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Author Topic: 900 Page Beatle Book!  (Read 19518 times)

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Re: 900 Page Beatle Book!
« Reply #40 on: August 31, 2008, 08:22:49 AM »

Come on! There's nothing wrong with having a good, thick book! This reminds me of the time where I would submit essays that went over the word limit and all my friends would frown at me :( I can empathise with Bob Spitz! But really, the book is well-written and certainly worth a read. Who cares if there's a couple of errors? It's not a big deal, his book is based on different people's accounts of the beatles, which are all going to differ anyway.

The beginning was great and really gave a perfect insight into the why the beatles were the way they were and their lives before they were beatles. Some good stories are certainly told :) I thought that by the time he got passed beatlemania and through to the breakup years things started to go downhill and yes, I think he may have been on a deadline because everything goes by too quickly (which is probably hard for those to believe who think that a 900 pg book is too bloated). Personally I could've done with more info on the latter years and the beatles' relationships. But nonetheless, it's very enjoyable and I really loved Spitz writing style. It's one of those good books you can sit down with every night before you go to sleep and read and not have it be a chore. Plus, a beatles book really needs to be long- after you finish it you should feel like you've completed an epic  journey or experienced the time of the beatles.
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Bobber

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Re: 900 Page Beatle Book!
« Reply #41 on: August 31, 2008, 12:07:18 PM »

Quote from: 1530
Who cares if there's a couple of errors?

As a matter of fact I really do care. Especially if it is presented as the new truth.

Quote from: 1530
The beginning was great and really gave a perfect insight into the why the beatles were the way they were and their lives before they were beatles.

Because if you don't care about a couple of errors, why should you believe this?
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Geoff

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Re: 900 Page Beatle Book!
« Reply #42 on: August 31, 2008, 01:44:46 PM »

The problem with having a lot of errors in your book is that it implies that you either don't care about getting facts right or are incapable of logically sorting them out from rubbish. Spitz also raises the hackles on my neck when he says that he used Albert Goldman's "archive;" while I've no idea what's in this, Goldman's books are sub-literary dumpsters overflowing with rubbish, and his "archive" (what?), if it is to be used at all, would have to be sorted very carefully. Spitz's error and rumor filled book suggests that he was hardly the man for that.
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Re: 900 Page Beatle Book!
« Reply #43 on: September 01, 2008, 06:38:01 AM »

Quote from: 63

As a matter of fact I really do care. Especially if it is presented as the new truth.

Because if you don't care about a couple of errors, why should you believe this?

No need to get angry...

I just don't think a couple of factual errors should completely taint  one's opinion of a book. I suppose I'm judging it on different aspects, but I really think it was well-written. In fact, I think Spitz should re-release a revised edition to rid it of these errors so then everybody can be happy. And a few factual errors does not mean that everything Spitz says is worthless. It does make him incompetent. It just means he was off on a few dates...

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Bobber

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Re: 900 Page Beatle Book!
« Reply #44 on: September 01, 2008, 07:07:43 AM »

I was and am not angry. It's just that it does matter to me that the book contains so many errors when a lot of people and certainly younger Beatlesfans take it for facts. Maybe I'm being stubborn, but I would never buy another Bob Spitz book, revised or not. Call it 'losing credibility'.
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BlueMeanie

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Re: 900 Page Beatle Book!
« Reply #45 on: September 01, 2008, 08:53:52 AM »

Quote from: 63
I was and am not angry. It's just that it does matter to me that the book contains so many errors when a lot of people and certainly younger Beatlesfans take it for facts.

This is a very good point. Those of us who've been reading/researching the Beatles for many years don't need to read stuff that has been inaccurately written. And if newer, much younger fans - such as we have on this forum - read them, possibly as their first Beatles book, it damages their reputation, and creates false history. So picky we shall be.
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slick rick

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Re: 900 Page Beatle Book!
« Reply #46 on: September 02, 2008, 02:35:30 AM »

Quote from: 63
I was and am not angry. It's just that it does matter to me that the book contains so many errors when a lot of people and certainly younger Beatlesfans take it for facts. Maybe I'm being stubborn, but I would never buy another Bob Spitz book, revised or not. Call it 'losing credibility'.
ahem!
Quote
Quoted from Carry_Anne
This Book has many mistakes not buy for now when you ask me...
Quote from: 63

Nobody cares about your opinions here Dirk.
:X

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Bobber

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Re: 900 Page Beatle Book!
« Reply #47 on: November 11, 2008, 02:00:37 PM »

Quote from: 336
ahem!  :X


Ah, that's just copy and paste! And it was Dirk!
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aspinall_lover

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Re: 900 Page Beatle Book!
« Reply #48 on: November 11, 2008, 05:30:28 PM »

I've read this book last year and thought it was too long of a read.  I also read many other "Beatles' Bios" during the years past.  Let me ask you all this:  which book do you think is "as close" to the real story of the Beatles???  Maybe there's one I missed out there.................
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Geoff

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Re: 900 Page Beatle Book!
« Reply #49 on: November 11, 2008, 07:29:11 PM »

Quote from: 1255
which book do you think is "as close" to the real story of the Beatles???  Maybe there's one I missed out there.................

