beatlesbookblog

[beatlesbookblog]

[beatlesbookblog]

Long awaited update:

I found a copy of The Fifth Beatle and I'm currently reading now! Very excited to delve into this!!

Hello hello!

I'm looking forward to this new blog of yours, I am always happy to see works about the boys :)

So, I wanted to share two books (maybe three) to know your opinion if you have read them or to recommend them if they are new.

First! What do you think about John's first books, I. His own Write and a Spaniard in the Works?? I absolutely love them since I'm a big fan of Lewis Carroll and that kind of writing, since I'm not an English native speaker it was truly fascinating reading those stories for the first time. It really makes me admire John's mind. What an interesting and talented person he was.

Second! Have you read or heard about the graphic novel The Fifth Beatle? It's about Brian, and to me it was a really sweet way of telling his life, very kind with him. That it's one of the works where I can feel deeply that a man wrote it, and there's nothing wrong with that, but it makes you think... You know what I mean?

Annnnd that would be all, curious to know your rating!

Hello!! Thank you so much for believing in this little project and I can't wait to get to posting!

It's been a long time since I read John's books, since I was a kid. I would like to reread them for the sake of this blog! I feel like now would be a good time as ever to read them. Also I would like to try to read John's other works like Skywriting, too.

As for The Fifth Beatle graphic novel, I hadn't heard of this but I'm going to be on the lookout for it! I will be talking about a graphic novel soon, but I will add that to my reading list. I can't give my full ratings on these books yet but be on the lookout for sure!! And thank you for the recommendation!!

[beatlesbookblog]

Alright!! So it's the first book review of 2025! I recently read "We All Shine On: John, Yoko, & Me" by Elliot Mintz and I read with an audiobook. Here are my thoughts...

I will start off this book review with things I did enjoy about it. Number one, it is one of the few accounts of people close to J/Y that actually humanizes Yoko in my opinion. Yoko is the first person Mintz meets and is the one he thoroughly has the closest relationship with. The way Yoko is portrayed has no hint of malice and is viewed with obvious respect. John is also seen as more "human" but in a different way. Mintz doesn't shy from showing both the light and the dark sides of John which I think is essential to John as a person. It's interesting to see how John from Mintz's perspective changes and grows, especially after the birth of Sean.

Now let's get into some of my main issues. This reads like prose. I saw some people joking how RPF was better than this book and honestly...it does read entirely like a fictional account. There's foreshadowing, there's climaxes and low points, and even flashback sequences.  While I think personal memoirs and accounts should have these things, they are usually kept at a minimum while Mintz uses them frequently to drive the point along. Mintz also discredits a lot of people who have worked with John and shared their own accounts like Fred Seaman and John Green (which ultimately yeah, he should). However, he discredits May Pang which I didn't particularly care for. And why does he discredit these authors? Because he was there!! And you have to believe him!!

I also didn't like how Mintz blamed J/Y initially in the beginning on the basis of he could have had a girlfriend (dude...you could have....) or J/Y took up so much of his personal time he didn't have a life. It definitely made it to be like even though he was happy to have met them, he held personal resentments that really put me off. If you're writing a book about your subject and in the beginning you outright blame them, then how entertaining is this read going to be? Honestly??

Overall, I do think Mintz's book was entertaining to say the least. It was an interesting account and I did learn more about J/Y through his work. I listened with the audiobook which I highly recommend. It was interesting to hear the work through the author's voice. (He also says "scampi" like skah-peh and it's been making me question my life choices). I'm not too knowledgeable on J/Y for the life of me so if you read this book, lemme know your thoughts! I would like to hear what you thought.

Ultimately, I will rate this a 6.5/10 for posterity. It wasn't the ultimate John and Yoko account or it wasn't the worst thing I ever read.

[beatlesbookblog]

Finished Elliot Mintz's book about John and Yoko...and I definitely need a day or two to stew over my thoughts because I definitely have some

[beatlesbookblog]

Alright!! It's the beginning of the year and it's time to start reading!! First book up this year is We All Shine On - John, Yoko, & Me by Elliot Mintz!! I can't wait!

[beatlesbookblog]

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays, Beatle People!!🎄🎁💝 Hope you got some nice books gifted to you!!

