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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
UNERRINGLY ACCURATE - A CELEBRATION, 6 April 2002
By A Customer
Quite simply the best book I've read about George Harrison. In comparison to other biographies about the great man, Huntley doesn't denigrate Harrison's solo career, but rather celebrates it and the deep admiration the author feels for his subject shines through.And herein lies Huntley's main innovation - in 'Behind That Locked Door' the action starts in 1969 and describes the disintegration of The Beatles through George's eyes. The most impressive aspect of this original approach is that he bypasses the re-telling of The Beatles legend with which I'm sure even Tibetan monks are over-familiar. As a result Huntley devotes over 420 pages to the solo years which have often been included as an afterthought in most other Beatles books I've read. As the least written about Beatle - this makes for a fascinating recipe for a successful book, and Huntley is true to his title - delving behind the locked door of Harrison's post Beatles life. Not that this is a seamy expose of Harrison's personal life, more a glorification of his solo musical career - his albums, his tours, The Traveling Wilburys and the treasure trove of unreleased songs lying around in Harrison's vaults. Huntley also gives extensive praise to Harrison's role in revitalising the British Film Industry through his HandMade Films company. The author's extensive research into this area is, again, something that I have previously never found in other Beatles publications. Huntley's writing style is fast paced, witty and takes no prisoners. He is not averse to criticising other musicians and even his subject where he feels it is warranted. The writer's comments are sometimes spiky but are never unwarranted. Some of the highlights are the in-depth coverage of The Concert For Bangla Desh, his rivalry with Eric Clapton over Patti Boyd, and the My Sweet Lord plagiarism case and his sensitive and poignant handling of Harrison's death. All in all I found the book to be a wonderful, un-putdownable and easy read, yet still crammed with detail for the anoraks - of which there are many in Beatles land. 'Behind That Locked Door' is a very well-researched tome, and if there are any mistakes in it, I either didn't see them or they were too trivial to bother with. With Harrison's tragic death I expect there will be a glut of books about the youngest Beatle. I would Harrison fans to buy this one.
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