I just finished Bob Spitz's biography of the Beatles. It was indeed a big book but I'm not sure it needed to be. They're probably the most omnipresent band of all time and were exhaustively covered in a media blitz 14 years ago. What's changed with the Beatles since then? George died. That's it. Their shit still ain't on iTunes.Furthermore, George's death wouldn't have been included in Spitz's book which ends with the band breaking up. I'm usually ok with sad or generally unhappy endings but all the passive aggressive ego and legal/business posturing that went on in the last few years of the band is a major turnoff and Spitz doesn't do a good enough job putting it in perspective with the years of great work they did. He also doesn't really point out that they were pretty damn immature and had basically experienced an amount of publicity that could take a serious toll on anyone's personality. Some primary interviews might have helped, but instead it's studio hands or heads of early fan clubs. The only quotes from the actual Beatles are either VERY well known or from the actual Anthology documentary (which, by the way, had the benefit of being able to play the song while talking about how it was recorded).
So I guess I'm saying that, aside from some Yoko-bashing (always appreciated), this book was about as necessary as the movie Troy.
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