Upcoming Beatle books
The expanded “I Me Mine” by George Harrison is just out. Here are a few other Beatles related books to be published soon.
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| Brian Southall: Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band |
“Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band: The Album, the Beatles, and the World in 1967” by Brian Southall.
Hardcover – May 9, 2017.
A carefully crafted and collectible volume celebrations the 50th anniversary of a legendary and groundbreaking Beatles album. Expert Brian Southall’s unique edition recounts the story behind the music and the cultural climate of 1967 when Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Heart Club Band debuted.
The “A-side” of this coolly curated title is all about the Beatles, the music on the album, the recording process, how the disc was received at the time and how it has been acknowledged as one of the greatest albums ever recorded. The “B-side” looks at the state of the world in 1967, from the Summer of Love to anti-war protests to the launch of Rolling Stone magazine to Jimi Hendrix’s first UK tour as a solo artist–and so much, much more.
Fascinating photographs and text build a complete picture of the world as it was when one of the most famous albums of all time was released.
Link: Amazon (USA) – Amazon (UK)
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| Sgt. Pepper at 50. |
“Sgt. Pepper at Fifty: The Mood, the Look, the Sound, the Legacy of the Beatles’ Great Masterpiece” by Mike Mcinnerney, Bill Demain, Gillian G. Gaar
Hardcover. June 1, 2017.
A celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Beatles’ mind-blowing landmark album: Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band
Widely regarded as one of the greatest albums of all time, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band celebrates its 50th anniversary in June 2017. Even after half a century, the Beatles’ groundbreaking work thrillingly evokes the sights, sounds, and mood of the sixties at their most joyously psychedelic and creative. Featuring contributions from leading authorities on the Beatles’ music, Sgt. Pepper at Fifty provides an in-depth critique of the album, by looking at the unique cultural circumstances that led to its creation; examining the rich assemblage of influences that informed its sound; exploring the landmark cover art, which continues to inspire debate and intrigue; and assessing the record’s enduring legacy as the pinnacle of British pop.
In addition to 225 photos and other images, the book includes memorabilia.
Link: Amazon (USA) – Amazon (UK)
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| Klaus Voormann: Birth of an icon: Revolver 50. |
“Birth of an Icon REVOLVER 50”: The making of the legendary cover artwork for the Beatles album REVOLVER (German Edition) by Klaus Voormann
Paperback – March 8, 2017
Previously available from Voormann’s own webshop.
Half a century after Revolver exploded onto the pop scene, the artist behind the album cover presents his side of the Beatles’ story. The narrative is presented through a striking mixture of words and black-and-white graphics.
“…It is good for me to see the other side of a story I know so well and to realize aspects like the sheer panic that Klaus must have felt.” (Paul McCartney)
The monochrome pop-art style of the Revolver album has become an integral part of the Beatles brand. In this book the artist behind the cover reveals the source of his inspiration, as well as the tale of how this cover grew from a sketch made on a kitchen table in an attic flat into one of the most iconic pieces of cover art in history.
Link: Amazon (USA) – Genesis Publications (DeLuxe Grammy Edition)
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| Luca Beatrice: Nothing Is Real: When The Beatles Met The East. |
“Nothing Is Real: When the Beatles Met the East” by Luca Beatrice (Editor)
Paperback – February 28, 2017
Following the release of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967), the Beatles―at that point the most famous band in the world―found themselves increasingly drawn to Eastern mysticism, culminating with the band’s 1968 trip to India (accompanied, of course, by wives and girlfriends as well as an entourage of friends, assistants and reporters). The journey that John, Paul, George and Ringo made to study at the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi’s ashram would become a key event in the history of Western pop culture: followed breathlessly in the international media, it caused an enormous stir and was fundamental in spreading a certain fascination with the East that influenced music, literature, cinema and fashion at the end of the 1960s.
Nothing Is Real takes its title from a memorable line from the Beatles’ song “Strawberry Fields Forever.” Eastern thinking and spiritual practices felt liberating and modern to a generation looking for alternatives, and the Beatles’ trip was a watershed moment, announcing definitively that Europe and the United States had a genuine trend on its hands. Taking the Beatles’ 1968 journey as its point of departure, Nothing Is Real invokes this extraordinary moment through contemporary reports, archival photographs, album covers, books and magazines from the period, and artworks by Ettore Sottsass, Alighiero Boetti, Francesco Clemente, Luigi Ontani, Aldo Mondino and Julian Schnabel.
Link: Amazon (USA)
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| Rob Sheffield: Dreaming The Beatles |
“Dreaming the Beatles: The Love Story of One Band and the Whole World” by Rob Sheffield
Hardcover – April 25, 2017
Rob Sheffield, the Rolling Stone columnist and bestselling author of Love Is a Mix Tape offers an entertaining, unconventional look at the most popular band in history, the Beatles, exploring what they mean today and why they still matter so intensely to a generation that has never known a world without them.
Dreaming the Beatles is not another biography of the Beatles, or a song-by-song analysis of the best of John and Paul. It isn’t another exposé about how they broke up. It isn’t a history of their gigs or their gear. It is a collection of essays telling the story of what this ubiquitous band means to a generation who grew up with the Beatles music on their parents’ stereos and their faces on T-shirts. What do the Beatles mean today? Why are they more famous and beloved now than ever? And why do they still matter so much to us, nearly fifty years after they broke up?
