I’m sure most of us have at least a couple of copies of The BeatlesSgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band in our collections – either on CD, LP, cassette, or all three!
But an email today from the folks at eil.com (the UK purveyor of premium quality rare used and new vinyl) got us wondering about which pressing of this LP is the most valuable?
eil.com is currently offering for sale an unusual Nimbus Records “Supercut” edition of the Pepper LP. They say it was “….pressed exclusively for readers of Practical Hi-Fi and Hi-Fi Today magazine by Nimbus, with ‘Nimbus England’ machine stamped in the run-outs. Limited to 1000 copies only, the Nimbus Supercut of Sgt. Pepper has since gained legendary status within audiophile circles and is arguably the most sought after Nimbus title on the market today”.
The asking price? £3,995.00 (AUD$8,309).
And that sounds about right, because there’s another for sale on the Discogs site for the same money.
But what about the very famous (and equally rare) Australian “Audiophile” pressing?
This came into existence when EMI Australia decided to try their hand at half-speed mastering for a reissue series. The LP never went on sale in regular record stores, but was made exclusively available to the public at the Sydney Hi-Fi and Audio Show in July 1983. Just 497 numbered copies were released with unique label artwork, mirroring the black and silver one EMI box Parlophone labels of 1969, and housed inside a single pocket picture cover with AUDIOPHILE designated on the back. Each LP had an individually numbered sticker fixed to the top right corner of the back cover.
There are currently none for sale on Discogs, but the highest price paid in the past was £2,640 (AUD$5,500). For more on this release see the very good Australian Beatle record collector page I Am The Platypus, and if you want to see a nice story about the tapes used for this pressing, check out this YouTube video:
Of course authentically autographed copies of this LP will always sell for big $$$. Take this one with all four Beatle signatures on it’s gatefold inner. We reported way back in 2013 it had sold for an incredible US$290,500.
But probably the doozy with the biggest difference on the cover of the LP is the very rare “Capital Records executives” copy. In a nutshell, a bunch of top guys at Capitol officially had their faces inserted onto the iconic front image for a very limited edition of Sgt. Pepper’s. It’s estimated that only 40-50 copies of this record exist. The covers were printed up and distributed at a Capitol Sales Executive meeting held in Florida in late 1967:
Lots of Beatle book news around at the moment. We’re a little slow getting to this one, but Paul McCartney has flagged a big Wings book retrospective due later this year – November 4 to be precise. It’s called Wings: The Story of a Band on the Run.
Clearly this is still a work very much in production but the book promises over 100 black and white and colour photographs, many previously unseen, and will draw on over 500,000 words and dozens of hours of interviews with McCartney and numerous key players in and around the band. Most probably it is designed to tie in with Morgan Neville’s forthcoming documentary film Man on the Run, which will also tell the story of McCartney’s life following the breakup of The Beatles and the formation of Wings. That film (due later this year or early next) is also based on access to never-before-seen archives of Paul and Linda’s home videos and photos, as well as new interviews. (See The Paul McCartney Project for more on this).
25th anniversary? Didn’t The Beatles Anthology documentary series, CD’s and vinyl begin to come out back in 1995? Shouldn’t it be the 30th anniversary? Well no, not for the book which was first published as a hardback in the year 2000. This time it’s paperback only. Fans are already asking if the release might be associated with some sort of The Beatles Anthology CD/vinyl re-issue too? Or maybe the documentary series has been refreshed as is slated for streaming? Or re-issue on DVD or Blu-Ray. We don’t know as yet…..
Rather than being a biography, with each release this series is growing as the go-to reference place for detailed information on each and every Wings or solo Paul McCartney album or individual song. This second volume covers off a further 250 entries, including 26 previously unreleased songs. It is packed with technical info on the recordings, personnel and who-played-what, anecdotes and the background to how each song and album came about.
