John, Paul, George, Ringo and Me: The Real Beatles Story [Paperback]

There are so many Beatles books they are divisable into categories: memoirs of those involved, technical/reference works on recording and performing specifics, those that cover specifc periods and projects, and the most useless of all, overviews of their entire lives by those with no special connection to the Beatles or no special access to historical materials.

Barrow, was of course, an employee of Brian Epstein's NEMS organization and as such, his memoirs are worth reading. He had special access.

The good points: his section on the many disasters of 1966 is fantastic and his presentation of this year has made me think of it in a whole new way. His depiction of the butcher cover controvery, the awful Manila and Tokyo episodes, as well as the fear of bible-belt assassins all through the summer tour of the US is compellingly written and detailed.

Also very interesting are the depictions of how the Beatles fan club and the Beatles Book publication worked with Barrow, as the chief PR man, to spread the image of the lads. Barrow, like many old timers, is quick to remind us how much today's entertainment industry sucks compared to the old days. I can't say he's wrong there.

There's an excellent photo supplement as well, including a number I haven't seen before.

On the other hand, there are, as is inevitable in these memoirs, errors of fact or contradictions. Here are three I spotted on first reading:

1.) he accuses Alistair Taylor of "defect[ing]" (p.236), yet a few pages later Taylor is sacked by the dreaded Allen Klein (p. 248). According to Taylor's own recent memoir, the latter is certainly accurate.

2.) Barrow says that Lennon and Cynthia were divorced in November 1969 (p.241). But...didn't he marry Yoko in March of 1969? And wasn't the single, "The Ballad of John and Yoko," descriptive of their travails in trying to get married, released in May 1969? Unless bigamy was legal in the UK in the '60s....how could this be?

3.) There's one bit of confusion in the chapter, "The End of the Road," where Barrow calls the Dodger Stadium show, Aug 28, the "penultimate" show. Because he describes that show--perhaps it would be better described as "tumultuous"--AFTER the actual last show of the tour, Candlestick Park on Aug 29, it sounds as if he's made a chronological blunder.

(my own facts are checked against Mark Lewisohn's epic and indispensable, "The Complete Beatles Chronicle.")

The title of the book isn't fantastic and reminds me of

"John, Paul, George, Ringo... & Bert," a 1970's

play by Willy Russell. The cover art is just bizarre. The Fab Four are shown in sharp black and white glory while the ghostly image of Barrow hovers below. Weird. The index sucks.

Entertaining and specific, despite the occasional mean-spirited comment.

I'd first like to say that I've written reviews of many books for this site and not one of them has been posted.There is no way of finding out why.Let me try again.I gave this book 4 stars because it wasn't long enough.I felt that Tony should have divulged more info.Although he worked with the Fabs for 6 years and is considered an insider he admits that he wasn't real close to them.Therefore he wasn't part of the INNER circle which included Mal(dead),Neil(loyal to a fault and not talking)and a few others who are either dead or not talking.What he does say is very interesting.There is a chapter on the character and basic personality of each Beatle which is facinating.I don't think he does a good job with Paul as usual.I'm beginning to see that Paul didn't always reveal himself to people.The people he was close to seem to sense his need for privacy and are not talking.(Some of them are dead)Tony does a great job with George and Ringo.Many new anecdotes about George ie; the tours and the effect that fame and Beatlemania had on him.You seldom hear about these two guys so that was a treat.There's another horrible John story so brace yourselves especially if he's your fave.Actually we should be used to these by now.Tony also makes an interesting and correct point about why John was the way he was.He includes a chapter on the Beatle wives(at that time,Cyn,Pattie,Maureen and Jane Asher) which was for me facinating.Another highligh is the visit to Elvis'house in'65.Tony was one of the invited guests along with Neil,Mal and Brian.You get an eyewitness account of the entire evening and it was more revealing than the Fabs version on Anthology.This book is recommended because it's not just a silly book by someone who wasn't even there.Tony was there and he tells it plainly the way he remembers it.He comes across as professional and very funny.He doesn't dislike the people he's writing about or have scorn for them like other Beatle( biographers?)who I won't mention by their names,Philip Norman,Peter Brown,Chet Flippo and Allen Williams.If you love the Beatles chances are you want a book written by someone who is fair and is at least fond of them also and is willing to show both sides of these four human beings and not just embellishments and outright lies.This book is worth your time and money.

