Books - Reviews by JPGR&B

Books - Reviews by JPGR&B

« Member Page

Page 3 of 4 : Previous : Next :

Member	Item		Review/Comment
JPGR&B SUBS ● 14th Mar 2022		Book Sara Cohen - Decline, Renewal And The City In Popular Music Culture: Beyond The Beatles (2017)	Review Annotation: How is popular music culture connected with the life, image, and identity of a city? How, for example, did the Beatles emerge from within Liverpool, how did they come to be categorized as part of Liverpool culture and identity and used to develop and promote the city, and how have connections between the Beatles and Liverpool been forged and contested? This book explores the relationship between popular music and the city using Liverpool as a case study. Firstly, it examines the impact of social and economic change within that city on its popular music culture, focusing on de-industrialization and economic restructuring during the 1980s and 1990s. Secondly, it considers the specificity of popular music culture and the many diverse ways in which it influences city life and informs the way the city is thought about, valued and experienced. Cohen highlights popular music's unique role and significance in the making of cities, and illustrates how de-industrialization encouraged efforts to connect popular music to the city, to categorize, claim and promote it as local culture, and harness and mobilize it as a local resource. In doing so, she adopts an approach that recognizes music as a social and symbolic practice encompassing a diversity of roles and characteristics: music as a culture or way of life distinguished by social and ideological conventions; music as sound; speech and discourse about music; and music as a commodity and industry. Michael Brocken Source: The Beatles Bibliography: A New Guide To The Literature - Michael Brocken and Melissa Davis (The Beatle Works Ltd., 2012), with acknowledgement, and used here with permission from the authors for educational and historical purposes only. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
JPGR&B SUBS ● 14th Mar 2022		Book Sara Cohen - Decline, Renewal And The City In Popular Music Culture: Beyond The Beatles (2007)	Review Annotation: How is popular music culture connected with the life, image, and identity of a city? How, for example, did the Beatles emerge from within Liverpool, how did they come to be categorized as part of Liverpool culture and identity and used to develop and promote the city, and how have connections between the Beatles and Liverpool been forged and contested? This book explores the relationship between popular music and the city using Liverpool as a case study. Firstly, it examines the impact of social and economic change within that city on its popular music culture, focusing on de-industrialization and economic restructuring during the 1980s and 1990s. Secondly, it considers the specificity of popular music culture and the many diverse ways in which it influences city life and informs the way the city is thought about, valued and experienced. Cohen highlights popular music's unique role and significance in the making of cities, and illustrates how de-industrialization encouraged efforts to connect popular music to the city, to categorize, claim and promote it as local culture, and harness and mobilize it as a local resource. In doing so, she adopts an approach that recognizes music as a social and symbolic practice encompassing a diversity of roles and characteristics: music as a culture or way of life distinguished by social and ideological conventions; music as sound; speech and discourse about music; and music as a commodity and industry. Michael Brocken Source: The Beatles Bibliography: A New Guide To The Literature - Michael Brocken and Melissa Davis (The Beatle Works Ltd., 2012), with acknowledgement, and used here with permission from the authors for educational and historical purposes only. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
JPGR&B SUBS ● 4th Mar 2022		Book Frank Müller - A Tribute To Paul McCartney (2021)	Review Review by Ernie Sutton in Issue 80 of the British Beatles Fan Club Magazine (with acknowledgement): This new book looks at the life of Paul McCartney. It is a book that I would not recommend. At £14.99 it is overpriced and is poorly written in parts. It says in the book that Paul's marriage to Heather Mills was divorced in London in 2008. This should read dissolved. There are also factual errors in the book. An example of this is that it states Ringo and Paul worked together on the Concert for New York City. Ringo never appeared at that show. This is one of the worst books I have read. One to avoid. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
JPGR&B SUBS ● 3rd Mar 2022		Book Peter Grant - The Fab Four (2008)	Review Annotation: Peter Grant is a renowned arts and entertainments journalist based on Merseyside. This low-priced monograph with a soft cover was produced by the publishers of the Liverpool Daily Post and Liverpool Echo newspapers, for whom Grant worked for many years. It is essentially an adequate picture book with a modicum of narrative and is for Beatles book completists only. Michael Brocken Source: The Beatles Bibliography: A New Guide To The Literature - Michael Brocken and Melissa Davis (The Beatle Works Ltd., 2012), with acknowledgement, and used here with permission from the authors for educational and historical purposes only. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
