Beatles Undercover with CD (Audio) [Paperback]

Kristofer K. Engelhardt (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1998

Book and CD. A reference book which explores the origins and evolution of The Beatles' contributions to other artists' music, along with a brief biographical sketch of each of these artists. In short, this book is about The Beatles' admiration for and generous support of their friends and fellow musicians. For those of you who thought the music of John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr was confined to The Beatles and their solo recordings, you are in for a very big and pleasant surprise. The CD contains 3 previously unreleased recordings only available with this book.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Kristofer K Engelhardt

Product Details

• Paperback: 534 pages
• Publisher: Collector's Guide Publishing (August 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1896522432
• ISBN-13: 978-1896522432
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 5.9 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,836,385 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A great read, and a major piece of scholarship, December 15, 1999

By 

garby francis leon (Los Angeles CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Beatles Undercover with CD (Audio) (Paperback)

This is really a terrific book for a lot of reasons -- best of all it's completely fun to read (you won't be able to put it down) plus it's so packed with rare and esoteric information that in about five minutes you'll have absorbed enough obscure factoids to impress anybody at the next Beatles convention, and even sound nearly as expert as author Kristofer Engelhardt himself, a true Beatles scholar and collector who has lovingly gathered the information here for the past seven years. That in itself is extraordinary: how many writers have spent seven years researching one book? And the author's ambitious scope is immediately obvious: it's amazing how active and involved the Beatles have been in other musicians' recording sessions from the most famous (Dylan, Beach Boys, Zappa) to the utterly obscure (Crowbar, Splinter, Timon, though most musicians here will be familiar) as well as to combinations of both (who were all those players in 'Elephant's Memory'? ).

But what makes this book really so valuable is that Engelhardt has a professional historian's fanaticism for accuracy. Full disclosure: I've been lucky enough to know couple of the musicians discussed here (Dennis and Brian Wilson, guitar legend Jesse Ed Davis) and the facts Engelhardt entertainingly lays out in BEATLES UNDERCOVER are all rock-solid as far as I can tell. Tangential rant: it's not widely known but a lot of rock and roll "history" books are junk...woefully inaccurate and historically useless, with various tales, myths and canards repeated ad infinitum verbally and then immortalized in print by so-called professional writers who really don't know what they're talking about (Steve Gaines' book on the Beach Boys is a glaring example... ). Here you get the real thing -- as far as I can tell everything here is solid gold you can take to the bank, and no doubt BEATLES UNDERCOVER will be must-read basic source material for all future writers with a serious interest in the Beatles and the 60's-and-beyond pop music scene.

Besides the Beatles' own stories there's a further interest served with Engelhardt's fascinating and erudite thumbnail overviews of the careers of all the non-Beatle artists discussed. If you didn't know that Count Basie was born in 1904, started on the drums and then studied piano with Fats Waller, it's all here, and if BEATLES UNDERCOVER does neglect to mention that Jesse Ed Davis claimed to have taught Duane Allman how to play the slide guitar -- a claim with substantial merit it turns out -- that's only because the Beatles never jammed with the Allman brothers ... because if they had, they'd be in this book!. A great read, and a major piece of scholarship that will be re-read for pleasure and consulted for serious study for a long time to come.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Surprisingly good, November 7, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Beatles Undercover with CD (Audio) (Paperback)

I am a Beatles freak (I just attended the 1999 Beatlefest in Irvine, CA two days ago), but checked this book out of the library reluctantly, thinking it would mainly be boring trivia, and maybe 5 pages out of the whole book would be interesting. Books that categorize minutae are mainly good as RESEARCH books worth pulling off a shelf only when you need to look up a fact, rather than good READING experiences. But, boy, was I pleasantly suprised to find this to be a riveting piece of work. It includes fascinating facts you'd never learn anywhere else, plus, best of all, there are some wonderful stories about the Beatles in these pages. And they are well written. One of my big complaints about a lot of "historical" books is that the authors are often brilliant RESEARCHERS, but they are dull WRITERS. But Englehardt has that rare and blessed combination of being a great researcher and a first-rate writer. I kept reading the book, thinking it had to bog down somewhere, but it really kept my interest from the first page to the last.

Having praised the book so highly, I do have to add that the music on the CD that comes with it is not very good. It's interesting for one listen to hear songs that individual Beatles were involved in. But you probably won't want to play it more after the first listen has satisfied your curiosity about it.

But the book is suprisingly good, and should be read by anyone who considers him/herself a diehard Beatles fan.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This book is Incredible, April 18, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Beatles Undercover with CD (Audio) (Paperback)

Beatles Undercover is mandatory reading for any fan of the fab four.It not only lists every conceivable session that The Beatles played on that was not a Beatles project -(UNDER "cover" - get it?), but it gives an in-depth bio on the people who played with John, Paul, George & Ringo. Doris Troy, David Peel, Denny Laine, Jo Jo Laine (who phoned me last night!), and many more.Alvin Lee's "Real Life Blues" featuring Jon Lord of Deep Purpleand George Harrison is just oneexample of the nuggets uncovered here. The bio information on thesongs and the artists is even morein-depth than ROCK ENCYCLOPEDIA byLillian Roxon, which set the standard way back in the sixties.And that is the highest praise I cangive this or any book