The book kicks off in 1990 with the triple LP live album Tripping the Live Fantastic, the record that launched McCartney into the Nineties, and ends with Complete Kisses, another foray into performing live – but this time a live streamed concert he gave in support of his jazz-influenced album Kisses on the Bottom from 2012. In between there is a wealth of information on Paul’s solo studio albums over this period, but also some much-needed analysis and detail on his many classical, operatic and experimental outings from the time – like his Liverpool Oratorio with Carl Davis, Standing Stone, Ecce Cor Meum, his Ocean’s Kingdom ballet music, plus Strawberries Oceans Ships Forest where he appears for the first time with collaborator Youth under the nom de plume, TheFireman. There’s also a chapter on the very experimental Liverpool Sound Collage with the Super Furry Animals, and another musical style departure called Twin Freaks, under yet another pseudonym, Twin Freaks. To date very little has been written about these eclectic but fascinating additions to his canon, so this book is immediately a very welcome research window into some of McCartney’s more obscure yet interesting musical moments. Bravo!
For how Perasi constructs each entry in the book see our review of Volume 1because the same format is used here. As for information on what is coming next, Perasi says there will be a Volume 3 starting at 2013 with the album New and moving forward, then a Volume 4 looking at Paul McCartney’s many collaborations and appearances on other people’s records (fascinating!), and then a Volume 0 is promised as a mystery surprise finale. As to just what this contains we’ll have to wait and see.
Well, Luca Perasi is nothing if not prolific because today he’s announced yet another new book called Ringo Starr: I Play the Piano If It’s in C. The Stories Behind the Songs (Vol. 1) 1970-1997.
As the title suggests, this covers the first twenty-eight years of Ringo Starr’s solo career. Luca says, “The book is the first ever to explore in such depth Ringo’s post-Beatles production, from Sentimental Journey until his All-Starr Band tour in 1997.”
“The title recalls a verse from his song ‘Early 1970’ and is a half-joking reference to the fact that Ringo is not really a composer but is still capable of producing great music. He’s been defined as a drummer who plays melodically, as a guitarist, and it’s time to explore his production historically and critically.”
Like the McCartney volumes, this book tells the stories behind 157 of Ringo’s songs released between 1970 and 1997 – including songs written by other composers plus 23 unreleased tracks – each with detailed information on musicians and recording dates, anecdotes and contemporary interviews.
“During the period under consideration, Ringo goes through different phases of his career; he starts as an outsider, but he manages to achieve great success until 1974, first with the two singles ‘It Don’t Come Easy’ and ‘Back off Boogaloo’, and then with the albums Ringo and Goodnight Vienna,” explains Perasi. “During the second half of the seventies, he became increasingly marginalised in the music business, and the eighties opened amidst a thousand difficulties, with Ringo failing to revive his career through the project of an album in Memphis and his alcohol addiction.”
Out now, Ringo Starr: I Play the Piano If It’s in C. The Stories Behind the Songs (Vol. 1) 1970-1997is available worldwide from Amazon in both hardcover and paperback. For the USA click here, and the UK click here.
A Volume 2 will follow in 2026. See what I mean about prolific?
Dark Horse Records celebrated George Harrison’s birth date this week with the release of a new tribute album by gypsy jazz guitarist Robin Nolan.
For The Love Of George can be streamed on all good streaming services and features some amazing gypsy jazz versions of classic George songs. Also included is a brand new composition crafted by Nolan from chords jotted down by George on an envelope and only discovered after his passing. Cementing to strong connections here, Nolan played three of George’s own guitars, and the recording was made in the studio George created at his home in Friar Park.
The album featuresten Gypsy Jazz interpretations of Harrison songs from across his Beatle and solo career, as well as the brand-new composition. Surprisingly they really lend themselves to the Django Reinhardt-style.
Nolan’s relationship with Harrison dates back to the 1990s, when George personally recognized and encouraged his playing. Since then, Nolan has remained a valued presence within the Harrison musical circle, making this tribute especially meaningful. And it’s not the first album Nolan has recorded at Friar Park. He released Gypsy Blue in 2013 on Dhani Harrison’s H.O.T. Records – and like this this one it was only available digitally but also a very limited CD. (H.O.T. of course stands for Henley-On-Thames, the town where Friar Park is located).
Talking about how the new album came about, Robin Nolan explains, “I was at Friar Park playing for Olivia’s birthday. We were all talking and then George’s Ramirez acoustic guitar appeared and I played ‘And I Love Her’ on it. It was a massive thrill to play the song on the same guitar he’d originally recorded it on with Olivia and everyone watching.”
