Fundraiser Book and CD Fair – Some Good Beatle Finds

Posted on June 8, 2013 by beatlesblogger

Almost a year ago to the day I posted on a big book and CD fair where I found a couple of Beatle-related items of interest. This fair is held by a local classical music/jazz radio station (2MBS-FM) as a much-needed fundraiser. It has now become a well-established annual event.

This week saw the opening of the 2013 fair and again I got in on the very first day. Once more there was a huge selection of CDs and books on offer, especially good quality music books. This time around I tackled the CD tables first and after just a minute or two of browsing the first Beatle item I found was this:

The Best of George Harrison was released in 1976 and is a CD I don’t have. It’s one I’ve been on the lookout for for some time though so the evening was definitely off to a very good start. It was released in a number of countries, and has a unique cover. This one is the Australian pressing:

Next came George Martin’s In My Life, from 1998. I’ve been aware of this CD since it was first released but, until now, I didn’t have a copy in the collection:

In My Life is very much Beatle-related. Their producer invited into the studio a wide range of what he describes as his “heroes and friends” to record versions of Beatle songs. It has to be said the results are patchy at best, but at just $5.00 it seemed like a good time to finally get it.

The final two CDs I found I already have four versions of….

The Beatles 1 gathers together 27 of their number one singles. It was originally released in 2000, and I have a UK CD copy, a Taiwanese CD version, a copy on vinyl, and it was remastered and re-issued again in 2011 in a gatefold cardboard cover. However, at the fair I found two Australian pressing CD’s of the disc (the jewel case version) from 2000. One had a black sticker on the front, the other had a white variation:

Of course I had to have both. I know. Do I really need another two copies? Call me crazy. Enough CDs already!

From there it was over to the book section of the fair and as 2MBS-FM is a classical and jazz music station their book stall always seems to have a wide selection of music books on offer. This year did not disappoint. They had stacks of sheet music too, and in one of the piles I found some practically mint copies of two Beatles songbooks – one large thick one for the Beatles “blue” album, The Beatles 1967-1970:

No, I didn’t pay $41.99 for this!

The other find was a much slimmer songbook, one which I’d never seen before. It was published only in Australia and New Zealand by Northern Songs. The Colourful Beatles – Souvenir Song Album contains the sheet music for twelve of their songs and, despite its age, was in near-new condition:

Here’s the index page:

Next it was across the room to the books proper, and this one caught my eye immediately. It’s a really thick paperback called Can’t Buy Me Love – The Beatles, Britain and America by US author Jonathan Gould. It was published in 2007.

Again, I didn’t pay $45.00, or anywhere near it. The New York Times book review of Can’t Buy Me Love says in part: “Gould aims to meld the three primary, often distinct strands of Beatle bibliography — biography, music appreciation and pop sociology — into a single volume, a mother ship of Beatles books, with, as the subtitle implies, a special emphasis on the divide between the country that gave them birth and the country that arguably loved them best….Happily, the effort paid off: Gould has written a scrupulous, witty and, at times, appropriately skeptical study, which drew me back into a subject I thought I was sick of. The book lacks the intimacy of a full-fledged biography — if you want to know who John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr really were, you’ll do better elsewhere — but it compensates with an imaginative intelligence and a lively breadth of knowledge.” You can do one of those Amazon “Look Inside” reads to get a taste of Gould’s style and insights if you want.

Well, that was just about it. I was headed to the counter to pay, already thinking I’d probably gone overboard a bit on the purchases, when I saw this 1993 large-format book.

Inside are lots of great photos of George Harrison, including many unusual ones:

I tossed up whether to get this book as I know author Geoffrey Giuliano has a mixed reputation amongst Beatle and other fans (see his entry in Wikipedia for more). In the end it was the broad and eclectic photo selection which did it for me.

So, a successful Thursday evening trawling for Beatle treasure. Even by my standards I probably went a bit overboard this time – but how could you leave this sort of quality behind? And they were all at fantastically low prices (well, thats what I keep telling myself…..)

