Wilfrid Mellers, Twilight of the Gods, Faber, 1973
Colin Campbell and Allan Murphy, Things We Said Today: The Complete Lyrics and a Concordance to the Beatles’ Songs 1962–1970, Pierian Press, Ann Arbor, 1980
George Harrison, I Me Mine: Genesis 1980 (limited edition), W.H. Allen, 1982
Stuart Madow and Jeff Sobul, The Colour of Your Dreams, Dorrance Publishing, Pittsburgh, 1992
William J. Dowlding, Beatles Songs, Fireside, NY, 1989
Stephen Spignesi and Michael Lewis, 100 Best Beatles Songs, Tess Press, NY 2004
Jean-Michel Guesdeon and Philippe Margotin, All the Songs, Black Dog and Leventhal, NY, 2013
Biographies
Written by people who were there, or interviewed them:
Hunter Davies, The Beatles (1968); latest updated edition, Ebury, 2009, from which I have lifted quotes shamelessly.
Mark Lewisohn, The Beatles: All These Years, Vol. l, Tune In, Little, Brown, 2013
Barry Miles, Paul McCartney–Many Years from Now, Secker & Warburg, 1997
Olivia Harrison and Mark Holborn, eds, George Harrison, Living in the Material World, Abrams, 2011
George Martin and Jeremy Hornsby, All You Need Is Ears, Macmillan, 1979
Andy Peebles, The Lennon Tapes, BBC Books 1981
Jan Wenner, Lennon Remembers, Verso, 2002
David Sheff, The Playboy Interviews with John Lennon and Yoko Ono, Playboy Press, 1981
Jonathan Cott, Days That I’ll Remember, Doubleday, 2013
Pete Shotton, In My Life, Coronet, 1984
Derek Taylor, Fifty Years Adrift, Genesis, 1984
Ray Coleman, John Lennon, two volumes, Futura, 1984
Reference
Mark Lewisohn, The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions, Hamlyn, 1988
Mark Lewisohn, The Complete Beatles Chronicle, Hamlyn, 1992
Julian Lennon and Brian Southall, Beatles Memorabilia, Carlton, 2010
Michael McCartney, Remember, Recollections and Photographs, Merehurst, 1992
Bill Harry, The Ultimate Beatles Encyclopedia, Virgin, 1992
Spencer Leigh, Brother Can You Spare a Rhyme, 100 Years of Hit Song Writing, Spencer Leigh Ltd, 2000
Keith Badman, The Beatles Off the Record, Omnibus, 2000
David Bedford, Liddypool, Birthplace of the Beatles, Dalton Watson, 2009
Stuart Maconie, The People’s Songs: The Story of Modern Britain in 50 Records, Ebury, 2013
Help
If you know of any manuscript copies of Beatles lyrics (i.e. songs written and performed by them as Beatles) not included in this book, or if you think I have wrongly transcribed any of their handwriting, do please let me know: Johnlennonletters@hotmail.co.uk
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Thanks
An unusual aspect of tracking down the originals of Beatles lyrics is that I came across several people who did not want to be thanked. Or at least their name revealed. Mostly they want a quiet life, with no one knowing that they have acquired something so valuable, which might get stolen or cause envy or total surprise amongst their family and neighbours, muttering well, I never, the sly old puss. The huge rise in the value of the best Beatles bits over the last thirty years has meant that relatively ordinary, not all that rich collectors and fans, if they have held on to their stuff, have often found they are sitting on small fortunes. Anyway, they all know who they are–so thanks a lot.
Apologies in advance to any owners surprised to see their treasures included here. I did try to contact every present-day owner where possible, but many of the items have passed through several hands over the years. Thanks to Sony, controllers of the copyright, for permission for publication, but I would also have liked out of courtesy to have been able to contact all the owners of the physical manuscripts. Sorry about that.
Those I would like to name and thank include the following:
Yoko Ono, who did like the idea when I first mentioned it, and Paul McCartney who has always wished the project luck. D.J. Hoek, Head of the Music Library at Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois, USA, for his help, thoughts, suggestions. Northwestern have seven Beatles’ lyrics, the most of any institution, apart from the British Library in London. And at the Brit Lib, a big thank you to Jamie Andrews, Head of English and Drama.
