Customer Reviews

Shout!: The Beatles in Their Generation

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I'm a little surprised by the ratio of good reviews for this book. I have to chime in with a strong negative for Norman's book. I appreciate the research and craftsmanship that went into the book and the portrait of the Beatle's years in Hambug is vivid and well done, yet frankly Norman's bias undermines the credibility of the writing in certain chapters, it's uneven in places. Honestly, I even suspect John Lennon would have been dismayed by the mythologizing that goes on in Norman's book.

I feel that Norman's book added the mythologizing of the relationships between Lennon, McCartney, Harrison and Starr. Lionizing Lennon while treating Paul as the shallow, soppy, conservative one, or treating Harrison as a lucky third party with passable talent. That's not to say that any member of the band is above criticism, John was very much about being honest and being honest about oneself. Have people forgotten that Lennon's solo out-put could be surprisingly uneven and inconsistent? Mind you, this is coming from a huge Lennon fan, who wasn't a part of that era, I'm 39. So, I look at this with a different take.

Frankly I'm tired of third party books about the Beatles from writers whom, because they had limited access to the band in the Apple years, convince themselves they know what went on privately between them. The best example of the problem with Norman's book can be found with the new chapters concerning the post years, the portraits of McCartney is often overkill. Yes, Paul can be a little much, you could say he's guilty of attempts to re-write history. Yet, Paul does deserve some credit for what's he's accomplished outside the band. Paul's biggest crime after the Beatles was wanting to remain a pop star? I noticed that all of the post Beatles careers leaned towards a lighter pop faire, including Lennon's "Double Fantasy". What does it matter. Norman treats Paul's dabbling in classical opera as though it's a sacrilege.

I just don't care for Norman's dismissive attitude about George Harrison. A man who completely re-invented his sound after the Beatle break-up with "All Things Must Pass", As well as financing Handmade Films, a studio that helped the British film industry at a time it needed help and jump started Terry Gilliam's career. Harrison's solo career I found to be the most interesting, there's a consistent evolution of his albums that makes sense, even if some never cared for Harrison's spiritual hymns or his leanings towards ballads. It's also true that Harrison's solo out put could be uneven, yet the tendency is to dismiss him without any objective assessment. Harrison managed to co-front one of the more enjoyable super groups produced, The Traveling Wilbury's, mostly because they didn't take themselves too seriously and it was refreshing. Every band members post career had their share of great, good and bad songs, that's reality.

Furthermore, Norman seems to feel Harrison had no right to criticize a band like Oasis for their own swipes. Sorry to say this, I like Oasis, but the band simply is not innovative enough to believe they are above criticisms from Harrison. The Gallagher brothers are a little too arrogant to place themselves on equal par to the Beatles. Their recent track record for memorable hits, proves this.

Yet, what really raises my hackles is the portrait of Allen Klein. Many biographers give Klein a pass. First everyone vilified Yoko and Linda, and then the trend has been to the vilify Paul.
Yet if there was anyone who cemented the nail in the coffin of the Beatles, it was Allen Klein, a man who was a ruthless, manipulative bully. There was ample evidence that Klein was fleecing the Beatles fortunes. If Klein had gotten his way with his business negotiations, there might have been little left to the offspring, heirs of Lennon, McCartney, Harrison and Starr. McCartney's legal suite against Klein and the band members was rather brave and McCartney's instincts about Klein were correct in hindsight. It's overkill to rely on Lennon's bias on this issue.

Norman's book was first published in 1981 and you would think that some hindsight or wisdom would have filtered through the recent revisions, yet Norman maintains the same cynical tone and demonstrates little growth. There's the adage - Three sides to every story, yours, mine and the truth. All of the members of the band were complex individuals, adding to the stereotypes, or myths about The Beatles and their career doesn't help. Norman's ignorance about music and what it means to be a musician doesn't help either.

