Tag Archives: books

Beatles Books Abound

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I came into the possession of two more Beatles books this week.

I wasn’t actually looking for them – they came looking for me. As I’ve posted earlier, we’ve recently visited Vietnam. It was my wife’s birthday this week and so I thought a Vietnamese cookbook might be popular. I went along to my local discount bookshop – but no Vietnamese cooking books were to be seen. However, in the Music section (a frequent haunt) I found these two Beatles “picture” books, both by the same publisher, both in the same format, and both only AUS$7.95 (US$7.28) each. Who could resist?

The first is “The Beatles – The Illustrated Biography”. It’s a small-format book – about 17.5 cm (7 inches) by 17.5 cm square. Here’s the front cover:

The Beatles - The Illustrated Biography - front cover

The sub-title reads: “A Unique Collection of 200 Classic, Rare and Unseen Photographs”, and that’s pretty much what this book is. It’s a photographic step through the career in photographs. Part One is called “Four Lads From Liverpool”. Part Two is called “The Long and Winding Road”. Text is provided by Tim Hill, Alison Gauntlett, Gareth Thomas and Jane Benn. It’s published by Transatlantic Press in Britain in 2009.

The Beatles - The Illustrated Biography - rear cover

These sorts of books abound – with many of them published in a variety of formats and all using the Daily Mail library of Beatles photographs. This book is no exception. The photographs are all credited to Getty Images, but I suspect they are all pretty much from the Daily Mail archive – just re-packaged. I must say though that this one is nicely presented in black-and-white and in colour, and worth having in the collection.

Here is a random open page from the book:

The Beatles - The Illustrated Biography - open page

What you can see is a series of two colour shots taken on location in May, 1965 during the filming of the movie “Help”. Clearly the group are in downtime, waiting no doubt for a scene to be lit or some technical problem to be sorted out at Cliveden House in Buckinghamshire. The text talks about the Beatles the previous evening having attended Royal Albert Hall in London to watch a performance by Bob Dylan, whose song-writing was proving to be a big influence on John Lennon at this time.

This little Beatles book is accompanied by what is clearly a companion publication by the same publisher (Transatlantic Press) –  a book called “John Lennon – The Illustrated Biography”:

John Lennon - The Illustrated Biography - front cover

This is in the same format (about 17.5 cm (7 inches) square) as the Beatles book above, and was also published in 2009.

It’s sub-title is “200 Classic, Rare and Unseen Photographs by the Daily Mail” – so clearly it is a re-packaging of many previous books along the same lines. Here’s the rear cover image:

John Lennon - The Illustrated Biography - rear cover

A happy moment (albeit public) between John and his then wife Cynthia Lennon.

The text for this book is by Gareth Thomas, and all photographs are copyrighted to the Associated Newspapers Archive (read: “Daily Mail”), and to Getty Images. Unlike the Beatles book, all the images in this one are black-and-white. Here’s a random open page from the book:

John Lennon - The Illustrated Biography - open page

The photographs here were taken in August 1966, and the text says: “Before leaving for Chicago, John and the boys were taken on a relaxed tour around London airport, including a visit to the new police facilities….However, by the time they had reached their destination [they’d learned about] the seriousness of the “more popular than Jesus” debacle they were facing. John’s anxiety levels were at an all-time high…as he prepared to apologize for his supposedly anti-Christian remarks at a televised press conference….”

Two nice little books to have in the collection

UPDATE:  Another Beatles related book (released in August 2010) is Howard Sounes’ “FAB: An Intimate Biography of Paul McCartney”.

The Penguin John Lennon – Plus a Couple of Other Things

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Had a trip to Canberra, Australia’s national capital, this weekend and a chance to browse some second-hand book and record stores.

The trip turned up a couple of unexpected items – but that’s always the way with these things, isn’t it?

While in Canberra itself I found a CD/DVD store in the downtown “Civic” area advertising “20% OFF ALL STOCK”. That is just too good an invitation to walk past. Didn’t find a lot of interest to the Beatles collector in me – except for a heavily discounted, brand-new copy of  “All You Need Is Cash”, a film by Eric Idle’s Beatles parody group The Rutles. I’d never seen the film, and for A$6.40 it was a bargain. More on this soon in a separate post….

Also, strolling past a newsagent shop in the Canberra suburb of Kingston, I saw a table outside with old magazines that they were just throwing out – for free. Buried under the pile was a copy of “Q” magazine from July 2007, with a feature article for the fortieth anniversary of the release of the Sgt Pepper called “It Was Forty Years Ago Today….Sgt Pepper Celebrated”:

In it the likes of Bono, Brian Wilson, George Martin, Dhani Harrison, Jeff Lynne and others take one track from the album and write about why they love it, when they first heard it, or what it means to them. The magazine was still in its plastic outer wrap – and so in absolutely perfect condition. Not bad for free! Also with “Q” in the pile was a March, 2007 copy of a magazine called “Sound On Sound”, which on the front cover describes itself as “the UK’s biggest selling music recording magazine”. I’d not seen this title previously, but the front cover carried the photo below and an extensive article on the making of the Beatles “Love” album:

That’s George Martin and his son Giles, and they take the magazine through the detail of producing the Beatles‘ 2007 release “Love” (see this post, and this post for more details). If you’d like to read the article, “Sound on Sound” have now published it here in full online. The magazine is also in perfect condition. Not bad for free!

