One Two Three Four: The Beatles in Time
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One Two Three Four: The Beatles in Time
Buy Now for £18.09
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Narrated by:
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Mark McGann
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Kate Robbins
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By:
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Craig Brown
Summary
WINNER OF THE BAILLIE GIFFORD PRIZE 2020
SHORTLISTED for the Baillie Gifford Prize’s 25th Anniversary Winner of Winners award
A Spectator Book of the Year • A Times Book of the Year • A Telegraph Book of the Year • A Sunday Times Book of the Year
From the award-winning author of Ma’am Darling: 99 Glimpses of Princess Margaret comes a fascinating, hilarious, kaleidoscopic biography of the Fab Four.
John Updike compared them to ‘the sun coming out on an Easter morning’. Bob Dylan introduced them to drugs. The Duchess of Windsor adored them. Noel Coward despised them. JRR Tolkien snubbed them. The Rolling Stones copied them. Loenard Bernstein admired them. Muhammad Ali called them ‘little sissies’. Successive Prime Ministers sucked up to them. No one has remained unaffected by the music of The Beatles. As Queen Elizabeth II observed on her golden wedding anniversary, ‘Think what we would have missed if we had never heard The Beatles.’
One Two Three Four traces the chance fusion of the four key elements that made up The Beatles: fire (John), water (Paul), air (George) and earth (Ringo). It also tells the bizarre and often unfortunate tales of the disparate and colourful people within their orbit, among them Fred Lennon, Yoko Ono, the Maharishi, Aunt Mimi, Helen Shapiro, the con artist Magic Alex, Phil Spector, their psychedelic dentist John Riley and their failed nemesis, Det Sgt Norman Pilcher.
From the bestselling author of Ma’am Darling comes a kaleidoscopic mixture of history, etymology, diaries, autobiography, fan letters, essays, parallel lives, party lists, charts, interviews, announcements and stories. One Two Three Four joyfully echoes the frenetic hurly-burly of an era.
Critic reviews
‘A ridiculously enjoyable treat . . . Brown is such an infectiously jolly writer that you don’t even need to like the Beatles to enjoy his book . . . brilliant . . . hilarious . . . And at a time when, like everybody else, I was feeling not entirely thrilled about the news, I loved every word of it.’ Sunday Times
‘A celestial combination of writer and subject . . . One Two Three Four is a critical appreciation, a personal history, a miscellany, a work of scholarship and speculation, and a tribute as passionate and worshipful as any fan letter.’ Esquire
‘The perfect antidote to these times.’ Julian Barnes, Guardian
‘Kaleidoscopic … It’s like a compilation of mobile phone footage in a modern editing style as you piece together this extraordinary journey. I think it’s the most exhilarating way of reading a biography; a masterpiece’ Alexander Armstrong
‘It’s ingenious, wholly original (not a given, what with the subject matter), absolutely gripping, funny, sad and moving. A complete treat.’ India Knight
'I have never been very interested in the Beatles. In fact I wouldn’t cross the road to see them . . . even Abbey Road. Yet I can’t put this wonderful book down.' Barry Humphries, Telegraph
‘A brilliantly executed study of cultural time, social space and the madness of fame . . . One Two Three Four, by putting The Beatles in their place as well as their time, is by far the best book anyone has written about them and the closest we can get to the truth.’ Literary Review
‘Brown seems to have invented a wholly new biographical form. In a polychromatic cavalcade of chapters of varying length, the man with kaleidoscope eyes conveys what it was like to live through those extraordinary Beatles years . . . If you want to know what it was like to live those extraordinary Beatles years in real time, read this book.’ Alan Johnson, Spectator
- the account of a Hamburg club owner where they played
- taking a tour of Lennon's and McCartney's childhood homes
- what was the story behind the policeman who knocked down and killed Lennon's mum?
- the FULL story of the Ed Sullivan TV show, including the story of other artists who appeared on it
- what is the story - before, during, after - of Jimmie Nicol who replaced Ringo when he had tonsilitis?
- fan accounts of their obsession with one or all of The Beatles
- Aunt Mimi's story
Loosely following the narrative of the emergence, growth, stardom, and end of the group, and taken from contemporary or later accounts and interviews, this is a never less than entertaining passage through some of the more oblique aspects associated with the most famous musicians in pop history.
There are three narrators, and their imitations of the characters involved range from acceptable (George and Ringo) to quite good (Paul). However, I would like to tell one of the three that John's Aunt Mimi is "Me-Me" not "Mimmy"!! but it's a minor irritation. One of the most enjoyable (because unpredictable) Beatle books you'll find.
Everything you didn't know about The Beatles
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Not a boring biography
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Forensic detail!
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It is balanced with several accounts of the same occurrences, which allows the listener to make their own mind up about the "fab four". This isn't a rose tinted view and doesn't attempt to glamourise them. It more gives you an insight into how life was for each one.
My only slight moan is that it's sometimes hard to work out the chronology of some events.
This is a book I'll listen to again and again and I thoroughly recommend it.
So much I didn't know about the Beatles
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Great work,great band,great listen
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