Two Garage Sale Books

Posted on May 28, 2013 by beatlesblogger

Sometimes when you go out to garage or yard sales hunting specifically for vinyl records you never actually see any. Not one. No Beatles records. No records at all. It can be very disheartening.

That was the case a couple of weekends ago for me. There seemed to be something of a drought of vinyl for some reason. None of the four or five places I called into that morning had a thing.

However, I did mange to get two quite interesting and collectable books – one of which I know is controversial, but more on that later….

Starting with the non-controversial book first. The guy selling it didn’t have it out on display. Because I couldn’t see any records at his sale I asked (as I always do): “You don’t have any records or CD’s do you?”. This is just in case they have some discs, but haven’t thought to put them out. It happens more than you think….

“No,” he replied. “What are you looking for?”

“I’m after anything to do with the Beatles. I’m not a dealer, I’m just a collector,” I said.

“Well, I do have a Beatles book if you’re interested”, and with that he shot off inside the house and emerged again with this:

The Beatles Forever is a vintage Beatles picture book and it was in really good condition. It’s a British publication dating from 1981. The author is Helen Spence, and as you can see from the front cover image above it has a foreword by legendary US disc jockey Alan Freedman. It is a loose chronology of the band’s journey from unknowns to super stardom and contains lots of great colour photographs on every page:

The basic premise for the book is detailed on the inside flap of the dust jacket:

It begins “The Beatles Forever is an outstanding collection of photographs dating back some twenty years to the beginning of a phenomenon which changed the face of the sixties and the sound of popular music for all time. These photographs, many published here for the first time, have been carefully gathered together to present a scrap-book of the Beatles”. And that’s a pretty acurate description:

And here is the rear cover:From this garage sale I moved on to another. These people didn’t have any vinyl or CD’s either….but they also had a book. A very thick book. A book about John Lennon:

This was a US hardback, a first edition of Albert Goldman’s much-maligned work which came out in 1988. As Wikepedia says, “The book is a product of several years of research and hundreds of interviews with many of Lennon’s friends, acquaintances, servants and musicians. Notwithstanding, it is best known for its criticism and generally negative representation of the personal lives of Lennon and his wife Yoko Ono. [It is] controversial because of its portrayal of Lennon in a highly critical light. Lennon was presented in the book as a talented but deeply flawed man who manipulated people and relationships throughout his life, flinging them aside when they were no longer useful to him. Goldman also suggested that Lennon was an anti-Semite and a heavy drug-user and that he was dyslexic and a schizophrenic. The author even went into detail about the long-rumored homosexual affair between Lennon and the Beatles manager, Brian Epstein, as well as alleging a number of liaisons by Lennon with other men, including a claim that he solicited underage male prostitutes in Thailand. This latter assertion greatly angered Yoko Ono and Paul McCartney. The book was criticised by Lennon fans for allegedly containing much unsubstantiated conjecture, and tending to present worst-case scenarios when doing so.”

I had a paperback copy of this book, but a first edition hardback in excellent condition was tempting despite it’s critical reputation. Like I said, it is very thick:

And so I bought it. I like the cover, too. A great Iain Macmillan photograph of John Lennon. If you don’t think you know Macmillan’s work, you do. He’s the guy who took the famous photos for the cover of Abbey Road. He also did a lot of other work for John and Yoko including:

The cloud on the album cover for Live Peace in Toronto
Photos on the album Some Time in New York City
The wedding cake in the Wedding Album
The merging heads label of John and Yoko’s vinyl single “Happy Xmas (War is Over)“

On the rear cover of the Goldman book Macmillan’s portrait of John his is presented simply like this:

The Beatles – The Uncut Ultimate Music Guide

Posted on May 16, 2013 by beatlesblogger

I know. I’m always a bit slow on the uptake when it comes to getting on top of the latest Beatle magazines.

I literally stumbled across this one today on the shelf at one of my local newsagent stores. I genuinely hadn’t seen it before, but it looked pretty impressive and so I bought it.