“I had already been thinking about how cool it would be to do an album of George’s songs, but then to actually be playing one of his songs on that guitar. ‘That’s another level, you know, that’s another layer of awesomeness.’ So that was where the inspiration for the album was born.
“A few days later, I was working on the arrangements of how these songs could sound in the Gypsy Jazz style and Olivia texted me this picture of an envelope with some chords that George had written on it and said, ‘Check it out. I wonder if George ever did anything with that? Maybe you can look at the chords and tell?'”
“I stared at the envelope and studied the chords intently that George had written all those years ago and started to feel the magic. It was like unraveling a mystery, trying to imagine what George might have meant.
“At a certain moment I felt that the chords started to make sense and came alive as I strummed them on my guitar, ‘Ahh maybe that’s what he meant’, I remember thinking to myself.”
“After I’d figured out the chords a melody came to me. In my mind I could hear George humming a tune that sounded really beautiful. That’s when it all came together. The title track of this album For The Love Of George.
“I was really excited so I recorded a simple version on my phone and sent it to Olivia wondering what she might think. She responded, ‘Wow it sounds so much like George!’
“And, of course, it does sound like George, because there’s a few chord changes in there which are really unique to him, and then the melody I wrote is so inspired by him.”
“For this new track I used all three of George’s guitars that feature on the album. The intro is the 12-string Rickenbacker used on the bulk of the Hard Day’s Night album, and it’s just got that sound, you know? So I made the intro with that guitar, and some fills. The main melody is played on the Gibson J160, which is the guitar with a lot of history. It’s the only guitar that was used on every Beatles album. It’s tough to play, but it has so much character. I did the melodies on that one, and then there’s some backing lines on the Ramirez.”
Last week, as part of his warm-up for the Saturday Night Live 50th Anniversary Show, Paul McCartney played three small gigs (across three nights) at the relatively humble Bowery Ballroom in New York. It has a capacity of just 575 people, and tickets (at US$50.00 each) sold out immediately they went on sale – only if you showed up in person at the Bowery Ballroom’s box office.
The online announcements for each show were simple. Here’s the first:
🗽 PAUL McCARTNEY ROCKS THE BOWERY 🗽 Tuesday, February 11th. Bowery Ballroom, New York.
5:00pm Doors 6:30pm Showtime
Tickets on sale now only at Bowery Ballroom box office. No tickets sold online. First come, first served. One ticket per person.
These intimate shows quickly became an event in themselves, taking even a place like New York City by storm:
After the concerts, reviewers swooned too. Variety was effusive:
Paul McCartney Electrifies New York’s 575-Capacity Bowery Ballroom With Career-Spanning Surprise Set
Even the tragically hip and usually cynical, hard-to-please Pitchfork Magazine was besotted:
Paul McCartney’s Magical Mystery Bowery Ballroom Show
Understandable really because who wouldn’t want to be at an intimate venue to see and hear Paul McCartney and his band play, up close and personal?
Anyways, apart from all the above, one thing that really resonated with fans on social media and in the forums was the amazing poster that was produced to help promote the event.
Lots of comments began to appear, praising the artwork and asking if it was for sale. Also, who was the artist who’d created it?
This poster was resonating with people because it encapsulates so well a journey in three distinct phases – starting with a young Paul McCartney in the middle and blossoming out to a recognisable profile image of the legend and man we see before us today.
But then again, it also radiates inwards as well: from the clouds and the universe on the outside profile, into the New York skyline and the Big Apple at the centre. How brilliant.
Well, it turns out the artist is an Argentinian named Santi Pozzi.
Pozzi is a graphic designer, art director, illustrator and screen printer from Buenos Aires. He graduated in Graphic Design at the University of Buenos Aires, and learned screen printing technique at The Firehouse Kustom Rockart Co. in Oakland, California. He later introduced gig poster art to Argentina and South America by putting together his own screen printing studio, Imprenta Chimango. He’s designed and printed official posters for Pearl Jam, Tame Impala, Jack White, Queens of the Stoneage, Primus and many others.
