Customer Reviews

The Beatles: 10 YEARS THAT SHOOK THE WORLD

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"The Beatles: Ten Years That Shook the World" is a reprint and expanded version of three special issues of Mojo magazine published in the United Kingdom. The exact themed title of each of these magazines were:

"The Beatles: 1,000 Days That Shook the World, the Psychedelic Beatles, April 1, 1965 to December 26, 1967", published in 2002,

"The Beatles: 1,000 Days of Beatlemania, the Early Years, April 1, 1962 to December 31, 1964", published in 2003, and

"The Beatles: 1,000 Days of Revolution, the Beatles Final Years, January 1, 1968 to September 27, 1969" published in 2003.

This book is an exact reprint of each of these magazines with the minor changes of some type and background colors and a very few substituted photographs. The original magazines covered specific 1,000 days periods in the history of the Beatles. This book includes additional articles in the same format from before, in-between, and after the period dates covered in the magazines to flesh-out a full ten year period from the beginning to end of the 1960s, with some coverage of the band's earliest origins in the 1950s.

Rather than offer a running text with photographs of the history of the Beatles, as is the format of most books on the Beatles, this book offers dozens of individually written articles, many by the finest known authors on the subjects of rock music history and the Beatles in peticular, each covering some specific aspect of the Beatles. Each record, each concert tour, each motion picture is covered in depth, but what is so particularly interesting about this book is that with its magazine format of individual articles, this book offers dozens of one-or-two page articles that report in incredible detail specific incidents about the Beatles that usually only receive two-or-three lines of type in even the very best books about the Beatles. Also, it seems there were smallish events about the Beatles back in England that made the daily papers over there that might not have been as widely reported here in the U. S. Because of the decidedly British veiwpoint of this book those long-ago remembered newspaper items are recalled here with detail and humor.

Two specific examples from the descriptions in the previous paragraph:

1.) Raymond Jones is often mentioned as the first customer to inquire about the Beatles at Brian Epstein's record shop. It was Epstein's determination to find out about this local musical group which started the Beatles to international fame. That early fan is thus honored in this book with a two page article, interview, and photographs. Indeed, a pivitol character in the Beatles' story.

2.) It seems that Brian Epstein (by this time the group's manager) was distracted from the group for perhaps a day, long enough for a fund raising executive from a major British charitable organization to get the Beatles to pose for photos showing he and them holding the charity's placcards and collection cups, which made it into the newspapers that same day. An article in this book details this brief incident and how hard Epstein hit the roof when he saw the pictures in the papers!

This book is just full of stuff like this, really great articles and photographs the likes of which I never seen in any other books about the Beatles, of which there are more than I can count.

Having said all this, I can say that this is one of the very finest books about the Beatles I have ever seen. I urge all fans of the Beatles who care to read about the group to please own a copy of this book.

A final postscript: The first of the three Mojo magazine special editions ("the Psychedelic Beatles") fetches fairly high prices for used copies. It seems this issue was not widely distributed at newsstands in the U. S., whereas the second and third editions were indeed widely available on U. S. newsstands and do not re-sale for nearly as much.

This book does a service to all by reprinting the articles that appeared in Mojo magazine in re the Beatles. Articles that were at one time not as readily accessible outside of the U.K. have been presented in their fresh, crisp form. The book picks up where the articles left off and includes plenty of bonus material that covers the pre-Beatle era, e.g. the days of John Lennon's group, the Quarrymen, the precursor group to the Beatles. Inclusion of material about early musical influences such as Elvis and Buddy Holly are given good coverage as well.

What makes this book stand out from so many others is the myriad of articles and personal perspectives about the Beatles, their work and their cultural influence. This work treats the subject with in-depth reporting ranging from the humorous, light-reporting of "trivia" to the more serious issues about the Beatles themselves.

I like the way individuals who had previously received little coverage are honored and recognized. A good example of this is Raymond Jones, the man who encouraged Beatles' manager Brian Epstein to check out their work.

Another aspect that I really like is the way a Beatle chonology is given of activities, concerts, recordings and song releases. This is the book every Beatle fan must have!

This is such an exceptionally high caliber work. I cannot recommend it highly enough.

If you liked the Anthology book, then you'll like this. The pictures are the best part about it because it is colour throught with hundreds of rare photos. The majority of the photos i have never seen before. And I have never heard of a lot of the stories before either.
The book is split up in hundreds of different bits. You get a page or two about one sepcific event, i.e. the london palladium show, and a couple of pictures, and then it goes onto another event.
So you can dip into the book, read a page, and then skip to another page 50 pages on without losing the thread. It sounds disjointed, but it works surprisingly well.

If you are like me a beatles maniac fan and would love to know all the little small things, facts, thoughts concerning these wonderful group, dont think about it, buy this book. I have a lot of beatles books plus others that Ive taken out of my University library, and believe me I finally read a book where I have actually read something new about them, you know how every single book writes about the same thing any beatles fan already knows....well not this one....its got LOTS of new stuff.
Go get it well worth it.
Enjoy.

