The Complete Beatles Chronicle – Mark Lewisohn, 1992 ★★★★

Fab Days

It took Mark Lewisohn 12 years to gather the research that informs this book, and it shows. If he doesn't capture every little thing that set the world at the Beatles' command, it's not from lack of trying.

Published four years after his landmark account of the Beatles in the studio, The Beatles: Recording Sessions, Lewisohn in The Complete Beatles Chronicle throws a wider net over a longer period of time. What you get here is (nearly) everything that the group did in the way of professional gigs, radio shots, television appearances, movie and promotion-film shoots, and of course the record-making itself, formatted by date, address, and activity icons (e. g. a reel-to-reel tape icon represents a recording session) that documents the group's rise in an immediately comprehensible, chronological manner.

For example, on Friday, October 4, 1963, we learn the Beatles made their debut on "Ready, Steady, Go," "the television show most synonymous in Britain with the so-called 'Swinging Sixties,' and equally synonymous - in London, at least - with Friday evenings ('The Weekend Starts Here.')"

On Sunday, June 26, 1966, the Beatles made a whistle stop in Hamburg, West Germany, and there John Lennon and Paul McCartney took "a nostalgic midnight stroll" visiting some old haunts on and about the Reeperbahn. The very next day found the band holed up in a hotel in Anchorage, Alaska, as their flight to Tokyo had been delayed by weather. There they were besieged for several hours by Alaskans who probably knew this was their one shot at screaming their heads off in the presence of the four Liverpudlians.

The biggest takeaway from reading this book is how ridiculously hard the band worked to get where they did. Lewisohn's account shines brightest in the earliest material, not only because the details here are less common-knowledge than what comes after (i. e. the number of times, both lunchtimes and evenings, where the group performed at what would become their iconic performance venue, The Cavern) but for the way Lewisohn gets at the grimy reality of the overall experience.

Beatles at the Cavern Club, Liverpool, late 1962. From left to right, you have George Harrison (showcasing both his guitar chops and his pose-striking abilities), Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, and John Lennon. Image from Bill Gaphardt's Beatles Cavern Club Page. [http://www.angelfire.com/md2/wrgaphardt/Beatles_Cavern_Club.html.]

The hard work continued on through the band's early fame: “In the 12 months of 1963 the group slogged their way through the most uncompromising schedule of concert tours, one-night ballroom appearances, EMI recording sessions, BBC radio sessions, television appearances, photographic sessions, and press interviews,” Lewisohn writes. “Never before, it seems, had any pop group exerted themselves quite so much.”

The last Beatles vocal performance, as revealed here, is a minor revelation, one of a few in a book that overall aims more at setting the record straight than shining a light in overlooked places. In the original edition of his Recording Sessions, Lewisohn had the Beatles (minus John, who had checked out of all band-related activity by late 1969) recording key tracks on January 3-4, 1970 for the songs "I Me Mine" and "Let It Be." For Chronicle, Lewisohn unearthed a later January 8 session, where George Harrison sang his vocals for another track on the Let It Be album, "For You Blue." [The last time a Beatle played on a Beatles track, prior to the April, 10, 1970 break-up announcement by Paul McCartney, was Ringo Starr's drum-playing on orchestral arrangements for three Let It Be songs on April 1, but it's hard to credit a non-vocal performance buried in a lavish Phil Spector production.]

It would be insane for me to attempt a guess at how many books have been written about the Beatles over the years. I've read more than a dozen, and consider two of them pretty much worth recommending to anyone, fellow Beatles lover or not. Neither is Complete Beatles Chronicle; this book is rather dry in parts, especially when documenting long concert tours or studio mixing sessions, and somewhat stodgier in approach than it needs to be. Lewisohn worked hard to develop the trust of the surviving Beatles and other key figures behind their success, and doesn't sacrifice this in an effort to score points with readers.

But Chronicle is very much worth seeking out and having if you are a fan. Lewisohn's grasp of the band's history and accomplishments is undeniably solid, and his overall approach to the subject matter is quite engaging.