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Rating: My (non-musical) knowledge of the Beatles is all encapsulated in this book.
It is a book that allowed me to immerse myself in the lives of the four from Liverpool and the reasons for their miraculous union. I came out enriched—not just in my knowledge of the band.
If you read it, you will know the Beatles before their glory, you will know their dreams and the inner voids they filled with music.
The account of Julia's death, Lennon's mother, due to a drunk policeman, just a few months after John had discovered she was his mother, will undoubtedly touch you.
One of the pages that will leave you incredulous is the one about the day of the audition at EMI, in front of George Martin. That day, the four did not impress the producer for their music, but for their personality. The songs they proposed were obscene. When Martin interrupted them and asked, “Is there something wrong?”, Harrison replied: “We don’t like your tie.” The ice was broken, and after some time, the unflappable English gentleman producer ended up crying with laughter. To reward them for their charm, he signed them—but without too much hope…
A chapter to reflect on is the one regarding Beatlemania. The author quotes a phrase from Saint Augustine: “Sometimes we cry more for answered prayers than for unanswered ones.” The Beatles dreamed of becoming famous, but “after the initial euphoria, we began to reconsider: we dreamed of becoming famous, not of being shuttled from one hotel to another, amidst fans who screamed every time they saw us.”
And then the “privileges” of success: drugs, groupies, high-class prostitutes, and even journalists and policemen, at their parties after the concerts. As Lennon said: “A 'Satyricon'. We were Caesars. Everyone knew what we were doing, but no newspaper ever talked about it, because honest journalists would have lost the drugs and the prostitutes that we gave them for free.” Being honest journalists, there was everything to lose and nothing to gain…
Then the choice to stop performing concerts. As Ringo said: “People were destroying our ability to play. With all those screams, we couldn't even hear ourselves. Moreover, in some concerts, since no one was interested in our music, we didn't put in any effort. Often we gave nothing. We stopped before others noticed.”
Another beautiful chapter is the one dealing with the reason for the continuous improvement of their albums, which is the rivalry between John and Paul. As George Martin said: “If they had never met, they would have written good songs, not exceptional songs.” What one did well forced the other to go home and do better, and that’s how they continuously grew: for example, “Penny Lane” was written by Paul, wounded in his pride by “Strawberry Fields.” Moreover, together, the two reached a balance that was lost in their solo careers. As one of the group’s collaborators said: “Paul prevented John from falling into extreme pessimism and incommunicability. John prevented Paul from falling into banality.”
George Martin, in the text, also praises their musical ignorance: “I didn’t have their inner freedom, because I knew too much.” Paul, and especially John, with their scant knowledge, found wonderful things even in simple things. Obviously, we are not here to praise ignorance, but how many four-chord songs are masterpieces? Even though the book doesn't say so, when John switched from composing on guitar to piano, he said, “I am no longer amazed by the guitar because I know it too well. On the piano, of which I know little, I am amazed again by what I can find.” The simple yet beautiful things of Lennon on the piano contained in the “White” (“Cry Baby Cry,” “Sexy Sadie,” “Revolution (Single)”) were fruits of this ignorance of the instrument.
George Martin is also mentioned for the fact that many believed he wrote their music. Lennon, in the 70s, wanted to react to this story, and he did so with sarcasm: “I’d really love to listen to George Martin’s music. Please, let me hear it.” Just a moment’s reflection shows how ridiculous this legend is, because the producer, without the Beatles, never wrote another “Strawberry Fields” or another “Tomorrow Never Knows.” Here are his (definitive) words: “Without my scores, many songs would not have been the same, but the genius was all theirs. There’s no doubt about that.” And Lennon also thanked him for his contribution: “George channeled all our ideas in the right direction.” Moreover, Martin was partly responsible for the improvement of their songs because he pushed them to build increasingly complex architectures and to “think symphonically.”
The author is not a music expert, and therefore he focuses more on celebrating “Pepper” than “Revolver” (though he still defines it as the “technical” peak of their career). But being inexperienced has its advantages because often the common sense of a beginner analyzes songs better than an obtuse musicologist, who focuses on the technical aspects of a piece, and forgets to analyze the emotion a song manages to convey. Heertsgaard never puts common sense and emotion in the background.
Excellent is the analysis of the “Strawberry Fields” lyrics, which the author understood in its real meaning.
Literally stunning is the recounting of their most terrible moment: the making of “Let It Be.”
And then the jewel: the analysis of the breakup. The author gets straight to the point, using interviews done with the four in the 70s. The pressures created by the veneration that followed the release of “Pepper” played a central role. In the breakup, there was their desire to return to anonymity, to be able to make music calmly again, without the specter of the terrible expectations that the public and critics had towards them. As Harrison said: “We had to put an end to that Beatles madness, to find space to breathe and regain a more human dimension.” For three of them, it was like burning down the factory and escaping the golden cage: a liberation.
There are still people who think it was Paul who broke up the Beatles. The story is very different and much more complicated. You will discover, and I'm sure with great surprise, that it was Lennon who one day said to the other three: “I'm leaving.” However, John (cunningly and hypocritically) never said it publicly, leaving the door open to future collaborations: “I released several solo albums in 69/70, but be damned if I ever said I left the band.” It’s a pity that innocent John kept the beautiful “Instant Karma!” and the splendid “Jealous Guy” to himself and left the Beatles with the ditties of the “Abbey Road” Medley.
Although it is not clearly stated in the book, McCartney immediately understood that the Beatles would only be a fallback for Lennon, and then (rightly and courageously) decided to put an end to this hypocrisy and close at the top of a beautiful adventure, which surely would have degenerated into “commercial reunions” from time to time, with the release of secondary songs that would have been part of poor-quality albums that would have sold anyway, because they were the Beatles—but kept the best songs for solo albums. For Paul, it was necessary to give everything (and the best) for the band, and not just part of oneself. Thanks to him, the Beatles do not have a pathetic decline in their history. Their end (1968 – 1970) was certainly miserable and sad (with three missed masterpieces), but not pathetic.
In the book, there is also room to talk about the greatness of their work. You will know George Martin's opinion: “There are those who compare them to Schubert, and that is truly excessive. For me, they managed to enter people's hearts like few others.”
Exactly: the four, without being exceptional composers, managed to write objectively wonderful songs, capable, like few others, of touching the strings of emotion.
Not among the greatest composers, but among the greatest “songwriters” of all time.
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