Customer Reviews

The Lost Beatles Interviews

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

 

 

To begin with, this is not a book of "LOST" interveiws. Many of them Beatles fans probably know by heart (John & the "Beatles bigges than God" appology). There are a number of Beatle "Interveiw" books by Giuliano, which makes the public wonder how long is going to milk it?! However there are some merits to the book & it is an interesting read. As with most of Giuliano's books, the public is suspect on what to believe (i.e. Are these full transcripts he is presenting in this collection?... probably or obviously not. Are the interveiws edited?... etc). Giuliano's poor literary skills make a great candidate for the job of writter for the National Inquirer. But take the interveiws for what they are worth. Pay attention to how the interveiws he personally conducted are skewed. He kisses up to Yoko, he has an obvious crush on Jo Jo Laine (most of his books always contain a sexy photo of her), and how John's sister Julia had to interveiw Paul (probably because Paul declined to be around Giuliano anymore due to his pathetic writing & backstabbing). On page 157 George Harrison puts it in focus "... there have been so many Beatle books - and no doubt there will be many more - written by people who are so-called experts and 99% are just lies or just written from other sources". How true George, how true !!!

First of all - these interviews were never lost, just ignored for the marginal value they have.

Second - Beatles? Hardly, except for press conference quotes and peripheral documentation.

What's that leave us with in this "Lost Interviews" book? More collating and occasional primary work with questionable expert witnesses (Jo Jo Laine? AGAIN?) - and collation is the work of a clerk, not a scholar.

I'd ask how this so-called, self-appointed "expert" Giuliano sleeps at night after ripping off unsuspecting Beatles fans, but given the volume of his "work", I'd say he probably sleeps VERY well off all that Beatle-money.

I agree with other reader, that Jo Jo Laine's interview was quite revealing. It sure was a different slant than most books say in regards to Linda as a person. I didn't feel it was a slam to Paul. Some of the interviews mention that Paul's controlling but I feel his being such a perfectionist gives that impression. I would much rather have Paul a control freak than a whimp anyway. I certainly learned some things about John and Yoko's relationship and not all good either. I think its a good book at the very least it expresses what the people who were interviewed felt at the time and who are we to say it was any different.

I loved this well put together collection of interviews with the Beatles and their inner circle. Thank heavens for this book. These interviews are indeed historical and might well have been lost to time if it wasn't for the efforts of author Giuliano. A must read for all Beatles fans.

I love the Beatles music. I try to find books that will help me better understand who these people really were and what inspires them and gives them strength. However in this book I found a lengthy begining filled with common interviews that did nothing for me. I lulled my way through and did find some "interesting" gossip toward the end coming from Jo Jo Laine about the unhappy relationships amoungst the band Wings. I also read Giuliano's book on John Lennon's lost interviews and was more satisfied with it then with this book. Geoff seems to be more concerned with dissing Paul, praising John and hating Yoko then telling the truth. As he said in responce to a host on a talk show when asked why he has written so many Beatle related books "Look, you want ratings, I want book sales." He questions John's intellegence for choosing Yoko as a life partner while praising his genious. As far as what the living Beatles think of him, just look at the back cover.There are pictures of G.Giuliano with Paul & Linda and with Yoko & Sean. Both looking not so comfortable being oh-so-close to Geoffrey.

The Beatles were so charismatic, interesting, quotable and funny, it's hard to imagine that a compilation of Beatles interviews could miss the mark. But The Lost Beatles Interviews is off target.

For me, the book started off on a sour note, in the introduction, with Giuliano's somewhat sophomoric summation of McCartney's career and potential. Not absent, of course, was the high praise for both Lennon and Harrison, very easy, predictable stances (after Lennon's death and Harrison's post-Wilbury's resurrection.) Lennon and Harrison were certainly brilliant artists and fascinating people, but Giuliano's reputation as an alleged Beatles expert would suggest he would know better than to dismiss all but two years of McCartney's music career as rather "inconsequential."

Since the bulk of the interviews are of the Beatles themselves, the book keeps your attention. Where it loses its power is in the poorly done interviews with the likes of Pete Best -- who should be a fascinating interview subject and -- Gerry Marsden of Pacemakers fame. The author himself, who interviewed Mr. Best, practically gushed to his subject about how he was known around Liverpool to be a superior drummer to Ringo. That may or may not be the case, but the kissing-up-to-the-subject was almost too much to take. Any amateur can do that. Marsden, despite Giuliano's best efforts, was a lousy interview. He offered virtually no insight into the Beatles other than to say Mr. Lennon was a great guy and that the Beatles and the other Liverpool bands were rock and rollers.

A highlight of the book is Harrison's press conference with Madonna to promote the film Shanghai Surprise. He gave the press what it had coming to it for years of lazy, sensational, mean-spirited work. Conversations with friends and family members of the Beatles were also quite nice.

