May 10, 2007:

[bigred]Long and Winding Roads: The Evolving Artistry of the Beatles (Hardcover)[/bigred]
[lilred]by Kenneth Womack[/lilred]



This is a pretty expensive hardcover ...

http://www.amazon.com/dp/0826417450/?tag=imwan-20

Indeed it is. Why not opt for the softcover version and save $53?

http://www.amazon.com/dp/0826417469/?tag=imwan-20

You are a God to me, Spiderboy. (Could not find that paperback version through Amazon's referral system to save my life.)

Linda,

I'm more than a little embarassed by such a strong compliment, but I'm certainly happy to have helped. Do you know anything about the book itself? It does sound like an interesting and important subject, but I wonder if the author does it justice?

Here's the description from the publisher ~ it's not an independent review, but at least gives a good idea of what the book is about:

In Long and Winding Roads: The Evolving Artistry of the Beatles, Kenneth Womack brings the band's story vividly to life--from their salad days as a Liverpool Skiffle group and their apprenticeship in the nightclubs and mean streets of Hamburg through their early triumphs at the legendary Cavern Club and the massive onslaught of Beatlemania itself. By mapping the group's development as an artistic fusion, Womack traces the Beatles' creative arc from their first, primitive recordings through Abbey Road and the twilight of their career.

In order to communicate the nature and power of the band's remarkable achievement, Womack examines the Beatles' body of work as an evolving art object. He investigates the origins and creation of the group's compositions, as well as the songwriting and recording practices that brought them to fruition. Womack's analysis of the Beatles' albums transports readers on a journey through the Beatles' heyday as recording artists between 1962 and 1969, when the band enjoyed a staggering musical and lyrical leap that took them from their first album Please Please Me, which they recorded in the space of a single day, to Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, the White Album, and Abbey Road--albums that collectively required literally thousands of hours to produce. In addition to considering the band's increasing self-consciousness about the overall production, design, and presentation of their art, Womack explores the Beatles' albums as a collection of musical and lyrical impressions that finds them working towards a sense of aesthetic unity. In Long and Winding Roads, Womack reveals the ways in which the Beatles gave life to a musical synthesis that would change the world.

I'm not really sure The Beatles worked towards a sense of aesthetic unity. The White Album seems very fragmented to me. Let It Be shows more unity, though.

[bigred]Fab Four FAQ: Everything Left To Know About The Beatles ... And More![/bigred]
[lilred]by Stuart Shea and Robert Rodriguez[/lilred]
[lilred]July 1, 2007[/lilred]



Review
Any book that can teach you this much about something you already know a lot about is a very good book. --Seattle Stranger, 9/26/2007

Book Description
40 years after the release of the iconic Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, the Beatles continue to captivate music fans of all ages. There's something always more to discuss about the Fab Four. What were their greatest live performances? Their worst moments? Stories still unknown by most music fans, trends still unseen, history still uninterpreted are all revealed in Fab Four FAQ. Pop culture authors Stuart Shea and Rob Rodriguez provide must-know fan trivia and offer obscure Beatles facts and stories in an easy-to-read, provocative format that will start as many arguments as will end them. With more than sixty chapters of stories, history, observation, and opinion, Fab Four FAQ lays bare the whys and wherefores that made the Beatles so great, giving credit where credit is due and maybe bursting some bubbles along the way.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/1423421388/?tag=imwan-20

June 30, 2007:

[bigred]The Words And Music Of John Lennon: The Praeger Singer-Songwriter Collection (Hardcover)[/bigred]
[lilred]by Ben Urish and Ken Bielen[/lilred]



Review
"The Words and Music of John Lennon is a comprehensive and incisive examination of Lennon's world and music. It is subtle and nuanced in its interpretation, and everyone interested in Lennon's music and general creativity will want to read Urish and Bielen's account of one of the major musical voices of our time." - Ray B. Browne, Co-founder of the Popular Culture Association, Founder of the Journal of Popular Culture, and author and editor of over 60 books

