Abbey Road/Let It Be : The Beatles (Classic Rock Albums Series) [Paperback]

Peter Doggett (Author)

Book Description

Series: Classic Rock Albums | Publication Date: February 1, 1998

Classic Rock Albums is a series of 6 books on famous albums that changed the way rock and roll was heardand played. Each book opens with a brief history of the group, their previous recordings, and their importance in rock. The main section of the text focuses on the album itselfhow it was recorded, the songs, the trivia and interesting information about the process of making and packaging the record. Finally, critical reactionthen and nowis summarized along with a brief essay on the album's place in musical history and the group's remaining work.Let It Be and Abbey Road were the products of a series of sessions that turned out to be the last the Beatles made. The Beatles undertook to return to their "rootsto make a simple live album and to document the process on film. Unfortunately, the sessions turned cantankerous, and a mountain of materialoriginal songs, oldies, fragmentswas recorded but never completed. The film crew only made matters worse, requiring sessions to take place early in the morning, as well as capturing much of the dissension and arguing among the ranks. In the end, the sessions were shelved, and the Beatles returned to the studio to make their "last" album: Abbey Road.Here, the entire story of the sessions is told, revealing the Beatles's unique working methods and documenting the dissolution of one of rock's most important bands. The book reveals in detail the acrimonious recording sessions for the Beatles last two albums. What brought them together for the sessions? What drove them apart? How did they manage to write and record many of their best-loved songs in the midst of their disintegration?Peter Doggett is the editor of Record Collector and well-known British writer on rock musicespecially the Beatles.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

These two titles fall in a new series on some of rock's most important albums. Doggett (Lou Reed: Growing Up in Public, Omnibus, 1992) bypasses the more obvious "Sgt. Pepper" and instead chronicles the agonizing death rattle that was the Beatles' 1969 "Get Back" project. The idea was to record and film the Beatles, stripped of any studio trickery, rehearsing for their first live performance in three years. Instead, apathy, dreadful working conditions, and inter-Beatle bickering turned the sessions into a public viewing of the group's self-destruction. Miraculously, a few months later the four Beatles became fab again, creating what may be their crowning achievement, "Abbey Road." Sixteen months after the original sessions Phil "Wall of Sound" Spector salvaged (some say ruined) the "Get Back" tapes in the form of the rechristened Let It Be album. Unfortunately, Doggett's unflinching examination is made somewhat redundant by Doug Sulpy and Ray Schweighardt's more detailed Get Back: The Unauthorized Chronicle of the Beatles "Let It Be" Disaster (LJ 7/97). The story of the Sex Pistols' one and only album is the story of the band itself. For all their rejection of 1970s rock excesses, it is to their chagrin that the enormously influential Never Mind the Bollocks took nearly the entire life span of the group to complete. Refreshingly, Heylin (Bootleg: The Secret History of the Other Recording Industry, LJ 5/1/95) and Antonia waste little print on the Pistols' notorious exploits and focus instead on the band's recording history. The authors leave the reader with a surprising appreciation for the Sex Pistols' musical ability and pop craftsmanship, distancing the band from the breakneck style of contemporaries like the Ramones. Both books are bolstered by annotated track listings and reprints of selected period reviews. Other albums treated in this series are Cream's Disraeli Gears and David Bowie's The Rise & Fall of Ziggy Stardust & the Spiders from Mars. Recommended for most pop music collections.?Lloyd Jansen, Stockton-San Joaquin Cty. P.L., Stockton, CA
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Paperback: 172 pages
• Publisher: Schirmer Trade Books; 28th ed. edition (February 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0028647726
• ISBN-13: 978-0028647722
• Product Dimensions: 9.9 x 6.7 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,382,394 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Peter Doggett has been writing about popular music, the entertainment industry and social and cultural history since 1980.

A regular contributor to Mojo, Q and GQ, his books include The Art and Music of John Lennon, a volume detailing the creation of the Beatles' Let It Be and Abbey Road albums; the pioneering study of the collision between rock and country music, Are You Ready for the Country?, There's a Riot Going On: Revolutionaries, Rock Stars and the Rise and Fall of 60s Counter-culture, and, most recently,You Never Give Me Your Money: The Beatles After the Breakup, out in June of 2010.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Well-researched, compelling narrative of group's demise, November 11, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Abbey Road/Let It Be : The Beatles (Classic Rock Albums Series) (Paperback)

The circumstances surrounding the break-up of the Beatles have been shrouded in myth ever since the group assembled their Let It Be project. Doggett's book provides a gripping and persuasive account of the tensions that wracked the group in their final years, drawing on the hours of conversations and chaotic music-making captured on the so-called Get Back tapes. This material, never previously published, allows the reader to feel like a fly-on-the-wall as the Beatles implode. Remarkably, it's Paul McCartney, usually pegged as the villain of the piece, who emerges as the book's hero - the only one of the Fab Four prepared to stand up for the integrity of the group's reputation. Doggett's book altered the way in which I looked at these sessions, and indeed the entire responsibility for the break-up of the Beatles.

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Summary of the Story Behind the Last Months of The Beatles, July 23, 2009

By 

J. Jolly (Oak Harbor, WA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

I re-read this book after getting excited about the pending Abbey Road DLC for Rockband Beatles that comes out in September. Doggett does a great job describing the dynamics of John, Paul, George & Ringo's relationship as they produced their last recordings as The Beatles. After providing a timeline view of the creation of the last two albums of the catalog, he gives a short look at each song on the records and how they came to pass. You'd have to be a Beatles fan to really appreciate it fully but I am and I did.

3 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Let It Be, September 4, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Abbey Road/Let It Be : The Beatles (Classic Rock Albums Series) (Paperback)

Perhaps a bit too exhaustive and too reverential treatment of the Beatles' last two albums. There are other books available detailing all of their albums in a single volume. This does not add much to any of the others.