The Leather-bound Beatles Lyrics Hunter Davies Book-Fact or Fiction?
I learned a lesson the hard way with this title. It was advertised on Ebay as a leather-bound prototype of only two copies that were made by the publishers. The volume was also signed by the author. According to the seller he approached Hunter at the hotel he was staying at for a Beatles event and he asked him to sign the book there. I paid a lot of money for this book and then I did what I should have before I purchased it. I wrote to our good friend, author David Bedford, to ask Hunter Davies about this limited-edition book. David obliged my request and Hunter got back to him saying to the best of his knowledge, no leather-bound limited-edition versions of the book were ever issued. The publishers subsequently verified that notion.
Refund?
I could have returned the book to the seller demanding a full refund, but I decided not to for what you may interpret as an odd reason. The book is indeed leather-bound, and it is signed by Hunter as I have several of his signatures. What the sellers or people that they got the book from did, was to take the contents of the regular hardback edition of the book and bind it in a leather casing. Even though what was done was not a legitimate enterprise, it gave me the only leather-bound edition of the book in the world which I found to be very intriguing and prompted my keeping it. However, I am not going to throw caution to the wind in the future, as this will not happen to me again!
The Beatles Lyrics – Leather-bound
Thoroughly investigate ahead of time when thinking about buying a big-ticket item.
Apple to the Core was the book that attempted to get to the heart of the Beatles business problems which ultimately led to their breakup. There were several editions of this book released with many cover variations – some of which are below. The most difficult edition of this book to find is the hardback, 1972 edition. The book was co-written by authors Peter McCabe and Robert D. Schonfeld.
The hardback is of course more expensive, so it is often the case, the hardback editions are issued briefly as a quick run then the softback or paperback editions take over the bulk of the sales of the title. Even when titles are released simultaneously in both hardback and softcover, the bookstores would often choose to stock only the softcover. I do not know how you feel about this issue, but I personally prefer hardcover books as they are more durable over time. Often, the paper used for hardcovers is superior and the yellowing of pages is a much longer process. Of course, hardcovers usually have a superior binding as well.
In regard to the book below, the picture is the hardcover, with a selection of other covers below it. Despite having a huge Beatles book library, I went many years without even knowing there was a hardcover edition of the book until I acquired one a few years ago on the Abe Books Bookstore/search service.
This song, although attributed to Lennon/McCartney, is a John Lennon song about his devotion to Yoko Ono. In part, the song is controversial for the distinct simplicity of the lyrics and in part because of its length (around 8 minutes) and, some could argue, its self-indulgent structure.
It was the first song the Beatles worked on when the Abbey Road sessions began in February of 1969, yet one of the last songs that was completed for the album in August of that year when instrumental and synthesized tracks were layered in.
About Yoko
John Lennon’s repetitive, plaintive lyric, “I want you, I want you so bad” is the dominant content of the entire song, along with the colloquial compliment for Yoko, “She’s so heavy.” At the time Abbey Road came out, some critics took issue with the lyrics. In a Rolling Stone interview in 1970, Lennon reflected: A reviewer wrote of “She’s So Heavy”: “He seems to have lost his talent for lyrics, it’s so simple and boring.” “She’s So Heavy” was about Yoko. When it gets down to it, like she said, when you’re drowning you don’t say “I would be incredibly pleased if someone would have the foresight to notice me drowning and come and help me,” you just scream. And in “She’s So Heavy” I just sang “I want you, I want you so bad, she’s so heavy, I want you,” like that.
The Final Three Minutes
The final 3 minutes of the song is an extended guitar/Hammond organ/Moog synthesized white noise cacophony that sounded as if it could have gone on for much longer. All the Beatles, and their friend Billy Preston, were totally committed to this very different-sounding work that closed out the A-side of Abbey Road. And in the final mixing process, Lennon himself ordered the abrupt ending of the riff in the middle of a phrase, as if the needle were being arbitrarily lifted off a record.
Biden and Harris?
The day before I initially wrote and posted this, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris became the President and Vice-President Elect. It was a day when, officially, the votes of around 80 million voters said, “I want you, I want you so bad.” There is much work for them to do, beginning with a concerted assault on the coronavirus pandemic. But may their efforts to defeat the virus, now surging again throughout the nation, be both thoughtful and successful. It will matter not only to the people who voted for them, but also to the people who didn’t.
