A Visit to Some San Francisco Record Stores – Part 3

Posted on August 24, 2013 by beatlesblogger

The final instalment of the recent visit to San Francisco. Last time we looked at the vinyl purchases. This time it’s the CDs and DVDs. Both Rasputin, Recycled Records and Amoeba Music have lots of vinyl. They also have lots of CDs and also (Rasputin Music in particular) many, many DVDs to choose from.

First to the CD’s and at Rasputin I found a US copy of Paul’s Choba B CCCP on CD:

I already have a UK version of this on Parlophone, but a US copy on the Capitol label to join it (at a very low price) was too much to resist.

Also at Rasputin I found a copy, released by 20th Century Fox, of Paul McCartney’s 1984 ill-advised excursion into the world of movie-making Give My Regards to Broad Street:The movie had a less-than-enthusiastic reception when it first came out. To quote one user review from IMDB: “I wouldn’t go so far as to call this movie a ‘crap-fest’. I have definitely sat through much worse….I wouldn’t call it a guilty pleasure, either. Though it wasn’t a complete waste of time, it was awfully trite and clichéd. It plays like an extended music video….Although it didn’t completely suck, Sir Paul really should stick to writing songs and leave screen writing to professionals.”

Hmmm. I can only vaguely remember seeing the film once when it was first released. So when I saw this DVD (which came out in 2004 in this version) for just $3.99 I grabbed it. At that price it is well worth the cost of admission for another viewing. The disc itself is one of those two-sided DVD’s. One side has the full screen version, and the other a wide screen version – so the DVD itself looks pretty bland:

However, there’s an insert inside the case with a great photo of Paul and Ringo in costume:

The other DVD I got at Rasputin was also $3.99, and also from Paul McCartney:

This is the 2002 concert film Back in the U.S. I’ve got the two CD set of this concert, but never actually seen the video. Again, that that low price well worth adding to the collection.

Before leaving Rasputin Music’s Powell Street store I also discovered a nice, sealed CD copy of Electric Arguments by The Fireman (a.k.a. Paul McCartney and Youth).

Now, regular readers of Beatles Blog will know I have a bit of a passion for collecting versions and variations of this particular CD – and this was a variation I’d not seen before. Originally this disc came out when Paul was not signed to any particular label, and so in the UK it was distributed on the One Little Indian label. In the US it came out on ATO Records. More recently though Paul has been signed to the Hear Music label, part of Concord Music Group, and they have re-issued a few titles from that time when he was “between labels” – including Electric Arguments. The giveaway is that white barcode sticker on the rear cover where you can see the disc has been given a different catalogue number and there are tiny logos for MPL (McCartney’s company) as well as Hear Music and Concord:Next stop was Recycled Records on Haight Street, and a very nice US copy of the CD Working Classical:

This came out on the EMI Classics label in back in 1999. I have the vinyl (now worth quite a bit as it is rare, in mint condition, and long out of print). A CD copy for the princely sum of $8.00 was worth it:

The final CD purchase came from Amoeba Music, also on Haight Street. For some time now I’ve been on the lookout for a CD copy of the 2001 McCartney “best of” release Wingspan – Hits and History. It originally came in a cardboard slipcase which has a holographic front cover. Getting copies in good condition is difficult because the slipcase is sometimes missing, or it’s in poor condition. This one I found has the holographic cover and its in pretty good nick too:

So, that’s it – the results of a holiday visit to the US city of San Francisco. A great city with some great record stores to boot.

A Visit to Some San Francisco Record Stores – Part 2

Posted on August 14, 2013 by beatlesblogger

OK. In Part One I detailed the four main record stores I was able to visit while in San Fran.

Now some detail on what I found and brought home to join the collection. Firstly, the vinyl.

At Rasputin Music on Powell (near Union Square) I found a very clean copy of George Harrison’s Living in the Material World. It was a US pressing I didn’t have – a budget re-issue on the green Capitol label:As you can see, it’s a nice clean copy and the vinyl is mint.