From this fan photo of the merch stand at the Bowery Ballroom last week, it looks like the poster and a tote bag bearing Pozzi’s design were briefly available for sale:
George Harrison’s song ‘Be Here Now’ has been named theRSD Song of the Year for 2025’s Record Store Day on April 12.
To celebrate the honor, a double A-Side 12” Single of ‘Be Here Now’ will be released featuring the 2024 mix of George’s original version. The flip-side will contain Beck’s recent cover of the track. Proceeds will go to the Material World Foundation.
It’s another hefty RSD for the Dark Horse label. It will also release a limited Zoetrope picture disc pressing of George’s All Things Must Pass. It is the next part in the plan to eventually issue Zoetrope picture disc pressings of George’s entire studio album catalogue:
The limited edition 3LP Zoetrope set will be the third title in this RSD series and follows Wonderwall Music and Electronic Sound from 2024. Like them, All Things Must Pass will come in an individually numbered sleeve.
The Lennon Estate has also entered the RSD fray. They’re no strangers to using Record Store Day to give publicity to other projects they have on the go (see our article “Record Store Day and The Beatles – A History” for proof of this over many years).
This time it’s the turn of the new documentary film One to One: John & Yoko which looks at the couple’s life in 1970’s New York, exploring their musical, personal, artistic, social, and political world. Directed by Kevin Macdonald and set in 1972, the film has at it’s core the story of The One to One Concerts, John Lennon’s only full-length performances after The Beatles, accompanied by Yoko Ono, The Plastic Ono Band, Elephant’s Memory and a range of special guests. Together they headlined two historic benefit concerts at Madison Square Garden in New York City. The performances, held before a combined audience of 40,000 people, raised over $1.5 million to support schoolchildren with special needs.
The film has newly remastered and remixed sound from those concerts, produced by Sean Ono Lennon and mixed and engineered from the original tapes by Paul Hicks and Sam Gannon and for RSD 2025 they’re releasing what is described as an “extremely limited edition” 12″ EP featuring four tracks from the afternoon and evening concerts, including three previously unreleased performances. The EP is pressed on 180g yellow vinyl.
The 2025 GRAMMYs, officially known as the 67th GRAMMY Awards, is airing live and already The Beatles and the Lennon Estate have won big:
Best Rock Performance WINNER: The Beatles – Now and Then The Black Keys – Beautiful People (Stay High) Green Day – The American Dream Is Killing Me Idles – Gift Horse Pearl Jam – Dark Matter St. Vincent – Broken Man
The award was accepted on stage by Sean Ono Lennon.
By the way, ‘Now and Then’ has also been nominated for Song of the Year in the prestigious Brit Awards in the UK.
Also tonight Sean Ono Lennon and art director Simon Hilton have accepted the Grammy Award for…….
Best Boxed or Special Limited Edition Package Alpha Wolf – Half Living Things WINNER: John Lennon – Mind Games Kate Bush – Hounds of Love (The Boxes of Lost at Sea) Nirvana – In Utero Unsuk Chin & Berliner Philharmoniker – Unsuk Chin 90 Day Men – We Blame Chicago
The Beatles were also GRAMMY nominated, indirectly, in the category below:
Best Audio Book, Narration, and Storytelling Recording Barbra Streisand – My Name Is Barbra Dolly Parton – Behind the Seams: My Life in Rhinestones George Clinton – …And Your Ass Will Follow WINNER: Jimmy Carter – Last Sundays in Plains: A Centennial Celebration Various Artists – All You Need Is Love: The Beatles in Their Own Words
All You Need is Love is an oral history of The Beatles (available digitally as an audiobook) from never-before-heard interviews. The material is comprised of interviews with Paul McCartney, Yoko Ono, George Harrison, Ringo Starr, their families, friends and business associates that were conducted by Beatles intimate Peter Brown and author Steven Gaines in 1980-1981 – during the preparation of their international bestselling book, The Love You Make.