You'll get more from 'The Beatles Anthology' book or Barry Miles / McCartney book 'Many Years From Now', or even Bob Spitz's biography, Tony Bramwell's 'Magical Mystery Tours'. Mark Lewisohn's 'Beatles Recording Sessions'. I cannot in good conscious recommend this, don't bother. Unless of course you're exclusively a Lennon fan then you'll probably love it. I'd rather seek more and objective material. there's too many false myths about the band, I'd rather move on.

At the time it was originally released, this was hailed, with some justification, for being the most accurate biography to date of the Beatles. However, today, no Beatles fan neeed bother with it. There are far better, more balanced books available. The primary problem with "Shout" is its lack of balance. Phillip Norman dispises Paul McCartney and never hesitates to take a cheap shot at him. In fact, when it was orginally released, Mr. Norman made the astonishingly idiotic statement that John Lennon was "80% of the Beatles." In my view, a person with that kind of mindset is incapable of writing a balanced book about the band. In a preface to the most recent edition, Norman attempts to address this criticism by admitting that he was a big John Lennon fan (while never adequately explaining why that requires him to hate McCartney)and stating that it was not his intention to belittle McCartney. But, Phil being Phil, just can't seem to help himself and then proceeds to again trash McCartney, presenting tabloid material about his marriage to Heather Mills, wondering why he has so much aminosity to Yoko (I don't know Phil, do you think that her involvment in his Japanese pot bust may have something to do with it?), and criticizing Paul for being overly defensive about his Beatles contributions (which according to Phil's math is "only" somewhere between 0 to 20 percent). At the same time, John Lennon gets a free pass, his flaws (bad father to Julian, disinterested band leader, bad friend to Paul) are rarely discussed. The bottom line is tht you should forget this book - its flaws are too numerous and its vitures no longer worthwhile. If you want to read some really good, balanced books on the Beatles, I suggest "The Beatles: 10 Years That Shook the World" or "The Rough Guide to the Beatles." They present a far more balanced, honest portrait of the band. Phil Norman's book belongs on the ash heap of history.

Philip Norman writes well; he crafts a narrative about the Beatles that reads more like a novel than a standard work of history. The early part of the book, in which he describes the Beatles' origins and early career, is quite good. But it's straight downhill, and rapidly, from those first chapters.

In an interview Norman credited John Lennon with being "80 percent of the Beatles," and this perspective prevents him from being able to understand the band's dynamics or appreciate what Paul, George, and Ringo brought to the group. All the Beatles were gifted, all were imperfect, all behaved surprisingly well at times and horribly at others. Anyone who wants to write a history of the Beatles that helps readers understand why the band was able to create such timeless music and why the group came apart needs to be able to take a balanced view of all its members. Bob Spitz's "The Beatles" is a vastly better account of the band, in terms of accuracy and objectivity (sadly, it's not as well-written), and the Beatles' own "Anthology" is a much better place to start for anyone newly interested in the band. "The Beatles: Ten Years That Shook The World" is an excellent, fair-minded, and far-ranging resource. For those who want in-depth understanding of the Beatles' music, Tim Riley's "Tell Me Why" is the best book.

"Shout!" is a third-rate book at best when compared with those just mentioned. As someone who likes some of all four of the Beatles' solo albums, it dismayed me to see Norman dismiss George and Ringo as lucky, rather than talented, and to watch him pour contempt on Paul (this last gets worse in later editions, as Norman gloats over each of Paul's missteps).

The reality is that without George's talent as a guitarist, openness to Eastern music, and later songwriting skill, the Beatles' legacy would have been greatly impoverished. As for Ringo, Tim Riley points out in "Tell Me Why" that Ringo's fills were nothing short of revolutionary, that his steadiness was a crucial underpinning to the band's inventiveness, and that he deserves credit as one of the founders of rock drumming. And John chose Paul as a songwriting partner and virtual co-leader for good reason: he recognized Paul's musical versatility and melodic ability, and knew that Paul was just as ambitious as he was. They both had outsize egos and did and said some stupid, cruel things, especially when sniping at each other after the breakup. But the Beatles are unimaginable without the push-and-pull of their close, competitive relationship, and Norman does neither of them a favor by vilifying Paul and his solo music.

