The Beatles

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It was 40 years ago today — well, roughly — that this book first appeared. It came out in 1968 and I never thought it would still be in print all these years later. The bulk of the book is how it was then, fresh from their mouths, unchanged, unvarnished, a record of what they were thinking and doing in the 1960s and how they got there. It’s now looked upon as what’s called a ‘primary source’, which mainly seems to mean that others feel free to lift quotes and stuff from it — because, of course, so many of the characters are no longer around to give interviews. I’ve resisted the temptation to rewrite or change the original book, polish and burnish it with the benefit of hindsight, which, of course, would make us all cleverer and smarter than we were at the time.

But here, at the beginning of the book, I have added new material, trying to bring their story roughly up to date and reflect recent events, and also to explain how I got to write the book in the first place. Then at the end I’ve added some notes and thoughts on people mentioned in the book whom I met, both when doing the book and later, but who are now dead.

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