And finally, on the way home we stopped in the town of Berrima, just outside of which is a legendary second-hand book store called Berkelouw. They call it the Berkelouw Book Barn, and thats just what it is – a huge barn of a place absolutely filled to the rafters with shelf after shelf of pre-loved books. In the music section, I found (on hand and knee – it was of the very bottom shelf!) this little book to add to the collection:

The Penguin John Lennon

It is “The Penguin John Lennon”, a paperback (or soft cover) which gathers together in one volume John Lennon‘s two humorous prose works “John Lennon In His Own Write” (from 1964), and “A Spaniard in the Works” (from 1965), plus some great original line drawings by John. I believe this edition above (with this cover by David Nutter) came out in 1973, but “The Penguin John Lennon” has been out since about 1966. You may have seen it with this cover:

The book has an Introduction written by Paul McCartney, who says at the bottom of the page: “P.S. I like the drawings too”.  He must have, because one of the first drawings in the book was used for the cover of the Beatles “Free As A Bird” CD single – thirty years later in 1995:

Unboxing “The Treasures of the Beatles”

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OK. As I mentioned in the last blog post, a new book has come into the collection. It was only released in November.

I don’t know if you’ve seen these types of books before but they are like a box set in that the book itself sits inside a hard outer casing. The hardback book slides out and, as well as the usual text and photographs, on certain pages inside are pouches that contain replicas of memorabilia associated with the topic. I’ve got one of these already about Bob Dylan. Its called “The Bob Dylan Scrapbook”. I saw another of these books in a store the other day – it was a history book all about the Vietnam war.

Anyway, this new release is all about The Beatles. Its called “Treasures of the Beatles” and it follows the history of the band from the early days in Liverpool and Hamburg, up through each album, the creation of Apple Records, and on to the perhaps inevitable break-up and briefly the solo careers beyond.

It is written by Terry Burrows. He’s a fairly prolific music author and you can see some of his long list of other things he’s written here, including some other Beatles-related titles.

Terry has written a loving tribute to the band and there are lots of great photos inside – some of which I’ve never seen before. But the great part about discovering this book is opening up the little pouches which are full of surprises like publicity and concert posters, replica concert tickets, contracts, hand-written set lists, tour itineraries, postcards, and even a 1967 invitation to The Magical Mystery Tour.

What does it all look like as you browse through the book? Below are some photos,  an “unboxing” of the book with a few pages on display and some of the facsimiles of rare memorabilia that are contained within. Enjoy.

“Treasures of the Beatles” Terry Burrows   2009 Hardback    Published by Crows Nest Books

Front Cover (Outer Box)

Back Cover (Outer Box)

Front Cover (Book)

Pages example 1 - showing one of the pouches

Treasures example - including (burned) replica contract document, etc.

Pages example 2

Treasures example - including posters

Replica concert ticket

Book spine

The Treasures of the Beatles – New Book

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The Treasures of the Beatles

This is new. Just out.

A new full-colour Beatles book with text by Terry Burrows.

More on this soon, with “unboxing” pics of this impressive book (with it’s facimiles of rare memorabilia tucked away in pockets inside).

Until then, here’s a review.

Paul McCartney – Now & Then

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Just near where I work is one of those clearance bookshops that specialise in discontinued lines or overstocks. Its called “Discount Books” and for the avid Beatles collector it is worth dropping by on a semi-regular basis because you never know what is going to turn up. It stocks books from around the world that have either not sold as well as expected, or that have had just a few hundred sitting around in a warehouse for a couple of years that they want to to clear. Over a lengthy period of time I’ve probably picked up 20 or so unusual Beatles-related titles that I was either unaware existed or never got around to buying for full price.  And generally these have been, as the name of the store suggests, at discount prices.

Today I dropped by and found this.

Its called “Paul McCartney – Now & Then” and is a photo and text book compiled and written by Tony Barrow and Robin Bextor. It immediately had a bit of cred because Tony Barrow is a long-time Beatles associate having been their public relations guy for six year between 1962-1968.  Its his name that you see at the bottom of the back of many of their top-selling early album covers because he wrote all the liner notes. He’s the guy who first coined the term “the fab four”,  so you know something of his heritage and where he’s coming from, and that this is not just some book written by a Johnny come lately.

“Now & Then” was first published in 2004 probably as a hardback, but this is a 2006 paperback edition. In a nutshell roughly the first quarter of the book is taken up with essays and stories by the authors dealing with Paul McCartney “Now”. The second quarter is a series of interviews with various luminaries who know or who have worked closely with him (Pete Best; Klaus Voorman; Bill Harry; Peter Asher; Brian Wilson; Steve Miller and George Martin to name just a few). The final two quarters of the book are concerned with McCartney “Then”, and finally “Today”.

There are lots of great photographs scattered throughout – just about every page has an interesting Paul-related shot – many of which I’ve never seen before. They’re a mixture of black and white and colour.

So all-in-all its a nice little package that I picked up for just under $10.  It is 144 pages and I am really looking forward to a more thorough read.  If anyone has seen this book before and knows a little bit more about it or its authors please feel free to drop a comment and let us know your thoughts.

Barrow, T.   &  Bextor, R.   “Paul McCartney  Now & Then” Carlton Books  1 84442 204 6

UK/2006/Paperback

Front cover of "Paul McCartney - Now & Then" 2006

Front cover of "Paul McCartney - Now & Then" 2006

UPDATE: See also “Paul McCartney – Now and Then – Part Two”