Over the years I have heard numerous comments from many people that witnessed many of the early Cavern group bands that have said that in terms of the ability to play their instruments, the Big Three were possibly the best of the lot. The element that set the Beatles apart from the other bands was their superior songwriting and composing skills. This recording is an EP recorded Live at the Cavern in 1963 by The Big Three. The back cover which has a lot of information for you to peruse, features the signatures of the Beatles first manager, the late Allan Wiliams, and the late Cavern compere and announcer, Bob Wooler, who introduced the Beatles at the Cavern more than 200 times. Wooler was the recipient of John Lennon’s wrath at Paul’s 21st birthday party by beating him up as a result of comments made by Wooler insinuating that John Lennon had an affair with Brian Epstein in Spain. Epstein was able to reach a settlement with Wooler to pay for his medical expenses incurred by the beating.
What is not so commonly known is that a live Beatles complete Cavern set may exist of the Beatles performing live at the venue. The tape, which is formerly believed to have once belonged to Mike McCartney and now may be owned by Paul at the present time. It would be interesting to see if that tape could possibly be a candidate for the Peter Jackson technology to do his wonders with and possibly be a future Beatles project. If Pete Best is the drummer on the recordings, that might inhibit it’s release though as Ringo would need to give his OK for a Beatles project of that sort. There is also a Cavern rehearsal tape that exists of the Beatles and there is a Granada TV recording of the Beatles performing “Some Other Guy.” Granada also has an audio recording of the Beatles performing the song “Kansas City.” The audio of those 2 recordings exists but the only video of the Beatles performing in the Cavern remains the Granada TV recording of “Some Other Guy!”
The signatures of Allan Williams and Bob Wooler on the back side of the Live EP which provides some of the details of the recording.
My set of signatures of one of the incarnations or lineups of the of THE BIG THREE–PADDY CHAMBERS, JOHNNY HUTCHINSON AND FARON RUFFLEY
Johnny Hutchinson was a tough guy who could easily intimidate John Lennon. Here he is shown backing the Beatles on drums at the Larry Parnes Audition. Allan Williams was to eventually purchase this venue/location and name it the “Blue Angel.” Tommy Moore was to finish the Beatles audition behind the drums for the Beatles that day.
This is the famous book by photo and autograph collector, the late Gareth Pawlowski who put together many rare early Beatles photos including the Hutchinson on the drums Beatles photo shown above that is in this wonderful book.
What is your favorite book concerning the very early Beatles?
We all know the sordid history of the late “Wall of Sound” producer, Phil Spector, who was convicted of murder later in his life and passed away in prison. Despite the controversial private life he led, he did leave a considerable musical legacy with his layered production style which some critics have claimed was often guilty of overproduction. Both John Lennon and George Harrison chose to use him as a producer for several of their early solo works.
Bought this rare hardcover edition of this book, which has a chapter that specifically deals with the creation and production of John Lennon’s and Yoko Ono’s Christmas classic “Happy Xmas (War is Over).” That was the purpose of purchasing the book as I wanted to learn more information about the Happy Xmas recording sessions. I had the softcover but only recently did I acquire the hardcover. As a collector, I always prefer hardcover editions of any book I purchase. In any analysis of Phil Spector it seems like a natural endeavor to separate his often catastrophic and repulsive personal life to his significant contributions to popular music. It is obvious he had some severe mental health issues. Thoroughly enjoyed reading this Richard Williams-authored book:
The front cover of the more obscure hardcover version of the book:
The Sound of Phil Spector
The back cover of the more obscure hardcover book:
The Sound of Phil Spector
A brief excerpt of the book:
The picture that became the picture sleeve accompanying the Apple release in the US!
Here is one of the Spector productions of a solo Beatles release as he produced the legendary Imagine LP. I had bought this item because the eBay ad advertised the inscription as being “To John” which I felt to be ironic and somewhat morbid since it was a John Lennon album and it was signed after John had been murdered and before the infamous Spector shooting that put him in jail.
