Review in Beatles Nytt (magazine published by The Beatles Information Center), issue no 137, autumn 2003.

Before the book about The Beatles was published in 1996, Carl Magnus Palm, born in Stockholm in 1965, had written two other music books. The first was released in 1992 and is entitled Monica Zetterlund - En diskografi. That book was written together with Thomas Winberg. The second came two years later and is entitled ABBA - The Complete Recording Sessions (Century 22). The latter title has also been published in a reworked edition, entitled ABBA - Människorna och musiken.

Palm's interest in popular music has not only manifested itself in those three books: his knowledge about his subject is particularly evident in Beatles Beatles. The book starts out with a prologue, followed by ten chapters and then a credits section. There are 22 black and white pictures in the book, apart from the cover picture, which is one of the few that hail from The Beatles' visits to Sweden.

As we all know, loads of books have been written about The Beatles, but very few of them have been published in Sweden, and even fewer where the text was originally written in Swedish. This makes this book particularly interesting for us Swedes.

The contents of the book describe the entire amazing story of The Beatles more or less from the beginning to the end. At least up until the Anthology project.

The prose flows easily and Palm knows his subject, which makes the book both easy to read and interesting. Here we get the story about how the two major profiles in the future group met on July 6, 1957 in Woolton, Liverpool. Although the story is told in chronological order, Palm inserts a few observations that relate to the later part of the story.

It's liberating that the book is dominated by The Beatles' ambition to make their own music. Their private lives and the fighting within the group are not described more than is necessary for the understanding of the story's evolvement. The fact that what might have appeared to be plain sailing wasn't always so, is described by Palm in a commendable way. Here we get an account of the rise and fall: that is, the hard work in Hamburg and northern England, the breakthroughs in England, Europe, USA and the entire world. The problems in finding any joy in the eternal touring and how this later turned into the productive studio years. Carl Magnus has also described the circumstances surrounding the rise and fall of Apple in a clear and simple way. That story could fill a book in itself, but it's so depressing that it is best served by the brief depiction in this book.

Describing the Beatles story from the beginning to the present day shouldn't be possible in just 188 pages, but Palm has succeeded really well in capturing both the major important events and the small but important events in The Beatles' story, without including too many details. The author is certainly aware that when you know a great deal about the adventures of a group and all those fantastic songs, it's very easy to try to include every little bit of fact related to everything. That's when it starts getting problematic. It's hard to make sense of the story in a natural way, and you're also left with a very thick book - one that is probably very difficult to read, as well.

The great thing about this book, then - apart from the fact that it's in Swedish and written by a Swede - is that it is so clearly written. Palm sticks to his principle not to make endless digressions and speculate in this and that and the other. There is a straight line from 1957 to 1996, focusing on most of what is important in the unique story about The Beatles. It's a book I am happy to recommend, to old "Beatles veterans" as well as to those who are not well acquainted with the Beatles story but who are looking for a good and concise book about The Beatles and their music.

The photos in the book that stem from The Beatles' performances in Sweden are the cover picture, which was taken July 28, 1964 at The Beatles' press conference at Hotel Foresta in Lidingö, outside Stockholm, and a photo taken during The Beatles' concert in Borås on October 28, 1963, as well as a picture from one of the shows at Johanneshovs Isstadion in Stockholm in July 1964.

One of the sources for the book is Beatles i Sverige [a ambitious brochure about The Beatles and their activities in Sweden, published by The Beatles Information Center in 1993], which is still for sale!


Artillio Bergholtz