Book Review: The Beatles
The Beatles: The Biography by Bob Spitz. (Amazon)
It's apparent from this book's subtitle that the author is trying to write THE definitive biography of The Beatles, far from an easy task. It is perhaps this overreaching goal that has garnered criticism that the music gets lost amongst everything else, the relationships, the drugs, the bickering, etc. While this is the case at certain times, Spitz is most successful at making the story The Beatles real, breaking down the myths by presenting an in-depth, highly-researched chronological biography of the band. From background on each member's families and their upbringings to the coming together of the band as a single unit, the first section of the book is perhaps the most exciting. Sure, we all know what will happen, but the story unfolds like it's really happening, and we get swept away in the excitement that would eventually take over most of the world.
From the Beatlemania years, in the second section, to their eventual breakup less than a decade later, the book follows a similar arc of interest, and here we see where the criticism is accurate. Stories of Brian Epstein's slow decline, the misfires of Apple's boutiques and other undertakings, and the now infamous bickering amongst the bandmates take up a lot of the book's last section, while the music takes a backseat. Perhaps, though, like the first section and its buildup to something amazing, this last section invariably suffers from the fact it leads to the band's demise, something the author obviously couldn't change or sugar coat. Even with these criticisms, Spitz's biography is worth a read for its intense detail, stemming from almost a decade of research and interviews, helping to make the Fab Four's existence more real as well as understandable.
It's apparent from this book's subtitle that the author is trying to write THE definitive biography of The Beatles, far from an easy task. It is perhaps this overreaching goal that has garnered criticism that the music gets lost amongst everything else, the relationships, the drugs, the bickering, etc. While this is the case at certain times, Spitz is most successful at making the story The Beatles real, breaking down the myths by presenting an in-depth, highly-researched chronological biography of the band. From background on each member's families and their upbringings to the coming together of the band as a single unit, the first section of the book is perhaps the most exciting. Sure, we all know what will happen, but the story unfolds like it's really happening, and we get swept away in the excitement that would eventually take over most of the world.
From the Beatlemania years, in the second section, to their eventual breakup less than a decade later, the book follows a similar arc of interest, and here we see where the criticism is accurate. Stories of Brian Epstein's slow decline, the misfires of Apple's boutiques and other undertakings, and the now infamous bickering amongst the bandmates take up a lot of the book's last section, while the music takes a backseat. Perhaps, though, like the first section and its buildup to something amazing, this last section invariably suffers from the fact it leads to the band's demise, something the author obviously couldn't change or sugar coat. Even with these criticisms, Spitz's biography is worth a read for its intense detail, stemming from almost a decade of research and interviews, helping to make the Fab Four's existence more real as well as understandable.
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