Customer Rating: 
Summary: The perfect companion to the Anthology Book
Comment: If you pretend you are a 'serious fan' and have not read this book, you surely are a fake.
This monumental detailed work will give you half the things you need to read to be say you're a real beatles fan. The other half you can find it in the Anthology book.
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Summary: Essential for ANY musician!
Comment: I got the book as a gift from my sister and initially dismissed it as a bargain bin cheapie that she picked up last minute. A fearful, insomniac child prompted me to begin reading it and, am I glad that he did.
This is ESSENTIAL READING.
The diary-like entries give you day-by-day accounts of every single session the Fab Four did, as the title promises. But... well, it just gives you a whole new insight to the band. Yeah, the recordings retain the original magic, and maybe even gain a little more because you can see that it took a whole lot more than talent and luck for them to make it big and change music. The book lets you see just HOW MUCH HARD WORK was put in by not only the band, but by everyone around them: George Martin, the engineers, the assistant engineers, the tea boy, everyone!
It's like a musical version of Michael Jordan or Tiger Woods: not only were they the most talented around, but also the hardest-working.
A whole new appreciation.
As somebody mentioned before, don't start reading before bed because you will not be able to put it down.
Customer Rating:
Summary: A Must Have!!
Comment: This book is required reading for the diehard Beatles fan. I suspect that the studio documentation was just the normal level of detailed information they kept on those who recorded there, but in hindsight, having this particular info and retaining it looks pretty genius. A detailed account of every time the Beatles were in the recording studio with documents from the studio and the recollections of those who were present. The author is meticulous and obviously a fan himself. I really consider this book the Beatles bible.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Amazing...
Comment: First, I find it amazing that anyone kept this information in such detail in the first place.
Secondly, it is amazing that it was ever complied and put into a book.
Thirdly it was amazing that anyone would a.) Publish the book, b.) Buy the book in the first place and c.) Actually read it, which I have. Perhaps most amazing of all is how imminently readable and enjoyable it really is.
I imagine prerequisite being that it is important for the reader to have a love of the art of recording as well as a serviceable knowledge of the Beatles' collected body of work. Mine is the first edition and, yes, there are minor flaws, but honestly they are few in number and nothing of the "glaring" type which actually demeans the book.
I had initially picked up the book in a shop and glanced through the photographs, then I absently read an entry and was hooked. I think this is, all-in-all, a very exceptional journal and a valid history of one of the greatest recording acts of all time. Over the years I have met numerous musicians who, although they might not be dyed in the wool Beatles fans, still recognize their incredible contribution to recording technique and innovation. Kudos of course to Sir George Martin as well.
I cannot conceive of a more definitive account than this.
Customer Rating:
Summary: From any road to Abbey Road this is in a league of its own!
Comment: As the author of the Jefferson Airplane book "Take Me To A Circus Tent" I know the years of research it took for me to compile the information on 121 live shows, 60 unreleased songs, 266 questions and answers, and prepare for 32 interviews.
Mark Lewisohn had to dig even deeper because of the amount of material that could be documented. The work is super-human. The Beatles deserved George Martin and Mark Lewisohn.
It is easy for those that wish to find fault even with a Rolls Royce but don't worry if you would have used different words for an A Flat Augmented 7th Chord or a bridge in a song, he gave you the most complete information at your fingertips and this can't be improved!
Thank you for your time,
Craig Fenton
Author of the Jefferson Airplane book "Take Me To A Circus Tent"
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