Also at Rasputin there were two Ringo Starr LP’s I liked the look of and they were both very reasonably priced. I have Australian pressings of both of these, but good US copies like these were a welcome addition to the collection. They are both on the Apple label and original throughout. This gatefold copy of Ringo (1973) was complete with its book of lyrics and wonderful line drawings by Klaus Voormann (who also played bass on the album):

The Fab 4 Free 4 All Beatle podcast recently reviewed the Ringo album and raved about it (see episode 60, “Ringo” – Analysis and Review). Also at Rasputin was a copy of Ringo’s Blast From Your Past which came with the original inner sleeve of photos on one side and lyrics on the other:

Later in the week I got over to the Haight-Ashbury district were there were three stores in close proximity (Recycled, Rasputin and Amoeba – all on Haight Street).

The first I visited was Recycled Records. They had some vintage Beatles LP’s, but to be honest they were fairly expensive….and so I concentrated on the Beatles as solo artists. I’ve always been keen on collecting variations of Paul McCartney’s “Russian” album called Choba B CCCP. Well, Recycled was a bit of a treasure trove as they have numerous copies in their bins and tucked away underneath on shelves. There were thirty to forty copies in all, and so I set about identifying some versions I didn’t have. There are so many variations of this particular record because it came out firstly as an 11-track album, followed later by a 13-track version. And they were pressed in about six different Russian pressing plants, each with its own label styles and variations (sometimes subtle) within those labels. I turned up four distinct copies I wanted, and they were all very reasonably priced (between US$6.00-$10.00 each). There was one 11-track version (from the Aprelevka pressing plant), two 13-track versions (Tbilisi plant and Riga plant), and one “hybrid” that had an 11-track cover but a 13-track LP inside (which I didn’t realise until I got home). Both the cover and LP are from the same factory (the Riga plant) so I’m not sure if this is legit or just a mistake….

The rear cover of the 11-track version is identified by its yellow colour:

However, this one has a 13-track LP inside – on a plain white Melodyia Records label, made at the Riga pressing plant where the cover was made too:

So. A mystery there. If anyone knows if any other copies like this exist let me know. These are the labels from the other copies of Choba B CCCP purchased at Recycled:

Of course for the full detail on all Russian Beatle and Beatle-related vinyl releases you need to visit this one, fantastic central repository.

Further down Haight Street is another Rasputin Music store and so I ducked in for a look. No vintage Beatles here, but lots of copies of the latest remastered vinyl at good prices. I did find an interesting re-issue copy of the John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band’s Live Peace in Toronto LP however, complete with a reproduction of the 1970 calendar which was included with original copies. It is brand new, still sealed, looked like a good buy and so I got it:

I think this re-issue was released in 2012 through a company called Hi Horse Records (which is a subsidiary of City Hall Records). It’s on the original Apple label and has the same SW 3362 catalogue number. If anyone has any other info on this one it would be very welcome. Please drop us a line.

Then it was on to Amoeba Music’s Haight Street store – which is an enormous warehouse of a building with thousands of LP’s, CD’s and books…however, not a lot of vintage Beatles on display here either, but two very good vinyl buys none-the-less. The first was Paul McCartney’s first solo LP simply called McCartney. It is a US copy, a re-issue in very good condition and on the black Capitol label:

And last but not least a really nice copy – practically mint throughout – of George Harrison’s The Concert for Bangladesh. I already have an Australian and an unusual South African pressing of this, but have been on the lookout for a good UK copy, and of course a US example as well, which is what we have here. Amoeba had this priced at just US$14.99, which for a triple album set in such excellent condition was an absolute bargain. It came with a mint copy of the original 64-page book, and all the LPs were housed in their original brown paper inner sleeves:

So, that was a quick summary of the vinyl found in four San Francisco record stores during a short visit there last week. Next time a look at the CD’s and DVD’s I found and added to the collection.

