If you're going to load up this year, reading Beatles biographies
- and 2014 would be a great year to do that - this is the book to start with.
It's not the greatest written book on the fabs or the most brutally honest, but
it's the progenitor of all Beatle bios to follow. - The Beatles by Hunter Davies.
Davies wrote the book around late 1967 and
early '68. John Lennon would later dismiss Davies's book as "watered
down" and there is some truth to that. Still, this book, albeit an
authorized biography was the first to break through the Beatle bubble and begin
the unraveling of the cold, unvarnished truth. It was the first book to address
their rough childhoods, the band's pill popping days, playing in the red light
district of Hamburg, Germany, the controversial firing of Pete Best and how
Dylan turned them on to marijuana.
To get the Beatle experience in print
form, this book is a window. Like pot was a window for Rubber Soul and acid for Revolver, this book is - well,
it's not that mystical of a portal, but it is an essential entryway. But be
aware. Do not get one of the revised editions of this book. Get the
original version, published in September of 1968. Check it out from your local
library, interlibrary loan it if your hometown library does not have it, buy it
in a used bookstore or off eBay, but if you're going to read the book, read the
original copy.
The magic of this book is not the stories
it tells. Revelatory for their time, those stories are common knowledge today. Davies'
book stands out, not for what it reveals, but for the perspective from which it
was written. It came out when the Beatles were still young, somewhat naïve and contemporary,
churning out hit singles and getting played on Top 40 radio.
For all anybody knew, the Beatles would
still be making music together for years. Davies described the four as
"umbillically connected" and they talked as if there was no end in
sight.
Furthermore, John was still married to
Cynthia, George was still married to Patti, Ringo to Maureen and Paul was
engaged to Jane Asher.
Who knew that in two years, the band would
be broken up? That John would leave Cynthia for Yoko and Paul would be
married to Linda and have a ready-made family?
 |
| Early Beatles. Davies' biography was the first to tell of the band's wild days in Hamburg, Germany. It was the first book to talk about John's art school friend, Stu Sutcliffe, who joined the band, left them and died before they became famous. Davies interviewed Sutcliffe's lover, German artist, Astrid Kirchherr, who took this photograph. |
Sometimes when reading such things as John
and Cyn's exchanges, there is a tinge of sadness because we know how it will
end. On the surface, they seemed to have a happy marriage. In hindsight, the
book reveals signs that John's marriage was in trouble. In the shadow of her
rockstar husband, Cyn felt unfulfilled. She should have been working on her art
and teaching like she wanted to be doing. He should have encouraged her. She
wanted to live a quieter family existence with John and Julian. He wanted - at
least at that time; it would end quickly - to be constantly surrounded by
"our Beatle buddies." Cyn said she did not think she and John would
have stayed together if she hadn't gotten pregnant. As for the Beatles worldwide
fame?
Sometimes I wish it all never happened, she said.
Of the four Beatles John resonated the
most with me because he had the most contradictions. He was the most mercurial
of the four and his life appeared to be the one most in limbo. Davies did not
go into John's drug addiction, but reading between the lines, it's there.
The book also hints about the group's
manager, Brian Epstein homosexuality, without coming out with it. He was
described ambiguously as a "gay bachelor." There is a flat denial
that Brian's death was suicide. Davies quotes people who maintain strongly that
his death was an accidental overdose of pills, but it's hard not to be
skeptical.
George comes across as the Beatle who has
"grown the most" and "needs the others the least." The most
materialistic of the band mates in his youth, he put those worldly concerns to
the side when he embraced Eastern religion. It's interesting that while George
was uncomfortable with being a celebrity, his family enjoyed it. His parents
judged beauty contests and his mother answered fan mail, as did Ringo's wife,
Maureen.
That's part of the fun of this book. Not
only were all four Beatles still alive, most of their parents were as well.
Paul's father seems much like the old, distinguished English gentleman we
perceive Paul to be now. Also, it's interesting that George's father, Harold
Harrison, continued working as a bus driver even after his son became a world
famous millionaire.
Davies' book was written from the
perspective of the Beatles having reached a plateau. The story had a neat, tidy
ending. But things were forever changing in the Beatles world (despite that
line in "Across the Universe") and this book was almost out of date
as soon as it came off the presses. Only three months after its publication,
John and Yoko would be appearing nude on the cover of Rolling Stone.
There is a certain innocence about the
book as it gives a last look at the Beatles before the changes set into motion
that would split the band apart and into history.
Gateway literature
Having read Hunter Davies' biography, the
next logical step is to read the biographies, Shout:
The Beatles and their Generation by
Phillip Norman and The
Beatles: A Biography by Bob Spitz. You
might as well continue the journey.
I chose this video from Lennon's solo
career because you see him hanging out with Miles Davis. Only a few years
earlier, John is quoted in Davies' book, saying, "We're very anti-jazz. I
think it's shit music."