JPGR&B SUBS ● 23rd Feb 2022		Book Various Authors - Liverpool Beatles Pop Culture Quiz (2008)	Review Annotation: The subtitle reads: '500 questions and answers about the Beatles, their lives and times and contemporaries in the pop world and their home city of Liverpool' - not strictly' Beatles', then! This small quiz book is one of a series of three, all conceived, designed and researched by Pam and John Blanchfield of the Ellesmere Port-based Keyprints Press (Little Sutton being a district of that Cheshire town) and published during Liverpool's European Capital of Culture year 2008. It was mostly for sale in and around Merseyside shops and sold rather poorly. The text therefore, was not widely distributed, which is a pity for it is a well-researched and nicely designed volume of some 60 pages. There are one or two interesting errors, however! If you can pick up a copy, see if you can spot them. Not to be taken overly seriously, yet these Keyprints texts are actually a lot of fun (and better than most). Michael Brocken Source: The Beatles Bibliography: A New Guide To The Literature - Michael Brocken and Melissa Davis (The Beatle Works Ltd., 2012), with acknowledgement, and used here with permission from the authors for educational and historical purposes only. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
JPGR&B SUBS ● 21st Feb 2022		Book Kevin Courrier - Artificial Paradise (2009)	Review Annotation: Kevin Courrier has, since 1990, been a writer/broadcaster and film critic at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. He is also the author of three best-selling books: Law & Order: The Unofficial Companion with Susan Green (1997); Dangerous Kitchen: The Subversive World of Zappa (2002), which won the Finalist Prize for Best Biography at the 2003 Independent Publisher's Awards; as well as Randy Newman's American Dreams (2005). Courrier currently contributes movie reviews to Box Office magazine in Los Angeles, and has written about film and popular culture for both The Globe and Mail and the Toronto Star. Courrier takes as his starting point February 11, 1963 when the Beatles recorded 'There's a Place'. Courrier argues that this song firmly laid a foundation on which a vast utopian dream of the 1960s would be built. However his thesis suggests that within that dream, there also lay the seeds of a darker, dystopian vision that would emerge from the very counter-culture that the Beatles and their music helped create. Courrier posits that the disillusionment with these unachievable goals of the 1960s and the rock myth directly associated with the Beatles, culminated in the attacks on John Lennon and George Harrison by deranged and obsessive fans. In 'Artificial Paradise' Courrier examines how the Beatles helped not only to create the promise of an inclusive culture built on the principles of pleasure and fulfillment, but also develop the potential for arrested development among those adherents who were clinging to the wreckage of the ill-formed messages emanating from the 1960s counter-culture. By taking us through the Beatles catalogue, Courrier illustrates how the group's startling impact on popular culture built a bond with audiences that was so strong, many today continue to either nostalgically cling to it, or struggle (sometimes violently) to escape its influence. This is an interesting exposition - well written and lucid, that demands the attention of those who might still see the Beatles as demi-gods, and the 1960s as a kind of second romantic era, without looking at the dystopian realities offered by such 'utopian dreams'. Its major problem is that it does not carry a proper historical perspective, concentrating rather too heavily on the Beatles' North American profile rather than their status in Britain. Were one to consider matters more from a British perspective, one might discover two important areas that do not effectively support his thesis: firstly, that much of the British counter-culture of the late 1960s had all-but abandoned the Beatles as representatives of authentic youth culture, preferring instead the more Marxist-Leninist interpretation that mass produced youth culture was a passive false consciousness (the highly politicised British folk revival was at its most virulent at this time). Secondly, that the erosion of adulthood of which Courrier speaks did not manifest itself in Britain in the same way as it did across North America. British youth has always been less' loyal' to their popular music icons than their American counterparts - hence the 'arrivals' of new icons Slade, T. Rex, David Bowie et al in Britain as the new decade dawned. Notwithstanding the above, this is definitely worth a read. Michael Brocken Source: The Beatles Bibliography: A New Guide To The Literature - Michael Brocken and Melissa Davis (The Beatle Works Ltd., 2012), with acknowledgement, and used here with permission from the authors for educational and historical purposes only. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
JPGR&B SUBS ● 19th Feb 2022		Book Sandra Shevey - The Other Side Of Lennon (1990)	Review Annotation: This is an interesting oddity, written by the author of The Marilyn Scandal. Shevey interviewed John and Yoko in the very early 1970s and recorded over four hours of material. She then proceeded to do nothing with the interview for the rest of the decade only to rediscover the source in the 1980s. Shevey used it as the basis for a text, and proceeded to track down other interviewees such as David Nutter, Eleanor Bron, Virginia Harry (one of her very rare interviews), John Junkin, and Sid Bemstein. All of this sounds extremely promising, but we are mysteriously disappointed by a flimsy, inaccurate piece of work that, in the first case, does not contextualise the interview material at all well (it transpired during Lennon's most bitter period, perhaps?) and secondly does not cross reference or check the ethnography. The result ('I do still like him but it's like saying you like Hitler') is a tired piece of work with innumerable factual errors – a lost opportunity, to be sure. Michael Brocken Source: The Beatles Bibliography: A New Guide To The Literature - Michael Brocken and Melissa Davis (The Beatle Works Ltd., 2012), with acknowledgement, and used here with permission from the authors for educational and historical purposes only. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