(Book reviews are coming soon, I promise, I just had a busy final semester!!)

[beatlesbookblog]

John and Paul book early release, they were giving it out for free at Central Park (strawberry fields) GOT MY HANDS ON IT!!

[beatlesbookblog]

Hello! How are you??

I just bought Love Me Do! by Michael Braun on a second hand bookstore, so I'll read it soon, I believe it's one of the most famous Beatle's books, right?

I'm writing to ask if you've heard about it, have you read it? I would like to know what a fan thinks of it, since most of the reviews are excellent but I'm mostly impartial to them haha.

Rolling Stone says it's good, but what do think?

Of course, if you haven't read it, then this is a recommendation!

I loved your reviews so I can't wait to see more of them :)

Hello!!

I actually never heard of this book (I'm still newer to the literature side of this fandom so I'm still learning about the different titles!!), but from what I can tell and other reviews it seems to be good!

I think any book that is relatively older (I think this was first published in 1964) gives a little more credibility to books that were written later in the Beatles' career. I think this is because the boys were still new to their fame and were willing to be open to reporters and journalists in the privacy of their own travels. (See Ivor Davis' On Tour book and Ticket to Ride by Larry Kane - though be aware of some biases by the authors).

We don't get a lot of that authentic Beatles image whenever the Beatles are at the height of their career musically such as in 1967. We get some snippets of their personalities in interviews and such, but never a full in-depth view into their lives. The closest to this later period of the Beatles we do get is through Hunter Davies' biography (which I attempted to read with the discord book club but life beat my ass so I never finished it 😭 one day I will!!)

That being said, I haven't read this book but I will definitely keep it on my radar! I've read books similar to it, but I'm always willing to hear good books from other fans!!

[beatlesbookblog]

Beatles Book Club - November

I'm opening up the doors on our Beatles Book Club discord server if you'd like to join in for November!

Book: A Women's History of The Beatles (link)

Author: Christine Feldman-Barrett

Start Date: Monday 4 November

How to join: If you're 18+, give me a DM and I'll send you a link this weekend.

How it works: Each week I'll share some discussion prompts based on about 1/4 of the book, and at the end of each month you're encouraged to share your thoughts in a review. There's also channels to hang out together while you get some reading done. It's intended to be very relaxed, with no pressure to answer every single prompt or question, and if you'd simply rather read at your own pace and share your thoughts at the end of the month, that works as well.

Any questions just send an ask/dm!

[beatlesbookblog]

[beatlesbookblog]

Gotta go to the public library this week to write some more Beatle book reviews!! Exciting!!

[beatlesbookblog]

obv I’m waiting impatiently for Ian Leslie’s mclennon book to come out, but I should have known that the French would get there first

If you press me to give a reason why I loved him, I find it cannot be expressed otherwise than by saying, “Because it was he; because it was I.”

[beatlesbookblog]

Excited to have gotten this in the mail! Maybe it'll be next on my reading list after reading Hunter Davies' biography??

[beatlesbookblog]

Man on the Run: Paul McCartney in the 1970s by Tom Doyle

So when I first got back into my Beatles hyperfixation, the first thing I did was learn all about Paul and the history of Wings. Which is strange because when I was a fan of the Beatles the first time around, I didn't like anything of Paul's but I guess that's what growing up does to a person lol. While, I became more aware of the band's history through the documentary that Paul did with his daughter Mary, Wingspan, I wanted to know more. So I did what any person would do - I went to the public library. There, I found this book.

Tom Doyle is a music journalist and explains in his intro that this book was spurred from multiple interviews he did with Paul himself. Mixing quotes, anecdotes, and the history of Wings chronicled through their albums, Doyle makes a narrative that is similar to what Paul did with Wingspan. Yet, Doyle's story has a little bit more of the nitty gritty stuff. The stuff that Paul would have left on the cutting room floor.

Though I wouldn't call this a definitive history of Wings, I would definitely say this a good source to anyone who is interested with the band. Doyle goes right to the source, using quotes from many of the people involved as sources for this book. I think because of this, it gives this book some credibility! Using the perspectives of other band mates plus even using Paul's relationship with John during the 70s as a storytelling device helps to create a bigger picture of Paul's career with Wings.