I get home, look it up, and it turns out it was actually released back in January….

It’s a 148-page Beatles special edition, published by the UK’s highly respected Uncut magazine. The magazine traces the rise of the band, its massive success, and then the eventual demise. It features interviews from the archives of Uncut, NME and Melody Maker. Looking back, the levels of access and revelation contained in the archives of these three journals is quite impressive. Their journalists sat in on meetings with Elvis Presley, travel round the United States with the Beatle touring party during the first tour, and are there as the band starts to fall apart. Alongside all these features Uncut’s current team of writers contribute in-depth new analyses of every Beatles album.

Here are some page scans from the mag, which includes unusual photos and great information on the band and their releases:

And this great photo of Beatle manager Brian Epstein – which should qualify for our Beatles With Records series of posts as well:

Beatles Books – Hardcover….and Electronic

Posted on May 13, 2013 by beatlesblogger

The general consensus from Beatle fans so far is unanimous: the cover art for Mark Lewisohn’s first volume in his series of three books is really quite amateur-looking, and I agree:

This is a very disappointing cover, one that doesn’t do justice to the high expectations surrounding the release of this long-awaited Beatles book. Someone of Lewisohn’s standing should get better than this. It comes out later this year.

Meanwhile, the Linda McCartney book Linda McCartney: Life in Photographs has been released in electronic/digital form on iTunes.

Linda McCartney – Life in Photographs features:

over 170 photographs selected from Linda’s archive of over 200,000 images—most of which users can pinch to zoom
forewords by Paul, Stella, and Mary McCartney, texts by Annie Leibovitz and Martin Harrison, and excerpts from interviews with Linda from BBC’s highly acclaimed 1994 “Behind the Lens” profile
a bonus video interview with Paul McCartney and his daughters, Stella and Mary

The collection was produced in close collaboration with Paul McCartney and his children. When it first came out in hard copy the McCartney family released a YouTube video talking about the book.

George Harrison and Hamilton Island

Posted on May 9, 2013 by beatlesblogger

Apologies for the long delay in posting anything on Beatlesblogger but I’m on vacation.

As it happens I’m on a resort island off the coast of Australia – and funnily enough there is actually a Beatles connection to this place.

I’m sitting on beautiful Catseye Beach on Hamilton Island off the Queensland coast and it occurs to me (dredged from somewhere deep in the back of my mind) that George and Olivia Harrison once had a luxury holiday home on this very island….and here it is:

A quick search on Google confirmed that vague memory and led me to this comprehensive article in Architectural Digest outlining the full story of how George ended up owning a little piece of Australia. The article is penned by writer and Harrison family friend Paul Theroux – who contributed the Introduction to the book “Living in the Material World“, and whose work also appears in the very limited (and expensive) Genesis Publications anniversary book about the “Concert for George“. The Harrison home was sold in 2008, apparently for $8 million – setting a new sales record for the island at that time. I just wish George was still around to enjoy this very beautiful part of the world….

You can see a Google Map satellite image of the house here.

The Ballad of John and Yoko – By the Editors of Rolling Stone

Posted on April 18, 2013 by beatlesblogger

I was in Armidale, NSW (Australia) last week and managed (in between work meetings) to duck out to the recycled book and record store in town. I picked up a nice, used copy of book which looks to be a companion to the Rolling Stone magazine book I found earlier this year in Sydney about George Harrison. It’s similar in style and scope, only this time the editors of Rolling Stone have John Lennon and Yoko Ono as their focus:

This is the paperback edition and it came out in 1982. The book details (from the pages of Rolling Stone over the period 1967 to 1980) the love, the life and the activities of John and Yoko. It looks to be a fantastic compendium of some of the best writing about the pair as individuals, as a couple, and of course John as a member of the Beatles.

There are some great colour and black and white photos throughout, some of which I’d not seen before – like this one of Yoko.

The photograph above is an interesting composition. As you look at it you realise those are John’s hands.