Tim Hatfield
Get Tim’s book of reflections on the songs of The Beatles
When We Find Ourselves in Times of Trouble: The Beatles: All Their Songs with Encouraging Words for Challenging Times
KINDLE (OR DOWNLOAD THE FREE APP TO READ ON YOUR LAPTOP)
This book addresses all the songs of the Beatles, from their earliest demos to Abbey Road, in a conversational, accessible format. Special attention is devoted to the band’s creative process and its influence on and synergistic relationship with the culture at large. The book’s genesis was the author’s hope that a daily Beatles song could provide a brief respite from the significant stress and uncertainty caused by the coronavirus pandemic, and beyond that, from the challenges of any personally difficult time – our times of trouble.
This is a very difficult book to find and/or locate for one’s collection. The people that put the book together solicited fan photos taken between 1963 and 1969. The book was published by Photobox and long-time Beatles associate, Barry Miles, provided much of the narration for the book.
The title was only available to purchase for a very short time and then was no longer being offered for sale. Apparently, the reason it was no longer available was administrative reasons and several people who had contributed photos for the book had not been properly credited.
I was able to find a copy of the book by contacting a gentleman who had contributed photos to the book and had not been credited for their use. Always will be grateful to you, Mr. R. Kern!
There are many wonderful photos of the Beatles in this book capturing the personal nature of fan photography, not being posed for! It is in my opinion, a shame that the book was not allowed to have a much wider circulation.
Beatle fans were amazed at the music and dialog that was featured in the Peter Jackson Get Back project. This provided nearly 8 hours of wonderful music and dialogue which altered the perceptions of many concerning the group’s demise. Much of the audio that appears in the Get Back film was sourced from something called the Nagra Reels, used to source film shot with the respective audio that matched.
This book- THE BEATLES In The Studio With The Beatles – Nagra Tapes published in 2009 in both Dutch and English was written by author Dennis Dekker.
It is a 134-page hardback book and was edited by Henk-Jan Hoekjen and translated into English by Pien Steffes. Dekker was able to listen to the Nagra reels and was able to transcribe many of the conversations. Though he lacked the technical advances available to Peter Jackson, the book represents one of the first attempts to give a fuller picture of what actually transpired at the Get Back sessions. The Nagra reels story itself is fascinating to read about as apparently they were stolen from the Beatles and were discovered/recovered in a police raid held in the Netherlands in 2021.
What happened the day after The Beatles’ Ed Sullivan Show debut? All the young lads across America met their buddies at lunch and excitedly talked about learning to play guitar! Where could they learn chords? Where do they find such instruments? Coincidently, their own The Beatles Guitar was already in the works!
The Beatles Guitar
Mastro Industries manufactured five different Beatles guitars/ukuleles – plus variations and display models in the U.S. in the Sixties (the Selcol company produced seven other Beatles guitars in the U.K.) Also manufactured about this time was an unlicensed 5″ model made in Hong Kong
Beatle-ist – 30½”
Yeah Yeah – 22″
Four Pop – 21″
Beatles Jr. – 14¼”
Mini – 5½”
“In March of 1964, Maestro Industries, Inc. introduced the Beatles line at the Toy Show in New York. This line included four-string guitars, six-string guitars, plastic bongo drums, and plastic banjos. In 1965, the available line of plastic instruments included various guitars, ukuleles, wind instruments, and percussion instruments, and productions and introductions of new variations continued for a few years thereafter.” – French American Reeds, Inc. – History (2020).
The Beatle-ist Guitar
Mass-produced by Mastro in 1964, the ‘Beatle-ist’ plastic six-string guitar was pink and burgundy, 30½” long, and covered with the band’s faces, names, and autographs on the front of the body. The front of this version read “The BEATLES – Beatle-ist Guitar,” shrink-wrapped and packaged on a backing card with a pick, instruction booklet, and a strap. The instrument came with three colored nylon and three wound strings, labeled in Mastro’s catalog as “No. 340.” They were packaged six to a shipping box as a 21″ x32″ x12″ unit weighing 18 lbs. Mastro also produced another version in orange and burgundy. There was an advertised promo version “with highlighted faces,” but one hasn’t turned up yet.
