Philippe Margotin

from James:

Like a lot folks (maybe even most!), I went through a Beatles phase. In high school, a neighbor sold me his 25-year old vinyl collection of most of their albums (yes, I still have them!). I can remember the first time I heard Sgt. Pepper’s in its entirety. What a record.

Now days, I’m content to sing along with a Beatles song when one presents itself, but I don’t sit down and listen to a whole album much. This book, All the Songs, reignited that passion a bit. After all, show more it’s impossible to read about “Happiness is a Warm Gun” without hearing it…and the other 3 sides of the White Album.

There’s little doubt that Guesdon and Margotin are fans. They talk about details and intricacies that require re-listening. With “Happiness…” for example, they discuss the different instruments used on the various tracks and versions: the fuzz guitar from 0:44 to 0:58…this is real inside stuff.

So what’s new here? Maybe not much, except (as the subtitle suggests), it’s “the story behind EVERY Beatles release.” That’s a lot of songs and a lot of pages: 672 to be exact. There are copious amounts of photos and sidebars and production credits and back stories and trivia. And, refreshingly, attention and detail are given to everyone; sure John and Paul were the heavy hitters, but don’t forget George’s later contributions and others like Billy Preston and Eric Clapton.

All the Songs is a browser’s dream book. You can pick it and up and put it down anywhere. Even if you’re not a fanatic, you’ll still find enough to keep you thumbing through. show less

The authors are at their strongest when identifying who played on what track, and exactly what instrument they were playing. Did you know Charlie Watts played a "Gretsch kit"? He most certainly did. You're reminded of that every other page.

They're at their weakest in understanding lyrics. They were constantly just slightly, or entirely, missing the mark. For example, "Hang Fire" off TATTOO YOU was not exactly an indictment of Thatcherite economics. It was more an indictment of lazy people, a show more feeling which Mick would explore more explicitly a few years later in "Let's Work". But hey I could be wrong.

The best parts were often when I'd go back and put the CD on to a certain minute mark where the authors had pointed out a flub. What incredible ears they must have - usually I could barely even hear what they were talking about. But particularly on the early tracks, it was often amusingly obvious. The book was worth the price of admission for expounding on the way Keith's fuzz guitar comes in a note late on the second refrain of "Satisfaction." I had always noticed that, even as a wee tot, and I always really liked the effect. Now I know that he was late turning on the fuzz pedal, which he turned on for the refrains and off for the verses! And for the third refrain, he's a note or two too soon, though that's less noticeable. show less

Interminable book provides details about every track Dylan has recorded to the time it was published. For a long-time Dylan fan, it will give you a little insight and bring back some great memories of older songs you haven't listened to lately. But the book is so full of contradictions (sometimes within a page or two), questionable info, and unsubstantiated opinion that it gets to be really annoying at times. Obviously, the amount of research (or at least Googling) was immense, but the show more authors don't write that well, and their opinion on individual songs gets too lost in pointing out when a guitar is slightly out of tune or Dylan makes a noise while singing into the mike too closely or there is a less than perfect splice in the tape--instead of focusing on how good the song really is, which, in Dylan's case, overrides the technical quality of any performance. In many cases, the authors' rating of a song is vastly different from my own, and the authors also seem to have a deep fascination with Dylan's Christian period that is perhaps a little out of proportion. What does become clear, however, especially if you were a listener to Dylan's wonderful radio program, is that when he picks some obscure old song to record, he knows exactly what he is doing. So, I can't really recommend this for reading straight through, although that is what I have done. But the next time you pull out Highway 61 Revisited, you might read a a few pages here and learn something--or find something to disagree with! I bought this as a cheap Kindle Book (I think $1.99) on Dylan's 75th birthday, and at that price it is okay. Now that Dylan is a Nobel Prize Winner, this really isn't the place to find out why. With luck, someone will write a better account of his work, although that could take a lifetime--just as long as Dylan has spent creating it. show less

Note: I read the first third of this story as a digital ARC from NetGalley, but received the book in print for Christmas, so I finished reading in that format.

This is a hefty, hefty book, but it'll end up being a must-own for Beatles fans. A large portion of the book is devoted to photographs, so it's not a demanding read and there are lots of interesting tidbits for diehard fans, although some of them are common knowledge by this point (eg. John shredding his vocals on "Twist and show more Shout").

Fans with a background in music will find even more to appreciate, as the instruments and technical details are reported for each song. I skimmed over much of this, but I still found much to appreciate. In the future, I want to read each section and listen to the appropriate album to pick up on the small details mentioned by the authors.

This book won't give you the multi-faceted view of the Beatles the way other biographies have, but that is also not the book's intent. I think it works best as a companion to the substantial amount of Beatles literature, and it's definitely an eye catching book to put out on the coffee table.

A small distraction for me was the author's liberal use of unwarranted exclamation points. Not a major concern, but it was frequent enough for me to take notice. show less