I must say that I'm very impressed with this, the latest addition to the vast number of tomes written about the Beatles. What impresses me is that just when you think you've seen it all, this one adds even more. There are many images in this book that I've never laid eyes on before probably because I wasn't living in England at the time these images were first released.
The format of the book is quite easy to follow and there are many interesting 1-2 page chapters about little "side aspects" of the Beatles such as the "Butcher Cover", the Beatles burning in 1966, their 2 day horror ride in the Phillipines and the mysterious, legendary Raymond Jones amongst many, many items. This is an England-based perspective so the well presented LP reviews focus on the original UK format releases. The supplied "calendar chronology" supplies us with key dates in Beatles History however I suspect that it isn't deliberately "thorough" as it is ground that's already been covered in books such as Mark Lewisohn's "The Beatles Chronicle" or "The Beatles: A Diary" by Miles. This is not a criticism, just an observation. I would advise readers to view those particular books for even more minute day-by-day detail if that's what you crave. As a book it is quite an interesting read though I've had more a cursory glance at it than read it cover to cover, however I'm very glad I bought it. It's a book that I've picked up repeatedly since it arrived.
Having over 50 of them, I'm particularly selective of the Beatles books that I buy. There are so many more out there. It's offers enough different elements of he lads to warrant having this book in my collection. I'm proud to own it and you will be too.

Mojo and Q magazines were founded by a Liverpudlian-Paul du Noyer,whose books include Wondrous Place:The story of Liverpool music-and We all shine on:The songs of John lennon.
This book is a collection of all Beatles and Beatles related articles published by the magazine from the late 80s.
So you know what you're getting here is pretty accurate stuff,written by people who know their subject.

This is really a coffee table book because it is packed with pictures on every page - not unlike the Beatles Anthology.
But what makes it better than a coffee table book is the content.

Every page tells a different story. It is almost set out like a magazine - one article after another - in chronological order.

I have been dipping in and out of it for two weeks now, and am enjoying it immensly.

Yes, there is much about the Beatles's last full year together: 1969. There is much about "Abbey Road" and Apple and the "Get Back" sessions. However, there is very, very little about the major cultural phenomenon that has become know in rock 'n' roll circles as the "Paul-Is-Dead" hoax. This bizarre chapter of the band's story is not sufficiently represented in this book -- good as it is. To get the whole story behind McCartney's rumored death (eventually proved false, of course), the reader is directed to the new book "Turn Me On, Dead Man" by Andru J. Reeve. It's definitely the best Beatles book of the year. I bought my copy right here at Amazon. Anyway, back to "10 Years That Shook The World" -- it gets a VERY solid 4 stars because it is a beautiful book, gloriously illustrated and a lot of fun to read. If they allowed half-stars and quarter-stars here at Amazon, I'd give this book 4 and three-quarters stars -- it's just not a perfect "5". But it's close!

This book is gorgeous in it's lay out and presentation. The articles are arranged in a magazine style format with a very imaginative what?,where?.when?, tag at the top of each article. I must say that some of these articles were written by some of the best Beatles writers and authorities in the world like,Hunter Davies,Barry Miles, Mark Lewisohn, and Ian Macdonald, to name but a few. However, some seem to be written by MOJO staff writers who's knowledge of the Beatles would fit in a thimble. These particular authors had to relie on previously written books to assimilate their info.,so for the M.B.E. ceremony you get that stupid story about the boys smoking a joint in the palace bathroom before meeting the queen. (probably taken from Lennon Remembers which should have been retitled,Lennon is Angry this Week and Wants to Make Up a Bunch of Shock Stories.) A few of these ridiculous Beatles folk lore tales are retold in this book because the young staff writers at MOJO simply didn't know better. Seriously,with the drug penalties of 1965, would the boys have risked their entire career and reputation for a spliff in the QUEEN'S bathroom?
I did love the record reviews of each album, complete with vintage music reviews and commentary from Beatle fans in the music biz. Unfortunately the reviews of the earlier albums were given to those young staff writters again,(and they wouldn't know a Beatles album from a Cowsills album apparently.) It would have been nice if the reviewer for Beatles for Sale had taken the time to find out who is singing on Kansas City,instead of saying, "And WHOEVER is singing on Kansas City sounds great." Why were people like this allowed to write in the first place?
Also some of the picture captions are wrong. One of John and Paul is off by 3 years! (ouch) If I sound annoyingly anal,it's because I am anal when it comes to the Beatles. I've studied and read everything about them and because of this,I'm finding that I seem to know more than a lot of people who are making money writing about them. I always want to fix the many mistakes I find, and they are in every book except the ones by real experts like the fine writers I mentioned before.
Don't misunderstand, the wonderful things in this book far outweigh the anoying mistakes. In fact Ten Years... reminds me of the Beatles Anthology so it is definetly one of those must haves for the library. The pictures are absolutely gorgeous and almost all of them rare. The articles are facinating because they don't just retell the same story but they dig deeper,revealing unknown facts. They are written in a way that makes them seem fresh.
Also I really enjoyed the contributions from famous Beatles photographers with some of their most beautiful photos of the boys, and interesting anecdotes about working with them. You'll find everything here; the music,the mania,the private lives,and the personalities of the four who did indeed shake the world and changed our culture forever.

once youve read one story you have got to read them all, they go into detail about john and paul and its just great. theres stories for just about everything.

the pictures are clear and amazing, most, if not all of them you cannot find on the internet, this book is gigantic, almost the size of text books, which makes the pictures even more amazing.

you are not a beatles fan unless you have this book.