In summary, Phil Spector had a legendary musical career, yet he also seemed to have some severe psychological problems as is evidenced by much of the strange behavior he exhibited over the years that is documented in several books.
QUESTION:
Question for the blog post? In a possible deluxe John Lennon box set of the Rock ‘n’ Roll LP, would you like to see a bonus disk of isolated tracks using MAL technology of Peter Jackson to some of the Spector session tapes?
Roy Cicala was the engineer that John Lennon predominantly worked with when he came to NY permanently from the UK in the early 1970’s. Cicala was involved in engineering Walls and Bridges, the Rock ‘n’ Roll LP, Mind Games, Sometime in NYC, and some of the tracks on Menlove Ave. It was pointed out by the excellent author Kris Englehardt in one of his Beatles Undercover books that John Lennon actually co-wrote some of the lyrics to a Roy Cicala song entitled “Incantation” which was recorded by a group called Dog Soldier and sung by Patrick Jude.
Someone has posted that number on YouTube. The only official release of the number was on a bonus cd put together for one of Kris Englehardt’s fantastic books, the first one of his Beatles Undercover trilogy.
Roy Cicala’s former wife, the late Lori Burton, who sang backing vocals on John Lennon’s “Walls and Bridges” album also recorded a version of “Incantation” that remains unreleased!
The lyrics were inspired from a Native American that John Lennon had supposedly met.
The only other John Lennon co-written song that I am aware of by a member of his production engineering coterie or staff was Phil Spector who was given a co-writing credit for the song “Here We Go Again.”
A signed photo of the late Roy Cicala which I acquired in the last couple of years, along with the signature of engineer, John Hanti who has a wonderful book scheduled for release in the future written with Steve Acker!
Roy Cicala & John Hanti
John Hanti
Engineer John Hanti had much interaction with engineer Roy Cicala but he was never directly involved with recording John Lennon or having personal interactions with him.
In what will surely be a fascinating forthcoming book, John Hanti has many exciting stories to tell about his involvement in storing some Lennon tapes for Roy Cicala and unfortunately, what happened to some of them. He also has many tales about such Beatles associates as Nat Weiss! He also has a story to relay about the attempted bootlegging of the Beatles Christmas LP. Though not a Beatles book per se’, there are many intriguing musical stories about other giants of the business and music industry and the rigors of being a good engineer. The book has been delayed because of an unexpected illness but I eagerly anticipate what I am sure will be an information-laden and exciting book for all music fans. The promotion of the book will also possibly involve a detailed lecture series that is in the planning stages. The title of the book is tentatively slated to be “Escaping Gravity” by John Hanti with Steven Acker.
John Hanti’s website where his forthcoming book with Steven Acker is discussed
Today’s discussion question: I am always fascinated with books that have additional information about the Beatles or solo Beatles that come to light many years later from people who may have had a friendship or even a brief but notable interaction with one of the four of them. Their true personalities seem to emerge from books like that as the four are less guarded in many of those circumstances. Based on that description, what book or books that you may have come across that may not be very well known fits my description above the best? Any unusual stories that were revealed in those books that were not written about one of the four, but revealed something about one or all of them that you were not aware of? Thanks in advance for your input on these questions!
Many Beatles collectors are aware of the work of Doug Sulpy who over the years with his magazine entitled The910 (yes, a pun of the One after 909) has helped to do a wonderful job of attempting to catalog and criticize the tremendous amount of unreleased material by the Beatles. Doug has numerous book titles dealing with this subject and here are a few of them:
This title below deals with the existing video of the Beatles from 1964. Doug issued this as a hardback in an edition of only 100 copies of which I purchased a copy. Doug’s 910 magazine is now sold digitally only, in pdf format. This transition to the digital format is primarily due to high printing costs. However, Doug does continue to print the occasional limited edition hardback volume like the one below which is always exhaustively researched and well-documented.
