Mark Lewisohn about the upcoming volumes
  |
| The paperback edition of “Tune In” is published September 3, 2015. |
Renowned Beatles author Mark Lewisohn was a guest at BeatleWeek in Liverpool this year, and had a session called “Ask Mark”, a revival of his BeatleWeek sessions in the eighties. Here, he discussed not only volume one, “Tune in” of his Beatles biographic trilogy in the making, but also revealed a bit about the two upcoming volumes.
As a matter of fact, the first question posed was “How’s book two coming along?”. Lewisohn is still thinking that volume two will come out in 2020. He is still researching, and writing hasn’t started. There is already enough material to write a substantial volume two, which he could start writing right away, but he hasn’t yet turned every stone, and wants to be absolutely correct before he starts the writing process. And he says that he is discovering something new almost on a daily basis, so it does indeed look as if there are still a lot of unturned stones. Volume two will be completely different from what he first imagined it would be, and he still has no title of volumes two and three. And no, they will not be called “Turn on” and “Drop out”.
One of the interesting questions put to Lewisohn at the very end of the Q&A session was why the Beatles took such a long break exactly 50 years ago. Returning from their American tour on September 1st, 1965, collectively The Beatles did nothing for six weeks, which did make the creative process of writing and recording “Rubber Soul” in time for the Christmas market a difficult and rushed one. Lewisohn had no firm answer to this, but let it be known that the times when they went out of the public eye were as interesting as the rest of their story. This is one of the reasons why further research is needed before the writing of volume two can commence.
New material, stories and people from the period covered in volume one, “Tune In” has turned up after it’s publication, but will not be included in the upcoming paperback edition of that book
The people whose lives we have been following in “Tune in” will also be featured in the upcoming volumes. We are talking about the people who were left behind, people like Allan Williams, Bob Wooler, Rory Storm, Pete and Mona Best etc. As their lives were still influenced by the Beatles and their success, we will get to see what happened to them along the way.
Fortunately, someone recorded the Q&A session and put it up on YouTube:
on the video, does Mark say anything about the publication date of the expanded edition of volumen 2 ?
Great stuff, thanks a lot for sharing!
Sure wish someone would have asked about a re-issue of the Extended Edition.
I'd feel a lot better about the release date of Volume 2 if he'd actually started writing it. Then I'd feel less convinced he'll live to finish it, and Volume 3. He's not getting any younger.
I wonder if Mark would have approached Allen Klein had he still been alive?
Also, will volume 3 really discuss the bad feeling (as mentioned by George in the Anthology book) caused by John and Yoko? I know this is supposed to be definitive, but how far will it really go? Has Mark got carte blanche or will Apple kibosh things they are sensitive about?
Mark previously mentioned that time was truly of the essence as far as research is concerned. He needs to get information from people who know while they are still living and with lucid memories of the people and times. The writing can always come later. He mentioned on a Fab 4 Free 4 All podcast interview that numerous sources with newly-reported information from Volume One have already passed since its publication.
love interviews with Mark. Vol 2 can't come quick enough.
This comment has been removed by the author.
Also his comments on the upcoming Ron Howard film sound very promising.
Mark is not writing the book for Apple, so he does not have to ask permission from Apple. He can write what he thinks it relevant and true
Thank you SO much for posting this! Being in Rio de Janeiro, I could have never heard this amazing interview otherwise. Always a pleasure to listen to Mark!
Mark needs a staff to do research and writing and stop trying to make it a Paul McCartney-esque one-man-band approach… I'm afraid my last breath will come when I'm ten pages from the end of a bootlegged copy of Vol 3.
those vids are a little sad, the way that Julia Lennon and George Martin aren't very pleased with, unpleasant as it may be, the truth.
Is there any update on Volume Two yet?