"I believe this book by Urish and Bielen to be very important. I have read many books on Lennon and the Beatles in general, but this is by far the most informative and truly interesting." - Genya Ravan, Singer-Songwriter and Producer Vocalist for Goldie and the Gingerbreads and 10 Wheel Drive

Book Description
Despite John Lennon's immense popularity, little attention has been paid to the overall efforts of his work apart from the Beatles. Yet his solo artistry not only illuminates what he gave to the Beatles (and what the Beatles experience gave to him), but also constitutes a significant contribution to popular music in general. Lennon was able to fuse experiments in technology, instrumentation, lyrics, and musical form into recordings that were both artistically and commercially successful. Whether expressing emotions, explaining philosophies, protesting social situations, or ruminating on the joys and pains of personal entanglements, few singer-songwriters have been his equal. In this long overdue investigation, authors Ben Urish and Ken Bielen give Lennon's artistry the opportunity to speak for itself. After a brief biographical introduction, chronologically arranged chapters discuss his incredible body of work album-by-album and single-by-single. A discography and annotated bibliography conclude the book. Although he is often lauded as a spokesperson for his generation, this praise, however intended, is far too limiting. Lennon was able to transform the intensely personal into the deeply universal (as well as the reverse), often with humor and pointed insight. At their core, his songs are simultaneously humanistic and transcendent. And as such, they-and he-continue to be relevant, and will certainly remain a valuable part of our cultural heritage for a long time to come.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/0275991806/?tag=imwan-20

June 29, 2007:

[bigred]Here Comes The Sun: The Spiritual And Musical Journey Of George Harrison[/bigred]
[lilred]by Joshua M. Greene[/lilred]



Author and film producer Greene focuses on the metaphysical in his examination of George Harrison, choosing to document the Beatle's relationship with Hindu philosophy and Krishna devotees over his more complex—though admittedly well-covered—relationship with his bandmates. The resulting portrait is at times flat, as Harrison gets along with just about everyone on his spiritual path, and Greene is reluctant to cast his subject in a negative light. That's a shame, as the highlights of the book feature a conflicted and embattled Harrison dealing with disappointment, frustration and loss, of which there is plenty in the Beatles' shared history.

"Many well-known artists have touched people's hearts with their music, but few have ever succeeded in touching people's souls. That was George's gift, and his story is described here with affection and taste. A wonderful book."
—Mia Farrow

"There is a palpable excitement to this book that made me feel I was there, with George, on his journey. . . . Extraordinary."
—Martin Rutte, coauthor of Chicken Soup for the Soul at Work

"The depth of insight into Harrison's inner life is great."
—Yoga Journal

Here Comes the Sun tells the story of George Harrison's musical and spiritual journey with more detail and immediacy than in any other book about Harrison or the Beatles. Like his fellow Beatles, Harrison escaped the streets of working-class Liverpool, survived a tough musical apprenticeship in underground clubs, and became one of the most famous and successful musical artists in history. Before long, though, disillusioned with both the price and rewards of celebrity, he began the journey that would transform his music and redefine the rest of his life. Joshua Greene, who studied meditation with the legendary Beatle, draws on personal remembrances, recorded conversations, and firsthand accounts to create a moving portrait of Harrison's spiritual life and his profound musical vision. This is a fresh and highly rewarding book for Beatles fans as well as for any reader interested in the spiritual path.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/0470127805/?tag=imwan-20

July 1, 2007:

[bigred]The Beatles! A One Night Stand In The Heartland (Hardcover)[/bigred]
[lilred]by Bill Carlson[/lilred]



Book Description
The Beatles! A One-Night Stand in the Heartland is a collection of original, previously unpublished photographs from August 21, 1965. As such it adds a new chapter to the Beatles' story. In it, Bill Carlson brings to Beatles fans, photography aficionados, and history buffs more than 160 never-before-published photographs that document one day in the life of the Beatles on tour.