Colin Campbell, Emeritus Professor of Social Sociology at York University, England, was incredibly generous, letting me use material from his unpublished treatise on ‘Eleanor Rigby’, plus his thoughts on the Beatles lyrics. Thanks also to Professor Glenn Gass of the music school at the University of Indiana.
Amongst collectors and owners, family members and friends, plus expert fans who helped and to whom I am also grateful are: Maureen Cleave, Mike McCartney, David Birch, Marie Weston, Pete Shotton, Rod Davis, Jeff Leve, Philippe Leutert, Dave Ravenscroft, Howard Prosser, Dean Wilson, Peter Miniaci and Rick, Joachim Nosko, Thorsten Knublauch, Arno Guzek, Paul Drummond, James Breedon, Richard Hall.
Pete Nash, once again, for his research and saving me from some awful mistakes. Stephanie Connell and Stephen Maycock of Bonhams, Paul Wane and Jason Cornthwaite of Tracks, Spencer Leigh, Keith Badman, David Bedford, Steve Turner, Frank Caiazzo.
Alan Samson, Lucinda McNeile and Helen Ewing of Weidenfeld & Nicolson in London and John Parsley of Little Brown in New York–all a pleasure to do business with. Not forgetting Robert Kirkby of United Agents, for business and lunches.
The author and publisher are grateful to Sony, Harrisongs and MPL for permission to reproduce lyrics; to Charlotte Knee for photographing manuscripts; and to the following for their photographs or other images:
here, Photograph@Harry Benson; here, Sotheby’s; here, Colin Hanton; here, Tracks; here, here, here, Hunter Davies collection; here, Michael McCartney; here, Leslie Bryce; here, P. Drummond@Psy-Fi archive; here, here, here, Getty Images; here, UPPA/Photoshot; here, Bill Harry; here, here, Bad Handwroter/Arno Guzek; here, here, here, here, here, here, British Library; here, Ethan Russell; here, Jason Cornthwaite (Tracks); here, Mirrorpix; here, Ringo Starr; here, Caz Graham
* Philip Larkin in his 1974 poem ‘Annus Mirabilis’ famously said that sexual intercourse began with the Beatles’ first LP in 1963.
* That same day, just a few streets away, Sylvia Plath, aged thirty, committed suicide in her flat in Primrose Hill. The juxtaposing of these two events was recalled some years later in a poem by the Liverpool poet Paul Farley, Professor of Poetry at Lancaster University, entitled ‘11 February 1963’, published in The Ice Age in 2002.
* Angus McBean (1904–90), a well-known theatre and society photographer of the day.
* What’s an EP, Granddad? An Extended Play record played at 45 revs per minute, like a single, but whereas traditional 45s only had room for three or four minutes of music an EP could hold twice that, thought it wasn’t as big as an LP, which held a lot more songs and played at 33 revs.
* Derek Taylor (1934–97) was probably the cleverest, most talented, most creative of all those who joined the inner Beatles gang, first as PA to Brian Epstein and then as the Beatles’ PR.
* The manuscript is one of those today in Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois.
* NB five songs, not six. One of the tracks, ‘Flying’, was an instrumental.
* In the end, Paul stayed six weeks, John and George about two months.
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CONTENTS
Cover
Title Page
Welcome
Epigraph
Introduction
1 Love Me Do
2 With the Beatles
3 A Hard Day’s Night
4 Be
atles for Sale
5 Help!
6 Rubber Soul
7 Revolver
8 Strawberry Fields Forever
9 Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band
10 Magical Mystery Tour
11 The White Album
12 Yellow Submarine
13 Let It Be
14 Abbey Road
Discography
Bibliography
Acknowledgements
Newsletters
Copyright
Copyright
Introduction and text copyright © 2014 by Hunter Davies
Beatles lyrics copyright © by Sony
Cover copyright © 2014 by Hachette Book Group, Inc.
All rights reserved. In accordance with the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, the scanning, uploading, and electronic sharing of any part of this book without the permission of the publisher constitute unlawful piracy and theft of the author’s intellectual property. If you would like to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), prior written permission must be obtained by contacting the publisher at permissions@hbgusa.com. Thank you for your support of the author’s rights.
Little, Brown and Company
Hachette Book Group
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First ebook edition: September 2014
Published simultaneously in Great Britain by Weidenfeld & Nicolson, September 2014
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Every effort has been made to trace the owners of copyright material. The publishers will be pleased to rectify any errors or omissions in all future editions.
ISBN 978-0-316-24715-3
E3