period already is. The most interesting sections of the book deal with McCartney’s marriage to Linda and his time with Wings, including his ill-fated trip to Japan and spell in jail.

Still on the subject of Paul McCartney, Peter Carlin’s biography is also worthy of a place on your bookshelves though his account stops before McCartney’s relationship with Heather Mills really started to turn sour.

Returning to The Beatles by far the best book I have read thus far has been Peter Doggett’s ‘You Never Gave Me Your Money : The Battle for the Soul of The Beatles’. This really is essential reading for any Beatles fan. It is a fascinating and detailed account, focusing on the Apple days, of the tangled business dealings that ultimately lead to bitter court appearances and the demise of The Beatles. The book explores in detail a subject matter that is only briefly touched upon, by the then surviving members, in The Beatles Anthology, as delightful as that is.

To round off, for now, my look at some Beatles books we flick through the pages of Ken McNab’s ‘The Beatles in Scotland’. As the title suggests, this book explores The Beatles’ Scottish connections. This doesn’t just focus on their tours through Scotland, including their very first tour when they went by the name of The Silver Beatles, but also John and Yoko’s prolonged visit to Scotland following a car accident and a look at the ‘Scottish Beatle’, the unfortunate Stuart Sutcliffe.

The personal accounts from those that “were there” and the wide variety of photographs are the book’s strengths. The major weakness being the apparently rather slipshod approach to research which sees some rather basic errors committed.

With a number of titles sitting in my ‘to read’ pile and an almost unlimited amount of source of material this will be a subject that I am bound to return to at a later date. In the meantime all recommendations gratefully received.