THE BEATLES
Bob Spitz, Little, Brown and Company
Do we really need another biography of the Fab Four?
Yeah, yeah, yeah, we love them! And Bob Spitz’ journalistic masterpiece, which took eight years to complete, is a mustread, even for fans who think they know everything there is to know about the moptops from Liverpool.
Spitz, a former manager of Bruce Springsteen and Elton John, produced an 860-page tome (edited from the original 2,700 pages), including 86 pages of notes, the result of hundreds of fresh interviews, archival research and purchasing Lennon biographer Albert Goldman’s unused notes. His hard work has paid off with a highly readable and engaging account of the band that made musical history and around whom countless myths continue to swirl.
Unlike his predecessors – like “official” chronicler Hunter Davis or the Beatles’ own Anthology book – Spitz depicts the group’s timeline in more accurate proportions, devoting a generous number of pages to significant periods such as the formative pre-Ringo days in Hamburg’s notorious Reeperbahn and the inevitable unraveling of the group, instead of rehashing old material about the development and blossoming of the studio talents.
While the spotlight for most of the book is understandably trained on John and Paul (and their prolific but often explosive relationship), George and Ringo (especially George) aren’t totally neglected but given insightful handling by Spitz.
In fact, this is one of the highlights of the book – the degree these two, often “forgotten” Beatles, are fleshed out.
Even those connected to the Beatles received the author’s scrutiny. Most notably, their manager, Brian Epstein, who, due to a hidden life as a gay man (this was the 60s remember), suffered bouts of depression and drug binges, which led to an eventual overdose. But it was this tortured indvidual who ushered the band to the “toppermost of the poppermost”, even if it was discovered later that he was not making the most advantageous deals for his famous clients.
There are countless of us who are grateful witnesses to the Beatle’s finest years. This book simply reconfirms what we already know: they and their music remain undiminished, and we will always love them. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Margie T Logarta