Two Recent Russian Beatle Releases

Posted on July 17, 2013 by beatlesblogger

Got an email the other day from friend Andrey in the Russian Federation letting me know about two recent Russian Beatles releases I hadn’t heard of:

They are both on the Doxy label. The first is The Decca Tapes [MiruMir Music Publishing / Doxy DOK326] which is on 180 gram vinyl and comes with a bonus CD of the same title, contents and catalogue number. There’s an additional plastic bag for the CD – inside the cover. It was released on March 14, 2013.The second (above) is 1958-1962 [MiruMir Music Publishing / Doxy DOY011]. This one comes as a box set, complete with clear vinyl, a 20-page LP-size booklet and a 6-page A4-size replica of the original “Love Me Do” press-release. It is a limited edition of 1000 copies and was released on May 30, 2013

These can be found on Amazon or Ebay. They’re also available at the Music Direct site.

Andrey provided a little bit of background information about the MiruMir company. MiruMir in Russian is written as МируМир. This, says Andrey, is an old Soviet slogan which means “Peace To The World”. You can find the Moscow-based label on two websites http://mirumirmp.livejournal.com/ and http://www.miru-mir.info/?lables.html, and they have a Facebook site.

MiruMir release a lot of LPs by Russian and ex-Soviet artists, plus the Doxy label (not to be confused with Sonny Rollins’ label of the same name) release a very wide range of other artists from around the world.

Actually, in researching all this I discovered another Russian Beatles LP that looks like it comes from the same series as The Decca Tapes – only this time it’s a release on Lilith Records, another subsidiary of MiruMir:

This pressing of The Savage Young Beatles [LR305] was released in 2010. It is also a 180 gram vinyl and comes with a free bonus CD copy of the same songs. It’s available at the Music Direct site too. According to Discogs, Lilith has been a Russian reissue label since 2004 for mainstream rock albums re-released on vinyl and compact disc for Western markets. The records are manufactured at GZ Digital Media A. S. (Loděnice, Czech Republic). For more on GZ Digital Media see my post “Where “Made in the EU” Vinyl Might be Pressed“

If anyone knows anything about the quality of these recordings above please let us know. There are varying opinions out there.

Paul McCartney – In His Own Words

Posted on July 14, 2013 by beatlesblogger

Just got a copy of this double Paul McCartney CD set released by the BBC and AudioGO. It was a nice gift from a friend:

It’s a double interview CD with lots of BBC radio and TV interviews with Paul McCartney and the title is In His Own Words issued by Audiogo in England. It takes material from the BBC Archives ranging from 1968 to 2009 including rare material from throughout his long-spanning career, delving into both his public and private life. McCartney talks about his early influences, song-writing and life as a Beatle. The band’s eventual break-up is covered, as is the forming of Wings.

BBC audiobooks are designed to give an insight into some of the major identities in British history. These interviews delve into the past and give the opportunity to put some context around the happenings in and around the group, as well as life post-Beatles. Here are two short extracts cut together to give you a taste. The first is Paul talking about meditation, and then songwriting and his relationship with the other Beatles:

[audio https://beatlesblogger.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/media_downloadables_samples_9781408497395.mp3]

At both the US and the UK sites this appears to be available as both a digital download and a hard-copy CD, which is what we have here.

AudioGo have also got a couple of John Lennon titles. There’s a similar-looking set also called In His Own Words which I’ll have to keep an eye out for:

They also have a HUGE book reading of a Lennon biography. It’s author Philip Norman reading his Lennon – The Life. Like Norman’s book, it is big! Volume 1 takes up no less than 16 CDs and runs 18 hours and 32 minutes:

And Volume 2 is 12 CDs, running time just a little bit shorter: 14 hours and 10 minutes….