JPGR&B SUBS ● 31st Jan 2022		Book Terence Pepper - Angus McBean: Portraits (2006)	Review Annotation: A fully illustrated catalogue accompanied this McBean exhibition. The catalogue included an interview with Paul McCartney about the photographers of the 1960s - which makes it of interest to the researcher and somewhat collectible. It retailed in 2006 for £25, with a Gallery price of £20. Michael Brocken Source: The Beatles Bibliography: A New Guide To The Literature - Michael Brocken and Melissa Davis (The Beatle Works Ltd., 2012), with acknowledgement, and used here with permission from the authors for educational and historical purposes only. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
JPGR&B SUBS ● 29th Jan 2022		Book Gareth L. Pawlowski - How They Became The Beatles (1990)	Review Annotation: What might appear at first glance to be a fairly lightweight, superficial coffee table book actually reveals upon closer examination to be rather more than that. The author was at pains to use authentic primary sources to depict the group's pre-fame years rather than relying on regurgitated, inaccurate information and shares his collection of original material, programmes, tickets, correspondence and private interviews with some of the key players. Of great interest is the record collection of one female fan who purchased the entire Beatles live set, prior to their recording deal, via the 45rpm releases by the original artists - thus making the originals, the 'covers' (as it were). This is a truly fascinating perspective on the semiotic power of the Beatles' live act in Liverpool. Written several years ago, it can now no longer be described as a 'definitive' text, with further sources having increasingly thrown new light onto certain topics. Nevertheless, Pawlowski's work is definitely worthy, despite the irritating absence of an index. Angela Ballard, Michael Brocken Source: The Beatles Bibliography: A New Guide To The Literature - Michael Brocken and Melissa Davis (The Beatle Works Ltd., 2012), with acknowledgement, and used here with permission from the authors for educational and historical purposes only. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
JPGR&B SUBS ● 27th Jan 2022		Book Bill Connell - Beatles In Liverpool (1987)	Review Annotation: This is a photograph compilation from the renowned Liverpool photographic studios trading under the name of 'Peter Kaye'. This moniker was the commercial name of photographer Bill Connell. The photos included here of the Beatles just prior to their major success in Britain are fascinating social documents, providing as they do a backdrop of dereliction, riverine and post-industrial wastelands, and burnt-out cars. These enduring images should be placed alongside concepts that many British people held of Liverpool in the post-WWII era, both wittingly and unwittingly fostered by the media, as a declining city and it continues to be of interest that few, if any pictures were taken in (say) leafy, suburban Woolton. Dereliction obviously had far more cache in that 'British kitchen sink movie' era of the late 1950s and early 1960s than the inter-war fringe development of Menlove Avenue. British TV and film directors often used the city as a signifier of decay and decline. For example, the TV work of Dennis Mitchell, alone ('Morning in the Streets', 1958) helped to provide a stereotype from which the Beatles could not, by 1962, escape. Connell's pictures therefore capture in a most dramatic way, the diachronic and synchronic historical strands that enabled the Beatles to both capitalise upon and be caught by such predisposed cultural moods. They are amongst the most significant British photographs of the entire post-WWII era and are, naturally, indispensable to the Beatles researcher. Michael Brocken Source: The Beatles Bibliography: A New Guide To The Literature - Michael Brocken and Melissa Davis (The Beatle Works Ltd., 2012), with acknowledgement, and used here with permission from the authors for educational and historical purposes only. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
JPGR&B SUBS ● 26th Jan 2022		Book Ray O'Brien - Street Stars (2008)	Review Annotation: In this volume O'Brien mixes a short discussion of the original dwellings once occupied by a selection of Liverpool's most successful entertainment and media stars with equally short pen pictures of the personalities - including members of the Beatles. A good deal of the information within was collated from past editions of Kelly's (Gores) Directory which, beginning in the late-I8th century, annually listed households and businesses for every property in Liverpool. O'Brien is a good researcher and coupled with the photographic archives from the Liverpool Daily Post and Echo (the publisher of this volume being the papers' parent company Trinity Mirror), we have here an interesting volume. The entries are a little too short, however, and at times one is left rather wanting or in a state of confusion. For example, more information concerning black Liverpudlian vocalist Lita Roza (the first Liverpudlian to have a number one hit single in Britain) is required, while Rex Harrison's information is incomplete: the Harrison family were indeed from Huyton, but there was also a family home in Everton, on Walton Road (now occupied by a hairdressers and the intrepid Elvis expert Mick O'Toole!). Curiously, the artists are not listed alphabetically - which seems very odd - so the work is far from comprehensive as a research tool. Nevertheless it is a worthy addition, which brings together Liverpool's interesting cultural geography and its renowned production line of British entertainment personalities. It has not ostensibly been written for the Beatles marketplace and Beatles fans might find it a little 'parochial' for their tastes; Spencer Leigh provides a foreword. Michael Brocken Source: The Beatles Bibliography: A New Guide To The Literature - Michael Brocken and Melissa Davis (The Beatle Works Ltd., 2012), with acknowledgement, and used here with permission from the authors for educational and historical purposes only. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
