Review by Booklist Review
There are many twists and turns in this addictive, immersive, funny, bizarre, silly, poignant, weird, and amazing mix of biography and cultural history brimming with references to the likes of Bruce Springsteen, Roz Chast, and even the giant hedgehog called Spiny Norman in a Monty Python sketch. Brown (Ninety-Nine Glimpses of Princess Margaret, 2018) recalls, describes, chronicles, and comments on 150 episodes in the life of the Beatles, from the earliest days, when they began their musical lives in "relative obscurity," to their final days, when they were "the most famous group" in the world. It all happened so fast and was over just as quickly, but what a legacy. Many "glimpses" will be familiar to Beatles aficionados, but there are plenty of fresh takes, so that even the most knowledgeable fans will revel in the stories that Brown shares, including revelatory moments of serendipity. Indeed, much of the delight comes from Brown's own observations, such as when, to cite but one example, he suggests that Lennon and McCartney's inventiveness as songwriters "sprang from a blissful ignorance" since neither could read music. A must for everyone interested in music and pop culture and a true treasure for Beatles fans.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
The career of the Fab Four is seen from odd angles and reflections in others' eyes in this off-beat, vibrant group biography. Satirist and critic Brown (1966 and All That) eschews a linear chronicle of the Beatles' oft-told narrative in favor of loosely connected meditations, reminiscences by associates, found literature, and shaggy-dog anecdotes. These include fan letters ("Dear Beatles, Please call me on the telephone.... If my mother answers, hang up"); the author's reportage on guided tours of Beatles' boyhood homes; recollections of the luckless entertainers who had to follow the Beatles on The Ed Sullivan Show; acid trips and drug busts; Charles Manson's exegesis of The White Album; a recap of the "Paul Is Dead" conspiracy theory; and the story of how the then-unknown Beatles left a puddle of George's vomit to fester in their Hamburg digs. These well-chosen vignettes aptly illuminate the Beatles' personalities along with the cultural chord they struck, and Brown knits them into an interpretation that's both perceptive and hilariously pithy ("Some have related Yoko's pursuit of John in terms of a Hammer horror, with her little black-clad figure rearing up out of the fog at any time, day or night"). The result is a fresh and captivating pointillist portrait of the band and its indelible vibe. Photos. (Oct.)
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Review by Library Journal Review
As the comprehensive bibliography to Brown's book makes clear, the vast number of Beatles biographies has resulted in a diverse and crowded field. With excellent works from Philip Norman, Bob Spitz, Hunter Davies, and Mark Lewisohn, it's easy to wonder if there is a place for another book about the Beatles. In this case the answer is an emphatic yeah, yeah, yeah. Mirroring his Ninety-Nine Glimpses of Princess Margaret, Brown offers a series of vignettes rather than straightforward biography. The variety of approaches isn't always successful, but there is enough here--personal experience, peripheral characters, witty and often edgy writing--that even old tales feel new, and that is no easy trick. The book occasionally feels like "all of the things they didn't tell you in the Anthology," and Brown's inclusion of fan writing and personal reminiscence can be a bit much, but he deftly points out the Rashomon quality of much of the history; in one noteworthy segment he provides 14 differing accounts of the fight between John Lennon and Cavern Club DJ Bob Wooler at Paul McCartney's 21st birthday party. VERDICT Brown presents a fresh take on a seemingly inexhaustible subject--Beatles people, you know you should be glad.--Bill Baars, formerly with Lake Oswego P.L., OR
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
An overstuffed gathering of Beatlemania, an evergreen subject. Who knew that Paul McCartney wrote "Why Don't We Do It in the Road?" after watching "a couple of monkeys copulating en plein air" in Rishikesh? Or that John Lennon hesitated to let Paul join his band since Paul could play and might jeopardize his leadership? Brown, whose last book was an award-wining biography of Princess Margaret, serves up 150 episodes, most running just a few pages, concerning the lives and work of the Beatles, with poor Ringo, as ever, mostly an afterthought. (The author quotes American writer Carolyn See to deem the drummer "patron saint of fuckups the world over.") Brown is not an uncritical worshipper, but when he does criticize, it's seldom fresh. He observes, as have so many, that John and Paul needed each other as creative foils and competitors and that when they separated, their solo work suffered, "with John falling back on self-pity and Paul giving in to whimsy." Still, there are some little-known moments here, as when Kingsley Amis railed, "Oh fuck the Beatles" in a bitter letter to Philip Larkin, attaching a nasty racist epithet to Yoko Ono in passing. Another example is when Brown describes the Maharishi's retreat in India, which, thanks to the tobacco heiress Doris Duke, was "far from spartan," though conducive enough to feelings of spiritual exaltation that John was reduced to writing "hippy-dippy lyrics" that later resolved into such self-doubting tunes as "Jealous Guy." Collectors of all things Beatles will relish Brown's description of their first time getting high, courtesy of Bob Dylan, who is "an enthusiast for visiting sites associated with rock stars," touring John's boyhood home after the National Trust acquired it. The author sometimes second-guesses, as when he decries the cover of Abbey Road, the quartet "generally looking as if they couldn't be arsed," but allows that it has since become iconic and often imitated, like the Beatles themselves. Light on brand-new news but a pleasure for Fab Four completists. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