Record of the Year The Beatles – Now and Then Beyoncé – Texas Hold ’Em Billie Eilish – Birds of a Feather Chappell Roan – Good Luck, Babe! Charli XCX – 360 WINNER: Kendrick Lamar – Not Like Us Sabrina Carpenter – Espresso Taylor Swift Featuring Post Malone – Fortnight
The GRAMMY’s are using this year’s ceremony to raise much-needed funds for those impacted by the terrible greater Los Angeles wildfires. You can donate by visiting MusiCares Fire Relief.
Much as was expected the Paul McCartney camp has announced there will be a commemorative 50th anniversary edition released this year of Wings’ fourth studio album, Venus and Mars. Also as expected it will take the form of a Half Speed Master, out on March 21, 2025.
The special 50th-anniversary vinyl edition will be cut at half speed using a high-resolution transfer of the original master tapes from 1975 by Miles Showell at Abbey Road Studios. The album will be presented as a meticulous reproduction of the original UK pressing, with recreations of the original “Venus and Mars are alright tonight” circular sticker and “comparative sizes of sun and planets” bookmark sticker. Just like the original it will come with two posters with photography by Aubrey Powell and Sylvia de Swaan. The iconic album artwork by Hipgnosis has been meticulously recreated and presented in a gatefold sleeve.
Venus and Mars will also be available in Dolby Atmos for the first time, newly mixed by Giles Martin and Steve Orchard.
Intriguingly, the official press release says“The first Wings release for 2025, Venus and Mars follows 2024’s theatrical release of the rare Wings live-in-studio performance film One Hand Clapping……”
And, “More exciting celebratory Wings’ activities and announcements are soon set to follow”, clearly implying that there are other Wings goodies in the pipeline for 2025.
Could this mean the LONG awaited London Town and Back to the Egg archive box sets are not far off?
Of course for avid collectors there’s a sub-category of releases that come out on these two days per year that are essential as well. These are records in some way associated with The Beatles. These can be from artists that have rubbed shoulders with the band, have been produced by them, or who appear on labels owned by them. So, here’s a history of these records for your enjoyment. As usual, if you spot anything we’ve missed please get in touch!
The first of the “associated” records dates back to Record Store Day 2016 and the re-issue of a 7″ single by the band Grapefruit. This featured two previously unreleased tracks recorded for Apple in 1968, with one track (the A-side called ‘Lullaby’) produced by John Lennon and Paul McCartney. Only 750 of these were pressed:
Being produced by John Lennon also put Harry Nilsson’s Pussy Cats LP on the “must seek out” list for RSD 2018. This was the first time the album had been re-issued since it’s 1974 debut. It came out on brown and black marbled “hardwood” vinyl in a print run of 1500 copies:
Also for RSD 2018, producer and ‘Fifth Beatle’George Martin scored a release of his instrumental album Beatles to Bond and Bach (also originally from 1974). It was re-issued as a collectable, limited edition of 2500. Each LP was individually numbered and on 180g blue vinyl:
Sitar maestro and long-time friend and mentor of George Harrison, Ravi Shankar, had an amazing album produced by the Beatle in 1997. Chants of India was originally released (only on CD) on Angel Records, one of the EMI stable of classical labels. But by 2020 George’s son Dhani had re-launched Dark Horse Records, the label his father first started back in 1974. The very first LP in the revived catalogue was Chants of India – on vinyl for the first time. It earned the catalogue number DH0001 and came out as part of the RSD ‘Drops’ in that pandemic year of 2020. It was on red vinyl, housed in a gatefold sleeve with an exclusive photo print, and limited to 3000 copies:
Dark Horse then proceeded to have a bit of a run of Record Store Day releases. The next was the following year for the first of the RSD ‘Drops’ that year (June, 2021), and it was the first of many Joe Strummer titles to be reissued on the label. It was a 12″ picture disc single featuring ‘Junco Partner’, an ultra-rare acoustic home recording of the song famously recorded by The Clash. The B-side was a live version of the song recorded at the Brixton Academy in 2001 by Joe Strummer and The Mescaleros. Bearing the catalogue number DH0003 there were 3500 copies pressed:
Also in 2021, this time for RSD Black Friday, came another Joe Strummer title. It was a 12″ single on pink vinyl. The hype sticker said it all: “Dark Horse Records | Joe Strummer | ‘Johnny Appleseed’ | 12″ Single B/W ‘At The Border, Guy’ | Celebrating the 20th Anniversary of the Classic Album Global A Go-Go | Limited Edition Pink Vinyl | DH0006″. 4500 copies:
On to RSD 2022 now and a Dark Horse Records re-issue from Shankar Family and Friends: ‘I Am Missing You’, a 12″ single on blue vinyl. This is a track taken from their originalDark Horse self-titled LP, released in 1974 and produced by George Harrison. It was issued as a 7″ single back then. 2700 copies:
Record Store Day Black Friday 2022 saw two more Dark Horse Records titles issued. One was Dark Horse Records – The Best 1974-1977, with 12 remastered selections from across the catalogue including Ravi Shankar, Splinter, Attitudes, Henry McCullough and Kenny Burke. This was on black vinyl – 2150 copies:
Another RSD Black Friday for 2022 was Joe Strummer’s Live at Music Millennium. Recorded on November 2, 1999 this was a previously unreleased, rare acoustic in-store performance at a Portland, Oregon music shop called Music Millennium. On black vinyl on the Dark Horse label, there were 3600 copies pressed:
2023 saw an absolute flurry of activity on the Record Store Day front – for both RSD proper, and for Black Friday later in the year.