Another Variation of McCartney’s Choba b CCCP

Posted on July 7, 2013 by beatlesblogger

Another variation of Paul McCartney’s Russian album Снова в СССР has come into the collection. I found another version on Ebay which I didn’t have. It was listed by an Australian seller (so postage was relatively safe, fast and cheap). It was also at a very reasonable price and so I couldn’t resist:

Снова в СССР is Russian for “Back in the USSR” and last time I posted on this was way back in 2010 when I detailed some of the other variations in my collection. I had five different vinyl pressings then, plus the CD edition, but there are actually almost too many variations of this LP to count. This latest one I have comes from the Aprelevka pressing plant which was just on the outskirts of Moscow. It’s the 1989, thirteen track version.

You can see all the many variations of this disc at the amazing The Beatles Get Back in the USSR website. To get to the key Снова в СССР entries go to the site’s pages detailing the original 11 track release; the more common 13 track release (which we have here); and the very rare mis-pressed 12 track release. As well as the many label variations from the different Russian pressing plants you’ll be able to explore the many cover variations in the printing of this album as well.

Four Beatle Books for a Song…

Posted on June 19, 2013 by beatlesblogger

Made the mistake of walking past my local discount book store today…..haven’t been near the place for weeks and it’s always a bit of a lottery to go in. They turn over discontinued and surplus titles very quickly and at very cheap prices so you never know what you might find. Today, in ten minutes, I came away with not one but four new Beatles titles for the collection.

This first one is a ripper and comes from 2010. It documents what is now a legendary photo shoot by the band in July, 1968 otherwise known as “The Mad Day Out”. Photographer Don McCullin shot about fifteen rolls of film over the course of a day out in the streets of London and back at Paul McCartney’s house at St John’s Wood.

Many of the photographs had until now remained largely unpublished. If you have the Beatles “1962-1966” or the “1967-1970” double LPs or CDs you’ll have seen at least one photo from this same photo shoot. It’s the black and white one inside the gate-fold album cover, or in the very centre of the CD booklets, labelled (incorrectly as it turns out) “St Pancras Old Church, 22 July 69”. Here’s two other photos from the book: This edition is in a smaller format than what I recall seeing in shops when this book first hit the shelves, but it is a very nice book to have none-the-less.

Here’s the rear cover:I already had a copy of this next one, but not in the same format. The book I found in the discount shop today is a very small paperback copy. It’s Ringo’s Postcards From the Boys, and for just $4.99 how could I resist another copy?

Postcards is a collection of 51 postcards sent to Ringo from John, Paul and George. Each card (displayed front and rear) is accompanied by brief reminiscences from Ringo:

This book first came out as a hardback in 2004 after originally being released in a very limited and expensive edition by Genesis Publications. This one I found today is at the other end of the scale – a small-format, budget re-issue from 2005:

(If you want to see the absolute deluxe version in minute detail, check out this lengthy YouTube clip).

Next find was a what looks to be a very interesting study of the Beatle money trail, how they got ripped off, and lost and made fortunes:

Beatles For Sale – How Everything They Touched Turned to Gold is by John Blaney, the author of a number of Beatle-related books (including this one). It was published back in 2008. I have always been interested in the Beatle money matters (especially around the formation and eventual demise of their Apple Corporation) and so this one looks like it will be a very good read. Here’s the rear cover:

Finally, a book about Beatles books.

Beatle Books – From Genesis to Revolution is an extensive compendium detailing all the books written about the band, by the band members, and about them as solo artists too.

There was only one copy of this on the shelf, and it has been pretty beaten up. It looks like its been dropped, or something heavy has been dropped onto it. But it’s a really handy reference book and one I have never seen before. The guy gave me an extra discount because of the damage – so I paid the princely sum of $5.99….

If you’re interested this came out in 2008, is manufactured in Canada, and was published by Collectors Guide Publishing in Ontario. Strange to find one copy floating around a discount bookshop in Sydney, Australia.

Never-Before-Seen Photos of the Beatles

Posted on June 10, 2013 by beatlesblogger

This coming Wednesday sees the release of Ringo Starr’s new e-book, Photograph.

