Im very taken with this book..
I now want the extended version to read the whole thing again (and more)
The Beatles have been my main musical passion since I was 11 and thought Ive never thought much of previous books that have been written (and even poured scorn on them) I have to admit that Mark Lewisohn is THE man when it comes to The Beatles.
He is on a different planet to the other celebrated authors.
The whole intricate story of how they came to be is here, the metamorphosis from hard nosed scruffy rockers to clean well dressed little girls boy band.....the angst of all that for Lennon the rebel, but the overriding desire for fame and fortune, its a great story, a fantastic story.
A great film maybe ? (a huge project in 3 parts).... maybe the McCartney children and grandchildren will end up richer than Paul
Meanwhile, all hail Mark - another genius in the Beatle story.
Hi everyone,
I haven't been on here for a couple of years,well I mean I haven't posted on here since then but I have still read the forums every now and then.One thing I really hate and don't want to do at all is argue with fellow Beatles fans.But I have to say the surprising puzzling
:ocomment you made about how The Beatles metamorphosis from hard nosed scruffy rockers to clean well dressed little girls ''boy band'',is totally untrue! It doesn't matter that Brian Epstein created their fake joke cleaned up image,The Beatles were *never* a true ''boy band'' not even for a half of a second,they didn't even play one on TV.They were still a great rock n roll and pop rock band.
Many people have rightfully correctly pointed out that The Monkees were the first true boy band because even though they were all musical,they weren't playing together since they were teenagers like John 16 with Paul 15 and George 14,and then working their a*ses of playing 8 hours a night in the sleazy strip clubs of Hamburg for 2 years having to take speed pilss to stay awake to do it,and then playing successfuly also at The Cavern club for several years.The Monkees were hired as actors specifically to play a pop rock band for their TV show,not that they weren't good.
But as a poster ReverendRock who is a reverend,rock musician and a big Beatles fan so accurately pointed out on a classic rock site over 10 years ago,that anyone who knows The Beatles history knows it's totally ludicrous to even suggest such a thing!
And The Beatles wrote many very good and great rock n roll songs and ironically were the most wild during their fake cleaned up image while they were touring from 1963-1966,going to bed with *tons* of young women groupies,many who were under age teen girls.
And also John and Paul as I'm sure most fans on here already know,wrote one of The Rolling Stones first hits the rock n roll song I Wanna Be You're Man in 1963 and they wrote it right in front of keith Richards and Mick Jagger who were really impressed that they could just write a hit song just like that,and it inspired them to start writing their own songs and it began the years of friendship between the two groups.
Also John and Paul were already writing hits for other music artists as early as 1963 just when their own song writing success was taking off.And Paul was writing songs before John,a year before he met him, when he was only 14(and he became obsessed with playing the guitar then too) after his beloved intelligent,pretty and kind nurse mid wife mother Mary died quickly from breast cancer when Paul was only 14 and his brother only 12.
John had been writing heavy poetry but had never put it to music until he met Paul and was really impressed that he was already writing his own songs and this inspired John to start writing his own soon after and of course we all know they thankfully never stopped.
And also this is how so many ignorant Beatles haters also inaccurately misperceive them and wrongly disparage them and dismiss them as a ''boy band''.And they were a brilliant,creative,diverse,prolfic rock band,the most ever.True boy bands should be dismissed,looked down on,and hated as uncool,not rocking,and untalented! And boy bands aren't good musicians and The Beatles were all very good musicians in fact most boy bands don't even play their own instruments and write their own songs.
And as many people,The All Music Guide and many well known respected successful rock and other music artists including Bob Dylan have rightfully said that Paul and John were among the two greatest singers in rock both with great voices.And Brian Wilson,Elton John,classical composer Leonard Bernstein and many others have also rightfully called Paul and John the greatest song writers of the 20th century.
Im very taken with this book..
I now want the extended version to read the whole thing again (and more)
The Beatles have been my main musical passion since I was 11 and thought Ive never thought much of previous books that have been written (and even poured scorn on them) I have to admit that Mark Lewisohn is THE man when it comes to The Beatles.
He is on a different planet to the other celebrated authors.
The whole intricate story of how they came to be is here, the metamorphosis from hard nosed scruffy rockers to clean well dressed little girls boy band.....the angst of all that for Lennon the rebel, but the overriding desire for fame and fortune, its a great story, a fantastic story.
A great film maybe ? (a huge project in 3 parts).... maybe the McCartney children and grandchildren will end up richer than Paul
Meanwhile, all hail Mark - another genius in the Beatle story.
