University of Virginia Library

Faulty Concepts

These, however, are faults not so much
with the author as with his concept. It is
simply impossible to tell everything about the
Beatles in one book. There is too much.
Unfortunately, the incidents that Davies
chooses to include are too often either totally
trivial or anecdotes that are so generally
known that anyone willing to spend $6.95 for
a book on the Beatles probably already knows
them. Do you really care what John used to
wear to grammar school, or how much Ringo
paid for his stepfather's new house? And
Davies almost totally ignores the sociological
significance of the Beatles, which is perhaps
the most important issue here.

What saves the book are the Beatles
themselves. Their incredible power as people
and as a social phenomena burst through both
the trivia and too familiar material. Their
humor, and their comments on their fame
reveal them as people as never before. Ringo
especially comes across as a very kind, warm
person, not the giggling stupid oaf he is
generally assumed to be. Even their sense of
duty is somewhat touching. John says wearily,
"I've got these bloody songs to write."

Further, Davies, a young writer (he wrote
the screen plays for Georgy Girl and Here We
Go Round The Mulberry Bush) is able to
write about the Beatles at their own level. He
doesn't talk down to them, like too many
reviewers from mass media (who, for some
unexplainable reason, can rave about any
obscure Italian opera, written in a language
they don't understand, one minute, and
complain the next that the Beatles are
probable good, but their lyrics are
incomprehensible.) He doesn't idolize them
like the obnoxious Public Relations Corps. I
think that Davies has a much better grasp of
what the Beatles are than any other major
writer who has ever written about them. He
paints a sympathetic portrait of the Beatles,
four people who, because of the world's
adoration have been cut off from it. With
their lives in the public domain, they can't
even go to a movie.