First up the band Stairsteps. Once signed to the original Dark Horse Records, they got a remastered re-release of their 1976 album, 2nd Resurrection (co-produced by Billy Preston) on gold vinyl. 1410 copies:
Once again Joe Strummer featured heavily, with Dark Horse adding to an ever-lengthening series of reissues. For 2023 RSD it was the turn of Streetcore as a “Limited 20th Anniversary Edition”. It came in a gatefold sleeve and looked great on white vinyl. It includes a colour printed inner sleeve and 1,760 copies were pressed (according to the Record Store Day website).
And also for RSD 2023 came one Beatle-related release with a somewhat tenuous link – the original soundtrack album for the 1971 spaghetti western movie, Blindman – starring none other than Ringo Starr. 1000 copies of this came out on “blood splatter” vinyl. And yes, the vinyl does look as gruesome as it sounds:
First up was a Black Friday reissue of the 1974 Splinter LP The Place I Love, produced by George Harrison:
Black Friday also saw the re-issue of a title originally released by Apple Records back in 1973 – Ravi Shankar and Ali Akbar Khan’s In Concert 1972. Co-produced by George Harrison, this was a 2LP set with 1280 copies being pressed:
The third Black Friday 2023 release was Leon Russell in country mode with Hank Wilson Vol. II. This was a red vinyl reissue of his 1984 country album, originally released on Paradise Records. Dark Horse Records was reissuing the album on vinyl for the first time since 1984. It includes a duet with Willie Nelson on ‘Wabash Cannonball’. 1700 copies:
And that brings us to 2024. Earlier this year Record Store Day for Beatle-related titles was pretty big and, it must be said, a drain on the wallets of completists! There were four releases in all – and this was in addition to no less than ten Beatle and solo releases.
Dark Horse was again busy. They had out a remastered 25th anniversary edition of the Joe Strummer and the Mescaleros double LP, Rock Art & The Ex-Ray Style. This was the debut album by the band in limited pink vinyl. 1800 were pressed with the original gatefold artwork by Damien Hirst being “meticulously reproduced”:
One fairly obscure Dark Horse LP was listed as a RSD Limited Run/Regional Focus release – with only 800 copies on offer on the day. It was was a very interesting LP called Dreamers In The Field by Huun-Huur-Tu, Carmen Rizzo and Dhani Harrison on clear vinyl:
Cat Stevens (Yusuf Islam) has been signed to Dark Horse for almost 2 years now and the label last year released a new, original record from him called King of a Land. For RSD 2023 they also reissued two of his back-catalogue titles, Numbers – A Pythagorean Theory Tale (originally from 1975), and Izitso (originally from 1977). These both came with spectacular lenticular gatefold cover art.
So, Dark Horse was prolific for RSD this year with no less than six records – one of them a double. There were also two solo George Harrison Zoetrope releases to add into the mix.
