The Beatles Book (1963 - 1969)

Here's something that's a bit of a departure from my usual music posts (although it IS music-related).  I still think that this offering will be warmly appreciated by a broad majority of readers here.

Beat Monthly was a pop/rock magazine that began being published in Great Britain in May 1963. As indicated in the title, the magazine focused on the country's burgeoning beat music scene and the popular groups emerging from it: The Shadows, Gerry & The Pacemakers, The Tornados, Wayne Fontana & The Mindbenders, Peter Jay & The Jaywalkers, The Big Three and the like. Beat Monthly was put out by Sean O'Mahony, a young publisher and entrepreneur, and his target audience wasn't music fans, but the musicians themselves, the emphasis being on instruments, production and equipment in its articles. The mag gained a small but devoted following, changing its name from Beat Monthly to Beat Instrumental Monthly in the fall of 1964, then simply to Beat Instrumental in 1966, and it continued being published regularly until 1980.

The Beatles were featured on the cover of the second issue of Beat Monthly in June 1963, shortly after their second single "Please Please Me" had been released in the UK and climbed to #2 on the charts, a significant improvement over the performance of their first single, "Love Me Do", which only made it to #17. The band's album of the same name (Please Please Me) hit the music shops in late April of that year, and by late May it was the top-selling album in the nation, where it would remain for the next six months (until replaced by another Beatles album, With The Beatles). O'Mahony sensed early on that The Beatles were going to be huge, bigger than just being a featured artist in his beat magazine. So he reached out to the group's manager, Brian Epstein, and asked if he could publish a magazine solely focused on and devoted to Epstein's band. At the time, Epstein was dependent upon the releases of the group's press agent, Tony Barrow, to keep The Beatles' names and activities in the public eye. So he welcomed O'Mahony's exclusive offer.

The first issue of The Beatles Book (also known as Beatles Monthly) came out in August 1963, in an initial print run of 80,000. The magazine was an immediate smash, the go-to source for Beatles fans for up-to-the-minute information on the group. By the end of 1963, circulation in Britain had more than quadrupled, to over 330,000 subscribers, with hundreds of thousands of issues being sold overseas. O'Mahony retained control over Beat Monthly and other magazines (such as the similarly group-dedicated Rolling Stones Book beginning in 1964 and Record Collector) under his Beat Publications corporate umbrella, but he began devoting most of his time and energy to editing and overseeing the Beatles mag, penning opening editorials in every issue under the pseudonym Johnny Dean. Tony Barrow also became a regular contributor, writing articles under his pen name Frederick James and ghostwriting columns presented to readers as being written "on tour" by Beatles roadies Neil Aspinall and Mal Evans.

In O'Mahony's case, on being admitted into the band's trusted inner fold, he occupied a very rarified and privileged perspective in Beatleworld, and he knew it (the following is taken from John McMillan's book Beatles Vs. Stones):

O'Mahoney operated from a special vantage; awarded the sole and exclusive rights to publish their profit-oriented fan magazine, he became thickly intertwined in a socio-professional relationship with Epstein... and how the group [was] managed. Whatever O'Mahony's private knowledge or feelings, his acquiescence was complete. [For example] in 1964, when journalist Michael Braun released his book Love Me Do! - a gossipy account of his travels with The Beatles during the first flush of Beatlemania, which rather contradicted the group's "squeaky clean" image - its publication was not even mentioned in The Beatles Book. Nor was O'Mahony eager to reveal that John Lennon was married, since Epstein feared that the knowledge would adversely affect the band's popularity with teenage girls. When publishing photos of The Beatles, O'Mahony often turned to retouch artists who would fix any splotches or blemishes on their faces, thereby making sure they were "the sort of pictures Brian wanted to see".

In other words, O'Mahony in this period closely resembled a Madison Avenue flack. Whatever inside information he had, he would never have wanted to print anything truly relevatory about John or Paul... Instead, his magazine was merely [a] platform... meant to promote the Beatles' carefully considered "brand" meticulously.

Along with O'Mahony, staff photographer Leslie Bryce also gained exclusive and unrivaled access to the band in both their public and most private moments. He traveled the world with John, Paul, George and Ringo and took literally thousands of pictures, a multitude of which adorned the magazine during its run but the vast majority of which have never been seen in public.

As much as O'Mahony appeared to be co-opted by Beatles management, the man still showed flashes of independence in his coverage of the band.  In its later years, The Beatles Book did not hide from controversial subjects, such as whether songs should be credited to Lennon/McCartney or McCartney/ Lennon, and the nature of the relationship between John and Yoko Ono. And on the one occasion when The Beatles and their representatives pushed the publisher too hard, he showed that he too had real teeth and could push back even harder than they could. Also from Beatles Vs. Stones:

...In 1966, The Beatles decided they'd had enough of their silly fan magazine, and so they stopped providing Sean O'Mahony with the access, interviews, and photographs he needed to keep The Beatles Book afloat. But O'Mahony would not be deterred so easily. In response to The Beatles' new attitude, he phoned his lawyer and called for a meeting. Epstein likewise showed up with his solicitor, plus two more advisors, and he matter-of-factly told O'Mahony it was time to wind down the publication of The Beatles Book. Asked for an explanation, he replied, "They feel you don't tell the truth. You're not reporting them as they are..."

"O'Mahony exploded with anger," said Epstein's biographer:

The truth? What do you mean? Do you mean for example when we were in Blackpool, John Lennon flinging open the window of the dressing room and shouting to the fans below: "Fuck off and buy more records?" Was that the level of revelation Epstein and the Beatles expected from their authorized mouthpiece? Should the Beatles be reported as they really were? Or were there no-go areas?

