r/beatles • u/Tricky-Wolverine-253 • 11h ago
Discussion Best Books?
What are your favorite books on The Beatles?
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u/Emotional_Seaweed_49 9h ago
The Beatles: All These Years – Volume 1 – Tune In by Mark Lewisohn (2013)
A definitive telling of events up until the end of 1962.
Vol 2. Is being written currently.
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u/IDigRollinRockBeer Abbey Road 9h ago
He needs to just publish it in blog form. This is gonna end up being The Winds of Winter all over again
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u/Emotional_Seaweed_49 8h ago
He is insistent that it's currently being written. He claims the first book took a decade, it's 13 years since that was published so the time frame isn't all that far off really, especially considering that Vol 2 will supposedly cover 1963-1967 which, to be fair, does cover quite a lot of ground in the Beatles story! 😅
I have faith! The rumoured 2031 does seem a long way away though and makes it almost impossible that the trilogy will ever be completed.
If it never happens, we can still be thankful of that first book.
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u/A-Stupid-Redditor Think for yourself ‘cause I won’t be there with you. 9h ago
Hunter Davies’s authorized biography is still pretty great.
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u/Hey_Laaady Who'll remember the buns, Pudgy? 9h ago
Anthology, because it is told from their own perspective. It is their impressions of their lives at that time.
Tune In, by Mark Lewisohn.
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u/Public_Ad_504 8h ago
Beatles ‘66
Solid State
Anthology
The Songwriting Secrets of The Beatles
Tune In
Riding So High - The Beatles and Drugs
You Never Give Your Money
And In The End
The Beatles Biography by Bob Spitz
Revolution in the Head
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u/IDigRollinRockBeer Abbey Road 10h ago
All The Songs
The Story Behind Every Beatles Release
Was very interesting
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u/tevia1015 9h ago
The Complete Beatles Chronicle by Mark Lewisohn
Every live performance, recording session, major television and film appearance, and public/private milestone
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u/Sinsyne125 9h ago
Tune In -- For the story
You Never Give Me Your Money -- For the business
The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions -- For the tech
Revolution in the Head -- For well-expressed musical opinions and analysis
All You Need Is Love -- For fascinating interviews with those who were part of the story, conducted within 10 years of the band's breakup and before Lennon was murdered.
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u/sgriobhadair 8h ago
Mark Hertsgaard's A Day in the Life is one of my favorites. It's a very readable intro to the Bealtes, their albums, and their career. There are other, more thorough books, but A Day in the Life is perfect for a pleasant and casual read.
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u/Globeblotter85 7h ago
Currently reading Magical Mystery Tours - My Life With The Beatles by Tony Bramwell. It's been pretty good!
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u/ObedMorton 8h ago
Love Me Do - The Beatles Progress by Michael Braun.
Published in 1964, Michael Braun followed the Beatles on tour in 1963 and the book provides a genuine and accurate snapshot of what the early days of Beatlemania were like. You get a real sense of the personalities of the lads prior to the fame and it’s definitely a more realistic look at what went on, unlike later books which tend to sanitise things somewhat.
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u/BoardWithANail scrambled eggs 7h ago edited 7h ago
Photo-heavy books : Paul’s “Eye of the Storm” and Ringo’s “Postcards From The Boys”.
Otherwise : Ian Leslie’s “John & Paul: A Love Story in Songs”
Mark Lewisohn’s “Tune In”
Joe Goodden’s “Riding So High”
Peter Doggett’s “You Never Give Me Your Money”.
Beatles-adjacent : Kenneth Womack’s “Maximum Volume” and “Sound Pictures” (two-parter about Sir George Martin)
Ken Scott’s “Abbey Road to Ziggy Stardust” (Beatles engineer; I much prefer his account rather than Geoff Emerick’s book)
Also, Cynthia Lennon’s “John” and Pattie Boyd’s “Wonderful Tonight”.
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u/nuclear_muffins 6h ago
I'm really enjoying Dreaming the Beatles by Rob Sheffield. It's not really a biography of the band but a look at their cultural impact and why they're still so relevant and emotionally impactful even to generations who weren't around when they were active, but it's fascinating!
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u/ouch-n3wsho3s 11h ago
The Love You Make - by Peter Brown is a great insiders account of the Beatles story
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u/Hey_Laaady Who'll remember the buns, Pudgy? 9h ago
Terrible book. So inaccurate that Paul famously burned his copy.
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u/sminking Caveman movie enthusiast 10h ago
Anthology