Image via WikipediaA Plethora of Books. and an HBO Special.
My inbox has a multitude of Beatles information today. First HBO sent me a great Press Release about Martin Scorsese's new Documentary, George Harrison: Living in the Material World surveying the life and times of this iconic musical artist.
I wasn't going to talk about it because I do tell you a lot about HBO here and I don't want to be seen as an HBO blog. But they were kind enough to put me on their press release list. But I like to report the exciting things happening in different media.When I saw that Kirkus Reviews had sent their weekly newsletter and it was filled with the Beatles. I believe that if you are over forty-five the Beatles probably played in the contemporary background music of your life. I know they did mine, and my sisters'. If you are a rock musician they definitely are part of your life even if you don't know it. As icons, they traveled musically through an array of types of rock and roll. In the 1960s, as a young Caucasian growing up in the north, in the sixties and in a predominantly white neighborhood, they made Rock okay; they made it white. Plus, they didn't gyrate suggestively, they didn't marry their own underage cousin, and they were British giving them the license granted by the British accent.
It would be hard for me to see a several things in one day in my inbox about the Beatles and not think fate was telling me something.
The book and the documentary look interesting. We plan to watch the documentary which debuts October fifth on HBO.
For more of the books Kirkus lists please scroll to the end.
This one, according to Kirkus Reviews is the Best.
Lennon: The Man, the Myth, the Music - The Definitive Life
The Definitive Life [Hardcover]By Tim Riley
Hyperion, 9/20/2011
In his commanding new book, the eminent NPR critic Tim Riley takes us on the remarkable journey that brought a Liverpool art student from a disastrous childhood to the highest realms of fame.
Riley portrays Lennon’s rise from Hamburg’s red light district to Britain’s Royal Variety Show; from the charmed naiveté of “Love Me Do” to the soaring ambivalence of “Don’t Let Me Down”; from his shotgun marriage to Cynthia Powell in 1962 to his epic media romance with Yoko Ono. Written with the critical insight and stylistic mastery readers have come to expect from Riley, this richly textured narrative draws on numerous new and exclusive interviews with Lennon’s friends, enemies, confidantes, and associates; lost memoirs written by relatives and friends; as well as previously undiscovered City of Liverpool records. Riley explores Lennon in all of his contradictions: the British art student who universalized an American style, the anarchic rock ’n’ roller with the moral spine, the anti-jazz snob who posed naked with his avant-garde lover, and the misogynist who became a househusband. What emerges is the enormous, seductive, and confounding personality that made Lennon a cultural touchstone.
In Lennon, Riley casts Lennon as a modernist hero in a sweeping epic, dramatizing rock history anew as Lennon himself might have experienced it. Hyperion
GEORGE HARRISON: LIVING IN THE MATERIAL WORLD
This October, HBO presents Martin Scorsese’s GEORGE HARRISON: LIVING IN THE MATERIAL WORLD from Grove Street Pictures. The documentary debuts in two parts – on WEDNESDAY, OCT. 5 (9:00-10:35 p.m. ET/PT) and THURSDAY, OCT. 6 (9:00-11:00 p.m.) – exclusively on HBO.
GEORGE HARRISON: LIVING IN THE MATERIAL WORLD focuses the imaginative and inspired eye of one of cinema’s most preeminent filmmakers, Martin Scorsese, on one of the world’s most influential artist. Much od Harrison's story is told in his won words as viewers are transported on the musical and spiritual journey of Harrison's life. The result is deeply moving and touches each viewer in unique and individual ways. Academy Award®-winning director Martin Scorsese traces the many aspects o f Harrison's life: musical beginnings in Liverpool, then as a reknowned musician, a seeker, philanthropist and filmmaker. Scorsese weaves together interviews with Harrison and his closest friends, performances, candid video and photographs. Much of the material in the film has never been seen or heard before. The result is a rare glimpse into the mind and soul of one of the most talented artists of his generation and a profoundly intimate and affecting work of cinema. The film includes interviews with Eric Clapton, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, George Martin, Paul McCartney, Yoko Ono, Tom Petty, Phil Spector, Ringo Starr and Jackie Stewart. They speak honestly and frankly about George’s many talents and contradictions.
When Martin Scorsese brings a project to HBO, we all know it is going to be very special, and he has added to that body of work with this monumental film on George Harrison,” s “From rock‘n’roll icon to moviemaker, to spiritual seeker and humanitarian, George Harrison was a true renaissance man. This amazing film will illuminate every aspect of Harrison’s remarkable, multifaceted life. Michael Lombardo, president, HBO Programming.
Like so many millions of people, I first came to know George through the music, which was the soundtrack of our world. The Beatles’ music, those beautifully lyrical guitar breaks and solos, those unforgettable songs of George’s like ‘I Me Mine’ or ‘If I Needed Someone,’ and the images, in magazines, on album covers, the TV appearances, the newsreel footage, the Richard Lester movies; and then there was the world after the Beatles, when George and his music seemed to open up and flower. I will never forget the first time I heard ‘All Things Must Pass,’ the overwhelming feeling of taking in that all glorious music for the first time. It was like walking into a cathedral. George was making spiritually awake music – we all heard and felt it – and I think that was the reason that he came to occupy a very special place in our lives. So when I was offered the chance to make this picture, I jumped at it. Spending time with Olivia, interviewing so many of George’s closest friends, reviewing all that footage, some of it never seen before, and listening to all of that magnificent music – it was a joy, and an experience I’ll always treasure. Martin Scorsese
The
film was produced by Scorsese (through his Sikelia Productions banner),
Olivia Harrison (through her Grove Street Pictures banner) and Nigel
Sinclair
(through Exclusive’s documentary label, Spitfire Pictures). Margaret
Bodde served as executive producer on the film, which was edited by
David Tedeschi, who previously worked with Scorsese, Bodde and Sinclair
on “No Direction Home: Bob Dylan,” and with Scorsese and Bodde on
“Public Speaking.” Tedeschi also edited Scorsese’s Rolling Stones
concert film “Shine a Light.”
http://homeboxoffice.com
MORE BOOKS listed by Kirkus Reviews (links to Amazon through my affiliate status)
  John Lennon: All I Want is the Truth By Elizabeth Partridge Pub Date: Oct 6, 2005 |   DECEMBER 8, 1980 The Day John Lennon Died By Keith Elliot Greenberg Pub Date: Nov 1, 2010 | |
  John LennonThe Life By Philip Norman Pub Date: Oct 7, 2008 |  Behind Sad Eyes: The Life of George Harrison By Marc Shapiro Pub Date: May 1, 2001 | |
  Paul McCartney: A Life By Peter Ames Carlin Pub Date: Nov 3, 2009 |  The Beatles: The Biography  By Bob Spitz Pub Date: Nov 7, 2005 | |