The Beatles! A One-Night Stand in the Heartland brings together strands from many remarkable stories. First, there is the story of the Beatles themselves as phenomenal artists who changed music and culture forever. Second, Bill Carlson tells his own impressive story of how he interacted with the Beatles on that one day. And third, the 25,000 or more screaming, shouting, cheering, swooning, clapping, crying, and singing Minnesotans who were transformed by what they experienced that day.

While a high school student, Carlson apprenticed with the prestigious photographer Merle Morris. When the press passes for the Beatles' day in Minneapolis came through, he grabbed one, picked up his Hasselblad and Nikon cameras, and headed out to Met Stadium, where the Minnesota Twins and Vikings performed and where the Mall of America now stands. He went not so much as a Beatles fan but as a photography-hungry youth determined to seize every opportunity to learn and perfect his art.

His images show the public faces of the Beatles at their press conference at the stadium as they expertly pose and trade quips with reporters. They show the fans, who look so young, hardly even teenagers, putting Minnesota youth on the same footing as those in London and New York. They also show the more familiar scenes of Beatlemania, and his long shots of the concert stage recall that security was so strict that even photographers were banned from the field.

There are other books by Beatles photographers, including The Beatles: A Private View (2003) by Robert Freeman, who photographed many album covers for the group, and Once There Was a Way (2003) by Harry Benson, who photographed them on tour from Paris to Miami. But there is no other book like this that documents one day, one concert, one place. It was a day that brought high fun and high art to the Twin Cities and changed many Beatles fans forever.

About the Author
Bill Carlson is an accomplished photographer, cinematographer, and scuba diver, combining his loves for photography and diving to explore and film the underwater cave systems of Mexico and Florida. He has been the director of photography on numerous commercials, films, and documentaries, his most recent film being the PBS documentary America's Lost Landscape: The Tall Grass Prairie, narrated by Annabeth Gish.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/1581825900/?tag=imwan-20

July 2, 2007:

[bigred]The Act You've Known For All These Years: A Year In The Life Of Sgt. Pepper And Friends (Hardcover)[/bigred]
[lilred]by Clinton Heylin[/lilred]



“It was forty years ago today” that Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band by The Beatles was released, an LP which changed the face of popular culture and continues to top public and critical polls of the greatest albums ever made. The Act You’ve Known for All These Years reconstructs the life and times of Sgt. Pepper, the cultural backstory of the band and rock's turbulent early adulthood. Weaving the activities of the Beatles in with those of their contemporaries and rivals — notably Bob Dylan, the Beach Boys and Pink Floyd — heralded music critic Clinton Heylin reveals the inspirations and explodes the myths behind this talismanic, iconic album — and "the summer of love" itself. In addition, the book surveys what happened next, telling the history of the LP’s "afterlife" from 1967 to the present day. Featuring interviews both with those who were there at the time and those who followed in the Beatles’ wake, The Act You’ve Known for All These Years is the definitive book on the defining LP of the pop era.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/1841959189/?tag=imwan-20

April 28, 2007:

[bigred]Decline, Renewal And The City In Popular Music Culture: Beyond The Beatles[/bigred]
[lilred]by Sara Cohen[/lilred]



How is popular music culture connected with the life, image, and identity of a city? How, for example, did the Beatles emerge in Liverpool, how did they come to be categorized as part of Liverpool culture and identity and used to develop and promote the city, and how have connections between the Beatles and Liverpool been forged and contested? This book explores the relationship between popular music and the city using Liverpool as a case study. Firstly, it examines the impact of social and economic change within that city on its popular music culture, focusing on de-industrialization and economic restructuring during the 1980s and 1990s. Secondly, and in turn, it considers the specificity of popular music culture and the many diverse ways in which it influences city life and informs the way that the city is thought about, valued and experienced. Cohen highlights popular music's unique role and significance in the making of cities, and illustrates how de-industrialization encouraged efforts to connect popular music to the city, to categorize, claim and promote it as local culture, and harness and mobilize it as a local resource. In doing so, she adopts an approach that recognizes music as a social and symbolic practice encompassing a diversity of roles and characteristics: music as a culture or way of life distinguished by social and ideological conventions; music as sound; speech and discourse about music; and music as a commodity and industry.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/0754632431/?tag=imwan-20

