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The Beatles Anthology

by John Lennon ; Paul McCartney ; Ringo Starr ; George Harrison

Summary

In this long-awaited celebration of the Beatles and their music, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr reunite, along with input from Yoko Ono and excerpts from previously published John Lennon interviews, to tell the miraculous story of their meteoric rise from a small-time Liverpool band to a worldwide sensation that sparked an international wave of hysteria and changed the course of popular music forever. Drawing on private archives, television transcripts, and their own memories, the Fab Four provide the inside story about the band from the early days to the breakup. They write candidly about the background to some of their most innovative songs (such as the classic "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" and the Eastern-influenced "Within You, Without You") as well as their increasingly complex albums, including RUBBER SOUL (1965), which featured such introspective songs as "In My Life" and "Nowhere Man," and SGT. PEPPER'S LONELY HEARTS CLUB BAND (1967), a defining cultural landmark of the times. An interesting sidelight is the story behind their insistence on composing their own songs-revolutionary in a business where hired songwriters, not musicians, often received the royalty checks. Arranged chronologically, the book also includes a treasure trove of never-before-seen photographs, memorabilia, and fascinating ephemera such as contracts and invoices. Fans couldn't ask for a more satisfying and authentic group autobiography.

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Media Reviews

"In short, the book, like all installments of the 'Anthology' project, is entertaining and, to a degree that depends on your previous grasp of the information, informative, but there is little here of major import that has not been told elsewhere."    -- Mim Udovitch

   -- New York Times

"What makes this oral history of the band gripping is not only the documentation of their spectacular rise and rancorous fall but the ample evidence that each Beatle was smart and self-aware (yes, Ringo too). Not that the anthology is filled with undisclosed secrets. The significant stories have all been told before; there are no stunning revelations here. But the insights are fascinating."    -- Steve Futterman

   -- Washington Post

"As a whole the volume is big, beautiful and intimidating, somewhere between the Yellow Submarine and the Death Star."

   -- Publishers Weekly

"For me the real pleasure in reading the anthology came from the little moments that stirred the imagination: John and Paul in bowler hats, trying to hitchhike across France for John's 21st birthday in 1961; John and Paul circa 1967 in John's Rolls Royce-which had blacked-out windows, a microphone and an external loudspeaker-roaring through the streets of suburban London at 2 a.m., in pursuit of George in his Ferrari, broadcasting to the streets, 'It is foolish to resist! It is foolish to resist! Pull over!' And then there's the Beatledome, a fort the Beatles talked about building on the Greek island they were going to buy in the summer of 1967."    -- Frank Houston

   -- Salon

Bibliographic Details

Publisher: Chronicle Books Llc
Published date: 2000
Edition: 1th edition
Size: 10.25 x 14 inches
Weight: 6.35 pounds
Pages: 367

Publisher's Notes

The Beatles themselves created this publication, featuring over 1300 images, many previously unpublished. The collection was brought together through the cooperation of Paul, George, Ringo and Yoko Ono Lennon, by opening their own archives. Also contains a wealth of contributions from Apple and EMI. The Anthology is full of memorabilia, documents and pictures that tell the true story, as told and by the legends themselves.

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