543 pages. Book dimensions: 15.2 cms x 2.1 cms x 22.6 cms.
From the back cover:
Beyond the 1960s lie four decades of Beatles Masterworks.
In the tradition of the White Album individuation, the Beatles can be said to have carried on from 1970 right through 2010. Take only the best of John, Paul, George and Ringo from that era, thoughtfully assemble it into Beatles format album-sets and you basically have what the Beatles would have produced had they stayed intact.
Simply imagine that a new manager quickly replacing Allen Klein had convinced them that, though they had become ill-disposed to recording together, they should still release together after recording more-or-less separately (as on much of the White Album and on numerous Beatles tracks starting with Yesterday). The resulting listening experience proves an extraordinary and worthy extension of the bona fide Beatles’ works.
The author has painstakingly put together and tweaked such sets over several years. In this book he offers a rationale for retrospectively superimposing upon the Beatles an alternate history that cold plausibly have generated the sets as real-life products. And he provides juicy backgrounders for all the selected tracks.
These tracks can be downloaded individually from online music providers and skimmed from solo-years best-of CDs, so as to create one’s own Beatles Releasing Collective (BRC) sets on CD-Rs or iPod playlists – either duplicating the author’s sets or customizing them to personal taste. For Beatles fans, it’s an upbeat and relatively inexpensive hobby for trying economic times, not to mention a way to wrest control of the second half of the Beatles’ legacy from the suits. It’s worth it. The dream lived on, past the death of Lennon, even past that of George. It was never over.
Cover price:
US: $28.95.
CDN: $29.95.
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ReviewReviews 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)