July 17, 2007:

[bigred]Price Guide For The Beatles American Records: Sixth Edition (Hardcover)[/bigred]
[lilred]by Perry Cox (Author), Frank Daniels (Author), Bruce Spizer (Foreword)[/lilred]



Product Description
The Sixth Edition of the Price Guide for the Beatles American Records is more than an update of the popular prior editions. It is an exciting new publication with thousands of new listings of Beatles records, CDs and all tape formats, including reel-to-reel, 4-track, 8-track, cassette and Playtapes, and over one thousand color images spread throughout the book. The guide adopts the numbering system used in Bruce Spizer's critically acclaimed books on the Beatles American records, which enables collectors to coordinate listings in the guide with images in Spizer's books. The identification numbers assigned to items in the guide are permanent and will not change in future editions. Each listing has a checkbox so that collectors can mark the items in their collections. Written by Perry Cox and Frank Daniels and edited and published by Bruce Spizer, this 9" x 12" 330-page tome is the same size and in the same full-color high quality format as Bruce Spizer's books on the Beatles. It is an absolute must for Beatles collectors and fans.

About the Author
Perry Cox is recognized as the leading expert on the values of the Beatles American records, having authored or co-authored eight books on the subject. Frank Daniels has written numerous article on the Beatles and maintains one of the first and largest websites for Beatles collectors. He has assisted numerous authors on their Beatles projects.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/0966264967/?tag=imwan-20

September 1, 2007:

Revolution In The Head: The Beatles' Records And The Sixties: Third Edition (Not Revised)
by Ian MacDonald



Reviews
“A triumph—compelling, seductive, delightful.” —Nick Hornby, author, High Fidelity

“A brilliant electrical storm of a book.” —Newsweek

“The most astute piece of Fabs exegesis ever published—brilliant on the group’s triumphs, refreshingly scathing about its shortcomings . . . One of the twenty greatest rock & roll books.” —Blender

“The finest piece of fabs scholarship ever published.” —Mojo

Book Description
This “Bible of the Beatles” captures the iconic band’s magical and mysterious journey from adorable teenagers to revered cultural emissaries. Each of their 241 tracks is assessed chronologically from their first amateur recordings in 1957 to their final “reunion” recording in 1995. It also incorporates new information from the Anthology series and recent interviews with Paul McCartney. This comprehensive guide offers fascinating details about the Beatles’ lives, music, and era, never losing sight of what made the band so important, unique, and enjoyable.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/1556527330/?tag=imwan-20

August 28, 2007:

Wonderful Tonight: George Harrison, Eric Clapton, And Me (Hardcover)
by Pattie Boyd and Penny Junor



Amazon.com Q&A with Pattie Boyd
Why are you writing the book now?

I have been asked for the last 15 years to write a book, and it is only now that I feel the time is right. My confidence in myself was restored after two successful exhibitions of my photography, and it occurred to me that I was finally ready to take a look at the unique experiences of my life and to share them--including all the ups and downs.

Tell us about the first time you met George Harrison.

Working as a model, I occasionally went for castings, mainly for television commercials. I went for an interview with one of the directors I had worked with in the past, and he cast me in his first movie, A Hard Day’s Night, to play the part of a schoolgirl. When I first saw George on the set, I thought he was the best-looking man I’d ever seen. I was so surprised when he asked me out on a date at the end of my first day of filming.

Tell us about the first time you heard George Harrison's song, "Something."

George said he had written a song for me, and he played it on the guitar at home without the words. Then when I heard the song after it had been recorded I couldn’t believe how utterly beautiful it was. It was released on a single in October 1969, and I felt so thrilled and flattered.