Articles by the likes of Jonathan Cott, Jann S. Wenner, and Chet Flippo; photos by Annie Leibovitz; and a section just called “Remembering John” – with contributions from Gerry Marsden, Ray Charles, Joan Baez, Jim Keltner, David Geffen, Bobby Keyes, Carly Simon Norman Mailer, Chuck Berry, Mick Jagger and Harry Nilsson – to name just a few. It is going to be a very interesting read.

Harrison – By The Editors of Rolling Stone

Posted on March 9, 2013 by beatlesblogger

This blog is sub-titled “Adventures in Collecting Beatles Music”, and that’s exactly what happened to me this week.

I had some colleagues in town for a conference and on Tuesday we all went out for a drink in the city. On the way there our cab went past a second-hand book and CD shop called T.Kelly Books on George Street, which is the main thoroughfare through the Sydney CBD. I’ve known about this store for some time but not visited it for years. Its a bit of an institution. The reason I noticed it this time was a very big sign out the front: “ALL STOCK 50% OFF”. Hmmm….looks like it is closing down, which is sad. Mental note – “Try to get time to come back later this week….”.

When I did I discovered this book at half the marked price (i.e. $20.00):

I’d never seen this book before and so it was a surprise. It was first published in 2002 by Simon and Schuster, and is as its title suggests a collection of articles about the late George Harrison that have appeared in Rolling Stone magazine over the years. This is the rear cover:

The Google Books review says it is “….a definitive tribute that features a new foreword by Olivia Harrison, the editors have drawn on their archives and hundreds of photographs, both the iconographic and the rarely seen, to celebrate the life and career of one of the most important musicians in rock & roll history.”

“Compiled by the editors of ROLLING STONE, Harrison chronicles the guitarist’s life before, during and after the Beatles. Contributing editor Mikal Gilmore offers an expansive, thoughtful new essay, “The Mystery Inside George.” ROLLING STONE senior editor David Fricke tells the stories behind Harrison’s best-known songs, and offers a guide to twenty-five essential Harrison recordings. Harrison also features news stories and interviews with the guitarist from throughout ROLLING STONE’s history — from his first Q&A with the magazine, in 1968, to his last, a 1987 interview with ROLLING STONE contributing editor Anthony DeCurtis”.

Its kind of a nice retrospective precursor (if that isn’t an oxymoron!) to the “Living in the Material World” book and Scorsese documentary from 2011.

For a “Look Inside” experience of Harrison – By the Editors of Rolling Stone go to Amazon.

Mojo – The Beatles Magical Mystery Tour Special Edition

Posted on December 20, 2012 by beatlesblogger

OK. So I didn’t know this was out until I stumbled across it in my local newsagent store yesterday while looking for something else. Turns out it’s been out since October…

That’s the front cover of a special edition of “Mojo” the British music magazine. Clearly timed to co-ordinate with the release of the digitally remastered Beatles Magical Mystery Tour DVD and BluRay sets, this is a very good collection of articles and sometimes eye-poppingly good photographs – many of which I have not seen before. There’s a section called Unseen Photos, featuring snaps by Henry Grossman of the Beatles homes and parties, many of which have never seen the light of day:

This 132 page special focusses on the period 1967 and where the band was at at the time. It combines, amongst other things, archival features on the albums Rubber Soul, Revolver, Sgt. Pepper and of course Magical Mystery Tour:

There’s a whole section on the influence of Indian music at the time, quite a coincidence with the passing just last week of master musician Ravi Shankar who played such a key role in the sound of the band at the time. And of course this period saw the Beatles play their last live concert at Candlestick Park in San Francisco. The magazine features a lengthy transcript of a press conference given in Los Angeles – again the last they would give as a touring band.