As he did in his previous books, Love is a Mix Tape, Talking to Girls About Duran Duran, and Turn Around Bright Eyes, Sheffield focuses on the emotional connections we make to music. This time, he focuses on the biggest pop culture phenomenon of all time—The Beatles. In his singular voice, he explores what the Beatles mean today, to fans who have learned to love them on their own terms and not just for the sake of nostalgia.
Dreaming the Beatles tells the story of how four lads from Liverpool became the world’s biggest pop group, then broke up—but then somehow just kept getting bigger. At this point, their music doesn’t belong to the past—it belongs to right now. This book is a celebration of that music, showing why the Beatles remain the world’s favorite thing—and how they invented the future we’re all living in today.
Link: Amazon (USA) – Amazon (UK)
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| Lennon – The New York Years |
“Lennon: The New York Years” by David Foenkinos (Author), Corbeyran (Author), Horne (Illustrator).
Hardcover – May 16, 2017
In 1975 John Lennon moved to New York City, stopped being a Beatle, and started being a father. Now, experience life with Lennon inside The Dakota as the world’s most famous frontman awakens to the beauty and wonder of his new family while confronting the pains of his past in this graphic novel. Author Cobeyran and illustrator Horne create a story in which we experience Lennon’s therapy sessions as they unfold, full of the allure and mystery befitting the unknown life of a creative giant.
Link: Amazon (USA)
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| A is for Apple Vol 2 |
“A is for Apple Vol. 2: An illustrated history of the Beatles’ multimedia corporation” By Axel Korinth and Ed Dieckmann with Antonio Caroselli and Sara Schmidt.
To be published in April.
Privately published, Volume 2 of “a is for apple” covers the Get Back sessions and Mary and Jackie’s albums in great detail. The Yellow Submarine album takes up more than 60 pages by itself. Volume 2 covers the period of January to March 1969. And while everyone will be familiar with these releases, maybe not in such great detail, Volume 2 also offers information on lesser known Apple acts from this epoch, such as John Surman, Mike Westbrook, Mike Cooper, the Misunderstood, Flamma Sherman, Stefan Grossman, Peter Cooper, Slow Dog and John Fitch.
Volume 2 has a chapter on Timothy Travel, a puppet series produced by Apple, which didn’t progress beyond a pilot episode and is more or less totally forgotten. Allen Klein’s reign is just around the corner and John and Yoko are busy making their Rape movie. (White) Trash issue their superb Road To Nowhere single and Brute Force’s King of Fuh is being picked up by George Harrison. Two Virgins gets its USA release and a four album pack of Beatles hits gets nixed before release. Bubble Puppy, Mary Jane Bann’d and Stone Down are all nearly signed by Apple while The Iveys go on national TV. John and Yoko stage their first Bed-In in Amsterdam and Paul records with The Fourmost. The amount of day-to-day activities related to Apple in these three months is astounding. All this is covered in great detail in Volume 2 of “a is for apple”.
Link: A is for Apple
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| Hello Goodbye: The Beatles in Tokyo 1966 by Japanese photographer Shimpei Asai. |
In 1966 The Beatles embarked on their last tour, playing concerts in 20 cities over the course of four months, beginning in London and ending in San Francisco. Millions of fans in England, Germany, Japan, the Philippines and America flocked to see the band.
HELLO, GOODBYE: THE BEATLES IN TOKYO, 1966 celebrates the 50th anniversary of the Beatles’ visit to Japan on this tour. Taken by Japanese photographer Shimpei Asai, these pictures have never before been published outside Japan.
They intimately capture a fleeting moment, with all its controversy, Beatlemania and creativity, painting a poignant image of the band during their short but intense visit to Tokyo.
‘This is a side of The Beatles – relaxed, comfortable and intrigued by a world that, for them, was new and exotic – that we don’t often see. And thanks to Asai, we are virtually in the suite with them.’
– Allan Kozinn (from his Introduction)
Link: Genesis Publications
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| Alan Aldridge: “Cry Baby, Cry” illustration. |
Meanwhile, Beatles illustrator Alan Aldridge passed away 17 February 2017. Aldridge was born in East London in 1943 and lived in Los Angeles, California at the time he died. Aldridge first worked as an illustrator at “The Sunday Times Magazine.” After doing some freelance book covers for Penguin Books, he was hired in March 1965 by Penguin’s chief editor Tony Godwin to become the art director of Penguin. While there, he was responsible for creating the cover for “The Penguin John Lennon
That Sgt. Pepper's book sounds like one we've read many times already …
Alan Aldridge was a superb artist. I recall buying his 'America' poster. Did some great work for the Beatles Illustrated Lyrics book and for Apple. No word of tribute to the man on The Beatles website though… Who runs it these days?
Yes, it's a shame they didn't say anything about him, but also nothing about Sam Leach or Allan Williams, who both played important parts in the early Beatles careers in Liverpool.
Today I see Alan Aldridge got an instagram mention by "The Beatles"