JPGR&B SUBS ● 26th Jan 2022		Book Ray O'Brien - There Are Places I'll Remember (2005)	Review Annotation: This text is only of monograph length and contains many photographs of old and, in many cases no longer existing, Merseyside and North Wales venues. However it works very well as a valuable resource, has enormous empathy of tone, and is extremely practical as a handbook for Beatles tourists and researchers as they move around the Merseyside region. For a Liverpudlian such as this writer, it also serves as a poignant reminder of a Liverpool that has now all-but vanished. Michael Brocken Source: The Beatles Bibliography: A New Guide To The Literature - Michael Brocken and Melissa Davis (The Beatle Works Ltd., 2012), with acknowledgement, and used here with permission from the authors for educational and historical purposes only. 1 person found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
JPGR&B SUBS ● 25th Jan 2022		Book Michael Braun - Love Me Do! (1995)	Review Annotation: Braun, a renowned journalist of the day, travelled with the Beatles on their British tours; as such he created an early piece of critical social anthropology and observational ethnography as a way to understand the phenomenon of the Beatles and their fan base. This book, therefore, is both historically and scholarly interesting via its consideration of Beatlemania in situ. The book was re-issued in 1995 (long overdue) and remains highly recommended as an engrossing and atmospheric (yet erudite) piece of work from the 1960s. It was Braun who was responsible for John Lennon obtaining the publishing deal that resulted in the publication of In His Own Write, according to Bill Harry. Michael Brocken Source: The Beatles Bibliography: A New Guide To The Literature - Michael Brocken and Melissa Davis (The Beatle Works Ltd., 2012), with acknowledgement, and used here with permission from the authors for educational and historical purposes only. 1 person found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
JPGR&B SUBS ● 25th Jan 2022		Book Michael Braun - Love Me Do! (1964)	Review Annotation: Braun, a renowned journalist of the day, travelled with the Beatles on their British tours; as such he created an early piece of critical social anthropology and observational ethnography as a way to understand the phenomenon of the Beatles and their fan base. This book, therefore, is both historically and scholarly interesting via its consideration of Beatlemania in situ. The book was re-issued in 1995 (long overdue) and remains highly recommended as an engrossing and atmospheric (yet erudite) piece of work from the 1960s. It was Braun who was responsible for John Lennon obtaining the publishing deal that resulted in the publication of In His Own Write, according to Bill Harry. Michael Brocken Source: The Beatles Bibliography: A New Guide To The Literature - Michael Brocken and Melissa Davis (The Beatle Works Ltd., 2012), with acknowledgement, and used here with permission from the authors for educational and historical purposes only. 1 person found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
JPGR&B SUBS ● 25th Jan 2022		Book Jeff Walker - Let's Put The Beatles Back Together Again 1970-2010 (2010)	Review Reviews taken from pages 3 and 4 of Jeff Walker’s 2014 book Sex and the Beatles: 400 Entries: Well done. It’s much more than constructing/reconstructing albums. It’s a masterpiece. - Richard Courtney, co-author of Come Together: The Business Wisdom of the Beatles I have a full set of the suggested compilations and they are superb…[So] make your own… it's well worth it. - David Bedford, author of Liddypool It's a pleasure to welcome [a new Beatles book] that doesn't tread in the footsteps of what's gone before… What Walker is proposing works well… I have listened to the lot and the way he has put them together is really imaginative. I can't thank him enough… - Spencer Leigh, BBC Radio Merseyside host and author of many Beatles books The most oddly compelling music book I have read in years… You owe it to yourself to get it. If you are a fan, run, don't walk. It's that interesting…. Highly, highly recommended. - Scott Atkinson, TV news director (New York) Very interesting new concept based on… the treasure trove of music from the solo Beatles. - Mark Lapidos of The Fest for Beatles Fans The premise of the book to replace Alen Klein… will certainly get the book fans for that reason alone… a ‘what if’ scenario that creates, at the least, something to consider. - Steve Marinucci: Beatles Examiner So big and smart and well-written… a very great unadulterated pleasure. - Toronto Today editor Eric McMillan A piece of conceptual art… I found Walker's pruning superb… a worthwhile project accomplished with good humour and a lightness of touch despite the enormous effort involved… meticulous research… I would not be surprised if someone at a record company isn't listening and taking notes. - Jamie Farrow for Beatlefan There is a striving here for perfection and a certainty in his conclusions… His writing style is entertaining and humorous… I greatly liked the revision on the Get Back/Let It Be project… which stands almost alone in its reassessment… The wealth of material on the solo tracks is vast… will get you thinking, discussing (and debating)… well worth the price of admission. - Cyber-beatles.com review A worthwhile purchase for any Beatles fan… Fans who have not listened to much of Paul, John, George and Ringo's solo output will find this a very useful reference… I have no doubt that anyone who actually assembled Walker’s Beatles Releasing Collective sets would find them to be truly enjoyable albums on a par with most of what The Beatles released in the 1960s. - Eric's Music World blog Each Beatles Releasing Collective album set has been meticulously assembled, sequenced and refined… these are not crude collections of the mop-tops solo hits. Jeff writes with passion and all the half-crazy focus of a serious Beatles fan. - Said the Gramophone music blog I can unreservedly recommend this book. Putting together the virtual Beatles albums the author suggests is a lot of fun, but even without that, the historical material in this book explores territory not previously covered in the history of the Fab Four. I am positive that all Beatles fans will enjoy it immensely. - Tracy Howe: singer/writer/keyboardist for 1980s synth band Rational Youth (on Capitol Records) 1 person found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