If you can get yourself a copy of this special edition of Mojo I think it’s worth it. Very well put together and lots to interest the avid collector or those only occasionally interested in the band and the late 1960s era. Here’s the magazine’s rear cover:

POSTSCRIPT: I’ve had a couple of readers contact me about a special, limited edition cover to this magazine. After a bit of research I understand that there were only 1000 copies of an alternate “Walrus” cover produced and these were only available via online order. So, those people who got them have a bit of a collectors item:

The John Lennon Letters – New Book

Posted on October 12, 2012 by beatlesblogger

“John Lennon lived and died in an era before computers, emails, twits, tweets, and twitters, hence he handwrote or typed letters and postcards to his family, friends, fans, strangers, newspapers, organisations, lawyers and the laundry. Most of his letters were funny, informative, campaigning, wise, mad, anguished, poetic. Sometimes they were heartbreaking. We know from his lyrics and his two books of poems that he had a way with words, but his letters have up to now never been collected and published, and in many cases their very existence has remained unknown.” – Hunter Davies

In the month that should have seen John Lennon’s 72^nd birthday comes a great new and very insightful book – “The John Lennon Letters”:

This book features almost 300 letters that were recovered by famed Beatles biographer Hunter Davies with the help of major auction houses in the UK and US. They include a page from the “Daily Howl,” a homemade newspaper John created when he was 12 or 13; a page from a homemade book John penned at age 11; letters to relatives including his mother, father, son, half-sister, cousins and aunts; to his first wife Cynthia (including his first ever written correspondence to her which was a homemade card celebrating their first Christmas together); early fan letters, countless items to friends, journalists, dignitaries, record executives, and of course to the other Beatles.

It is all compiled and edited by Hunter Davies, who this week gave an interview to Australian radio host Philip Clark on the ABC’s Radio National Breakfast program:

The book reveals Lennon’s emotional states – highs and lows – and much about his songwriting. It includes hand-written Beatles set-lists, drawings, lyrics to never-recorded songs, and even grocery lists from the later parts of his life.

It is the first-ever compilation of John Lennon’s musings and paints a unique, intimate, and rather emotional portrait of one of music’s – and the world’s – most beloved and enigmatic figures.

(click images to see larger versions)

“The John Lennon Letters” is published by Little, Brown and Company.

An Overview of Australian Beatles Records – Revised and Expanded

Posted on September 20, 2012 by beatlesblogger

Anyone who collects Australian Beatles records seriously must have a copy of this newly-revised book – which came out just this week.

Jaesen Jones is an Australian collector who has produced what must be the most comprehensive reference on all the Australian Beatles releases. Now in a revised and expanded edition featuring over 60 new pages, this book answers just about about any question you’d have regarding all the variations available.

He decided to do a revised and expanded edition due to the popularity of the first edition of “An Overview Of Australian Beatles Records”

Since that book’s release in April last year, Jaesen has managed to uncover much more detailed information about the label typesetting process from industry insiders. This enabled him to confirm with greater accuracy the availability of some label styles, as well as include scans of many more label variations for easier identification (in fact, there’s an additional 12 pages just detailing label typesetting, including scans of 35 LP labels that collectively contain every font used on every Beatles LP issued by EMI Australia).

The new revised edition has been updated and expanded, with 60 new pages comprising sections on mechanical royalties and royalty stamps, custom pressings, contract pressings as well as many new images of sleeves, labels and ephemera. Most existing scans have been replaced with higher quality scans.

Like last time, only limited copies will be available (less than 300). And Jaesen says he’ll be releasing no more editions after this one.

If you are interested in a copy you will need to be quick. You can read more about the book and/or purchase it directly on-line at http://www.beatlesaustralia.com/ or http://jaenahre.com/oabr/

(Click on any images above to see larger versions)

Beatles Blog

Adventures in collecting Beatles music

Category Archives: Beatles Books

Two Garage Sale Books

The Beatles – The Uncut Ultimate Music Guide

Beatles Books – Hardcover….and Electronic

The Ballad of John and Yoko – By the Editors of Rolling Stone

Harrison – By The Editors of Rolling Stone

Mojo – The Beatles Magical Mystery Tour Special Edition

The John Lennon Letters – New Book

An Overview of Australian Beatles Records – Revised and Expanded

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