{"id":267,"date":"2012-08-23T15:31:46","date_gmt":"2012-08-23T19:31:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mcelfreshmap.com\/tammynoriepress\/?p=267"},"modified":"2012-08-23T15:31:47","modified_gmt":"2012-08-23T19:31:47","slug":"the-beatles-gear","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mcelfreshmap.com\/tammynoriepress\/the-beatles-gear\/","title":{"rendered":"The Beatles. Gear!"},"content":{"rendered":"

It should be hard to come up with \u201cthe one indispensible book\u201d about the Beatles\u2014I have shelves of them\u2014but it\u2019s not. \u00a0Most of the biographies are valuable. \u00a0Hunter Davies original authorized biography and the up-dated versions are great (esp. the less sanitized additions to the new editions) and Phillip Norman\u2019s bio Shout<\/em>, is good. Some of the more scholarly books make annoying little errors (John, not Paul, is the falsetto on From Me to You<\/em>\u2014how do you listen and not hear that?) and the newer gamey accounts don\u2019t bring anything to the Beatle legend that you actually want to know. \u00a0Paul could be cheap, George was mean. \u00a0Say it ain\u2019t so! \u00a0But they do keep coming up with never-before-seen photos and that\u2019s hard to believe when you have Beatle calendars from about 1927.<\/p>\n

The current Beatle guru, Bob Spitz, contributed his list of Paul\u2019s best songs to a Time<\/em> magazine McCartney special. \u00a0Spitz says Drive My Car<\/em> was too raucous to be included on the Rubber Soul<\/em> album. \u00a0But wait \u2026 isn\u2019t that song the opening track on the Rubber Soul<\/em> album? \u00a0And Spitz fails to include one of Paul\u2019s and the Beatle\u2019s absolute masterpieces, both lyrically and musically, the one song that had Paul and John out of their chairs and performing joyously together at the nadir of their careers and affections, Two of Us<\/em>. \u00a0And listen to Ringo\u2019s drumming. \u00a0And George\u2019s muted but growling guitar riffs on that song. \u00a0And somebody should tell biographers and critics (and Paul himself) that Fool on the Hill<\/em> is the most treacly, overblown, pompous, boring, squirm-in-your-seat, embarrassing song the Beatles ever recorded (how did acerbic John not stamp that one out?)<\/p>\n

But enough. \u00a0Buy this one book if you don\u2019t own a single Beatles book and buy this one book if you have them all.<\/p>\n

Beatles Gear<\/em> by Andy Babiuk, the revised edition. \u00a0Here\u2019s the level of scholarship. John\u2019s first Rickenbacker guitar is photographed as it looks today. \u00a0Also, the 1958 invoice from Rickenbacker to German distributor Framous with John\u2019s future purchase (serial # V81) itemized on the invoice. \u00a0In addition, a photo of Rickenbacker salesman Jean \u201cToots\u201d Thielemans at an instrument trade show. \u00a0\u201cToots\u201d played a Rickenbacker guitar in an appearance with George Shearing that inspired John to buy a Rickenbacker guitar in the first place. \u00a0Lined up behind \u201cToots\u201d at the trade show is the actual guitar John eventually bought.<\/p>\n

There are a couple other \u201cmust have or at least should have\u201d Beatle books: \u00a0The Beatles Anthology<\/em> and Mark Lewisohn\u2019s The Complete Beatles Chronicle<\/em> but Andy Babiuk\u2019s Beatles Gear<\/em> is the one literally breathtaking volume.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It should be hard to come up with \u201cthe one indispensible book\u201d about the Beatles\u2014I have shelves of them\u2014but it\u2019s not. \u00a0Most of the biographies are valuable. \u00a0Hunter Davies original authorized biography and the up-dated versions are great (esp. the … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4],"tags":[37,11,24,15],"class_list":["post-267","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sidereal-days-author","tag-beatle-books","tag-history-of-rock-and-roll","tag-sidereal-days-the-history-of-rock-and-roll","tag-the-beatles"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Beatles. 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