- Hardcover: 332 pages
- Publisher: St Martin's Press; 1st St. Martin's Press Ed edition (31 Dec 1998)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0312155344
- ISBN-13: 978-0312155346
- Product Dimensions: 23.4 x 15.7 x 3 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 2,473,182 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Review
"Along with the [Mark] Lewisohn books, the most valuable Beatles volume put out in recent years...It's a must for all Beatlefans." --"Beatlefan"
"Fascinating reading...as thorough a look at the fabled sessions as we're likely to get." --"Orange County Register"
"A monumental testament to sheer perseverance and first-class detective work...A most remarkable look inside the inner world of the Beatles, a world that almost ceased forever in January 1969." --"Goldmine"
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
"Fascinating reading...as thorough a look at the fabled sessions as we're likely to get." --"Orange County Register"
"A monumental testament to sheer perseverance and first-class detective work...A most remarkable look inside the inner world of the Beatles, a world that almost ceased forever in January 1969." --"Goldmine"
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Product Description
Here, for the first time, Beatles experts Sulpy and Schweighardt trace the group's breakdown through the fascinating prism of the Get Back recording sessions. January 2, 1969: The Beatles begin a month of intensive sessions, designed to capture the musicians "as nature intended." Playing raw, live, with no studio tricks or gimmicks, the Beatles were consciously rejecting the high-gloss production style of their recent albums in favor of a return to their earlier stripped-down rock and roll sound. But Beatles Unplugged soon became Beatles Undone, and the project turned into the thirty-day saga of a group in freefall. Bickering and sniping, trudging through sloppy versions of old hits, the Fab Four were coming apart. For twenty-five years, tapes from the ill-fated Get Back sessions - only a fraction of which were released as Let It Be - have circulated among collectors. Sulpy and Schweighardt, for the first time, have undertaken a Herculean task: Sifting through those countless hours on tape, they reconstruct in amazing detail the drama of those sessions - the songs, jokes, outbursts, and fights. Get Back puts the reader in the studio as John cedes power to Yoko, Paul scrambles to keep things afloat, and George quits the band. It traces each step in the band's unique creative process. And, finally, it relives the glorious coda - when, for an impromptu rooftop concert, all four left their differences downstairs and mustered the singular Beatles magic.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Be forewarned: this is not light reading for the casual Beatles fan. What it is is one of the most stunning examples of scholarship yet exhibited on the Beatles: a finely crafted piece of detective work, one that reconstructs an entire month of Beatles recording sessions and places the available bits and pieces of tape in their proper historical perspective. The focus is tight and meticulous, and so is the research. Far from being a "mere paraphrase of available bootlegs," the authors spent hours upon hours piecing together the "Get Back" puzzle from what was previously a jumbled mess of fragmented bootlegs. The bootlegs are still jumbled and fragmented, but they are no longer a mess. Indeed, the entire Beatles collecting community has quickly adopted this book's method of cataloguing the sundry performances, and you cannot refer seriously to a moment from these sessions without quoting Sulpy and Schweigardt. That, to me, is the most simple and eloquent testimony to the worth of this book. In short, the book is a dense and sometimes tedious micro-examination of one month of the Beatles' lives. But that month was, by its very nature, dense and tedious. The authors cannot change the monotony of that history, they can only explain it. They do it eloquently, with a book that not only serves the collector's community by helping identify stray performances, but one that contains an identifiable dramatic arc as the tensions between the bandmembers flare and fizzle, as the group literally disentegrates before our ears. If you are a die-hard, hardcore Beatles fan, you cannot find a more entertaining way to get to know "the boys" better than to obtain a large number of "Get Back" bootlegs and listen while you're reading this book. It is an experience that will never be forgotten.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Covers all sessions of January-1969 Let it Be album and flm sessions. Goes over song by song the good, the bad and the ugly of these sessions. It documents how badly the rehearsals were. The arguements are detailed, their future plans are revealed, and ultimately...predicts the break-up of the Beatles. Sometimes can get tedious but if you stay with this you get the most accurate picture available of this time period. A cool book for Beatles fans. PG
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
It's nice to know that someone cares so much that they have to transcribe every moment of the ill-fated 'Let It Be' sessions, but quite honestly, is it of the slightest importance that we know just which Beatle was bitching at which other Beatle on any given day? As someone who regularly writes about music, and has spent a lot of time in studios making records too, to ascribe any importance to the off-hand remarks that bands (or gangs) make within themselves is ridiculous, no matter how important the artist or their work (and no one would make claims of greatness for the resoundingly mediocre sessions described here). This book's value lies solely in its uniqueness, as a record of an entire session that was taped. Sadly we have no equivalent to compare it to, but it's a pity there wasn't a camera or mike on the entire proceedings that made up (say) the Clash's 'London Calling' or Nirvana's 'In Utero'. That I'd like to read. This, however, is unreadable, and should be left in the libraries for those following a course in 'Beatle Studies' (The unprofitable academic one I mean- Noel Gallagher has already graduated in the practical course)
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
the book is undeniably tedious in parts,but so were these
if there is one book that proves that john lennon couldnt care less about the beatles ,then this is it. Read more
Published on 10 Feb 2001
Informative but not very well written
This book was informative but written son that you couldn't really read it like you would any normal book. You read basically little paragraphs about it. Read more
Published on 9 Feb 1999
Valuable for researchers
Another author once said that "an account of the Beatles' 'Get Back' sessions could fill a book - a boring book, but a book nonetheless. Read more
Published on 12 Jan 1999
more people need to face the truth that this book proves.
if only the public could read this instead of deadhead writers who think Lennon was the Beatles. Lennon turned over the creative reigns to McCartney when they quit touring to... Read more
Published on 27 Nov 1998
Good book - Great help too!
I just finished a two CD project where I archived my Get Back sessions outtakes. With the valuable help of this book I was able to put together the pieces and found out that I... Read more
Published on 14 Aug 1998
Brilliant Coverage of Let It Be/Abbey Road sessions
I really enjoyed this book, and it made it clearer to me just why the "fab four" broke up. (Wasn't just Yoko. Read more
Published on 12 Aug 1998
An indispensable overview of the Twickenham/Apple sessions.
This indispensable account of the most turbulent month in the life of the Beatles deserves a place, alongside Lewisohn's Recording Sessions and Chronicle, on the bookshelf of... Read more
Published on 6 May 1998
A mere paraphrase of available bootlegs. Poorly reseached.
I never threw a book in the trash until I read this one. All of the info is available on bootlegs. The paraphrasing of comments is abysmal. A book for diehards only. Read more
Published on 28 April 1998
Many happy hours
When I got this book, my wife became a Beatles' widow for two weeks. I spent many happy hours combing through all of the session details. Read more
Published on 30 Mar 1998
What a Job!
This is the ultimate examination of the available recordings from the "Get Back"-Sessions. Read more
Published on 26 Mar 1998
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