A lavishly illustrated, rollicking account of the real people and events
that inspired the Beatles' lyrics.
Who was "just seventeen" and made Paul's heart go "boom"? Was there
really an Eleanor Rigby? Where's Penny Lane? In A Hard Day's Write,
music journalist Steve Turner shatters many well-worn myths and adds a
new dimension to the Fab Four's rich legacy by investigating for the
first time the ordinary people and events immortalized in the Beatles'
music and now occupying a special niche in popular culture's collective
imagination.
Arranged chronologically by album, the book breaks new ground by
exploring how private incidents influenced the group's writing and how
their music evolved. Turner reveals that Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds
was really a drawing by Julian Lennon of his childhood friend; Bungalow
Bill was an all-American tiger hunter; Doctor Robert was a New York
'speech doctor'; and much more. A longtime Beatles admirer, Turner
tracked down and interviewed the real-life subjects of the songs, probed
public records and newspaper archives, and spoke in depth to the people
closet to the Beatles to unearth tales that have never before been made
public. The result is a book that chronicles an untold story of the
Beatles themselves.
Illustrated with over 200 photographs, A Hard Day's Write is a
visually alluring and highly entertaining journey to the land stretching
just beneath your conscious mind, mapped out with strawberry fields,
fool-topped hills, and long and winding roads.