I also found the actual prose and writing style of the book to be fairly entertaining, but I believe that could be Doyle's background as a journalist. He does weave an interesting story that shows not only Paul's vision for the band throughout the 70s as well as Paul budding as an artist after the Beatles, but Doyle uses snippets from the other members who were around when the book was published which adds different perspectives. Wingspan does not offer the complete other perspectives. There are some audio snippets here and there, but it solely focuses on Paul's reflections and memories. Not to say Paul would intentionally leave things out, but there were stories in this book that probably would have been left aside when giving the full narrative of the band.

Again, while the book is good, do not consider this a final source of everything Wings. I relate this book to Wingspan as it gives a similar vibe in its way of telling the version of events. I do think using interviews and quotes from other people involved does give it slightly more credibility than Wingspan, as that was just Paul conversing with Mary while telling the story of Wings. The different perspectives does make a difference when documenting the history of the band, and it makes a good pair to Wingspan (though, I know there's a Wingspan book, I haven't read that yet). Consider this your stepping stone into Wings and maybe by reading this book you'd come to appreciate the band just a little bit more!

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Rating ⭐: 8.5/10. It's a good book if you want to know the contextualized history of Wings and want a launch pad to research more about the band as well as Paul's career in the 70s.

Further Reading (and watching + listening) 📖🎧: This podcast episode with Tom Doyle talking about the book, watch Wingspan (I think there's a free version on YouTube), and probably read the book as well! Also keep an eye out for this documentary in the future, though I'm not sure if Doyle is working with the documentary or not.

[beatlesbookblog]

Publication date: April 8 2025

Pages: 448

Publisher: Celadon Books

Dimensions: 15.56 x 2.54 x 23.5

[beatlesbookblog]

Beatles Resources Masterpost

I've never seen anyone collect different Beatles resources all in one place, so I thought it would be nice to create a masterpost for newer or less research savvy Beatles fans looking for where to find them and learn more

Included below are Beatles movies, autobiographies, biographies, magazines, miscellaneous files, archive sites, and much more

This is by no means a comprehensive list of Beatles resources, as there is an often overwhelming amount of sources relating to and informative about the Beatles; this is simply a post to gather more important, prominent, and larger Beatle related texts and media together, as I would love for the online Beatles fan community to be more organized in its research and archive efforts

This is an extremely long post, enjoy!

*PLEASE READ DISCLAIMERS*

This post does not include links to Beatles music videos or where to listen to their music; however, I highly recommend listening to the updated remasters of The Beatles' albums done by Giles Martin, George Martin's son (the remasters done AFTER 2009) instead of the 2009 remasters when possible

There is a plethora of misinformation online about The Beatles so PLEASE do your own research, using reliable sources

Some sources have disclaimers attached, in case I believe they may to any degree be misleading or require additional context

All sources have been listed within sections chronologically, not in order of importance

If at any point any of the hyperlinks are broken or are not working, let me know and I’ll try my best to fix or update them

Some of the literary sources here are no longer being published, which is why I’m happy to supply the links here to read them online. However, if they are still in print and you’re able, please go borrow them from your local public library! Some of the movies and documentaries linked below can also be found on streaming or bought online; they are linked below for those unable to easily access them or for whatever other reason

There are some other important sources I could not find reuploads or scans of, but are still listed below in case someone is looking for more important sources

If I come across links to said sources I will edit this post and add them as hyperlinks. Additionally, if someone finds a working, safe link for anything listed without a link or for something they believe should be listed, they can message me and I'd be happy to add it

Movies Starring The Beatles as a Group

A Hard Day's Night (1964) dir. Richard Lester

Help! (1965) dir. Richard Lester

Magical Mystery Tour (1967) dir. The Beatles, Bernard Knowles

Yellow Submarine (1968) dir. George Dunning (The Beatles themselves do not voice their cartoon selves in this film)

Fictional/Partially Fictional Movies made by and/or Starring Beatles (A short selection of the films most often mentioned by Beatles fans)