Tell us about the first time you heard Eric Clapton's "Layla."

Eric invited me to his band's flat one day and played a rough recording of "Layla" on a cassette recorder. I was sitting on a sofa and he on the floor as it played, and he kept looking up at me for a reaction. I was stunned; the intensity, passion and tenderness came across so strongly--I knew, as he said, it was written for me.

Review
"The appeal of Wonderful Tonight is as self-evident as the seemingly simple but brash opening chord of “A Hard Day’s Night… a charming, lively and seductive book, and like all good memoirs it also works as a cultural history… The prose is clear and unpretentious, and although she writes candidly about the pain her husband's infidelities caused her…this isn’t a bitter tell-all. There’s an aura of sweetness around Boyd’s approach."
—New York Times Book Review

"A scrumptious memoir…There is exactly one big question for Ms. Boyd to answer here: What made her leave Mr. Harrison for Mr. Clapton, her husband’s close friend? To its credit the book answers that question plausibly and fully."
—The New York Times

"They say if you can remember the '60s, you weren't really there. Well, Pattie Boyd was there, and she remembers it all." Wonderful Tonight "is a unique gospel of a turbulent time by someone who was in the very eye of the rock 'n' roll hurricane."
—Sydney Morning Herald

"Pattie Boyd married two Sixties legends and inspired three of the era's greatest love songs, but life was far from glamorous. The ex-wife of George Harrison and Eric Clapton speaks out in this compelling autobiography."
—The London Sunday Times

"There are so many wonderful stories in Pattie Boyd's life: Falling in love with a Beatle. Falling in love with another famous rock star, Eric Clapton, and being serenaded with 'Wonderful Tonight' . . . "But there is much that is excruciating in her life story." Boyd "was taught by her parents that she didn't deserve to be loved; she was told by her husbands that she wasn't worth very much, but here she is: not dead, not on drugs, not an alcoholic, but a survivor."
—London Daily Mail

“Will thrill classic-rock buffs with a taste for scandal.”
—Entertainment Weekly

Book Description
An iconic figure of the 1960s and ’70s, Pattie Boyd breaks a forty-year silence in Wonderful Tonight, and tells the story of how she found herself bound to two of the most addictive, promiscuous musical geniuses of the twentieth century and became the most famous muse in the history of rock and roll.

She met the Beatles in 1964 when she was cast as a schoolgirl in A Hard Day’s Night. Ten days later a smitten George Harrison proposed. For twenty-year-old Pattie Boyd, it was the beginning of an unimaginably rich and complex life as she was welcomed into the Beatles inner circle—a circle that included Mick Jagger, Ron Wood, Jeff Beck, and a veritable who’s who of rock musicians. She describes the dynamics of the group, the friendships, the tensions, the musicmaking, and the weird and wonderful memories she has of Paul and Linda, Cynthia and John, Ringo and Maureen, and especially the years with her husband, George.

It was a sweet, turbulent life, but one that would take an unexpected turn, starting with a simple note that began “dearest l.”

I read it quickly and assumed that it was from some weirdo; I did get fan mail from time to time.... I thought no more about it until that evening when the phone rang. It was Eric [Clapton]. “Did you get my letter?”... And then the penny dropped. “Was that from you?” I said....It was the most passionate letter anyone had ever written me.

For the first time Pattie Boyd, former wife of both George Harrison and Eric Clapton, a high-profile model whose face epitomized the swinging London scene of the 1960s, a woman who inspired Harrison’s song “Something” and Clapton’s anthem “Layla,” has decided to write a book that is rich and raw, funny and heartbreaking—and totally honest and open and breathtaking. Here is the truth, here is what happened, here is the story you’ve been waiting for.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/0307393844/?tag=imwan-20

One of the Amazon reviews says the text is identical to the previous edition. (Not surprising, since Ian MacDonald died four years ago.)

