The Beatles: The Biography - Bob Spitz
I just finished this mammoth 981-page treatment of the Beatles from their birth to their break-up. I'm currently on a Beatles kick (this is the third Beatle book I've read this month). I absolutely love their music. There is no denying their phenomenal talent and extraordinary influence. Unlike many other albums I deeply love, I have never "burned out" on the Beatles. I still get the same thrill from Abbey Road that I did in my youth. Reading this book was an absolute blast. Spitz does not sugarcoat the Beatles. Even during the earliest days of Beatlemania, when they were presented to the public as clean-cut, witty young men, they were anything but (well, they truly were witty and young)! Endless sexcapades, pill-popping, and alcohol led to marijuana, hash, and LSD (although Paul did not partake as much as the others). John's relationship with Yoko Ono resulted in his heroin-addiction, and spiraling maniacal behavior that ultimately led to the break-up of the band. In spite of all the Beatles' troubles, before Yoko, they at least came together in recording sessions where they continually recaptured the magic. When John brought Yoko into this environment, her avant-garde tastes, her scornful comments concerning the other Beatles and their music, and her feelings of entitlement when in the recording sessions infuriated the other Beatles. Her calls for peace with John were bogus attention-grabbers to promote her own reputation. This was disillusioning, but it makes sense. John, who often makes sexist, racist, and homophobic comments throughout the Beatles' career, only began interested in world peace with Yoko. The real motivation for much of their "peace-work" was "that John and Yoko craved attention. They loved using the media to stir up controversy, loved the way it painted them as incorrigible rebels, loved the exasperated reactions, loved the power it game them" (829). It also came at the perfect time as John was seeking to redefine his image in the wake of an impending Beatles' break-up. Disillusionment aside, it was interesting to read how John and Paul so perfectly complemented each other. It was also great fun reading about the creation of their albums. The reviews of their first Ed Sullivan Show appearance are hilarious. The Herald Tribune said they "could not carry a tune across the Atlantic" and rated them as "75 percent publicity, 20 percent haircut, and 5 percent lilting lament" (473). The Newsweek review is even more hilarious: "Visually they are a nightmare: tight, dandified Edwardian beatnik suits and great pudding-bowls of hair. Musically they are a near disaster, guitars and drums slamming out a merciless eat that does away with secondary rhythms, harmony and melody. Their lyrics (punctuated by nutty shouts of yeah, yeah, yeah!) are a catastrophe, a preposterous farrago of Valentine-card romantic sentiments" (473). In short, this was great fun for a Beatles fan like me!