Mark Lewisohn Books
Long recognized as the world’s leading authority on the subject of the Beatles, Mark Lewisohn is the author of the best selling
“The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions
”,
“The Beatles Live (Book With Record)
” and
“The Beatles Day by Day
”.
He researched and co-wrote the BBC’s award-winning radio series The Beeb’s Lost Beatles Tapes. Mark Lewisohn has a long association with EMI for whom he compiles and prepares albums and boxed sets and writes sleeve notes such as those for the Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band CD, the two-volume Past Masters and the four-volume Lennon compilations.
Mark Lewsion has written a number of critically acclaimed and well respected books about the Beatles but I don’t think any Beatles book could be more important than his book “THE COMPLETE BEATLES RECORDING SESSIONS”. This book was published in 1988 by the Hamlyn Publishing Corp. takes you inside the vaults at Emi’s Abbey Road Studios to chronicle Every Little Thing the Beatles and their engineers did during the Fab Four’s timeframe working there. Mark is one of the few people to be allowed to listen to all the tapes of the Beatles recording sessions that are closely guarded inside EMI’s vault. Those tapes include every alternate studio take or mix created and final version both mono and stereo for every Beatles song. Even the ones that were never released, EVERYTHING. Is it any surprise that this book was my number one resource for my Pop Go the Beatles radio shows and this website. This book, as well as some of his others, are set up in chronological order. In its simplest terms this is the detailed diary of all the Beatles recording sessions.
Here is a short excerpt:
Monday February 11, 1963
Studio Two: 10:00 AM- 1:00 PM. Recording “There’s A Place (Takes 1-10); “Seventeen” (working title for “I Saw Her Standing There”) (takes 1-9), Studio Two 2:30- 6:00 PM Recording” “A Taste of Honey” (Takes 1-5); “Do you Want To Know a Secret” (Takes 1-8)…etc…Producer: George Martin. Engineer: Norman Smith. Second Engineer: Richard Langham.
“There can scarcely have been 585 more productive minutes in the history of recorded music. For in that time small space of time, the Beatles recorded all ten new songs for their first album.”
That was just a very short excerpt from this amazing book. It’s incredibly easy to read and work with and one of the most compelling books about the Beatles I have ever read. It also contains over 350 photos and illustrations, including rare photos by Linda McCartney and facsimile reproductions of Abbey Road recording sheets, tape boxes, album sleeve roughs, memos, contracts and press releases. If that wasn’t enough, the book starts with a ten page interview with Paul McCartney.
If you are interested in the creation of the Beatles music, you simply must find a copy of this book. It was released in paperback form in 2004 and can be found at amazon.com as can most of his books. First issues of this book sell for well over $200.
Mark also wrote “The Complete Beatles Chronicle
” which is similar in its diary like structure but includes every event in the Beatles career from 6/9/57 through 4/10/70. This book was published in 1992 by Pyramid books. It was reissued in paperback form in 2006. This book is as meticulously well researched, organized as Marc’s “Recording Sessions” book and just like that book it is difficult to find. Probably because it is just as good as the first and reconstructs the each day of their career, encompassing every stage and radio appearance, all their film, TV, and radio work, and every recording session.
Beatles Books by Author
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