I've missed it, too: Hunter Davies' The Beatles, despite being the whitewash John said it was, is still worth reading because it has a contemporary account of The Beatles while they were making Sgt Pepper. Philip Norman's Shout! isn't bad, but the writer hasn't bothered to correct his errors despite several having put out several updated editions, and his take on Paul McCartney is the usual looking-down-his-nose seventies rock critic one. I'm waiting for Mark Lewisohn, actually.   :)
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aspinall_lover

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Re: 900 Page Beatle Book!
« Reply #50 on: November 11, 2008, 07:39:43 PM »

^^^^^^Thanks Geoff.  I haven't got Hunter Davies book of the Beatles, but will do so.  And Mark Lewisohn is writing a book????  When is it going to be released????  And I hate to admit, but I did like the "trashy" The Love You Make by Peter Brown.  I kinda like the "trashy" rock-star books...............
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Geoff

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Re: 900 Page Beatle Book!
« Reply #51 on: November 11, 2008, 07:48:43 PM »

Quote from: 1255
And Mark Lewisohn is writing a book????  When is it going to be released????


Three of them, apparently. This is a blurb from the agency that represents him:

Throughout his long association with the Beatles, Mark Lewisohn has maintained a reputation for neutrality, objectivity and independence. These attributes will be paramount in his most ambitious project of all. Between 2003 and 2018 Lewisohn is giving his undivided attention to researching and writing what many feel could become the benchmark history of the Beatles and their times. To be published in three volumes - the first due out in 2010, then 2014 and finally 2018 - a mature narrative will draw upon extensive additional research, access to archives and literally thousands of interviews.

Says Lewisohn, "The Beatles story has been told very often but, in my view, rarely very well. I
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Hello Goodbye

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Re: 900 Page Beatle Book!
« Reply #52 on: November 11, 2008, 09:50:49 PM »

Hmmmm.  The Complete Beatles Chronicle in more detail.  Well, I'll certainly add these volumes to my library (which consists only of The Complete Beatles Chronicle, The Beatles (Hunter Davies), The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions and Beatles Gear (Andy Babiuk).
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aspinall_lover

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Re: 900 Page Beatle Book!
« Reply #53 on: November 11, 2008, 10:57:32 PM »

^^^^^Very interesting info there, Geoff!!!!  I'll damn sure keep my eye on this and when they come out, definitely add these to my Beatle book collection.  Thanks for the information............
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Bobber

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Re: 900 Page Beatle Book!
« Reply #54 on: November 11, 2008, 11:01:19 PM »

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The Swine

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Re: 900 Page Beatle Book!
« Reply #55 on: November 19, 2008, 08:34:56 AM »

the book tasted pretty bad too
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Moogmodule

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Re: 900 Page Beatle Book!
« Reply #56 on: April 20, 2014, 04:14:25 AM »

I found this book cheap on Kindle and, going through withdrawal after finishing the Lewisohn book, grabbed it. Before I read this thread about all the errors.

Anyway, errors aside, and it seems later editions might not have resolved them all, I enjoyed it well enough. Spitz has a more literary approach than some biographers which at best can set a good atmosphere. His opening chapter about the Beatles gig when they arrived back from Hamburg and just how wild and different they were to other bands at the time manages to convey the excitement of those performances. At other times his poetic license and descriptions seem a bit over the top. As an earlier commenter said, the last few years of the Beatles are dealt with relatively swiftly. And he has a curious way of ignoring George's contributions to the albums. At one point he's going on about the efforts Lennon and McCartney were going to to get the "unprecedented" 14 songs onto Rubber Soul (one of the uncorrected errors). He neglects at all to mention that George got two songs into the album, and that one is considered his first really good song (If I Needed Someone). This was after not mentioning George's two songs on Help. He doesn't seem anti-George at all. He has several positive references to him. It just seems like curious omissions.
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Bobber

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Re: 900 Page Beatle Book!
« Reply #57 on: January 27, 2017, 10:06:47 AM »

Stupid me. It's not errors in this book. It's alternative facts.
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