Another guitar produced by Mastro was the ‘Yeah Yeah’ six-string guitar. It was red and burgundy, 22″ long, and came with the Beatles’ title, faces, and autographs on the body (their faces on the crown.) Earlier promotional versions had the faces printed “highlighted” on a white background. Initially sold shrink-wrapped to a sealed backing card with a pick and instruction booklet, the original retail price doubled that of the “Four Pop” ukulele. The instrument came with six nylon-colored strings and was labeled in Mastro’s catalog as “No. 330.” They were packaged twelve to a shipping box as a 17″ x16″ x24″ unit weighing 14 lbs.
Mastro Beatles Guitar
The Beatles Guitar/ Ukulele
Another design by Mastro was the ‘Four Pop’ four-string plastic guitar/ukulele. It was 21″ long with a red and pink body, three colored nylon strings, and one wound string. This version also came in orange and red. It had the band’s faces on the front and guitar head and autographs on the body, and it came shrink-wrapped on a backing board with a red toy pick, an instruction/songbook, and a strap with “Made in the U.S.A. Under License” printed in black. Some designs included “Four Pop” or “FOUR POP” written on the body. A scarce promo version of the ‘Four Pop’ guitar exists. It had a red body and a burgundy neck with Beatles images on the headstock. This design was sold in shops for a short period before they switched to the more familiar red body and pink neck style. The “Four Pop” was labeled in Mastro’s catalog as “No. 320″ and packaged twelve to a shipping box as a 16″ x16″ x23” unit weighing 14 lbs.
“We made so many ukuleles and the Ringo bongo drum. The ukulele had pictures of the Beatles’ four heads on the top. That period was something else. We sold so many instruments.” – Maria Maccaferri (The Ukulele Occasional)
The Junior Four-String
The ‘Junior’ four-string (3 colored nylon and one wound string) plastic guitar/ukulele was 14¼” in length. It came in three color combinations. One version was pink and burgundy, with another being orange and red (with a small and large graphic of Beatles pictured on the body and crown/head with a 9¾” scale). A third version was a red and maroon promotional display version.
The item had “Jr. Guitar” printed on the front, was packaged on a colorful sealed backing card/board, and included a pick and an instruction booklet/songbook with “Made in U.S.A. Under License” printed in black. There were two variations: the headshots were small, and the other headshots were more significant. The “Junior” was labeled in Mastro’s catalog as “No. 300″ and packaged twenty-four to a shipping box as a 16″ x11″ x16” unit weighing 26 lbs.
“Because of the plastic used [they had] developed a kind of partnership with Dow Chemicals in order to find the best “resonating” polystyrene. The best one they called “Styron.” All the ukes were made in Styron.” – Antoine Carolus (UkeHeidi)
Mastro Advert
Mastro also made “Pin-Up” guitar brooches. Each of these measured 5½” in length. These little plastic pink guitars (with two rubber bands as ‘strings’) were produced with a small hook in the back (lapel clip) for fans to wear as pins. Mastro made two slightly different versions, one with a blue silkscreen-type print and one with dark pink. They had Beatle faces and first-name autographs on the front. The display card for the pins measured 10”x10” and held 12 guitars. It also had a Beatle image on it. There were also some shipping boxes that you could transform/fold into a countertop display.
The NEMS Agreement
The NEMS agreement was with Selcol Products Limited, 114-116, Charing Cross Road, London, W. C. 2. The date of the agreement for the manufacturing license was December 16, 1963, for the ‘different types of guitars.’ Selcol then sub-licensed the guitars to Mastro in the U.S. for manufacturing. Selcol, in the U.K., was an associate company of The Selmer Company, which made plastic toys and garden furniture. In 1968, Selcol Plastics closed.
Find out more about this guitar and Beatles memorabilia in Terry’s excellent book:
NEMS and the Business of Selling Beatles Merchandise in the U.S. 1964-1966 (2ND EDITION)
The book covers the approximately 150 licensed items that dotted store shelves and helped fuel the band-crazed fan during the time right after the band landed in America and performed on The Ed Sullivan Show. Toys, games, dolls, jewelry, clothing, wigs, and more!
