BOOK REVIEW: The Complete Beatles Songs by Steven Turner

BOOK REVIEW: The Complete Beatles Songs by Steven Turner

Hachette Australia
October 2015
Hardback, $49.99
Reviewed by Shane Pinnegar

Music Biography

9/10

If there’s something to know about one of the Beatles’ songs which isn’t included in this hefty coffee table-styled tome, then the band members have or probably will take it to their graves.

This reissue of the favourite, originally published in 1994, now includes full lyrics for every track, and analyses each lyric for meanings, both obvious and hidden.

Along the way myths are shattered, truths exposed, and some charming stories unearthed, none more so than that of Lucy O’Donnell, the four-year old classmate of Julian Lennon who inspired his pencil drawing, that in turn inspired the song Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds. Turner tells us that Lucy went on to marry, but her life was plagued with illness and she died in 2009 – but not before Julian reconnected with her and later wrote a song in her memory and became patron of a trust dedicated to eradicating the disease which long ailed her.

There are many more fascinating stories herein: Revolution #9’s direct influence on Charles Manson, for instance, or the legal wrangling resulting from McCartney’s use of ‘Ob-La-Di Ob-La-Da’, a catchphrase he had picked up from Nigerian conga player Jimmy Scott (Macca eventually paid Scott’s legal fees to dismiss the claim, when the Nigerian was arrested for a domestic issue, and that Lennon claimed Maxwell’s Silver Hammer was the first song he wrote about karma.

Category: Book Reviews