How I Won the War (1967) dir. Richard Lester

Two Virgins (1968) dir. John Lennon, Yoko Ono

Candy (1968) dir. Christian Marquand

The Magic Christian (1969) dir. Joseph McGrath

Imagine (1972) dir. John Lennon, Yoko Ono, Steve Gebhardt (Some of the aspects in this film are fictional, and some are akin to a documentary)

Give My Regards to Broad Street (1984) dir. Peter Webb

Documentaries/Docuseries

Bed Peace (1969) dir. John Lennon, Yoko Ono (Yoko Ono has since said in 2020 she and John were naïve to think that doing the Bed-Ins would change the world)

Let It Be (1970 Original) dir. Michael Lindsay-Hogg

Let It Be (2024 Remaster) dir. Michael Lindsay-Hogg

The Concert for Bangladesh (1972) dir. Saul Swimmer

Imagine: John Lennon (1988) dir. Andrew Solt

The Beatles Anthology (1995) dir. Geoff Wonfor, Kevin Godley, Bob Smeaton (Focuses mainly on pre-1966 Beatles history and does not cover post-breakup events)

ep. 1 ep.2 George Harrison: Living in the Material World (2011) dir. Martin Scorsese

The True History of the Traveling Wilburys (2007) dir. Willy Smax

ep.1 ep.2 ep.3 Get Back (2021) dir. Peter Jackson

Yoko's Films (including films that list John Lennon as a co-director)

Rape (1969) dir. Yoko Ono, John Lennon

Fly (1970) dir. Yoko Ono, John Lennon

Up Your Legs Forever (1971) dir. Yoko Ono, John Lennon

Movies Made about The Beatles

The Rutles: All You Need Is Cash (1978) dir. Eric Idle, Gary Weis (Beatles parody)

I Wanna Hold Your Hand (1978) dir. Robert Zemeckis

The Hours and Times (1991) dir. Christopher Munch (This film is speculative)

Two of Us (2000) dir. Michael Lindsay-Hogg (This film is speculative)

The Rutles 2: Can't Buy Me Lunch (2003) dir. Eric Idle (Beatles parody)

Books Written by The Beatles

In His Own Write (1964) by John Lennon

A Spainard in the Works (1965) by John Lennon

I Me Mine (1980) by George Harrison

Skywriting by Word of Mouth (posthumous, 1986) by John Lennon (Partially autobiographical and partially fictional)

The Beatles Anthology (2000) by The Beatles (Book version of the docuseries)

Postcards from the Boys (2004) by Ringo Starr

The Lyrics: 1956 to the Present (2021) by Paul McCartney

Books Written about The Beatles

A Cellarful of Noise (1964) by Brian Epstein

Yellow Submarine Comic (1968) by Paul S. Newman

The Beatles Illustrated Lyrics (1969) ed. Alan Aldridge

The Beatles Illustrated Lyrics 2 (1971) ed. Alan Aldridge

A Twist of Lennon (1978) by Cynthia Lennon

Loving John (1983) by May Pang

Rock 'N' Roll Times: The Style and Spirit of the Early Beatles and Their First Fans (1983) by Jürgen Vollmer

John (2005) by Cynthia Lennon

Wonderful Today (2007) by Pattie Boyd with Penny Junor

Miss O'Dell: my hard days and long nights with the Beatles, the Stones, Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton, and the women they loved (2009) by Chris O'Dell

George Harrison: Living in the Material World (2011) by Olivia Harrison

George Harrison: Behind the Locked Door (2013) by Graeme Thomson

NOTE: Many beginner Beatles fans tend to read books written by authors Mark Lewisohn and Philip Norman as introductions to the Beatles; however, both of these authors can be incredibly biased for and against certain figures in Beatle history and require often hefty amounts of context to properly analyze them in an accurate manner, Norman in particular.

