John, Paul, George & Ringo: The Definitive Illustrated Chronicle of The Beatles
John, Paul, George & Ringo: The Definitive Illustrated Chronicle of The Beatles
By Tim Hill
Metro
Coming up with fresh material and merchandise on the Beatles is something rather difficult at this point. For example, if you type “Beatles” into Amazon, you will land 15,300 product results, and that’s excluding MP3 downloads. And with the digital remastering of their entire catalog finished in 2009, the definitive biography published in 2005 (The Beatles, by Bob Spitz), and Beatles Rock Band launching the Fab Four into a new stratosphere of youthful modernity, adding original content to the Beatle lexicon is something akin to expanding the historiography of Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party. That being said, the day-to-day microscope which the band existed beneath is something wholly unparalleled in the world of pop culture, and invariably, archival material of note continuously surfaces and provides opportunities for new products.
Such would be the case for John, Paul, George & Ringo, 448 hardbound pages of pictorial wonder for any Beatlemaniac, now available in full-trade. Compiled from London’s Daily Mail photo archives, John, Paul… begins the illustrated account in 1960, and progresses by year through the band’s demise circa 1970. Running throughout the book along page bottoms is a timeline, and by 1963 each and every month is chronicled with everyday minutia. (August, 4th 1967: “George watched Ravi Shankar play at the Hollywood Bowl…”) Tedious as these tidbits might seem, they will and do provide interest to hardcore fans, leading John, Paul, George & Ringo to succeed in its coffee table-furthering of Beatle fanfare.
Jacob Sprecher
this book was published in 2008. Why is it just being talked about now?
This is just yet another re-packaging of the same Tim Hill book that’s been on the bargain shelves of Borders and Barnes and Nobles for years. Nothing new.
This book sounds like a reissue of Hill’s Then There Was Music.
The Daily Mail has published a great many Beatles books using material from its picture archives. Most – if not all – of them are by Tim Hill and/or Marie Clayton, and they can often be found in remainder/discount stores.
They’re worth a glance but you’ve got to wonder how long they can keep recycling this stuff.
The photo accompanying this article looks as though they had just smoked a joint or the like… George always has that same glazed eye look every time you see him stoned. and Paul’s as well… Judging by the haircuts I’d say this would have been during the period Bob Dylan introduced them to the evil weed. LOL!
The book was previously only available through Borders and B&N…Metro’s doing press to try to push it out there a little more.