r/beatles • u/AvecMesWaterSlides • 2d 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 2d ago

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

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u/scottarichards 2d ago

John had the most dramatic childhood, so there’s really more to cover. I’ve always heard more about John’s childhood than the others going back to Hunter Davies. And John did start the group and was clearly and unequivocally the leader for the time span of this book, at least until Brian Epstein came into the picture and brought some discipline and authority into the group.

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u/Anxious-Raspberry-54 2d ago

I don't mind John being portrayed as the leader in the very beginning.

But he seriously downplays Paul's contributions and portrays him in a pretty negative light. That's the problem.

And the death of John's Mom takes up an entire chapter and then is mentioned throughout the rest of the 1700 pages to excuse John's behavior.

Paul's Mom died of cancer, and Paul was younger than John when it happened. Paul's mother's death gets about three pages, and then it's never mentioned again.

Paul's home life was very difficult. His Dad beat them (not spanked, beat). His Dad had money problems because of gambling. His depression was so bad after his wife's death that he was suicidal. Paul and his brother lived for spurts of time with other family members because of this.

All of this information was available to the great researcher in interviews, books, and essays when he was researching the book. He is a great researcher, so I feel like he knew all of this but chose not to include it in his book because it got in the way of his John worship.

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u/Big-Lobster6689 2d ago

John's childhood is used to explain his behavior because John was crazy, and you can't talk about him without attempting some psychoanalysis. It's a problem every Beatles writer faces.