A brief silence fell over the room... after which the two parties were able to proceed amicably enough to reach an agreement.

The Beatles Book continued to be published for another three years, until December 1969, when it was then obvious to all that the end of the group was nigh. This final issue (#77) contained a long and remarkable article by O'Mahony regarding the circumstances behind the rise and fall of the publication. In it, he levels pointed criticism at the band for their drug use, disassociating himself from that aspect of their lives (Golly, it only took him six-plus years to finally come out and condemn it, but still...).

Although the original print run of The Beatles Book ended in the late '60s, in 1976 O'Mahony revived the magazine, reprinting each of the old issues every month surrounded by eight to sixteen pages of new Beatles-related material. When after six and a half years, he ran out of material to reissue in September 1982, O'Mahony kept the magazine going with new articles and information for another twenty years, finally throwing in the towel with issue #321 in 2003. By then, circulation had dropped to below 10,000, a decent number for a fanzine, but not one to make a publisher economically viable.

I personally have never had much interest in the reissued format of this magazine that started coming out in the mid-70s, and neither have many fans. However, the original Sixties run is highly sought after and celebrated by Beatles aficionados, who eagerly sell and trade old copies on sites like eBay and Amazon. A few years ago, I found an offering of the original seventy-seven issues digitized in .pdf format, and moved quickly to acquire a copy. I can't remember for the life of me where I found these; I'd like to give the compiler the props he or she is due. But in any event, here they are for your Beatles reading enjoyment: the entire original print run of The Beatles Book, from 1963 to 1969, formatted for viewing on your computer or printing, if you're so inclined.

This one's for the legions of Beatles fans out there! Download, have a gander, and as always... well, you know.

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Various Artists - A Christmas Gift For You From Phil Spector (RS500 - #142)

Many months ago, I posted three discs from the Phil Spector: Back To Mono (1958-1969) box set on this blog (posted here). What I didn't mention was that this compilation was a FOUR-disc set. Here's the fourth disc, A Christmas Gift For You From Phil Spector, originally released on Philles Records in 1963 (unfortunately, on the same day as the Kennedy assassination) and reissued with the box set in 1991 on ABKCO Records.

This is arguably the greatest Christmas album of all time, and one of the first compilations of classic holiday tunes interpreted by modern artists. Every one of the Christmas albums you can find nowadays, from the likes of The Rat Pack, Herb Alpert, The Stylistics; various soul singers and Motown artists; country Christmases, jazz Christmases, polka Christmases, etc. - all of these albums can trace their origins back to A Christmas Gift . . . This is pretty much what started all of that.

Each and every song version included here is a bonafide, stone-cold CLASSIC holiday song. Frankly, there's really nothing else for me to say about this offering. This is the one by which all other Christmas compilations are measured, and well-deserving of its inclusion on the Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Albums Of All Time.

And thus, here you are. Merry Christmas!

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Stan Getz & Joao Gilberto - Getz/Gilberto (RS500 - #454)

Another Rolling Stone 500 list travesty. This album, released on Verve in 1963, is basically one of the top five greatest jazz albums of all time; the definitive expression of bossa nova; the album that made "The Girl From Ipanema" a worldwide hit and jazz standard, and Astrud Gilberto an international singing star; one of the most artistically and commercially successful jazz albums of all time . . . and it's only the 454th best album ever? Bullcrap. I guess that's what happens when you let rock industry dopers decide the 'greatest music ever'.

It's a pity, because not only is this album great, it is BEYOND essential, one of those truly "you must have this in your collection, or you're a nitwit" sort of albums. I'm not a big jazz guy myself, but this was one of the first albums I ever purchased.

Hearing the effortless collaboration between Stan Getz, Joao Gilberto and the unheralded but truly important third member, pianist Antonio Carlos Jobim, always reminds me of sunny Sunday spring and summer afternoons in Virginia when I was a little boy. My parents would get us up fairly early on those mornings to get us dressed for church before getting dressed in their Sunday finest themselves. We couldn't go outside to play while we waited, for fear of getting dirty. So we all sat downstairs in the den, watching 'Davey & Goliath' and hoping we could get to the end of the show before my folks came down and loaded us into the VW van. We'd spend the rest of the morning at St. Mary's Catholic Church downtown, and maybe afterwards we would head over to my grandmother's or aunt's homes along Virginia Beach Boulevard for a short visit before heading for home.

There, we could finally take off those itchy, uncomfortable church clothes and jump into something more comfortable. My brother and I would then head out the front door to find our friends, like Ricky, Craig & Paul, Warren & Wendell, etc. We usually ran past my dad, who had already settled into his big chair in the corner of the living room with the Sunday Virginian-Pilot close at hand, and his huge vintage maple Telefunken stereo (acquired in Germany during his travels in the Navy) filling the room with soft jazz or easy listening music - stuff that he liked, including this album, which was what he played more often than not.

Even when I was that young age, the atmosphere created by days like that made a distinct impression on me. I still recall the little things about those days: the midday sun coming in through the half-lowered venetian blinds, throwing lines of light on the white shag carpet in the living room; the sound of a prop airplane flying overhead, its steady buzz barely discernible over the quiet music; parts of the newspaper on the floor by the chair, signifying that my dad had finished reading those sections.

For me, Getz/Gilberto is the music of memories, of faraway times like those I knew as a boy, times that will never again come to pass.

Then again, I don't know - maybe I'm just a sentimental cat. Either way, get this album, and listen to it - you will not be disappointed.

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