JPGR&B SUBS ● 22nd Jan 2022		Book Jeff Walker - Sex And The Beatles: 400 Entries (2014)	Review From Amazon: Sex and the Beatles “chronicles any and every sex-related event in the Beatles’ life…illustrated throughout with hilarious depictions of beetles in action…culled from a wide variety of books and interviews, and humorously summarized for an enjoyable read.” -- BeatleLinks website. “Scanning Sex and the Beatles initially, I knew I was going to enjoy the experience…Sun Page 3 stuff…a grubby piece of work…heh, heh…I sat down and read it in one go…Very unusual, very interesting…[A Harrison incident] amused me most.” (The book reviewer spent almost the entire segment recounting salacious anecdotes from the book.) -- BBC Radio Review from Spencer Leigh’s On the Beat Programme. “Sex and the Beatles is exactly what the title suggests—a look at the sexy underbelly of the Fab Four in 400 ways you probably couldn’t imagine. Walker cites sexy anecdotes from 46 sources…[The book] digs into the Beatles’ past, both during the group and solo years, for both obscure and not-so-obscure tales about the sexier side of the Fab Four and leaves little unturned…The resulting book is everything you wanted to know about sex and the Beatles, but were afraid to ask. Now you don’t need to. You can just read it all here.” -- Steve Marinucci on Something Else!/examiner.com websites. “Read it…If this book had been out 50 years ago, the Beatles would not have been allowed into the USA.” -- Peter Dicks, radio host of The Beatles and Beyond. "A cool little book...about the sexual escapades of The Beatles." -- Beatles on Abbey Road website. 1 person found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
JPGR&B SUBS ● 21st Jan 2022		Book Edgar O. Cruz - The Beatles: Extraordinary Plagiarists (2012)	Review From Amazon: Don Diego Vega 5 out of 5 stars I am glad that I read it Reviewed in the United States on 30 July 2015 Verified Purchase OK: much of it is true, some of the facts are not true, written with seemingly hatred toward the Beatles. Eye opening though. I am glad that I read it. Basically, they sometimes took other songs and rewrote them. Thay all had input...as the songs took shape, they were altered..more new lyrics were written.... but in some cases, it was a little too close! 1 person found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
JPGR&B SUBS ● 21st Jan 2022		Book Edgar O. Cruz - The Beatles: Extraordinary Plagiarists (2012)	Review From Amazon: M. E. PINEDA 5 out of 5 stars The Beatles Extraordinay Plagiarist Reviewed in the United States on 14 October 2012 Verified Purchase A comprehensive look on the evolution of The Beatles as musicians. It also portrayed how their chatacters and personality transformed as they became more and more popular until they turned into this huge cultural icon. Some readers may find this book contoversial due to the subject matter,but I for one disagree. Some Beatles die-hard fan might find it unpalatable to know that their idol (and mine as well) are mainly creating music thru derivation from various songwriters. But the author has supported his premise time and again in the book, by painstakingly illustrating how The Beatles did it song after song after song. As Mr. Cruz quoted Paul in a 1982 Playboy interview, "0h yeah. We were the biggest nickers in town. Plagiarist extraordinaire" In the end, in no way did it diminish my regard for the boys from Liverpool. I still am a fan, I guess I forever will be. Just like John was influenced by Preley,Dylan and company, there are hundreds of artists today and from years past that have been influenceed by The Beatles. I would also like to mention that the author also humanized the Fav Four in their fans eyes . It made me think hmm they're human like you and me,subject to failings and weaknesses such as petty jealousies and ego trips and insecurities.. That made me like them more. It made them real to me. Hats off Mr. Cruz. Job well done indeed. Thank you sir! 1 person found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
JPGR&B SUBS ● 21st Jan 2022		Book Edgar O. Cruz - The Beatles: Extraordinary Plagiarists (2012)	Review From Amazon: Galo 5 out of 5 stars Myth Debunked? Reviewed in the United States on 10 August 2012 Verified Purchase There's no doubt in my mind about the labor of love the author has put into the writing of this book. I am quiet sure that this work will unsettle many, especially the die-hard fans but for the rest (and that includes me), it will be another way of looking at the boys from Liverpool; an opportunity to weigh in on things and from there develop our own conclusions based on the information (extensively researched, and well reasoned I would say) that are presented in this work. Will this book debunk the myth or will it rally the unconditionals to defend the Beatles' "cherished legacy" by undoing the arguments the work bring forth in the book? That is probably too early to tell. But for ordinary folks like me who have enjoyed their songs over the years, it could be the push we need to form our "definitive" opinion about the Beatles for who they are and their contributions to rock music... The title provokes and the essence of the book is anathema to any self-respecting Beatles fan. Yet, here it is from an admitted long time aficionado and an acknowledged Beatles guru. Edgar sets forth on a course of discussion one may consider blasphemous to the sacredness of the Beatles legacy. In dissecting the Beatles' work, actions and motives, his presentations are well researched and documented. They are indeed revelations that are very hard to digest and could somehow tarnish an otherwise brilliant achievement by the group. In short, read for yourself and draw your conclusion... 1 person found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