There is a lot of good in this book but it would have been better had someone else done the (non-historic) interviews.

I did not hate this book but I can only give it 3 stars because: 1)Many of these interviews are not "lost" especially the press conferences. These can be found on line on an excellent web site that I'm not allowed to mention by name. On the site they are in chronological order from October 1962 to around 1970,and even beyond. Being familiar with this site,I realized that Guiliano reprints some of these interviews with many mistakes. Maybe he got them from newspaper archives and the mistakes were already there and he unwittingly reprinted them, but the wrong quotes are attributed to the wrong Beatles. For instance, a lot of things that Paul said are wrongly attributed to John or Ringo,etc. The web site published these interviews from the original audio tapes, and actual video so these are the correct, uncut interviews. In this book Giuliano reprints chopped up versions with as mentioned, many mistakes. Next reason this book wasn't the best: I believe that Mr. Guiliano is a propagandist who has a personal dislike for Paul McCartney, and he doesn't exactly love Ringo Starr or John Lennon either. Why doesn't he like McCartney? Well he never worked for Paul or the Beatles, and although he has met Paul, he never had a personal relationship with him. He has however, enjoyed a lovely relationship with those two sad sacks, Denny Lane and his wife JoJo. He even reprints an interview that HE conducted, complete with sexy photo,with Ms.Lane. In this scintillating interview he asks many leading questions and JoJo is only too happy to blame all of her life's woes on the McCatneys. She blames the failure of her marriage on....you guessed it...the McCartneys. She doesn't make the connection between her admitted, "affairs" and the demise of her marriage, no she chalks it up to not being allowed on all the Wings tours. Why was she banned? It seems that Linda was very insecure about being married to Mr. Gorgeous,and not being very attractive herself. She was jealous of JoJo's beauty,and felt that JoJo was a coniving groupie who was after her husband. This probably has something to do with the filthy love letter that JoJo sent to Paul when he was still in the Beatles. A letter that was obviously so sexy that he kept it. In fairness,Linda did have a lot to be insecure about, also she probably sensed that Paul was attracted to JoJo. How could he not be? I'm sure Paul would not have acted on his attraction but why not be extra careful, and keep temtation as far away as possible? This interview is very revealing, but c'mon people like JoJo Lane are hardly a reliable source. As for Mr. G's oppinion of Ringo? He doesn't seem to have one. You see he's too upset about the fact that Pete Best was sacked. He seems to think that Best was the real talent in the group, and if it weren't for that creep McCartney,(yeah, he gets blamed for this too) the world would not have missed out on all of that mean, moody, magnifisense. I guess he hasn't heard Anthology 1. Best's drumming sounds like he put shoes on his hands and started banging on his pushy mother's pots and pans. Also, this so called Beatles 'expert' has obviously not heard George Harrison's admission that HE was the one behind replacing Pete with Ringo. But George seems to be the only Beatle that Guiliano approves of. Probably because he shares George's love of Indian religion. If you are a Beatles scholar, you may want this book just to have a complete collection of Beatles books, and there are some interesting offerings, especially the "Inner Circle" section. However,you were forewarned. Proceed with caution.

'' The Lost Beatles Interviews" informs fans, like myself, about history of the beatles through an oral biography. Geoffrey Giuliano captures the beatles personalities, from when they were no-bodies to famous musicians.

This book shows their witty,clever personalities that just makes you love them even more. "Question: Do you enjoy press conferences? John: Yes, depending on the intelligence of the question." It will make laugh and at the same time inform you of their great triumphs.

'The Lost Beatles Interviews," was entertaining and kept you interested throughout the whole book. It let you know what was on their minds and their opinions of their success. One issue that the book suggested was not to take drugs. The problem was addressed after their manager, Brian Epstein, died at the age of 32. Another conflict, was their point of view they had on God. They tried to keep religious beliefs to them self's after John made a Jesus remark and had to apologies for it. These issues relate to me because there are students that still take drugs and maybe if they never had role models this wouldn't be an issue now. I also don't take John's remark personally because I believe we're all entitled our opinions.

You can read other issues that the Beatles had to confront throughout history, once you get this book. I would defiantly recommend this book to future Beatles fans. It will help you understand and appreciate their work. It can even bring you and your parents closer together.

Really liked it and took the time to say it here. What a GREAT writer / researcher Giuliano is! The group's not bad either...

I'm only 13 years old (even tho it says I'm 12) but have a big apreciation for the Beatles. I guess I got it from my dad. I'm doing a National History Day project on the Beatles and how they revolutionized the world of music. This book wasn't as good of a resource for my project, but i absolutely love it for just fun reading. I love John Lennon's funny remarks in the earlier ones, and they are just so much fun to read! I am getting this book for my dad for his birthday in February and I think he will like it a lot, but not nearly as much as I do!!!