Thanks for catching that in the customer review, Fred ~ I've updated the post accordingly.

October 01, 2007:

Yesterday: The Beatles Once Upon a Time (Hardcover)
by Astrid Kirchherr and Max Scheler



Book Description
Yesterday: The Beatles Once Upon A Time documents the Beatles and the city of their birth during the making of their first film, A Hard Day’s Night, in 1964. It captures the rhythm and texture of the tough English port city where the smell of cigarettes and seawater mingled and the strains of pop music were transformed by an early 1960s music scene that gave birth to the Mersey Beat and the greatest band of all time.

Before they achieved world fame, the Beatles perfected their craft in another port of call, the northern German city of Hamburg. There they met Astrid Kirchherr, a budding photographer who became close friends with the band and later was engaged to the Beatles’ original bass player, Stuart Sutcliffe. Some four years later—by which time the Beatles had conquered the world—Kirchherr with Max Scheler visited the band and took the photographs that appear in this book. Kirchherr and Scheler focused on the Beatles in private and public moments, during the filming, and also on the city itself, on the streets, the music scene, the people, evoking for us today the gritty humor and passion of 1960s Liverpudlians.

This book offers a moving testament to the inspirational effect of the Beatles’ success on their hometown as well as an important chapter of the Beatles’ almost-mythic story.

About the Author
Astrid Kirchherr is a German photographer and artist. She has exhibited her work in Hamburg, London, New York, Tokyo, and at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland. She was a close friend of the Beatles in the years preceding their international fame. Max Scheler was a photojournalist for Stern magazine in Hamburg and an associate of the photographer Herbert List.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/0865651892/?tag=imwan-20

If you want a taste of the halcyon Hamburg days of Astrid Kirchherr and Stuart Sutcliffe, check out the movie Backbeat. Essential viewing for all Beatles fans.

[bigred]The Beatles Off The Record: Updated 2007 Edition[/bigred]
[lilred]by Keith Badman[/lilred]
[lilred]April 1, 2008[/lilred]



Celebrated Beatles researcher Keith Badman - author of Omnibus Press' much-acclaimed Beatles After the Break-Up - has now compiled the definitive book of Beatles quotes and interviews. From Cavern days to the final split, here is the story of The Beatles in their own words, plus comments from friends, associates and observers. There have been Beatles quote books before but none so comprehensive, definitive and minutely researched as this. This is the most comprehensive oral history of The Beatles ever published. An 'as it happened' story of the greatest pop group of them all, it features a wealth of quotes from the Sixties by John, Paul, George and Ringo themselves and a host of others who were close to the group during the heady days of Beatlemania and beyond, including their families, fellow musicians, Brian Epstein, George Martin and dozens more. Badman has updated this edition to include details of the death of George Harrison, Paul McCartney's appearance at the charity concert at Madison Square Garden in aid of September 11th and Yoko Ono's peace message. He will also detail forthcoming events such as Paul's American tour this summer and his appearance at the Queen's Golden Jubilee celebrations.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/184772101X/?tag=imwan-20

My sister picked up a book for me called The Walrus was Ringo: 101 Beatles Myths Debunked. Written in an annoying British smarm it's fairly knowledgeable but too willing to throw over the facts to suit its premise that it must find 101 things to debunk, so either debunks things no one believes in the first place or ends up not debunking things everyone believes because they're true.

Haven't seen this one mentioned yet. Just read it and it is very good from a first hand experience with the boys. I recommend it.

http://www.fabwhitebook.com

[bigred]The White Book: The Beatles, The Bands, The Biz - An Insider's Look At An Era[/bigred]
[lilred]by Ken Mansfield[/lilred]
[lilred]October 30, 2007[/lilred]