JPGR&B SUBS ● 21st Jan 2022		Book Edgar O. Cruz - The Beatles: Extraordinary Plagiarists (2012)	Review From Amazon: Forest 5 out of 5 stars Cell by Cell Dissection of the Beatles Work Reviewed in the United States on 20 August 2012 Verified Purchase Growing up during the Beatles era in the 60's and 70's, I am certainly a big fan of all their work. I am thankful to Mr. Edgar O. Cruz for sharing this very intriguing book that took over 20 years in the making. Coming from a medical field, the book " the Beatles: Extraordinary Plagiarists" looks like a cell by cell dissection of the BEATLES work. There was so much information and analysis contained in this 172-page book. It gave me a different perspective on the popularity and creativity of this Fav Four British Group I grew up with. Can't wait to also get an electronic IPAD version of this book that I can take along with me all the time. Kudos to Mr. Edgar O. Cruz for a job well done. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
JPGR&B SUBS ● 21st Jan 2022		Book Edgar O. Cruz - The Beatles: Extraordinary Plagiarists (2012)	Review From Amazon: Zen 5 out of 5 stars AN OUTSTANDING OVATION :WELL-RESEARCHED AND DARING BOOK Reviewed in the United States on 14 August 2012 Verified Purchase THE BEATLES EXTRAORDINARY PLAGIARISTS, a book with a title that promises an awful lot to us, the readers, whether fans or not of the famous Beatles. Indeed the author, Mr. Edgar O. Cruz, an avid fan of the Beatles, made an extensive research about the Beatles, unrelentlessly, digging the truth behind our favorite rock band. Apparently, it inspired him to write this book with daring revelations about the Beatles. This most intriguing book ever published about the Beatles has delivered page after page of information so extraordinary that literally changed what I knew then about the Beatles. The author, Mr. Edgar O. Cruz, has enough guts to write such a compelling book which covers all that may not have known before about the Beatles. Such an intriguing book which I think the Beatles fans, like me or non-fan alike should have a copy to read and learn the facts or know the "naked" truth about our beloved Beatles. I give an outstanding ovation to the author for a well-researched and daring book! 1 person found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
JPGR&B SUBS ● 20th Jan 2022		Book Various Authors - The Beatles In Comic Strips (2012)	Review From Amazon: L. Miller 5.0 out of 5 stars A fascinating archive of Beatles comic material Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 25 July 2012 Verified Purchase I brushed past a copy of this book at an art gallery shop and found myself looking through it and finding it incredibly interesting. There's a decent foreword and write-up before one sees the meat of the book - illustrations of Beatles theme comics. Even those that are in their own language are so interesting and diverse. I hesitated to buy this because I've lost that affinity for comics but I'm glad I went for the book in the end. The Beatles will always be an incredibly interesting subject in whatever form! The book also comes with a double-sided poster - on one side four cartoon drawings of the band themselves and the other side comprising a comic version of Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds. A worthy purchase (£7.50 cheaper than the art gallery price) makes this an essential investment for a Beatles fan. Cosmically Concsious 1.0 out of 5 stars NOT as enjoyable as I would have liked Reviewed in the United States on 12 February 2013 Verified Purchase I was expecting nice clear pictures on glassy paper, instead the comics that are reproduced here are blurry and on cheap looking paper. I sold mine after having it for less than a week. Much of the text and comics are in Italian and French and are incomplete. I would stay away and use your money to search Ebay for Beatles comics that are complete and in the language of your choosing. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
JPGR&B SUBS ● 11th Jan 2022		Book Various Authors - The Beatles Speaking Words Of Wisdom (2014)	Review Review on Amazon from Stuart Jefferson Five Stars THE BEATLES--LITERALLY--IN THEIR OWN WORDS Reviewed in the United States on 25 August 2014 Verified Purchase With all the books about The Beatles over the years, and new books seemingly appearing every week, I wonder if anyone would like to get back to the real stuff, the nitty gritty, if you will, about The Beatles. The authors, Mark Swearingen and Don Christian, have done a great job collecting and collating these interviews. This 400 + page, large size, softcover book contains interviews with the group from their first known interview for the radio in Oct. 1963, up through April 1970 for print use. The book is laid out chronologically with each interview prefaced with information about the interview--location, date, people involved, etc.. Also included are small b& w photos related to each interview. There's a Directory of the major people connected with The Beatles, with photos and a short synopsis of each person--a nice touch. This book is a time machine back to the beginnings of the group, and back to a more innocent age. Many of the questions are very innocent and fairly superficial. But so are many of the answers from the band. But that's the real charm of reading these pieces again after so many years (decades!) have gone by. Was life really like that back then? Yes it was. And many of these interviews bring back that period--especially if you were around when it was all happening (like I was)--and they have a real flavor of the times. As time went by the interviews began to be filled with relatively more probing questions,. But even by 1970 the interviews (and the band) still had a certain period charm about them. I've been a fan of The Beatles since I saw them live in my hometown way back in the late 60's. Those first few (U.S.) albums still have a kind of magic when I play them. And so too does this great book. If you want to get an inside picture of The Beatles both before and after they achieved fame--in their own words--get this book. It's the kind of book that you don't have to read chronologically from the beginning. You can open it to just about any page and read something of interest. With all the books about The Beatles written long afterwards, it's refreshing and interesting to read something from the actual period from the mouths of both the interviewers and the band members themselves. Check this out. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