The Beatles 1964 Video Guide
The back cover of the 100-copy hardback:
The Beatles 1964 Video Guide
Doug’s “John Hancock” on this special hardcover title of only 100 copies:
The Beatles 1964 Video Guide
Thomas The Tank
Ringo did a series of audio narrations of the Thomas the Tank children’s books. Expanding on his role as the conductor in the Thomas the Tank TV series, this is an example of one of the cassettes with book volumes based on the series. For collecting purposes I bought the complete Ringo cassette and CD collections of his storytelling ventures!
Thomas the Tank Engine
I love special releases like this that appeal to both children and adults. The book detailing the lyrics to Starr’s song appeals more to the children. The alternate version of Octopus’s Garden on the CD appeals to the Ringo music collector, primarily being adults.
Octopus’s Garden
A picture of the cd contained within the book and a brief bio on the author and the illustrator:
Octopus’s Garden
The back cover of my copy of the book which is available on Amazon:
Though this is a photography book containing other artists beside the Beatles, we can surmise why they were chosen for the cover. This wonderful photography book by noted photographer, John Rowland is signed by Mr. Rowland, and I acquired this signed copy from the book search service known as Abe Books.
The book was published in 2010 by Desert Springs Publishing. For further info contact: www.rockphotobook.com
The signature page of the Rowlands book:
The back cover of the book:
The Beatles Monopoly
Technically, this is not a Beatles print item, yet it does exhibit the overlap in collecting interests that I have for both Beatles print material and Beatles board games. Here is the special Yellow Submarine edition of Monopoly
The Beatles Yellow Submarine Monopoly
The back cover of the Yellow Submarine edition:
The Beatles Yellow Submarine Monopoly
An edition of the Monopoly board game that I bought that has the classic Abbey Road album cover:
The Beatles Monopoly
The back cover of the edition shown above:
The Beatles Monopoly
Another one of the world’s most popular board games and it is only fitting that there would also be a Beatles edition of SCRABBLE: I bought my copy either from eBay or The Fest for Beatles Fans:
The Beatles Scrabble
The back cover of the Scrabble game:
The Beatles Scrabble
Skywriting by Word of Mouth
A special limited edition of 500 copies only in a slipcase of John Lennon’s final self-penned book entitled “Skywriting By Word of Mouth.” Each copy was signed by Yoko Ono.Published by Harper & Row in 1986!
Skywriting by Word of Mouth
The cover of the book within the slipcase:
Skywriting by Word of Mouth
Yoko’s signature and the number of the edition:
Skywriting by Word of Mouth
In 2014 Tosh Berman, son of Wallace Berman, one of the individuals who appears on the cover of Sgt. Pepper, released this limited edition booklet of only 300 signed copies that details the story of his dad giving permission to Brian Epstein to use his photo on the cover of the LP and of Wallace Berman’s son’s interest in the Beatles. It is a small item of not many pages, but it is wonderful to read the special set of stories contained within!
The image of Mr. Berman contained on the Sgt. Pepper cover and the one that is within my copy of the Tosh Berman book which I love as a special collectable:Copies can often be found on both Ebay and Abe books!
Tosh Berman’s signature in my copy of the limited edition book:
Found this book in a Fest for Beatles catalog! It is a 3-volume set that features a special part dedicated not only in about 108 photos of the Beatles rarely if ever seen before, but details of the Beatles interactions over the years with members of the Hare Krishna movement. Here is an introduction of the book “Chasing Rhinos With the Swami”:
My copy was purchased through the Fest For Beatles Fans. I have seen copies advertised additionally on Ebay and Abe Books. The first volume was published in 2016. Volume 3 came out in 2021. This was followed by the 3 volumes set encased in a slipcase which was also being offered at The Fest for Beatles Fans!
