The Beatles Lyrics: The Unseen Story Behind Their Music

Great for serious Beatles fans. Easy reading and can be read in s,mall doses.

Hunter Davies is an authority on the Beatles. He's written numerous books, including an authorised biography and he spent a lot of time with them, both on tour and in recording studios. I recently read Philip Norman's excellent bio of Paul and this is an excellent companion read to that biography. Davies has, over some 50 years, acquired a large number of original bits of ephemera. Scraps the f paper with jottings, squiggles and amendments, showing the development of many memorable songs. In the recording studios, he retrieved ( with permission) bits of ciggie packets, notepaper etc on which early working notes were made. He's also trawled the world for access to other known written records, so this is a truly comprehensive insight. Combined with his personal knowledge of the Beatles, it's an authoritative and informed account. There are numerous pictures of the scribblings; some not so easy to read on a kindle, but clearer on a tablet. Some of the originals were faded before being reproduced. Davies goes through the Beatles recordings in order, placing each disc in context with some background info. The lyrics and how they sometimes changed make fascinating reading and this is a book I've really enjoyed. A must for any Beatles fan, but also a compelling slice of social and popular music history.

I bought this volume on the strength of the Hunter Davies name. I read his brilliant biography of the Beatles years ago I had high expectations of a similar-level volume this time around. Unfortunately, I felt extremely let down by the content. Davies was 'there' when a lot of the songs were composed or in the process of being put together, yet his insights suffer from either a poor memory - his or the relevant Beatle - or lack of corroborative information from other sources more times than I was happy with. However, in saying all that, it IS an interesting read, nonetheless. As a Beatles fan you'll probably want to add it to your Beatles memorabilia collection. I can certainly recommend it that far as that's what I have done :-)

I love this book. I would not go so fasr as to call myself a fan, but I do like the Beatles. Born in 1961 my eary music experience was either nursery rhymes of The Beatles. I can effortlessly remember a huge number of their hits, especially post 1966 (which again probably reflects how old I was). Those lyrics have so often caused questions to run through my head - now here are the answers. And so, so much more as well. The detail varies a bit from song to song, but much here is just fascinating, in a trivia/social history kind of way. I found it impossible to put down. Dip in here, jump forward there, come across the odd surprise on the next page... fantastic!

It's a fun book. Goes through all The Beatles back catalogue and has a little background on each song. Great book for any Beatles fan.

i thought i knew everything about the beatles but i learned more about them. a very enjoyable book

Would have given this 5 except for the annoying fact that some of the song lyrics weren't included (at least in the Kindle version), so I couldn't judge Davies's comments on them. Otherwise an interesting read which revitalised my enthusiasm for the group that shaped my early teen years. Worth a read for anyone who lived through their music.

A must for Beatles fans of all ages. Having read the authors other work I couldn't believe I hadn't stumbled across this. Beautifully written and gives some great insights and background to songs you've heard so many times.