The Beatles Lyrics: The Stories Behind the Music, Including the Handwritten Drafts of More Than 100 Classic Beatles Songs

by Hunter Davies

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The definitive book of Beatles songs, shown as first written by their own hands and put into authoritative context, for the 50th anniversary of the Beatles coming to America. For the Beatles, writing songs was a process that could happen anytime -- songs we all know by heart often began as a scribble on the back of an envelope or on hotel stationery. These original documents have ended up scattered across the world at museums and universities and with collectors and friends. Many have never been published before. More than 100 songs and lyrics are reproduced in THE BEATLES LYRICS, providing Hunter Davies a unique platform to tell the story of the music. The intimacy of these reproductions -- there are sections crossed out and rewritten, and words tossed into the final recordings that were never written down -- ensures that THE BEATLES LYRICS will be a treasure for musicians, scholars, and fans everywhere.… (more)

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This book covers the entire musical output of The Beatles as interpreted by an author who was associated with them throughout much of their career as musicians. He gives insights into stories he was aware of that are probably closer to reality then much conjecture over the background and meaning of the songs. Some are covered in depth while others draw brief comments. An interesting read for the most part and learned a lot about the nature of their complex relationships and interactions. Some of Davies' conclusions could come under their own scrutiny of bias but on balance he delivers an entertaining and insightful review of their work. (

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knightlight777 | Jun 6, 2015 |

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John Lennon

Paul McCartney

George Harrison (of the Beatles)

Ringo Starr

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Epigraph

When, in a generation or so, a radioactive cigar-smoking child, picknicking on Saturn, asks you what the Beatles affair was all about - 'Did you actually know them?' - don't try to explain all about the long hair and screams. Just play the child a few tracks from this album and he'll probably understand what it is all about. The kids of AD 2000 will draw from the music much of the same sense of wellbeing and warmth as we do today. For the magic of the Beatles, is I suspect, timeless and ageless. It has broken all frontiers and barriers. It has cut through differences of race, age and class. It is adored by the world.
Derek Taylor, sleeve notes for the Bealtes For Sale album, 1964

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One of the strange things about the Beatles phenomenon is that the further we get from them, the bigger they become.

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The definitive book of Beatles songs, shown as first written by their own hands and put into authoritative context, for the 50th anniversary of the Beatles coming to America. For the Beatles, writing songs was a process that could happen anytime -- songs we all know by heart often began as a scribble on the back of an envelope or on hotel stationery. These original documents have ended up scattered across the world at museums and universities and with collectors and friends. Many have never been published before. More than 100 songs and lyrics are reproduced in THE BEATLES LYRICS, providing Hunter Davies a unique platform to tell the story of the music. The intimacy of these reproductions -- there are sections crossed out and rewritten, and words tossed into the final recordings that were never written down -- ensures that THE BEATLES LYRICS will be a treasure for musicians, scholars, and fans everywhere.

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