Tell Me Why: The Beatles: Album by Album, Song by Song, the Sixties and After

Rating:
Summary: Not Original, Not Pleasant, Not Any Good!
Review: Tim Riley's "The Beatles: Album-by-Album, Song-by-Song, the Sixties and After" is not a good read for Beatles fans. The idea of giving each Beatles song a thorough analysis and commentary is exciting, but Riley does nothing more than explain how each song is carried out by what instruments. We can learn what's being played by who by simply throwing on "The White Album" or "Please Please Me." It would be interesting if the meaning behind each song was discussed. This would provide some new insight into these tracks that have been much written about. Other Beatles biographies such as "Shout!" and "The Beatles: An Oral History" grab your attention because they describe the lives of each of the Beatles and offer unique information that explains how they carried out their extraordinary lives. Riley's "The Beatles: Album-by-Album" has good intentions to present information that has not been discussed in great depth, but it fails because it does not reveal anything new to Beatles fans. Also, the author comes off as a snob using stilted language and provides much negative criticism toward the solo careers of Paul and George in particular (a no-no!). And the way he turned his nose in the air when critiquing classic albums such as "Magical Mystery Tour" and George Harrison's "Cloud Nine" and "All Things Must Pass" is laughable. If you want an interesting Beatles read, pick up "Anthology." Just leave this overblown mess by Riley alone.

Rating:
Summary: When they were Fab and then some...
Review: What is most important about this is that Riley started out with the notion that making phonograph records is more than going into the studio and letting the tape run, is much more complicated than the idea of celebrities, teen idols cutting the next record to be played on American Bandstand.. but that IS the theory, right?..at least that's the thought that John Lennon comes to in the introduction. It is taken that all four Beatles were astute catalogers of rock'n'roll styles and they enjoyed various records--well known and rare alike--and they never turned away from any type of influences...I don't think they were that much interested in their own influence on the music world, nor did they care what the purists thought of their personal technique or style....actually, a lot of the recordings were like..."let's try it like this or yeah, that'll sound good like this",or it was like the Silver Beatles meeting for rehearsal for a weekend gig at a club in Stuttgart and Paul going, "hey, man. this is what I heard on the telly the other day..." and playing part of a riff from a beer commercial. Lennon, it seems was more in tuned to wordplay and the rhythm of certain phrases even when spoken ("when i was younger, so much younger than today") than McCartney was in the beginning, but at the end, it was indistinguishable who penned what--they say roughly, who ever did the lead vocals wrote the lyrics. Also, near the end, McCartney seemed to be more for the making of records just for the sake of making records, Lennon had to had some emotional or personal connection to write a song let alone make a record. John was ever the poet and remained the poet and in my opinion that was why a song like "A Day In The Life" from Sgt. Peppers' comes off surrealistic (Riley does an excellent descriptive of this): or in other words the poetry of Lennon's "turning you on" smacks right into McCartney and Martin's psychedelic musicianship...Riley also has a good breakdown of why even in their dissolving stages, certain records could not overcome the Beatles' instant karma even if they had to--with emphasis on the likes of, for instance, where Ringo's tom-toms show up in "Come Together" and, for instance, why John's gobbedygoop in "Come Together" means more than Paul's in "Get Back"...but both were equally compelling enough to sell the records. This is the stuff of the nuts and bolts of why "Yesterday" came about and why its a classic to us ol' heads--but also why most school kids love "I Am the Walrus"...

Rating:
Summary: I had high hopes for this book, but it didn't deliver.
Review: When I bought my copy of "Tell Me Why," I expected the story behind the story. I expected what inspirations drove John to write "I Am The Walrus," or Paul to compose "Yesterday." Instead, I got one man's interpretations of Beatles songs, little more than opinion and fluff. While every once and awhile the book threw me a bone, the enjoyment wasn't there. I liken it to reading the manual for operating a VCR. Plus, the first parts of the book were nearly indecipherable with all of this babble about garage bands and some group with Rosie as its lead singer... this all had little to do with the Beatles themselves, but was just thrown in to prove the knowledge of the author. Shame on him for doing such a thing. I give this two stars, though, because the author did provide an excellen discography of the Beatles' releases and the careers of the members after the band split up. My advice: if you're a Beatles fanatic, you might go for this book. But if you aren't serious enough that you don't keep a shrine to the Beatles in your bedroom, then you can spend your hard-earned cash elsewhere.