The blog is designed to feature both old and new Beatles-related print material including books, magazines, posters, or correspondence with people that have a Beatles connection or association. The blog will also feature books from people that have worked with the individual members of the group during their solo careers! Looking forward to seeing you here! Looking forward to your participation and feedback on the blog!
John “Buzz” Bezzini has one of the world’s largest collections of Beatles books and he will share his thoughts and opinions on some of the more rare and unusual Beatles titles.
John taught a course in 1984 called “The Beatles in Retrospect” marking the 20th anniversary of the Beatles’ arrival in America.
John also holds a Master’s Degree in Communication.
Enjoy Buzz’s Beatles Book Blog.
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Pattie Boyd signed and titled the lyrics that Eric Clapton wrote for her in the dynamic song, “Layla.” The lyrics were based on an ancient Persian poem.
Lyrics to “Layla”
Pattie Boyd, of course, was married to George Harrison at the time of the song’s creation. The pictures below the lyrics are the books that Pattie has produced about her storied past. The newest book is a photographic history of her life. The earlier work was her biography! Pattie’s musical legacy was to have been the muse for quite a few memorable classic songs.
Both Pattie Boyd and Yoko Ono were two of the backing female vocalists on the Beatles song, “Birthday.”
Signed twice-Julian Lennon Beatles Memorabilia Flyer for an Exhibition held in Gibraltar
Most of us are aware of the often-tumultuous relationship between Julian Lennon and his dad. Though this is not a book product it is a print item twice signed by Julian at an exhibition of his Beatles memorabilia in Gibraltar. Julian, unfortunately had to buy back many of these items in auctions as many were not inherited or left to him directly after John’s passing. It is good to see that in recent years Julian seems to have forgiven his dad for his feelings of being abandoned when he was a young child.
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 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.