A fabulous hardback Ringo Starr discography by author, Andrew James. It is detailed and all encompassing and it is a wonderful pickup for Beatles collectors. However, discographies all suffer from the same built-in problem. Unless the recording artist has passed away, in most cases the discogrpahy will not be up-to-date or current because the minute the artist issues another recording the book becomes lacking of the new releases. The completeness of their recorded legacy depends upon constantly updated versions of the book. It is frustrating to those who want a sense of completeness in their collections. However, we of course would much prefer the artist to be active healthy and with us for the natural course of their lives and to keep recording additional memories for us to savor.
My comments above may seem somewhat silly but the intention and purpose of the comments was simply to highlight a problem inherent in writing any books about artists that continue to record and remain active until they are elderly! Everyone’s primary concern should naturally be the well-being of the artist in question!
The well-researched discography was released in 2023 and I purchased it Online on Amazon. The book was independently published:
The back cover of the Andrew James book about Ringo’s recording career:
The Ringo Starr Discography
What do you think? What do Want to See?
In conclusion, is there a particular Beatles print/ related subject matter that you would like to see covered in greater detail on the blog? Please let us know what you would like to see more of, or less of, for that matter!
Thanks! Be healthy and be happy!
Buzz
Some great books about The Beatles at the Beatles Bookstore
I do not know if others share this perception but it seems that this particular book that Mark Lewisohn was involved with is not as well known as his other work. Perhaps that is due to the subject matter of the Beatles’ geographic locations. There have been several titles that have attempted this subject matter over the years and I do not know their relative success in terms of sales. I enjoyed the book as I have most of Mark’s work and the several print contributions of Piet Schreuders as well.
This particular edition of the book holds my interest because multiple author signatures of 2 or more in this case are often incredibly difficult to locate or find.
This is my signed version from all three authors of this book- Piet Schreuders, Mark Lewisohn, and Adam Smith. Multiple author-signed books are difficult to acquire unless you have all the authors available at the same location at the same time, or if you are extremely patient and somehow are able to track the signatures down individually! Sometimes the publisher of a book makes arrangements with them to sign a limited amount of books that can be used in a marketing promotional campaign for the title!
For a book that I gave my initial perception of as not being as well known as other Mark Lewisohn-involved works, Derek Taylor does not hesitate in his lavish praise for the book on its cover. Recommend you check this one out if you do not have it in your collection! I hold a fascination for some of the Beatles books that were not as widespread in their circulation or distribution with fans!
The Beatles’ London
The Beatles London
The signature page featuring all three of the author’s signatures:
Fan Recollection books about The Beatles and the ’60s, a specific time frame or era, have a very specialized audience. Some people love this type of book for the memories it stirs up in their own lives. For me, they serve a deeper sociological purpose. They demonstrate the shared sense of community that a mass audience once had when the communication outlets were fewer and far between.
With the advent of the internet and social media and the information that often comes to us inaccurately because of so many different sources with their own agendas and without a proper context, it is becoming increasingly difficult to judge what the “truth is” anymore.
Nostalgia
That is why nostalgia is so appealing to many of us as we get older. We often have the tendency to downplay the bad times or memories that may be associated with our growing up and we believe very strongly in the notion of the “Good Old Days” as a result stressing what made us happy when we were younger.
I personally enjoy books like the following title from Marti Edwards and Joe Carroccio. It was an enjoyable tale of a young lady who at the tender age of 16 sought to meet The Beatles. It is nice to read a book that deals with the sense of community people who hold a common interest can exhibit rather than the era the world seems to be living in now!
These types of books usually do not make a big impact in the marketplace because of the specialized interest inherent in a recollection book, but to me, they serve as important time capsules like newspaper clippings to preserve the events of long ago, long after the main characters of the story are no longer here to share those memories with the current generation… Thank you Marti for sharing your memories with us!
The Beatles and the Baby Boomers
16 in ’64 – The Beatles & The Baby Boomers
Back Cover of the book:
16 in ’64 – The Beatles & The Baby Boomers
Marti Edward’s inscription in my copy of the book:
16 in ’64 – The Beatles & The Baby Boomers
Buzz
Autobiography
Autobiographies by those people associated with The Beatles story
