Reviews

"Who knows why the Beatles happened?" John Lennon asked in 1980: if anyone did, it would be the Fab Four themselves, who tell their own storyDwith plenty of visual aidsDin this giant compendium. Festooned with more than 1,300 photographs, posters and documents (many in color), the weighty (6.6 lbs.) volume offers the Beatles' "own permanent written record of events up to 1970," some of it previously published, but much of it transcribed from new or unpublished interviews. Paul, George, Ringo and Beatles-related folks (Brian Epstein, George Martin, Derek Taylor) contribute text from interviews conducted for the book and for an accompanying TV program. Words from the late John Lennon have been gathered from print, broadcast and manuscripts (each with an indicated date), then spliced together to create coherent pages and paragraphs. The book opens with the band members' separate accounts of their childhoods, then moves into a year-by-year organization that allows for great detail and many digressions. Here are what the Beatles have said, or say now, about particular sessions and gigs. Here, too, are comments and reminiscences on every topic in their careerD from marijuana to Manila to Murray the K, from Hamburg to "A Hard Day's Night" to "Hey, Jude." Most of the text appears oral-history style, in short paragraphs with rapid switches between one Beatle and another: the format makes it sound as if all the Beatles (including John) were being interviewed simultaneously. The visuals bring in cartoons, signed letters, scrawled drawings and photos. As a whole the volume is beautiful, big and a bit intimidating, somewhere between the Yellow Submarine and the Death Star. (One-day laydown, Oct. 5) Forecast: Do people still care? You bet they do. With massive publicity, innumerable tie-ins and enduring, worldwide passion for the music, this is poised to be one of the biggest nonfiction books of the year. Yeah, yeah, yeah! Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.

Hyped, anticipated, and cloaked in secrecy, the Beatles' autobiography is articulately told through quotes from John, Paul, George, and Ringo, as well as the group's closest aides: George Martin, Neil Aspinall, and Derek Taylor. Taken largely from interviews for 1995's Beatles Anthology documentary, the quotes were further expanded by interviews exclusive to the book. Lennon's quotes are seamlessly cobbled together from scores of sources (listed in the back) and smoothly integrated with the others' comments. Topics are discussed in more depth than the film, though a few significant career points (e.g., the "Lady Madonna" single) are ignored. Many of the over 1300 images come from the private archives of EMI Records, the Beatles' own Apple Corps., and the band members themselves. Unfortunately, the lavish design sometimes takes precedence over substance, as many previously unseen documents, including original hand-written drafts of song lyrics, are hard to read because the texts are either superimposed in color onto other illustrations or are printed like a watermark behind the main text. Captions for only a small percentage of the illustrations are listed in an appendix, often making the reader flip to the back to look for a caption that doesn't exist. The density of the text is daunting, but the book's browsability makes it as appealing to casual readers as it is indispensable to Beatlemaniacs. Despite its price, this is essential for most libraries.DLloyd Jansen, Stockton-San Joaquin Cty. P.L. Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.