Far, far better to read a book by someone who combines Norman's willingness to criticize the members of the Beatles with what he conspicuously lacks -- the ability to illuminate their music, and some compassion for all of them as flawed human beings like the rest of us.

Two things make this book a very special one.
First : you wouldn't believe how good and precise is the account of the Beatles beginnings. A good part of the book takes place before the big hit Love me do, so if you really are interested in how did it all started, this book is a must-read.
Second : this book gives A LOT of details about the managing of the Beatles, from the very beginning to the Apple corporation and to the breakup. Lot's of contracts are clearly described, numbers are showed, every businessman who came close to the Beatles has his biography in the book. Actually, the way Norman puts his energy in describing the whole management thing seems to make him forget about saying anything about the music...

If you are a longtime fan of the Beatles and know their history, you can read this book for extra details you won't find in other books. P.Norman's research is quite thorough, and will please someone who wants to know more about Brian Epstein, for example, or about Apple.

If you're looking for a really good book about the music of the Beatles, you're wasting your time with "Shout!". Your best bet would then be "The Art of the Beatles". THIS book is terrific.

From the early days as ruffian teens riding the skiffle wave in the grimy port town of Liverpool to presiding over the rise (and fall) of a global entertainment empire, Philip Norman takes you through the history of the Beatles in novelistic detail.

It makes for fascinating reading, even for those who might think they know all they need to know about pop music's most celebrated act. Norman is especially good at bringing out the tale of Brian Epstein, the Beatles' conflicted manager, a lamb amid wolves (many of them inside his head) dead before his time. Norman tells of how when Brian was a boy, he preferred to smash a treasured toy than share it with a playmate. Something of that same attitude seems to have colored his handling of his most cherished possession in adulthood, the boys he led to conquer the world.

"With all else that was to be heard in their brilliant new music, Brian could hear the sound of his own doom," Norman notes of 1967, the year the Beatles rang in the Summer of Love Epstein himself wouldn't survive.

Norman has actually reissued this book twice since 1981; no doubt a new edition is currently in the works to detail Sir Paul's ongoing divorce. I remember being put off by the arch tone of the first edition, which either Norman softened or I minded less this time. The knock on Norman by Beatle fans is he never got the music, focusing more on the business empire and the cultural impact. He seems to have more to say about the music this time around, from "Revolver" on out at least, and though he may expose himself at times as one unschooled in the finer points of what made the band's music ("George was not great; just an average guitarist who got incredibly lucky"), he at least tries to analyze "Sgt. Pepper's" success from a fresh, unsentimental perspective.

He still dwells too much on Brian and his holding company, NEMS, but he tells a great story, if one that suffers from a lack of focus on any of the Beatles themselves. No account, even Norman's earlier one, explained so well the complications behind the Beatles' finances, whether he is talking about the money or the maneuvering by various parties to maximize their profits from the Beatle machine.

Norman is also quite witty, often at the expense of his subjects. When George Harrison's widow requests a minute of silence, Norman writes: "One could imagine George somewhere fuming over the fact that John got a full five minutes' silence in 1980." Paul and George are the Beatles given the strongest jabs here, though I never felt Norman was picking on someone for the sake of a juicier story like Albert Goldman or Kitty Kelley.

Norman in fact seems to follow the facts, in themselves incredible enough, and does his best to cover all the bases and talk to the right people (of the four principals, only John's widow Yoko did at length, and benefits from her openness.) It's not the whole enchilada, carrying little of the joy the Beatles gave out so effortlessly, but maybe you will never get that from the Beatles by reading a book.

I'm still working my way through this book, but I am very much enjoying it and wanted to jot down a few thoughts before they slip away. I'll edit this review later to provide my overall impression.