JPGR&B SUBS ● 30th Dec 2021		Book Chet Flippo - McCartney The Biography (1988)	Review Annotation: One of my favourite texts of the 1990s was Chet Flippo's biographical novel concerning Hank Williams - an excellent piece of work throughout. This text, however brings Flippo's name somewhat into disrepute, for it is a 400-page clip job from start to finish. Most Beatles fans will recognise entire chunks drafted in from other, more authentic writers such as Norman, Lewisohn, Taylor and Best. Even worse than this, most of the author's 'research' appears to have come from press cuttings featured in the Lewisohn Beatles Live reference work, which would be fair enough if that latter text had been cited - but it was not. The lack of balance within the book is also dreadful. The years between 1963 and 1966 are covered in 14 pages, whereas a second-hand rant about Sgt. Pepper takes up 35 pages. As with most writers concerned with McCartney's musical muse, there is as much about the Beatles in Hamburg as there is Wings. While Flippo can obviously write, this text is merely a litany of unstructured blurb (and who says the song 'Another Day' was about 'domestic bliss'?). Not recommended, I'm afraid. Michael Brocken Source: The Beatles Bibliography: A New Guide To The Literature - Michael Brocken and Melissa Davis (The Beatle Works Ltd., 2012), with acknowledgement, and used here for educational and historical purposes. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
JPGR&B SUBS ● 6th Dec 2021		Book Various Authors - John Lennon And The FBI Files (2002)	Review Reviewed at Amazon.co.uk by S P Mead TOP 500 REVIEWER 3.0 out of 5 stars a short publication that repeats the ideas and conclusions of Wiener's and Bresler's books Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 30 July 2016 As a Lennon fan, I was intrigued by the topic raised in this book. Its authors, Phil Strongman and Alan Parker, set out to show that Lennon's overt political attitudes and activism drew the attentions of the US authorities - most notably the FBI. Moreover, Lennon was the target of a unnecessary campaign - led by the mid-1970's Republican elite - to be deported from American soil. And, so suggest the authors, mixed-up within all of this covert and undercover surveillance was a possible plot to eliminate Lennon should be ever be considered too much of a risk ... There are some very good books that deal with the particulars covered by Strongman and Parker. Notably, Jon Wiener's Gimme Some Truth: The John Lennon FBI Files provides a detailed and scholarly discussion on the lengths the FBI went to in order to investigate Lennon and portray him as a dangerous outsider. And there's Fenton Bresler's Who Killed John Lennon? - which exposes the incomplete police investigation into Lennon's murder and the possibility that the killer - Mark Chapman - was a 'Manchurian Candidate' programmed to kill Lennon upon his return to the public limelight in late 1980. And for anyone interested in reading about the deluded psyche of the murderer, Jack Jones' Let Me Take You Down: Inside The Mind Of Mark David Chapman, The Man Who Shot John Lennon: Inside the Mind of Mark David Chapman - Man Who Shot John Lennon is worth a read. Unfortunately, "John Lennon and the FBI Files" presents us with nothing new, and is not based on original research. Rather it's a simple re-stating of the main ideas found in Wiener's and Bresler's books. And it's a far weaker read as compared to either of those other publications. Very little of the book deals with the FBI's files concerning Lennon - as such, the title is misleading. What we get, instead, is a brief history of the FBI, the CIA, and the Beatles. We're informed that Lennon was - increasingly from the late 1960's - politically active. And we're provided an account of the murder. But it's poorly put together. The entire book is only 206 pages long - and over 20 pages are dedicated to a 'discography' and index; the main discussion of the book amounts to just 176 pages! While it's reasonably well-written, I didn't buy this book to be informed of the Kennedy assassination, or when Brian Epstein met the Beatles. Such matters are off-topic. Yet the book seems full of such off-topic chapters! What's left, after all the inessentials have been discounted, is little more than a few pages looking at why Lennon was the possible target of political assassination. And these few pages are no more than a regurgitation of other people's writings! Given such major limitations, I cannot recommend this book. Yet I do believe that the topic is worthy of study, and that the issue of why Lennon was murdered is important. Since this book highlights such concerns, I've awarded 3 stars. But I do suggest that potential readers opt for the other books I've cited in this review, as they're far more significant. 2 people found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
JPGR&B SUBS ● 9th Sep 2021		Book Paul Sinclair - Paul McCartney: Press To Play At 35 (2021)	Review Andrew Dixon reviews SDE's new publication Paul McCartney: Press To Play At 35. [YouTube Video] ✔︎ Helpful Review?