This is a somewhat disappointing book because of Barrow's writing style, what he chooses to focus upon and what he leaves out. He had tremendous access to the Beatles, but one gets the distinct impression that he never really knew them, except superficially. Though he claims he eventually got close to John Lennon, he only bothers to detail one evening where the two got drunk. He was never in their houses, invited out with them and was never in the studio. He also never saw the boys after their split in 1969, which makes it obvious he was never that close to any of them. This leaves a large gap in the volume which Barrow chooses to fill with stories from his own life or from the life of Brian Epstein.

However, there are some fascinating aspects to the book and parts of it are riveting. Barrow devotes a chapter to dissecting each Beatle personality and this by far the most interesting section of the book.

Paul comes across as charming, adorable, press-savvy and hugely ambitious. Barrow makes the note that it was always Paul who checked his looks in the mirror before every photo shoot. George is portrayed as a decent, friendly and amiable bloke, but one whose psyche was destroyed by Beatlemania and the rigors of touring. Barrow does go into some detail about George's prodidigious womanizing, which dwarfed even Paul's exploits with the ladies.

The section on Ringo is interesting and it's obvious Barrow never really got to know Starr. He paints the Beatles drummer as a silent person unable to make conversation because he felt he had "academic deficiencies" and because he was a late-comer to the group. I was a little offended that he basically portrays Ringo as a stupid man incapable of small talk beyond a few pithy one-liners. Anyone who has seen Ringo in interviews knows he abounds with charisma and humor. Barrow makes it out that Ringo was an inconsequential member of the group, musically inferior and just along for the ride. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Barrow's recollections of John are the most seering. John's caustic and often cruel humor was directed against Barrow for several years. The press chief relates a story where John deliberately embarrassed Brian Epstein by grabbing him in the crotch during a business meeting. Poor Brian stood there, gasping in emotional and physical pain, while John plopped down in his chair, laughing.

It's hard to tell who Barrow liked the most of the Beatles, though one senses it's John, despite the fact that Paul was the friendliest, most self-effacing and approachable.

Barrow also brings out new information on the Beatles manager, Brian Epstein. The chapter on Brian is both riveting and extremely sad. Talk about self-destruction! His chapter on the Beatles in Japan contains much new information, as well as their hellish experience in Manilla. Barrow also dishes up new information on John's mental state in the aftermath of his "The Beatles are more popular than Jesus" remark in 1966. Who knew that prior to the press conference, John buried his head in his hands and cried?

The low points of the book are Barrow's tendency to write about himself, particularly in the first few chapters. Readers want to know his recollections of the boys, not details about his own life. A brief synopsis of his own life would have sufficed. Barrow's style is also bare-bones and spare, with little pizzazz.

There are some errors of fact and Barrow gets his dates wrong in several places. He also throws in some dubious quotes which contradict the actual facts. For instance, does anyone think John really said, "Pete Best was a great drummer, Ringo was a great Beatle?" Lennon has often been quoted as saying Pete was sacked because his drumming was not up to snuff.

Barrow's section on the Beatles famous meeting with Elvis in 1965 is one of the high points of the book. But his version flatly contradicts the Beatles own version, where they all claim (except John), that they never jammed with Elvis. Yet Barrow has Elvis and his sychophants providing guitars to the boys so they could sing "I Feel Fine." This strikes one as ludicrous since George, Ringo and Paul have all been adamant that they never sang or played with Elvis. Something is definitely wrong here.

I read the book in one evening and if you're a Beatles fan, this is essential reading. I just wish Barrow would have revealed more and gone into greater detail about personalities and lifestyles of the Fabs.

› Go to Amazon.com to see all 13 reviews  3.5 out of 5 stars