Hi,
I'm not a great fan of a lot of these books.
But that is not to say that some of them are not good, or worth while reads.
In general, and I get it, since I was "there" for the whole time of their work, but when others have no idea and are not aware of what it took for folks to understand how they got to where they were.
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At that time, radio was not inventive and it was all pop music. Different musics and countries and styles kinda didn't exist, because no one ever heard any of them! American media is too controlled by large companies that still have it, 50 years later, and still publish a "Variety" and "Top Ten" so they can pat themselves in the back and convince you that you need to buy one of these top ten items!
And we, of course, still believe it!
It took many things, like Pirate Radio stations off the England coast and many others to bust the big bubble of control that was the BBC. Mind you, that the BBC alone, was the single most important innovator in comedy in the 1950's, so not seeing them expand the music was really weird, but by the time 1963 and 1964 came around, they were already on the side of the Beatles and Rolling Stones and Kinks, but in a marginal way ... they can not be said to have ignored them.
Of all the things that tell me more than what people think, and write about the Beatles, the bootlegs were excellent, as was the movie "Let It Be" that a few morons are hiding and waiting for Paul and Ringo to die, so they do not have to pay them a billion! I guess they won't have to wait too much longer!
The 1st bootleg that I heard was "Let It Be" (there were about 20 of them all told with outtakes of every thing except the toilet flushing!), but then the original version of the film was longer, and 2 years later the release was missing 20 minutes that had taken out some parts that had John and Yoko, because in the earlier version you could see a stage hand mistreating her, and later an accidental blurb by another Beatle. These moments were visible in several bootlegs that had the dialogue parts and many of the pieces of music that were taken out of the film due to whatever restrictions, and many of these were fun things. If anything, these bit showed 4 men and their pressures and how they disagreed or agreed and how they did things. I vividly remember George getting pee'd off and saying ... I'll it if you want it, and if you don't I won't play it ... and it probably was about his own lead or rhythm part, and then they break into "Across the Universe".
Before all this, and 2 years prior, I saw, and got, "The Beatles Christmas Shows". I had no idea what these were, and come to find out that they are 7 Christmas Shows they did at the BBC for their fan club and these shows tell you a LOT about their relationship and in the last one it's just John having his fun and no one else showed up, which ought to tell you how much care and respect they all had for the rest, OR, how tired of it all they were already. But John, evern the more political and emotional of them, showed up and dedicated the show to kids and such, and he went on to do the same thing in his own albums.
I do not feel that there is a gorilla, or a zombie, or an arsenichole behind any of them 4 folks, and any more reads are now no different than a flash into the past and a romanticized version of it all. To me, the greater crime is that the stuff that was on those bootlegs, that tell you more about the PERSON will never be heard, found or seen, and this is the part that the "media" controls, to make sure you have your HEROES lined up properly so the money goes to the right people and places!
I'm just tired of that sheep dip!
In so many ways, these "biographies" are such a strong attempt for us to get back to the movie days of 60 and 70 years ago and the "star", that it has a tendency to distort things, and make you feel inferior, because they have something you don't. So you're an idiot? Bull!
If you want to read something interesting and much more up front about the 60's and it's time and place, go read the biography of Marianne Faithfull. It's way better, well written and magnificently told, and it does not have to talk about the sordid moments, because she does it herself and pulls no punches on herself or anyone else. It is that honest. But I'm tired of seeing these ashkissers that were around the Beatles trying to get another dollar off them again!