JPGR&B SUBS ● 18th Aug 2021		Book Jim Rodford - Sideman (2021)	Review Review on Amazon by Mike Southon, 17 August 2021. I was thrilled to be the editor on this book, bringing Jim Rodford’s story to life. Jim was one of the most respected and best loved bass players in the world - his credits cover Argent, The Kinks, The Zombies and 100 other bands For this project, I was able to interview many of his colleagues from the 60s in The Mike Cotton Sound. Jim’s almost first gig with the band was in The Beatles Christmas Show of 1964, which also included The Yardbirds, Freddie and the Dreamers and Elkie Brooks. From his band members I heard tales of gigging seven days a week in an era before mobile phones or motorways - we will never see times like that again! This is a beautifully printed book with many colour pictures, bringing to life Jim’s life and times, and is an essential read for lovers of good music 1 person found this review helpful. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
JPGR&B SUBS ● 25th Jul 2021		Book Paul Salley - Little Wing: The Jimmy McCulloch Story (2021)	Review Becky Olenchak (from Facebook): Jimmy McCulloch accomplished much more in his 26 years than most of us do in a lifetime; he was playing lead guitar in bands that opened for The Who and Pink Floyd when he was barely in his teens. As 16 year old guitarist for Thunderclap Newman, he had a number one hit record. After performing with the likes of John Mayall and Stone The Crows, Jimmy became the lead guitarist for Paul McCartney and Wings and together they became the biggest rock band in the world. Still only in his early 20s, he had achieved so much and his potential remained beyond belief. In “Little Wing: The Jimmy McCulloch Story” (fully authorized by the McCulloch family), Paul Salley shares details about Jimmy’s life from early childhood and his fascination with guitars and music at a very young age, throughout the onset of his career and on through the heady days of Wings and afterwards. Included are many lovely personal recollections from brother Jack McCulloch, who played drums in early bands The Jaygars and One In A Million as well as Thunderclap Newman and many others. Throughout the book, there are also memories shared by other family members and friends, plus a ton of incredible visual treats in the form of original newspaper and magazine articles and interviews and lots of photos, many coming from the family archive. Salley enables the reader to get a real glimpse of what Jimmy must have been feeling and thinking, from early days as a young Beatles fan learning guitar when not attending to his studies at Cumbernauld High School outside Glasgow, to later on when he was touring the world and playing enormous stadiums with Paul McCartney and Wings. It’s truly special indeed. I wish I could rate this book more than 5 stars! In a nutshell, Paul Salley and Mark Cunningham (editor and designer) have produced the best rock bio I have read in years. "Little Wing" truly takes flight and soars! ✔︎ Helpful Review?
JPGR&B SUBS ● 20th Jul 2021		Book Paul Salley - Little Wing: The Jimmy McCulloch Story (2021)	Review Mick Lamont (from Facebook): My copy of "Little Wing: The Jimmy McCulloch Story" arrived earlier this week. I've held off saying anything about the book until I had some time to take it in. This is because the author, Paul Salley, is a friend of mine - and I'm in it. I am now able to say that it is my considered opinion that this book is a remarkable piece of work. The research that Paul Salley has undertaken is quite frankly unbelievable. He has interviewed a vast number of people from every period in Jimmy's incredible career: The Jaygars, One in a Million, Thunderclap Newman, John Mayall, Wings, Small Faces and more. His pursuit of witnesses has been assiduous: from megastars to school friends in Cumbernauld. (Paul even tracked me down and I am a very obscure and minor footnote in Jimmy's story). Most of the narrative comes from these interviewees. Paul lets the people who were there tell the story. The photographs in the book (603 of them!) are an astonishing record not just of Jimmy's life but of the rock world in the sixties and seventies that he inhabited. Many come from the McCulloch family archives and have never been seen before. We have the wee boy with the guitar - that is bigger than he is - up to the last known photo of him in September 1979. I was already pretty well-versed in the details of Jimmy's life and times but I learned many gobsmacking things from this book: One in a Million played at the legendary 14 Hour Technicolor (sic) Dream at Alexandra Palace in 1967 with Pink Floyd; Pete Townshend's father, Cliff, had a hit in 1941 as a member of The Squadronaires with a tune called "There's Something in the Air". The depiction of life in a Scottish rock band in the early sixties is detailed and vivid: for me it exerts an almost visceral - if morbid - fascination! The sheer volume of research is staggering. The amount of information jaw-dropping. As biography, it is a startling achievement. The book is available from Amazon. As you may have figured out, I do heartily recommend it. ✔︎ Helpful Review?
JPGR&B SUBS ● 6th Jul 2021		Book Paul Salley - Little Wing: The Jimmy McCulloch Story (2021)	Review By Amy Hughes at Beatles Freak Reviews. ✔︎ Helpful Review?

Page 3 of 4 : Previous : Next :