Read The Beatles: New Book Collecting Obsession Unlocked!

Wednesday is about books. And reading. (And absolutely not about politics. It's sometimes about writing though...)

A while back I wrote about my single biggest book obsession. Stephen King. Collecting King on a level that now includes several German language editions (I don’t speak a word of it) and even one copy of a book in Dutch.

Worryingly, for the people I share a house with, a new book-collecting obsession has been unlocked. I’m going batty for The Beatles right now. Big time. More than ever before. It’s a wave I ride. I’ve been borderline-obsessed with The Beatles since I was about six. And in recent years that means not listening to them at all for long periods, since I know all the music almost by heart. Then diving in for an annual refresh. But this year I’ve gone big time down a rabbithole, which includes doing a lot of fresh reading.

Beatles scholars are an insufferable lot. There’s a handful of men - typically men - sure they are keepers of the one true set of facts regarding The Beatles. Weirdly, it has them just gargling the same old stories and spitting out bland prose too. We get John being difficult but it’s due to his early loss. We don’t ever get the comparison in Paul, beyond a surface mention. We get the George Harrison of inner light, not the one that actually offered his wife to his best friend so he could try and fuck her sister. We get happy-go-lucky Ringo, and sure the drinking is mentioned, but everything about Ringo feels token in the books; accidentally a great drummer, the most charismatic seemingly by fluke, a natural actor but only as an afterthought. Where’s the winning analysis of his showmanship drumming from the early days, and the lows of his pre-Hollywood Vampires slump when he was just sitting drinking, waiting (and hoping) for Paul or George to write him a hit, or for John to invite him to play drums again. There’s a talk show where he strolls on with his own drink. He has a question mark at the end of most things he says, including, heartbreakingly, “I’m probably the best rock’n’roll drummer in the world?”

I’ve just reviewed a brand new biography of George Harrison. Philip Norman is one of the alleged/appointed Beatles scholars. He’s slowly working through a set of individual biographies, and you have to wonder if his George tome was the result of losing a late night game of cards with his publisher. Three hundred of its pages dedicated to the same old Beatles story. A story I love. Sure. But not one that needs to be trotted out again and again.

But, I’m still weirdly a bit glad I read it.

Though it wasn’t a patch on the latest McCartney book. Billed as the first full biography of McCartney in the era of Wings (and I think Tom Doyle could take some umbrage given his Man On The Run does something pretty similar), Fly Away Paul is a brilliant read. It looks at how McCartney formed Wings to cope with being an ex-Beatle. Arguably the others didn’t cope so well - even if you don’t like the music of Wings at all it was the way McCartney managed a transition. George, by comparison, had one disastrous tour, grew bitter, tried to fuck his wife’s sister and contented himself with making the same kind of largely middling album in a loop. Ringo got drunk, made films, created weird albums no one cared about until he didn’t care himself, and John dipped out after screaming himself hoarse. He and Ringo hid behind booze. George hid behind misanthropy - but publicly referred to it as spiritualism.

Anyway, what was most interesting about Fly Away Paul (and obviously I’m Team Paul all the way, so need no further swaying) was its female perspective. Written by Lesley-Ann Jones, it considers the control-freak nature of Paul stopping Linda from publishing an autobiography. The book spends a lot of time, too, unpacking the need for Paul (and John) to take Linda (and Yoko) on the road with them, to include their wives in their bands; to have chosen women who were already mothers - was this some nurturting they both required having lost their own mums so early in life?

The Beatles broke up - and unleashed four man-babies on the world. Fabulously wealthy and talented, but developmentally stunted, emotionally withdrawn and emerging from a bubble.

Much of the scholarship exists in a similar bubble, and possibly from men similarly locked up developmentally.

Cynthia Lennon once put it that the Beatles books she read all had the timeline and facts largely correct, but were missing the emotional truth.

It’s here that I must mention the revelation that has been discovering Another Kind of Mind: A Different Kind of Beatles Podcast.

Here, non-male Beatles fanatics explore the women behind the group, the stories around the mainstream media narratives. They love John Lennon’s contributions to the group and his music but don’t like the accepted take that John met Yoko all on his own - when it was Paul that introduced them, and helped get them back together. They unpick so many of the myths that have been established as ‘fact’. John was the experimental one. Nope. Paul was just cheese. Nope. I’ve been mulling all of this as I consider writing a book of Beatles essays. But mine will (hopefully) be very different.In fact here’s the working titles I have so far as starters for ten:
The Things We Said Today About The Beatles That Your Mother Should Know: Reframing Beatles Worship

Imagine There’s No Possessions, Especially Mansions, Furs, and Gold Plated Rolls Royces: John Lennon and his Hip-Hip-Hypocrisy

Letting It Be: How The Beatles’ Last Album Is Their Truest If Not Their Finest

On Being An Ex-Beatle, Trauma, Alcoholism, Anger…And Wings!

Don’t Skip Yoko’s Songs on Double Fantasy, They’re The Best Ones!

George Was A Cunt, That’s What Makes Him Interesting

Electronic Sounds, Experimental Dreams: The Beatles Get Weird On Purpose

Ringo’s Drunk Lingo: I AM The Best Drummer In The World, Okay?

Just a few ideas I’m tossing around.

But I think this has added to my thirst for exploring Beatles texts once again. I sold a bunch of Beatles books. There are so many bad ones. And just so many that didn’t need to happen. Books of cartoons. A single interview stretched to book-length on the basis that John being dead adds poignancy. For balance, one of the worst books I ever read was Conversations with McCartney - because a bad interviewer will do a bad job.

I have a bunch of Beatles books to read over Christmas - as I start thinking about these essays, as I continue listening through all the works of the band and their solo catalogues. And I want to buy a few of the books I’ve already read. Some of the trainspotter-y stuff is fantastic (Revolution In The Head still feels like a vital read/re-read).

So my new obsession is collecting Beatles books. But a curated selection. I’m currently reading the book about their road manager, Mal Evans. I’ll then go back to the memoir by their press secretary, Derek Taylor. I might have read all the individual McCartney, Lennon, Harrison, and Starr books that anyone ever needs to. But I’m sure I’ll find a reason to check out one more.

As is always the very best thing about books, and reading: It’s not hurting anyone.

But I hope the people behind the A Different Kind of Mind podcast write a book. Or two. I’d read that!

All of this is not just a confession of fandom to the point of being a huge nerd. You knew that when you first clicked or subscribed. That’s, hopefully, why you clicked or subscribed after all.

This is also to ask what your book-collecting obsession is? Do you have a particular author, or subject, or set of books you have to have, and take very seriously as a mini-collection within your library? I’ve just found all my Beatles books and grouped them together. It’s not that many. I’ve read dozens, and sold many - but I get the feeling I’m about to start buying a few more once again.

Also, I’ll leave you with a bunch of new Beatles playlists I recently made. A bit of fun, and a new way in to some old music.