Book

Author:	Lewis Lapham
Title:	With The Beatles
Publisher:	Melville House
Country:	USA
Date:	1 Oct 2005
Format:	Paperback
Genre:	Non-Fiction, Biography, Music
ISBN-13:	9780976658320
Rating:	Rate
Collection:	I Own It I Want It
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168 pages. Book dimensions: ‎5.1 inches x 0.45 inches x 6.5 inches.

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It was the ultimate 1960s scene: the ashram in Rishikesh, India, where the Beatles, Donovan, Mia Farrow, a stray Beach Boy, and other 1960s icons gathered along the shores of the Ganges-amidst paisley and incense and flowers and guitars-to meditate at the feet of the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. The February 1968 gathering received such frenzied, worldwide attention that it is still considered a significant, early encounter between Western pop culture and the mystical East.

But what went on inside the compound has long been the subject of wild speculation and rampant rumor. The Beatles, for example, have said they wrote some of their greatest songs there . . . and yet they also came away bitterly disillusioned.

While dozens of reporters from around the world flew to the remote location to camp out at the entrance of the retreat, only one journalist was allowed inside: Lewis Lapham, now the esteemed editor of Harper's Magazine, then a reporter for The Saturday Evening Post, who was seen-along with Tom Wolfe-as one of the progenitors of the hip "New Journalism."

Lapham's wry take on what he found inside the ashram won acclaim at the time, but here he includes some surprising material he's never written about before-from hysterically funny descriptions of the Maharishi's daily press conferences, to the high style demands of certain stars upon the hapless local tailor, to impromptu jam sessions and the true story behind the scandal that drove the Beatles out of Rishikesh and led to Lapham's eight-hour cab ride with Ringo Starr.

In Lapham's deft and vivid prose, With the Beatles is an exhilarating and surprisingly intimate look at one of the pivotal moments of pop culture and some of its leading figures.

Comments and Reviews


JPGR&B SUBS 9th Jul 2022		No. 1 in the Top 50 books viewed at 45worlds on Thursday 7 and Friday 8 July 2022. This is probably because I highlighted the book as a new entry to 45worlds in the Beatles In Print - Together and Solo Facebook group.



JPGR&B SUBS 7th Jul 2022		Review Annotation: Lewis Lapham claims to have been the only journalist allowed inside the Beatles coterie that went to India to study with the Maharishi. This is debatable, although the trip itself can be seen retrospectively to have been a significant, early encounter between Western pop culture and the mystical East - a social comedy, perhaps. The trip has been reasonably well documented over the years, and despite some wild speculations and rampant rumours, Ringo's 'holiday camp' summation appears accurate. The Beatles claimed to have written some of their greatest songs there and yet they also came away somewhat disillusioned (well, you would, wouldn't you?). Lapham's little book at times verges on the disappointing for, despite his attendance, he informs the reader of very little - except, of course that he was 'there'. But to its great credit, it also shows that not every writer who covered the Beatles was smitten with the band. When Lapham was sent to India to write about the Beatles for the Saturday Evening Post, he was a young, sceptical reporter who did not appear to be conscious of what the fuss was all about. 'I didn't rate myself an informed or fervent fan' he writes in this text. So this sliver of a book chronicles his stay at the meditation compound where the Beatles stayed for various lengths of time (Ringo and Maureen lasted a fortnight amidst the spicy food and bugs that plagued them respectively and missed their children in England), Paul and Jane Asher stayed just a bit longer and the Harrisons and Lennons lasted almost two months), does have its charms, despite remaining a little too slight for its own good. Unlike (say) Bob Spitz, Lapham's touch is light and detached, his eyebrow perpetually raised, his command of language scrupulous. He sees the Beatles as a curiosity, not a revelation. Ironically, Lapham manages to etch an evocative portrait of the band members: the way they interacted both as individuals and as a collective, and by doing so, perhaps suggests how it might have felt to have spent some time around them. But to what extent did he actually spend time with them, rather than in the same compound? 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?

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See Also

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