Cheap The Beatles Forever (Book) (Nicholas, Schaffner) Price

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Customer Reviews of The Beatles Forever

Someone else here put it best- the "Beatle Bible"
I read this book when I was 13 or 14 all the time. I can remember immersing myself in specific chapters, just looking at the pictures (of which there are tons of not found anywhere else I've seen). I would get up and put on one of The Beatles' albums and just sit back and read it all afternoon. Little did I know then what an impact this book would have on my future writing endeavors. Nicholas Schaffner was and still is one of the more gifted rock journalists out there. There isn't a Beatles book around that contains the enthusiasm, accessibility, and dramatic style that his does. It is free from alot of the self-proclaimed importance of many other Beatles works, and yet it doesn't advertise itself as anything more than a devoted fan tribute. That it is, and much more.

With the photos, the electric writing, the tons of statistics, the detailed biographies of the solo careers, the tabulated lists of records and release dates and information, the LP and 45 covers, this is an absolute must for any Beatle fan. And for me, it provided an escape from adolescence on a daily basis, wondering what it might have been like. With the Beatles' own music that remains, books like this one can still do the same.

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A Labor Of Love
This book must have taken Nicholas Schaffner all his energy to write. It's a wonderful account of the lads music from their rise to fame in 1964 to their solo careers in 1977. Schaffner cares most about the music and he definetely knows his stuff. He's not escatic about Sgt. Pepper, which is an overated album, and he mentions a forgotten George Harrison masterpiece, "It's all too Much". Schaffner writes in a dry witty factual style focusing on the Beatles albums, their influence on rock music, the ups and downs of their solo careers, and anaylizes their lyrics. There are pictures of all the Beatles singles and rare pics of the beatles infamous butcher cover. This is my favorite Beatle book.

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The Personal Touches are the Best
Hands-down, the best parts of this book are the personal touches. Nick's original reactions to Beatles films, his memories of being burned on bootlegs by soundalike groups in 1964, etc., are things you really don't get in any other book. It's a Beatle book written from the perspective of a Beatle FAN and it shows. Those are my favourite parts, and those are the parts I still enjoy reading. OTOH, sorry to say, a lot of Nick's fact-checking, while state-of-the-art for the mid1970s has been rendered inaccurate by Lewisohn's wonderful, more recent work. Still, every author deserves to be judged by his best moments, and because Nick's love for his subject matter shines through his accesible writing style, I recommend this book to anyone who can track down a used copy.