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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
encyclopaedic, but not dull, 26 May 2000
By A Customer
If anyone wants to know the Beatles story, they should read this tremendous monument to the group. Granted, there is no real detail about the artistry of each song (for that, look to Ian MacDonald's marvellous "Revolution in the Head"), nor is there much biographical and psychological detail about the four individual members (Hunter Davies' or Philip Norman's biographies of the band are a safe bet here). However, Lewisohn's weighty tome gives such a detailed chronicle of the band's entire career, that it is easy to feel as if you are reliving it and experiencing it for yourself. Certainly, it explodes the myths somewhat, and the reader is left under no illusions that the group's countless wonderful songs simply floated from the ether, fully-formed. It would have been nice to have had more information about how and when the songs were written, and a bit of biography would have been a bonus (for instance, Brian Epstein's homosexuality is only mentioned once, rather gauchely, when this was clearly central to the personality of a man who so shaped and influenced the band). Sometimes Lewisohn can be somewhat over-polite, and may fail occasionally to capture the fact that really, the Beatles were much rougher than their image often suggests. However, all of this is minor quibbles when one realises just how much Lewisohn has achieved here - as a comprehensive record of the group's studio and concert career, it could hardly be bettered, and as a chronicle of the group's Liverpool and Hamburg days, it is highly impressive.
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