From Publishers Weekly
The second memoir from record-industry vet Mansfield (The Beatles, the Bible and Bodega Bay), a simple look at a complex happening, recounts his overwhelmingly positive experiences working with the Fab Four (and others) as they put together their late-career masterpiece The White Album. Mansfield relates how a lucky break in the 1960s took him from promotions executive for Hollywood's Capitol Records to U.S. manager of Beatles-owned Apple Records. One of the few Americans allowed into the group's inner circle, Mansfield presents revealing one-on-one time with each band member, yielding insight beyond their public personas. He notes, for instance, that mere words can't explain how intimidating John Lennon and Yoko Ono were. Though he provides his side of artistic debates (should Hey Jude or Revolution be the first Apple single?), and eyewitness accounts of key Beatles moments (including the group's final public performance atop the label's London headquarters), Mansfield misses numerous opportunities to provide insider details and to comment on the progress (or lack thereof) in the recording industry; further, Mansfield's awkward writing style—clumsy metaphors and alliteration, short chapters and confusing chronology—gives the work an amateurish feel. As Mansfield notes in the foreword, this book is something to enjoy because of its simplicity: engaging but hardly essential reading for the casual fan.

Book Description
Through exclusive photos and personal stories, former US manager of Apple Records and Grammy Award winning producer Ken Mansfield offers a compelling memoir that delves into his life in the 1960s and '70s and his unique partnership with the Beatles and other musicians who orbited their world. As observer, friend, and colleague, Mansfield sat in their recording sessions, partied in their swimming pools, took their irate calls, and publicized their successes. Entertaining, historically accurate, and illuminating a side of the Fab Four known only to a few like Mansfield, The White Book shines fresh light on the true characters behind the cultural phenomena that revolutionized a generation. As the former Head of Apple Records International, Jack Oliver, has said of Ken, "He is one of the few insiders left that bore witness to the highs and lows of those insane days when we ruled the world."

Reviews
"Ken has a unique gift. He can take you in the room and have you sit with the folk he knows and make you one of the gang, part of the plan. and considering these folk include the Beatles, Dolly Parton, Waylon Jennings, the Beach Boys, Roy Orbison, David Cassidy and a whole host more that is some doing. I really enjoyed sitting in on his world and I respect the affection he has for our game, and what he brought to it, will get you."
ANDREW LOOG OLDHAM
Rolling Stones Manager and Producer

"Ken Mansfield brings us a new and closely personal perspective not only on the Beatles, but on a whole cast of musical characters from Brian Wilson to Don Ho. An observant and perceptive man in the centre of the storm; a contradictory man, both ambitious and spiritual, but at the heart of the record industry during its most exciting years and enjoying every minute of it. I lived through those years with Ken and we became friends. It is a pleasure to experience so much of it all again through the accuracy of his story telling and the clarity of his memory."
PETER ASHER
Peter and Gordon/A&R Chief Apple Records/Producer-Manager (James Taylor, Linda Ronstadt, Carole King et al)

"Journalism is normally a very inexact science. Many of the countless books about the Beatles have been written by researchers-not by people who were actually there. Everyone has experienced reading a book or article where one's own inside knowledge about a particular person or event shows up inaccuracies on the part of the writer that totally distort the truth. This book is an exception-I know because I was there for some of it myself. Ken Mansfield and I unknowingly shared the experience of the famous Apple rooftop session where I was nervously adjusting mikes and cables for the sound recording of that unforgettable day. Ken was not only working for the Beatles through their heyday, he was also their trusted friend. There is no one better equipped to tell the Beatles' story-truthfully-and more importantly-factually, from the inside."
ALAN PARSONS
Engineer to the Beatles/Pink Floyd, Multi Platinum Producer, Alan Parsons Project

"Unlike many people claiming a Beatles connection, Ken Mansfield doesn't have an agenda or try to elevate his role or importance. Ken comes across as a man who knows how lucky he was to be where he was and enjoys sharing his stories with us. Ken was there and that is why The White Book is informative, fresh and entertaining without being ego-driven."
BRUCE SPIZER
Author, Beatle Historian

http://www.amazon.com/dp/1595551018/?tag=imwan-20