Customer Reviews

The Beatles Box

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The Beatle Box Set is a must have for all Beatles' fans and anybody with an interest in the Beatles. Clayson does intense, in-depth reporting on each Beatle and offers many interesting facts and fresh information. He provides footnotes for his sources and his work is indeed scholarly and impressive.

I like the way he focusses on each Beatle individually and how each Beatle's life circumstances helped create the unique, distinct and very individual style that each one had. One gets a "sense" of each Beatle; Clayson does an admirable job of covering cultural/musical as well as other influences each Beatle said impacted on his life and music.

Clayson's tone throughout all these biographies was very off putting to me. He seems to see everything through a jaundiced lens. I don't know, it just left me, a big Beatle fan... cold. He also writes the longest sentences I've ever seen. There is plenty of information you've probably never read before, but you'll have to put up with Clayson's tedious writing style. I ended up just paging through the index. I do have to admit, he did alot of research. It's definitely got some gems. That's why I gave it three stars.

I received this as a gift and was super excited about it. I already have read many John Lennon bios and have watched many Beatles bios. So far though I've only gotten a few chapters into George and Paul. It's hard getting into these books, as they are more about the Beatles history than the individuals. I was hoping for more in depth information about them as people and not so much as them as The Beatles. I've noticed a lot with the Paul book that the author goes on for 2-3 pages at a time about bands that started out like the Beatles and didn't make it. Why not go write a book about those bands instead of taking up space in a book that is suppose to be about Paul McCartney? If you're looking for a detailed book about each artist as an individual, look elsewhere. Quite disappointed with these books.

I've been a fan of the Beatles for a little over a year now, and I must say, I've never known this much on each individual before. These books are great to start on, seeing that you can read in any order, and the detail and research is excellent.

Great metaphors are used, and its intriguing to actually get to read those instead of just know about it. If that made any sense . . .

Anyway, this is a very great buy.

This book - I refer to the George Harrison biography - feels like rushed writing - not surprisingly, as Clayson was commissioned to pen four books, one on each Beatle, for a boxed set. As earlier reviewers have stated, there are inaccuracies. Here are two more glaring ones.

Firstly, in 1970-71, the military junta in Pakistan sent in the Army and paramilitaries (some of the latter were drawn from Islamist parties and also from the Bihari minority in East Pakistan) to deliberate terrorise and massacre Bengali civilians, the vast majority of whom also happen to be Muslim; these troops, etc. targeted especially intellectuals of all religions and also specifically members of the large Hindu minority. It was a shameful and heinous episode. However, Clayson is incorrect to state that both the Western and Eastern parts of Pakistan (now Pakistan and Bangladesh, of course) had Hindu majorities. West Pakistan had a very small Hindu minority, while, as stated above, East Pakistan had a larger Hindu minority. For obvious reasons, these minorities had become smaller during and since the bloody events of the Partition of India in 1947.

Secondly, he refers to the "Mohammed and Jewish religions". Eh? Mohammed is a name, not a religion. Did he mean to say, 'Mohammedanism'? That, too is inaccurate and laughably archaic. It should be (as everyone this side of Pluto surely now knows), "Islamic and Jewish religions". His editors should have picked up on this error.

Perhaps these, and the other inaccuracies to which earlier reviewers have alluded, are symptomatic of the 'hack' nature of much of the writing. There are illuminatory bits, but these are swamped by the turgid and paradoxically rushed nature of much of the text - especially that concerning the Sixties period.

I also got the feeling that actually, deep down, Clayson doesn't really empathise with his subject and indeed was irritated by Harrison. This is a problem for a biographer.

Lastly, like most Western writers, Clayson knows zilch about South Asian music, is resistant to learning more, and is also in insightless, imperialistic denial about the enormous influence of that music on rock music.

If you want to learn more about the Beatles' music, read 'Revolution in the Head', by Ian MacDonald. That is a far more perceptive book - though obviously it covers only the Sixties.

These are very heavily researched biographys on each member of the Beatles. I haven't read them all as of right now but if are looking for incredible detail then this is what you want. The things mentioned are insane.. If you were looking to find out who was in the room when McCartney wrote Yesterday.. or what songs John Lennon was listening to when he was on the road.. you'll most likely find it in here. Although, I do find this all information to saturate the works. It is great to read every now and then... I can't imagine sitting down and reading all of them one by one.