CREEMEDIA
Endless Rain Meets Paper Cup SHOUT! THE BEATLES IN THEIR GENERATION by Philip Norman (Simon and Schuster) STRAWBERRY HELDS FOREVER: JOHN LENNON REMEMBERED by Garbarini, Cullman, and Graustark (Bantam) Now that John Lennon’s safely away, writers can finally start in on a definitive Beatle history.
CREEMEDIA
J. Kordosh
Endless Rain Meets Paper Cup
SHOUT! THE BEATLES IN THEIR GENERATION by Philip Norman (Simon and Schuster)
STRAWBERRY HELDS FOREVER: JOHN LENNON REMEMBERED by Garbarini, Cullman, and Graustark (Bantam)
Now that John Lennon’s safely away, writers can finally start in on a definitive Beatle history. And here they come: previous pulp (The Beatles: An Illustrated Record, The Beatles: An Authorized Biography, etal.) has been republished to cash in on.. .excuse me, update... the fab saga, while printing presses do a hundred laps for new histories, tributes, more-excuses-forearliest-known-photo-of-the-Quarry Men, and what have you.
Witness these dissimilar offerings. Shout! is an “ambitious” (Migod, the whole story again?!) history, sort of a rival of Hunter Davies’ Authorized Biography. As a retrospective, it’s good particularly in conjuring the atmosphere of the dingy Liverpool-to-Hamburg-to-Liverpoolto-Evers-to-Chance era. As an authoritative musical statement, forget it, unless you think Sgt. Pepper was The Greatest Musical Event Any One Universe Is Allowed. Like Norman says, “Each decade brings but one or two authentically memorable moments.” Sure, but isn’t somebody supposed to call you up or something?