Beatles for Sale: The Musical Secrets of the Greatest Rock 'n' Roll Band of All Time [Paperback]

David Rowley (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 2003

Find out the tricks the Beatles used in the studio, their songwriting formulas, the music they stole from others and the commercial compromises they made to get hit singles. This volume also aims to get behind the personalities of the fab four. Find out what songs should have been McCartney/Lennon rather than Lennon/McCartney, about their inter-band rivalries and how John Lennon and Paul McCartney sidelined George Harrison's songwriting.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

Marketed as cynically as any boy band of today, the Beatles may be the most extraordinary music phenomenon of the last century—but not everything is known about their songs. Here, for the first time, their songwriting and recording secrets are disclosed: their studio tricks, their songwriting formulas, the music they “stole” from others, and the commercial compromises they made to achieve hit status. Including a chronological survey that reveals something new about every song released, Beatles for Sale may be the most informative and frank account of their music ever written. Journalist David Rowley writes for numerous publications, including THE GUARDIAN, TIME OUT, and the INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY.

About the Author

David Rowley is an experienced journalist and has written for numerous national papers and magazines including Time Out, The Guardian and the Independent on Sunday. Last year he published his first book entitled Virgin Internet Auction Guide. He is a fanatical Beatles fan and runs the popular Beatles website www.sgtpepper.co.uk. David currently lives in London with his wife and daughter.

Product Details

• Paperback: 223 pages
• Publisher: Mainstream Publishing Company (March 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1840185678
• ISBN-13: 978-1840185676
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 2.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,507,163 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars lots of statements, no real proof, June 24, 2003

By 

P. J. Walstra "pwalstra" - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Beatles for Sale: The Musical Secrets of the Greatest Rock 'n' Roll Band of All Time (Paperback)

This book provides a song-by-song account (in chronological order of release) of everything The Beatles ever recorded and released as a group (although it mysteriously leaves out Anthology 3 and BBC). The author has set himself the task to prove that "The Beatles weren't Gods, but four highly motivated, but otherwise normal, Liverpool lads". Four lads, who in their early career, suppressed their artistic urges in favour of monetary gain and a high media profile. After they had become hugely successful, they could then reap the benefits from all the hard work, and allow themselves to experiment, as EMI didn't have a clue (according to the author) as to where they or the pop music market were headed. The author stresses the point (a lot!) that in order to understand The Beatles' music and thereby deconstructing the myths that surround it, it is important to recognize the influence of the work of other artists on their songs, stating that "Writing music from thin air can be a long and torturous process; it is often far easier to start from the basis of someone else's song and adapt part of it into something new". To prove that The Beatles worked like this, the author quotes George Harrison who once claimed that if you named him any Beatles song, he could tell you the record it was based on, and further quotes John Lennon who once said that he would often take another artist's song and would change it to the point he couldn't be sued for it. Although the author then states that it's not true that all Beatles songs were a result of reworking other songs, he keeps coming back to it in the text that follows in the rest of the book. Now we all know that Please, Please Me was influenced by Roy Orbison, but the the author's list goes on and on: I Saw Her Standing There - based on `Talkin' Bout You' and `Little Queenie', Do You Want To Know A Secret - based on `Runaround Sue' and `It Might As Well Rain Until September', I'm Only Sleeping - based on `Daydream', Yer Blues - based on `Heartbreak Hotel', In My Life - based on `Tracks Of My Tears', Michelle - based on `Trombone' and so on and on and on). Of course other songs that were around at the time influenced The Beatles, but to state it like this is just not on.
I personally feel he went way over the top with all the references to other songs he thinks he has found. Apart from this list of plagiarism, the book provides a description of each song and for the Lennon/McCartney songs, tries to indicate who was the principal writer. As remarked here often before, everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but once it's in print you have to explain why you think that a certain songs is either good or bad. Just to call `She's A Woman' a simplistic power-chord rocker, calling the lyrics to `Another Girl' revealing of Paul's spoilt pop-prince behaviour at the time and `If I Needed Someone' a song that goes nowhere, and then not providing any solid information as to why, isn't helping anyone.
Unfortunately, this book is absolutely full of such statements, and that is why, together with the objections raised regarding the alleged plagiarism, I really can't recommend this book.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars TRULY HORRIBLE, March 23, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Beatles for Sale: The Musical Secrets of the Greatest Rock 'n' Roll Band of All Time (Paperback)

This book is a truly ridiculous attempt to make the reader look a bit closer at the Beatles' canon of songs and realize that the fab four really weren't all that fab after all.
Going song by song, the author repeatedly accuses the band of essentially ripping off other people's music and endlessly uses adjectives like 'lame' and 'mundane' when describing their songs. I really had to stop reading this piece of trash when the author asserted that the song "The End" was good until ruined by Paul's lyric "and in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make". What PLANET is this guy from?!!

Terrible. I am returning this book for a store credit this morning.....

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Opinions are like bungholes, everybody's got one, January 27, 2004

By 

Brad Kisling (Pocatello, Idaho United States) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Beatles for Sale: The Musical Secrets of the Greatest Rock 'n' Roll Band of All Time (Paperback)

First of all the sub title to this book was musical secrets of The Beatles, which is why I had my wife get this for me for x-mas-that title sure sounded interesting and I was hoping to find out something new musically wise---let me say this, the "musical secrets" are nothing more that this idiot's misinformed and often lame OPINIONS of the songs themselves--which, are given as pure fact, and, like stated in other reviews, have no meritial evidence or explaination offered to back them up. In fact, I wish I had the time to list all the fallacies this guy offers up as indisputible fact, but I don't, so all I can say is this is just another pathetic Beatle Rip Off Book, that proves once again that any book with the words "The Beatles" on the cover is going to sell. It's sad that new fans that don't know much about the band could read this and believe any of it, while hard core fans like myself would waste any of their time and money on it. I wouldn't recommend this book to anyone to even waste their spittle talking about this piece of crap. I just wish I could give it a negative star and not be forced to give it 1 star.