Hi everyone,
I haven't been on here for a couple of years,well I mean I haven't posted on here since then but I have still read the forums every now and then.One thing I really hate and don't want to do at all is argue with fellow Beatles fans.But I have to say the surprising puzzling
:ocomment you made about how The Beatles metamorphosis from hard nosed scruffy rockers to clean well dressed little girls ''boy band'',is totally untrue! It doesn't matter that Brian Epstein created their fake joke cleaned up image,The Beatles were *never* a true ''boy band'' not even for a half of a second,they didn't even play one on TV.They were still a great rock n roll and pop rock band.
Many people have rightfully correctly pointed out that The Monkees were the first true boy band because even though they were all musical,they weren't playing together since they were teenagers like John 16 with Paul 15 and George 14,and then working their a*ses of playing 8 hours a night in the sleazy strip clubs of Hamburg for 2 years having to take speed pilss to stay awake to do it,and then playing successfuly also at The Cavern club for several years.The Monkees were hired as actors specifically to play a pop rock band for their TV show,not that they weren't good.
But as a poster ReverendRock who is a reverend,rock musician and a big Beatles fan so accurately pointed out on a classic rock site over 10 years ago,that anyone who knows The Beatles history knows it's totally ludicrous to even suggest such a thing!
And The Beatles wrote many very good and great rock n roll songs and ironically were the most wild during their fake cleaned up image while they were touring from 1963-1966,going to bed with *tons* of young women groupies,many who were under age teen girls.
And also John and Paul as I'm sure most fans on here already know,wrote one of The Rolling Stones first hits the rock n roll song I Wanna Be You're Man in 1963 and they wrote it right in front of keith Richards and Mick Jagger who were really impressed that they could just write a hit song just like that,and it inspired them to start writing their own songs and it began the years of friendship between the two groups.
Also John and Paul were already writing hits for other music artists as early as 1963 just when their own song writing success was taking off.And Paul was writing songs before John,a year before he met him, when he was only 14(and he became obsessed with playing the guitar then too) after his beloved intelligent,pretty and kind nurse mid wife mother Mary died quickly from breast cancer when Paul was only 14 and his brother only 12.
John had been writing heavy poetry but had never put it to music until he met Paul and was really impressed that he was already writing his own songs and this inspired John to start writing his own soon after and of course we all know they thankfully never stopped.
And also this is how so many ignorant Beatles haters also inaccurately misperceive them and wrongly disparage them and dismiss them as a ''boy band''.And they were a brilliant,creative,diverse,prolfic rock band,the most ever.True boy bands should be dismissed,looked down on,and hated as uncool,not rocking,and untalented! And boy bands aren't good musicians and The Beatles were all very good musicians in fact most boy bands don't even play their own instruments and write their own songs.
The Beatles as we know, revolutionized popular and rock music and were very innovative,prolific and creative,more than any other group. And their great timeless songs are the most covered in music history by everyone from jazz musicians,classical,Motown,rock,pop and even heavy metal recording and playing their great timeless music.
Many academic musicologists and music scholars have done serious studies,analyses and praise of their great timeless music,like university of Penn gradutate musicologist Alan W.Pollack who did an extensive 11 year detailed analysis of every Beatles song.He says he hadn't even listened to The Beatles in 20 years until they came out on CD for the first time in 1987.He said The Beatles Recording Sessions by Mark Lewisohn was one of the things that motivated him to do his Beatles study.He demonstrates that even though a lot of their lyrics were simple in most of their really early songs,most of their music wasn't and that a lot of their early songs have as many as 9 chords and interesting and unsual arangements.Paul's great rocker,You Never Give Me You're Money on their excellent amazingly modern sounding rock album,Abbey Road has 21 chords.
And university of Michigan music professor and musician Walter Everett who wrote the 2 volume,The Beatles As Musicians:The Quarry Men Through Rubber Soul and The Beatles As Musicians:Revolver Through Anthology.And British musicologist and classical composer and music professor (who is dead now)Willifred Mellers 1973 book,Twilight Of The Gods:The Music Of The Beatles,and he also wrote about Beethoven,Mozart and Bob Dylan.
And award winning music professor Dr.Glen Gass who has been teaching a course on what brilliant composers The Beatles were and a rock music course at Indiana University School Of Music since 1982.Dr.Gary Kendal's Beatles course is the most requested at North Western university ,university of California also has one and Oxford university had a recent Beatles course.
How many serious music scholars and award winning music professors are teaching and writing serious academic works studying and prasing what "brilliant" composers The Rolling Stones or any other rock bands were?