It features over 100 never-before-seen images of John, Paul, George and Ringo – some of them from their last days together as a band, some from their first trip to India, and some taken during their first U.S. tour.

Ringo says he completely forgot that he took a lot of photos of the Beatles during the 1960s. He apparently discovered the images by accident after his mother had died, tucked away in boxes at her house.

Other photos featured in the book are from Ringo’s childhood in Liverpool and family gatherings.

The e-book was previewed at a press-only event at Apple’s headquarters in London last week and is set for release worldwide on June 12. It allows readers to pick up, play with and zoom in on Ringo’s photographs while scrolling through. Photograph features 69 audio stories and 11 exclusive videos, with music, animation and new interviews from Ringo Starr. Here are some screenshots:

Photograph is available for pre-order now at www.RingoPhotograph.com. A limited-edition, hand-bound version by Genesis Publications is due in December:

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…..)

A Big Beatles Garage Sale Haul

Posted on June 3, 2013 by beatlesblogger

In my previous post I was bemoaning the scenario where you make the effort to get out and about early on a Saturday morning on the hunt for Beatles vinyl – and return frustrated and empty-handed.

Not so this last weekend which produced a wealth of great Beatles treasure, including one LP I’d not seen before. My son has taken to joining me on these forays into others people’s garages and front lawns. He calls it “crate digging“. He’s on the lookout for jazz plus wide range of other artists he might be able to take samples from to load into his computer. He then uses short grabs from these to mix into new songs he’s creating himself.

Anyway, we go to this one house early Saturday morning and the lady says yes, she has some records, but as she hasn’t gone through them she doesn’t want to put them out right now. If we could come back after lunchtime she’d find them (somewhere up the back of a very packed garage) and we could have a private look through to see if there is anything we want. We like the sound of an exclusive “crate dig” and so return at the appointed time. By this time four very large plastic bins filled with records have been located and we begin to look through….

First out of the crate comes an Australian copy of Sgt Pepper. It is in the old-style gatefold cover with the fold-over tabs, plus it has the original paper inner and the “cut out” insert. Things are looking good. This one is on the old Parlophone black and silver “Stereo Banner” label. Jaesen Jones, the author of “An Overview of Australian Beatles Records“, says this label was used on some pressings of Pepper by EMI here between between the years 1967-1969: Nice. Next find was an Australian copy of Let It Be. It’s not an original issue, but one of the many, many re-issues of this disc. This one is on the Apple label and is in pretty good condition – near mint. Here’s the rear cover and label:

While flipping through the boxes we got talking to the lady and it turns out this collection of records (which was literally a couple of hundred discs across a wide variety of genres – but mostly rock and pop) came from a very well-known Sydney radio and TV personality. He was an old family friend and years ago when moving house asked the lady if she wanted his records…

Next I find, in quick succession, a Beatles White Album and an Abbey Road (both re-issues on Apple and probably about the same vintage as the LIB above). The White Album even has the poster and all four photos and is in very good condition:

Further digging then reveals a red The Beatles/1962-1966, again an Australian copy, with the Apple label and a red background. It has both lyric sheet inserts and is in reasonable condition. Not mint, but OK:The final Beatles treasure to come out of these crates is a bit of a rarity. It’s an album I’ve not seen before The Beatles – Birth of Legend. A New Zealand release from 1983 on the budget Music World Records, it features twelve songs from the famous Decca audition tapes:As the liner notes on the rear cover say, the Decca audition refers to the now-famous audition by the Beatles for Decca Records before they reached international stardom. In what was considered one of the biggest mistakes in the music business ever, Decca decided to reject the band selecting instead a band called Brian Poole and the Tremeloes.

So, after a weekend before of nothing, this time around it is a different story.

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:

Beatles Blog

Adventures in collecting Beatles music

Tag Archives: Music

Two Recent Russian Beatle Releases

Paul McCartney – In His Own Words

Never-Before-Seen Photos of the Beatles

A Big Beatles Garage Sale Haul

Two Garage Sale Books

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