Magazines

The Beatles Book (Only Original 77 Issues) (1963-1969)

Paul McCartney Playgirl (1982)

Paul McCartney Playgirl (1985)

Archive and Timeline Sites

Meet The Beatles For Real (A site with mostly paparazzi, fan, and personal photos of the Beatles and their associates, along with some transcribed interviews, fan stories, and much more)

Beatles Bible (Primarily useful for basic information surrounding The Beatles' music together and solo can be found here, such as album/single release dates, in addition to pictures, a fan forum, and other basic info; not cumulative)

DM Beatles (Basic outlined timelines for 1963-1970 and album/single releases; not cumulative)

The Beatles On Film (A collection of almost every publicly available filmed video of The Beatles, together and solo, logged for reference purposes)

Beatles Interviews Database (Not cumulative)

Harrison Archive (Actively updating archive of interviews, fan encounters, quotes, and stories from or surrounding George Harrison; fun fact: Olivia Harrison, George's widow, follows the Instagram version of this archive)

The Paul McCartney Project (Archive of Paul McCartney interviews, dates for concerts, and more)

Misc. Documents/Videos

Around the Beatles (1964) dir. Rita Gillespie

The Beatles in Rishikesh Home Videos (1968)

The Beatles in Rishikesh Archival Footage and Home Videos (1968)

The John Lennon and Yoko Ono Playboy Interviews Transcript (1980)

The John Lennon and Yoko Ono Playboy Interviews Audio (1980)

John Lennon FBI Files

The Beatles FBI File

The Beatles Accepting Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction (1988)

The Beatles/Threetles Reunion at Friar Park (1994)

The Beatles/Threetles Studio Footage (1995)

Paul and George Anthology 3 Studio Interviews for VH1 (1997)

Concert for George (2002)

Animatics and Test Footage for Scrapped Motion Capture Yellow Submarine Remake (2009)

Audio Files

Beatles Christmas Records 1963, 1964, 1965, 1966, 1967, 1968, 1969

The Beatles Artifacts (Different takes/demos of songs along with studio chatter; the link supplied simply lines out what is on all of these Artifacts, as many of them are currently unavailable on Internet Archive)

John Lennon Last Interview (1980)

[beatlesbookblog]

This Boy: The Early Lives of John Lennon & Paul McCartney by Ilene Cooper

(welcome to the very first book review!!)

So, I read this book on the infamous anniversary of John and Paul's meeting a few months ago, and it was a simple and quick read for the most part. I was going to review this book hard because of its simplicity (which ultimately is not bad, it just depends on the book). However, I soon realized this book is meant for a more younger audience, so I'll cut it some slack.

Cooper is generally known for her children's books, so perhaps I wasn't the target audience for a book such as this (I found this as an ebook on my library website so I had no idea it was a YA historical book). Though, there were some aspects to this book I liked, genuinely.

I think this book did detail a lot about John and Paul that younger/newer fans may not know about. Though, I did notice there to be 2-3 chapters dedicated to John's childhood versus the 1-2 chapters about Paul. This obviously could be because of John's more troubled childhood versus Paul's, but I did find the John chapters to be more detailed than Paul's. I wouldn't say the author had more of a bias towards John, but I would have liked more of an equal amount of prose for both of them. It would have properly illustrated the equality amongst John + Paul's writing partnership once their friendship is established.

Another thing I really liked about this book was the introduction of the Quarrymen and more insight into them. Though, again, this book is generally geared towards a younger audience so there aren't insane amounts of detail you'd find in a proper historical book about the early Beatle days. Though, I think introducing the other Quarrymen members to the John + Paul story is a nice touch to this book. I tend to notice some Beatle authors sort of brush off the Quarrymen members to the side of the story, so this was nice to see in a newer book.

Is this book adding anything to the John + Paul story? No. Not really. If you're looking for an introduction to John and Paul as a newer or younger fan, I would recommend this book. It gives the basic history of John and Paul's early lives, their meeting, and the beginnings of their partnership. The book stops before the band goes off the Hamburg, giving the book a sort of "Nowhere Boy"-esque storytelling, which might be appealing to some people. Personally, I think it leaves too much out. Overall, I do think Cooper does a good job in telling the story of John and Paul to a younger audience, though I would have liked more detail. Then again, I'm not the target audience for this book so 🤷

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Rating ⭐: I'd rate this book about a 6.5/10 given it's a basic introductory book, and that it's fairly factual.

Further Reading 📖: Though, if you are looking for a more detailed, thorough book of John and Paul's meeting, I would recommend The Day John Met Paul by Jim O'Donnell.