Steve Turner (1) (1949–)

The Complete Beatles – The Story Behind Every Track Written by the Fab Four is a wonderful index of all the songs authored by the Beatles with tidbits of back story included, who wrote the song, how it came together and the inspiration, if known, for each song. While perhaps not everyone wants to know the details behind such songs as “Polythene Pam” or “Dear Prudence”, I was totally engrossed.

Beatle music is the soundtrack of my teen years, and every Beatle song evokes a memory, an show more occasion or an event. It is obvious that the author, Steve Turner, was also a fan as he exclaims, ““the elements of surprise in the tunes that made them so captivating when they were first released still sound unexpected. They have a magical capacity for retaining their freshness.” Along with supplying all the lyrics of their songs, this book is a timeline for the group itself. The early songs reflect their original enthusiasm and excitement while later on John’s jaded poetry and Paul’s world weary attitude as the group dynamics are unwinding combine to produce some amazingly complex and original music.

The Complete Beatles is large book, with hundreds of both color and black and white photographs, and information on the four members of the group, their various partners and friends, associates and fellow artists. During the course of reading this book, I often found myself digging out my old Beatle tunes and hearing them in a different way. Lots of good information here and although this is a book that will mostly appeal to die-hard Beatle fans, it was a five star read for me. show less

A month-by-month look at an extraordinary year for an extraordinary band.

By 1966, the Beatles had reached the end, and a new beginning. The book cheats a little by starting in December 1965, but that is only to cover the beginning of Revolver, and ends with the first recordings for Sgt. Pepper.

In between, there are drugs, tours, close calls, apologies, religion, new relationships, old relationships and more.

The Beatles take a break from each other, expand their own horizons, and bring all show more that back in time to record one of the seminal albums of the rock era - right after recording another of the seminal albums of the era.

Turner sums it up this way: "In December 1965 the Beatles had been fresh-faced touring idols widely thought of as a fad that was on the verge of dying out. ... A year later they were studio-based artists flag-waving for the avant-garde who were maturing with their audience and gaining the respect of serious music critics."

Would love to see Turner follow up with a Beatles '67 book.

For more of my reviews, go to Ralphsbooks. show less

I really enjoyed this biography of Johnny Cash. I learned a lot of things about him that I never knew. This was an "authorized" biography, but was quite frank about Cash's faults -- the long-time amphetamine addiction that fueled wild and destructive behavior; his responsibility for the breakup of his first marriage. The author's admiration for Cash as a person and a musician was obvious, however.

I was surprised how deeply the book delved into Cash's faith. I guess I shouldn't have been show more surprised, as it was clearly quite central to his life (even present in the rough times when he wasn't really living by it). Cash had the humble faith of a man who knew he'd seriously messed up many times in his life, and was aware of how much he'd been forgiven -- by God and by those around him, who he put through hell in his drug-using days. This awareness fueled his concern for those whom society often scorned -- prisoners, addicts, alcoholics.

I do question the format of the book. It began near the end of his life -- at the time of his wife June's death -- and then went back to the beginning of his life. After the life story was done, there was a lengthy chapter of analysis. Some of this I liked and found enlightening, and some of it felt like overkill, hammering points already made in the telling of Cash's life.

Overall, I really liked this book; I listened to it on audio, and thought the audio was well done. show less

What comes to mind when I mention a banker with a motorcar? Don’t most bankers have cars? Yes, but you probably thought of the same banker that I did. Have you ever heard of little Lucy O’Donnell? You know Lucy. She’s Julian’s friend from school. Have you seen Julian’s drawing of Lucy … in the sky with diamonds?

Some words and phrases stick in our minds forever. When they’re attached to universally known melodies, it’s difficult to even read the words without playing the music show more in our heads.

That happened dozens of times as I read Steve Turner’s A Hard Day’s Write: The Stories Behind Every Beatles Song. Very few lyrics appear in the book, but song titles and even short phrases (newspaper taxis, blue suburban skies, yellow matter custard) launch personal soundtracks.

Sometimes I feel I was born with Beatles music pre-programmed in my head. It’s always been there. Mention Blackburn Lancashire and I start humming the tune. I can’t help it.

But these songs had to be written first. Where did they come from? What motivated John Lennon and Paul McCartney (and in some cases George Harrison and Ringo Starr) to pen more than one hundred classics? Turner can probably answer those questions better than anyone this side of McCartney himself. He conducted interviews with the musicians and many of their real-life inspirations. He also dug through countless resources to compile an exhaustive collection of lyric origins.

John and Paul found creative sparks everywhere: newspaper stories, a vintage circus poster, an affair, a breakup, a Corn Flakes commercial. Often they’d be inspired by an interesting phrase. Paul latched onto the sound of “meter maid” after hearing it spoken by an American friend, just as he did when a chauffeur told him he was working eight days a week. Penny Lane, of course, was a neighborhood in Liverpool and Strawberry Field was an orphanage in Woolton.

Some stories were familiar to me [Paul awoke with the tune for "Scrambled Eggs" -- later known as "Yesterday" -- in his head] but many others were complex ["A Day in the Life" was a combination John's fictionalized account of a real friend's death fused with Paul's unfinished song about going to school in the morning], or simply strange [using intentionally confusing words, John strung together three songs-in-progress for "I Am the Walrus" to complicate the efforts of a schoolmaster seeking meanings in Beatles music]. I could go on, but Turner’s book tells these stories much more completely than I can.

I found the origins endlessly fascinating for what they revealed about John and Paul’s musical abilities, too. Many times the rock-n-rollers would invent an entire song around a guitar riff or chord. Other times they would simply decide to write something in the style of Smokey Robinson, the Shirelles, Ray Charles, or Bob Dylan. Viola! Have you ever noticed the Beach Boys-style harmony in the chorus of “Back in the USSR”? There’s a reason it’s there.

Turner arranged the songs in the order their albums were recorded. That gave me a further sense of the creative evolution and stylistic phases Lennon and McCartney passed through during the Beatles years.

First published a decade ago, and reprinted recently with new interviews and facts, A Hard Day’s Write came to my attention only last month in a Seattle bookstore. All the songs are covered, though not all thoroughly. That was okay. Reading this book was an extremely enjoyable trip through the Beatles songbook.

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