For RSD Black Friday just passed, things calmed down somewhat. There was only one Dark Horse title to chase down if you were keen, Leon Russell’s Hymns for Christmas. This is on emerald green vinyl. It’s another “first time on vinyl” and 1300 copies:
So, that’s it for the Beatle-related titles. As we said, if you have any thoughts, corrections, or items we’ve missed please get in touch.
A new biography of John Lennon and Paul McCartney is due to hit bookshelves next April, but if you happen to be in New York and at Strawberry Fields in Central Park on December 8 (for the tribute to Johnon the anniversary of his death) you could score yourself a complimentary pre-release copy. Check out the details on this below.
John Lennon and Paul McCartney knew each other for twenty-three years, from 1957 to 1980. Using a selection of songs they wrote and performed before, during, and after The Beatles this book is the biography of a relationship that changed the cultural history of the world.
An extract from the Prologue to John & Paul sums it up well:
This is a book about how two young men merged and multiplied their talents to create one of the greatest and most influential bodies of work in history. The partnership of Lennon and McCartney was responsible for159 of the Beatles’ 184 recorded songs, and they were the dominant creative decision-makers within the group. “There is no doubt in my mind that the main talent of that whole era came from Paul and John,” said George Martin. “George, Ringo and myself were subsidiary talents.” This is also a love story. John and Paul were more than just friends or collaborators in the sense we normally understand those terms. Their friendship was a romance: passionate, tender, and tempestuous, full of longing, riven by jealousy. This volatile, conflicted, madly creative quasi-marriage escapes our neatly drawn categories, and so has been deeply misunderstood.…
This book tells the story of John and Paul’s friendship, from when they meet until John’s death. It does so by way of the richest primary source of all: their songs. Each chapter is anchored in a song that tells us something about the state of their relationship at the time, either in its words or in how it was created or performed.
Ian Leslie draws on extensive research and on song versions released right up to the present day, garnering insights even from the latest studio outtakes and films – right up to Peter Jackson’s Get Back opus. His book promises a unique perspective too because he’s not coming from a music journalism background. Far from it in fact. Leslie is a writer and author of acclaimed books on human psychology and creativity, relationships and communication, and he writes about the intersection between psychology, popular culture and business. He’s co-hosted the podcast series Polarised (on the way we do politics today), created and presented the BBC radio comedy series Before They Were Famous, and writes the influential Substack newsletter The Ruffian.
John & Paul is due for publication by Celadon Books on April 8, 2025 and we’ll publish our full review here closer to the official release, but until then here are the details of a special book giveaway you might like to attend. It will take place on December 8 at Strawberry Fields, Central Park, New York. From 2-3PM on December 8 staff members from Celadon will be attending the tribute to John at Strawberry Fields. If you would like to come by while they are there, you can learn more about this new Beatle book and take home an early copy.
We reviewed Volume 1 last year and can vouch for the level of research, knowledge and insight Perasi brings to the task. As an author he has credibility. Perasi one of the two official Italian translators of Paul McCartney’sThe Lyrics, and in 2022 he collaborated with MPL on the label copy for the massive The 7” Singles Box.
“Keeping in with the structure of the previous volume, this is the second part of the ‘musical biography’ of one of the most important song composers ever,” says the author. This latest volume covers the next 23 years (and 250 songs) in the McCartney catalogue.
The book consists of individual song entries across the period 1990-2012. It includes songs written by other composers as well as 26 unreleased tracks – each providing detailed information of musicians and recording dates, anecdotes and contemporary interviews, together with many exclusive interviews with key personnel by the author.
Paul’s classical works are also explored in detail. “I am very proud of the interview I did with Maestro Carl Davis a long time ago, there are some incredible insights into the process of the Liverpool Oratorio,” adds the author.
This book is enriched with almost 1,000 footnotes, with illustrations and QR codes for an even broader multimedia experience. Albums, tours and other events provide further background to the stories behind the songs.
As we said in our previous review, it all adds up to an intriguing mix of information that truly demonstrates that music is about ideas, and that the prolific PaulMcCartney is never short of them.
Music Is Ideas – The Stories Behind the Songs (Vol.2) 1990-2012 is guaranteed to inform, stimulate, and lead to further exploration of the music.
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