Looking For a Good Book

I suppose that as long as there are people like me, people interested learning anything and everything they can about the Beatles, there will be books like this. It seems that I read one or two a year and I’m sure I miss a few.

Stuart Maconie’s book, With a Little Help From Their Friends, has a clever hook. It is less about the Beatles themselves, directly, and about the 100 people around them, individually and/or as the group, who had an affect on them in some way.  In some cases these people are well known and entire books have been written about these individuals (such as Brian Epstein, George Martin, Bob Dylan, Mal Evans, and Yoko Ono) while others seem incredibly obscure. It is the latter group that I found most interesting.

For instance, while I’ve recognized that in addition to their music, the Beatles brought about a lot of different social change, from haircuts to clothing to lifestyle choices. But while we credit the Beatles with many of these changes, there were generally other people behind them. The style of clothes, for instance. The Fab Four didn’t design and build their unique outfits. That credit goes to Dougie Millings (Chapter 48).

(Dougie) had cut these round-collared jackets for ship stewards and thought that idea could work. … these jackets with half-inch braiding on the edges, flared cuffs and three-pearl button fastening, and tight, flat-fronted trousers with no pockets to keep the lines lean – and because Epstein said he didn’t want the band members to have pockets to put their hands in. 

…

In the years that followed, Millings designed over five hundred garments for them.

There were also moments found in some of these mini biographies that I found really interesting, such as the bit about Alf Bicknell, the boys’ driver who “chauffeured them in a rather unglamorous Austin Princess (registration SST 626) since its doors opened wider than any other car on the market and could be dived into at speed when making hasty getaways from fans.” 

It’s likely that only the most ardent of Beatles fans knows the name Meta Davies (Chapter 85). She was a Traffic Warden in 1967 and was assigned to an area that Paul McCartney traveled regularly. It’s rumored that when Paul asked her name he misheard her, which led to his writing “Lovely Rita.”.

Not everyone included here was a positive influence (Alan Klein is included here, after all), but the 100 individuals had an impact of some sort.

There are 100 people included in under 400 pages, which means no one has a detailed biography, but Maconie gives us what we need to know and curious readers can always follow up with an internet search (I’ve done that with Bob Wooler [Chapter 28] and Norman Smith [Chapter 32]). The short chapters and Maconie’s writing style make this a very pleasant read.

Looking for a good book? It’s hard to imagine that we can still get useful information on a band that hasn’t performed together in almost 60 years, but Stuart Maconie’s With a Little Help From Their Friends is a delightful look at 100 people in The Beatle’s circle.

_{I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.}

4-1/2 stars

* * * * * *

With a Little Help From Their Friends

author: Stuart Maconie

publisher:  Harry N. Abrams

ISBN:  9781419789571

hardcover, 368 pages