The author does a superb job of placing the Beatles in a cultural context and explaining why four working class lads from Liverpool had such an enormous impact on, well, everything. In fact The Sixties, as we remember them today, would have been simply unimagineable without The Beatles. For example, before reading "Shout," it never really struck me that one of the main reasons the Beatles conquered England first, then the world, was that "the inexplicable failure to have a third world war" had resulted in an overlarge population in their teens and early 20s, many of them with a lot of money in their pockets. As other readers have noted, the book also paints a sympathetic portrait of the hardworking, thrifty, self-sacrificing earlier generation that set the table for the rocking Sixties, rather than villifying it as do many other rock 'n' roll historians.

The book has one significant flaw: Mr. Norman does not really "get" music and has little to say about what it was that it was that made the Beatles' songs and approach to playing so special. He tends to rely on others to interpret the Beatles' musicianship and songwriting ability, which can lead to errors-- i.e. the idea that George Harrison was only an "average" guitarist who got lucky, when by the standards of his day he was certainly in the upper tier of early 60s rock guitarists and his style was highly influential. It was only because he grew bored with the guitar and took up the sitar in ca. 1965 that other guitarists, such as Clapton, Beck and Hendrix, were able to eclipse and supersede him. When he rediscovered his love for the guitar in the late 60s, he developed a slide guitar style which, once again, proved highly influential (the solo on "Something" becoming an instant classic).

I look forward to finishing "Shout" and expanding this review in the coming days.

... and what a story it is. Meticulously researched and honestly told, "Shout!" doesn't gloss over the details or pretty anything up in the name of an easy read. What I love most about "Shout!" is how well it reveals the humble and very human beginnings of The Fab Four. These guys were talented, yes, and they did have a few lucky breaks, but what came out of the alchemy of their combined creative, musical knocking about was the stuff of legends -- all the more so because of what they had to overcome individually and collectively. I thought I "knew" the story of The Beatles, but I never really never knew their success wasn't really all that "overnight" after all. Norman shows them as the lovable, scrappy underdogs they were -- poised to throw the world on its collective ear -- and in the end, as surprised as anybody else when they actually arrived at the top of the charts. I always though I was probably born about 15 years too late -- this book convinced me of it. "Shout!" is the closest thing you're going to find to a time machine back to the early days of the Cavern, the Reeperbahn, and the hardscrabble days of the unassuming blokes who would go on influence unnumbered generations of musicians for years to come. Excellent book, highly recommended, and definitely *not* fluff! A must for any serious Beatles fan.

This is an excellent book for both die hard Beatles fans and those who are simply interested in the phenomenon that swept the world in the 60s and still continues to exert influence over modern music today.

The author frankly admits that he has never actually iterviewed any of the Beatles, but many great historical books have been written without access to their subjects, and in my opinion this has given him a unique view of the group's influence on the era, rather than a perspective from inside it. All the interesting things are there - Paul meeting John, the American tour, Apple, break up etc, and fasinating it is.

If you like their music or damn them as madness from the 60s, the fact remains that they were hugely influential in areas ranging from pop music to advertising, and this book paints the picture very well.

"Shout! The Beatles In Their Generation" is a fantastic, and by far the best account of The Beatles. With new competition with Bob Spitz's "The Beatles", "Shout!" still stands strong, and the revweiws back that up. You'll learn everything you wanted to know about The Beatles and more. An accurate, and incredibly interesting biography of the biggest band ever. Also a great price. You have nothing to loose. A great book whether you've read a Beatles book before or this is your first. Highly Reccomended.

Just when I thought I couldn't cram any more Beatle lore into my cranium, I read Philip Norman's biography of the four lads. The story of the Beatles is known worldwide and I'll not repeat any of it here, except to say that Norman gives each phase of the group's life and career equal time and equal detail. Showbiz bios too often linger on an act's childhood and background (to prove that they've researched extensively?) or are simply a cash-in on current success and add nothing to the story that one couldn't get from People Magazine (see bios of Selena, etc.). If the book has a fault, it is that Norman has obviously joined the "John was the real leader and only decent songwriter" camp and takes swipes at McCartney's personality and music early and often. This is another subject that has been covered ad infinitum, and I will add only that this bias detracts my overall rating of this otherwise excellent and detailed work.