Abbey Road/Let It Be : The Beatles (Classic Rock Albums Series)

Rating:
Summary: A shabby, superficial rehash of final Beatles sessions.
Review: One wonders why anyone would devote an entire book to the waning days of the Beatles' studio productions. These were acrimonious times for the once Fab Four, and the individual nature of each of their songs shows that they were the product of solo artists, not a unified band, who were using the others simply as a backing group. The breakup had already occurred creatively before it was institutionalized legally and corporately. However, Mr. Doggett chooses to sift through these lackluster sessions anyway, largely through the use of previously published accounts, many of them sketchy or inaccurate, rather than conduct any first-hand archival research or fresh interviews of his own. The result is a dismal rehash of old stories about very dull recording sessions. The shopworn tales are not likely to interest anyone other than diehard Beatles fanatics, and they will have seen it all before and heard it all on assorted recordings, both legitimate and bootleg. The shabby! result is not surprising considering Doggett's shaky sources, two of whom he dedicates his work to in words so reverentially gushy they should be reserved for deities, not hacks like these.

Betty Mitchell

Rating:
Summary: Let It Be
Review: Perhaps a bit too exhaustive and too reverential treatment of the Beatles' last two albums. There are other books available detailing all of their albums in a single volume. This does not add much to any of the others.

Rating:
Summary: Well-researched, compelling narrative of group's demise
Review: The circumstances surrounding the break-up of the Beatles have been shrouded in myth ever since the group assembled their Let It Be project. Doggett's book provides a gripping and persuasive account of the tensions that wracked the group in their final years, drawing on the hours of conversations and chaotic music-making captured on the so-called Get Back tapes. This material, never previously published, allows the reader to feel like a fly-on-the-wall as the Beatles implode. Remarkably, it's Paul McCartney, usually pegged as the villain of the piece, who emerges as the book's hero - the only one of the Fab Four prepared to stand up for the integrity of the group's reputation. Doggett's book altered the way in which I looked at these sessions, and indeed the entire responsibility for the break-up of the Beatles.