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The Beatles A to Z
The complete illustrated Beatle Encyclopedia with more than 3000 entries and 100 photographs.
248 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1980
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
April 18, 2023
With more then 3,000 entries and tons of photos this A to Z Encyclopedia is a Beatles lovers dream come true
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 5, 2007
This book is not well known. I was given a copy of it in 1983, three years after it was published.
While it is exactly what the title describes, allowing you to look up a song or a name associated with the Beatles and getting some information, it is more than that. The entries are unusual. There's one for "Boogaloo," for example. It turns out "Boogaloo" was a name John, George and Ringo used to refer to Paul when they didn't want people around them knowing who they were talking about. So, from this, a reader can conclude, as I did, that Ringo's 1971 single, "Back Off Boogaloo" is addressed to Paul. "Wake up, meat-head, don't pretend that you are dead..." (You'll recall the whole "Paul Is Dead" thing.) Given that the Beatles, immediately after the break-up (which was in 1970), wrote a lot of songs faintly and/or pointedly about each other, I don't think my idea about "Back off, Boogaloo" is at all far-fetched. And I have THE BEATLES A TO Z to thank for planting it in my head. There is no entry for "Back Off, Boogaloo," but the "Boogaloo" entry, just by the fact of its being there, helped me put some things together. I found myself wondering about another instance of the word "Boogaloo" in a song. The lyric, "All I wanna do is boogaloo," in the 1973 song, "I'm the Greatest," which John wrote for Ringo to record, seems to me to be a tip of the hat from John to Paul, through Ringo. This was at a time when the tensions between the solo Beatles were beginning to ease. I used to get in arguments with a fellow Beatles fan over various entries in THE BEATLES A To Z. I was always saying this book gave tremendous insight into the Beatles and he always said it was full of misinformation. I still think this book is a compendium of insider information. Goldie Friede, the author, doesn't seem to have written anything else. I'm not sure she ever existed. (Get on Goodreads, Goldie, and tell me otherwise.) I contend that this book was put together by somebody with genuine access to the Beatles. And if there was a Goldie Friede: Please write another book.
There are entries in here which help you put together vast puzzles about the Beatles. One reason the book doesn't seem ever to have caught on is that it does not come out and say, "Put these little facts together, connect the dots and get a very focused picture."
A lot more people know a lot more about the Beatles than in 1980, but this book still seems fresh to me.
It's a fun book. It's an oversize paperback. the edition I have has a picture of the Beatles from the MAGICAL MYSTERY TOUR era, standing there, looking mod. One of them is holding a teacup. They've got the handlebar mustaches and look like the dreamy, creative geniuses they were.
While it is exactly what the title describes, allowing you to look up a song or a name associated with the Beatles and getting some information, it is more than that. The entries are unusual. There's one for "Boogaloo," for example. It turns out "Boogaloo" was a name John, George and Ringo used to refer to Paul when they didn't want people around them knowing who they were talking about. So, from this, a reader can conclude, as I did, that Ringo's 1971 single, "Back Off Boogaloo" is addressed to Paul. "Wake up, meat-head, don't pretend that you are dead..." (You'll recall the whole "Paul Is Dead" thing.) Given that the Beatles, immediately after the break-up (which was in 1970), wrote a lot of songs faintly and/or pointedly about each other, I don't think my idea about "Back off, Boogaloo" is at all far-fetched. And I have THE BEATLES A TO Z to thank for planting it in my head. There is no entry for "Back Off, Boogaloo," but the "Boogaloo" entry, just by the fact of its being there, helped me put some things together. I found myself wondering about another instance of the word "Boogaloo" in a song. The lyric, "All I wanna do is boogaloo," in the 1973 song, "I'm the Greatest," which John wrote for Ringo to record, seems to me to be a tip of the hat from John to Paul, through Ringo. This was at a time when the tensions between the solo Beatles were beginning to ease. I used to get in arguments with a fellow Beatles fan over various entries in THE BEATLES A To Z. I was always saying this book gave tremendous insight into the Beatles and he always said it was full of misinformation. I still think this book is a compendium of insider information. Goldie Friede, the author, doesn't seem to have written anything else. I'm not sure she ever existed. (Get on Goodreads, Goldie, and tell me otherwise.) I contend that this book was put together by somebody with genuine access to the Beatles. And if there was a Goldie Friede: Please write another book.
There are entries in here which help you put together vast puzzles about the Beatles. One reason the book doesn't seem ever to have caught on is that it does not come out and say, "Put these little facts together, connect the dots and get a very focused picture."
A lot more people know a lot more about the Beatles than in 1980, but this book still seems fresh to me.
It's a fun book. It's an oversize paperback. the edition I have has a picture of the Beatles from the MAGICAL MYSTERY TOUR era, standing there, looking mod. One of them is holding a teacup. They've got the handlebar mustaches and look like the dreamy, creative geniuses they were.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews