This post was originally published on Audible.com.
We all know how it started. Or think we do. February 1964. Ed Sullivan. Cue the ear-piercing screams. But the beginning was earlier and rougher than imagined, and the end, in April 1970, more reverberating than we now remember. These Beatles books get you back to how it all began and what happened when it all fell apart.
There are more than 100 Beatles books in the store, but no official memoir by Macca himself, which is what makes our Words & Music Vol. 42 such a unique self-portrait. Musically lost, missing his mates, and coveting a hippie life with wife Linda and their growing brood, Paul is a “nowhere man” at a crossroads. Yet he comes across then and now as preternaturally optimistic, with a will to "persist" and "outlast" his critics, which, of course, he has. Good one, Paul.
Mal Evans chucked an established engineering career to be the group's roadie, assistant, and forever friend. But fame is often hardest on those who work in support of it. Evans's death in Los Angeles in 1976 was mired in mystery, which is finally uncovered here. This is true crime for Beatles fans.
Did Paul McCartney invent quiet quitting? On New Year’s Day 1970, McCartney privately announced to his bandmates he was done, but then told no one else. He set the tone for a year that would upend the love and harmony of the '60s, as “Helter Skelter”—and youth culture itself—was put on trial during the Manson murders, the antiwar movement grew violent, and a new generation of mellow singers rose from the ashes of Abbey Road. Written by Rolling Stone writer David Browne (who, full disclosure, is my husband).
A 2025 nooks and crannies analysis of the duo's songwriting, sifting out new meaning to music you've heard a million times before. It will awaken your desire to listen all over again.
