Fab Four to the letter
The Beatles from A to Zed Peter Asher Henry Holt Peter Asher is more than qualified to take us on a journey through The Beatles’ many songs and adventures. He’s a longtime friend of the band, and in the late ’60s was a producer for The Beatles’ Apple label, signing such talents as James Taylor.
He’s been producing stars ever since and recently hosted Siriusxm’s radio show about the Fab Four, From Me to You. Though hardcore Beatles fans won’t find much that’s terribly surprising about the band in Asher’s new book, The Beatles from A to Zed, the writer and producer excels at excavating details and connections that sparkle and entertain.
Adopting Asher’s alphabetical format, here are some delightful
— and less-than-delightful — take-aways from the book.
A is for allusions. In James Taylor’s song Carolina in My Mind, he mentions “the holy host of others standing around me.” That “holy host,” Asher reveals, is The Beatles.
Asher mentions The Beatles as a group and as solo artists, though by my count he seems to favour Paul Mccartney. Perhaps this is because Paul dated Asher’s sister Jane and for a time lived in the Asher home. There, Paul often regaled the family with one of the many Beatles songs that begins with A, And I Love Her.
C is for covers. There are numerous covers of Beatles songs, well-known ones like Stevie Wonder’s We Can Work It Out. But did you know that Rufus Wainwright and Eddie Izzard covered John Lennon’s Across the Universe, or that Shirley Horn sang a version of Yesterday?
G is for guitars. Asher loves the instrument, especially the 12-string. Guitars, of course, are made of wood, but different wood creates different sounds. To demonstrate, Asher suggests listening to Paul’s Blackbird, played on a Martin D-28 and then Yesterday, played on an Epiphone Texan. G is also for graphic novel, the one bassist and Beatles buddy Klaus Voormann wrote and illustrated. His Birth of an Icon, Revolver 50, tells the story of that album’s famous cover.
S is for style, important in any book. Sometimes, Asher’s is off-putting. Too many of his statements begin with “maybe” or caveats that he is just guessing about something. Sure, Asher is not a Beatles “scholar” and his book is a casual recollection of his time with the band, but why must he use this twee self-deprecating tone when we know he knows what he’s talking about?
T is for titles. Asher delights in sourcing numerous titles of Beatles songs and albums, both group and solo efforts. The title Eight Days a Week, for example (a song John never liked, Asher confirms), has long been linked to Ringo Starr, but Asher says it may “have come through an overworked chauffeur to whom John was talking to who said that he had been working too hard.” Ideally, Asher could verify this tale. Instead, he frustratingly shrugs his shoulders: “Who knows?”
W is for who cares, which is quite different from who knows. Each reader will decide which of Asher’s revelations belongs in which category.