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I've really enjoyed 'Read the Beatles', a collection of essays, interviews, snippets and such of people writing about Beatles through the years. I've posted a few bits from it recently. It's a really nice mix, including quite a few things that were published at the time, which I find more interesting in a lot of ways than people in the 2000s looking back.
But. Now I've reached the section of the book where she collects together some bits about each Beatle individually.
John:
An excerpt from Ray Coleman about John's early life
A bit from Gimme Some Truth, the John Lennon FBI files
A bit from the David Sheff Playboy interview
A bit from the Last Lennon Tapes by Andy Peebles
An obituaryish essay from Simon Frith about Lennon's meaningfuness and genius
A poem from Adrian Henri
An excerpt from Skywriting by Word of Mouth about John being happy being a house husband.
Absolutely lovely. I think that's a really nice collection.
Paul:
A 1982 interview where he talks about John's death
Here Today - a song he wrote about John Lennon
An interview from 2004 called 'McCartney: My Life in the Shadow of the Beatles'
Look at that. Three pieces, less than half of John's. And none of them are even about him. They're all about John. Nothing about his early life, because John wasn't in it. Nothing about Wings because John wasn't in it. Nothing about anything. It's appalling. And yes, I'm SURE it was harder to find things written about Paul than it was about John, especially in 2006. But all the same. (And for people who have come to Beatles more recently and think it's weird that Paul fans have such a bee in their bonnet about stuff like this, it's because of stuff like this! You only see articles now about Paul McCartney's legacy because Paul fans had a bee in their bonnet for a really long time.)
I've not read George and Ringo's sections yet so I can only take them from the contents page. Under the cut:
George:
A section from 'Before He Was Fab: George Harrison's first American Visit'
An excerpt from 'Mystical One: George Harrison' about the attack at Friar Park
An article called: The Unsung Beatle: George Harrison's Behind the Scenes Contributions to the World's Greatest Band
An obituary titled: George Harrison: World-Music Catalyst
Ringo:
An article from 1965 about interviewing Ringo on the set of Help (titled: Domesticated Beatle)
An excerpt from 'The Beatles As Musicians' looking at Ringo's skills as a drummer.
There's lots missing from both of them, I'd say. And yes it's poor that Ringo only has two pieces, but I do notice that they're both ABOUT HIM. And the same with George.
I'm so peeved.
(Saying all of that though, just reading those lists shows you how much stuff there is in this book. Added together these only make up a tiny portion of the whole thing, so it is a great book that I've really appreciated. It's just I might print out and paste in a few bits about Paul's early life, about him writing a symphony, about Wings, about his melody, about his legacy. Something like that.)
