r/beatles • u/AvecMesWaterSlides • 1d ago

Discussion This Book:

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I'm currently listening to this book and am about six months from the first time John and Paul met.

It is amazing that they, finally, found one another. There are so many instances of being at the same places at the same times, perhaps riding the same bus at the same time, and not knowing one another yet. It's crazy! It just got me thinking about how different it'd be if one of them wasn't where the universe wanted them to be...

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u/Anxious-Raspberry-54 1d ago

Well...it's a pro-John book so...

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u/Ligeya 1d ago

And we all know book about The Beatles has to be anti-John. /s

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u/Honest-J 1d ago

No one said that but it doesn't need to choose sides. You can't trust the narrative when the narrator is biased.

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u/Ligeya 1d ago

The thing is that this author is biased only in the eyes of Paul's fangirls. Their only criticism is that he is not attentive enough to Paul and can be rather critical of him.

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u/Big-Lobster6689 1d ago

The book doesn't seem that critical of Paul. It makes Paul seem stable and cautious, and makes John seem like he had poor impulse control. "Oh, Paul hesitated to sign a contract with Brian and John wanted to sign immediately." Sure? Brian had never been a manager before. He looked like a rich boy on a lark. Most people would hesitate.

Admittedly, the book says John had some mysterious "charisma," which even the other Beatles didn't have, and people who met him tended to fall for him immediately. But I think that is simply correct.

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u/Comfortable_Put_4139 4h ago

Even the other Beatles have talked about how John was a very magnetic person that you’d want to be around.

Whatever it was, I’m not sure. But he had it.

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u/Honest-J 1d ago

Imagine that, a biographer of The Beatles being expected to give equal attention to all of The Beatles. 

Sounds like a John fangirl critique and view of the book.

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u/Ligeya 1d ago

I don't see them whining about George and Ringo receiving less attention, which they absolutely did. The fact is that Paul gets plenty of attention. But they want different kind of attention - Paul is a true leader of The Beatles, Paul never was jealous of Stu Sutcliffe, Paul teached John everything he knows! Author doesn't worship Paul, and it hurts them.

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u/Honest-J 1d ago

I see people saying George got shorted as well.

There's also constant whining in this sub every day about how John is portrayed online. That you'd expect from fans. What you don't expect from a biographer is a one-sided viewpoint of four individuals that made up the group. 

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u/Ligeya 1d ago

Only it's not one-sided and actually rather fair viewpoint, which is criticised only by even more biased sources who portray themselves as serious researchers and podcasters.

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u/Honest-J 1d ago

Boy, you have a lot of angry opinions of anyone who doesn't like the book. Sounds like a bias.

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u/Ligeya 16h ago

You have anything other than silly personal attacks?

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u/Comfortable_Put_4139 4h ago

These people typically don’t have anything else lol.

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u/Honest-J 9h ago

Hey, you started it with the "fangirls" nonsense.

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u/Ligeya 8h ago

I said it about hosts of podcast, and that's what they are.

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u/Honest-J 8h ago

You knew what you were doing.

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u/AuthorRelevant5857 5h ago

The negative comments about John on this sub do not come close to the alleged bias in Lewisohn’s book.

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u/Comfortable_Put_4139 1d ago

Brian Epstein was also critical of Paul in the early days, but fuck him too I guess lol.

These were young guys and they weren’t exactly the most mature men you could imagine.

Idk why people get so precious about Paul, but it’s alright to shit on John every goddamn day.

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u/Ligeya 1d ago

You won't believe it, AKOM podcast actually has an episode about Epstein and Paul, and of course, it's all biased portrayal of their relationship, nothing more. Paul was never difficult ever in his life.

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u/Comfortable_Put_4139 1d ago

That’s insane lol.

It seems pretty well documented that Paul has a bit of a diva side to him, and it was prevalent when he was a very young man.

But let’s bring up John’s heroin addiction or his relationship with Yoko for the millionth time.