The Beatles and Me: A Book Review

Book Review:  The Beatles and Me

The Beatles and Me

Compiled by Dean Johnson

The idea behind the book The Beatles and Me is that they collected photographs and stories of fans who met one or more of the Beatles in person and compiled them into a book.  Does that sound familiar to any of you?    Right….the exact same concept that I have been doing on this blog for over 4 years now.   It never once crossed my mind to take your photos and stories and turn them into a book.    My idea was to have a blog that ran like one of the fanzines of the 1970s.    But there is enough love in Pepperland for the same idea, and so I am open to another person doing basically the same thing.    

Dean Johnson’s idea was to gather the stories on a Facebook page and then have them published in the book. The question I have, especially after reading the book, is that I wonder if those who posted things on the Facebook page knew that their words would end up in the book. For example, a question was asked about the Beatles' bubble gum cards. I gave a short response on the Facebook page, just thinking that I was joining in on the conversation. What I said ended up in the book, much to my surprise.  If I had known that it was possible for my quote to end up in the book, maybe I would have worded things a little differently instead of just typing out the first thing that popped into my mind.  I just wonder if others felt the same way.  Our friend, Lizzie Bravo, has a very short paragraph in the book about meeting the Beatles when we all know that she has many stories she can share.  I guess the point I am trying to make is that I just wonder if the stories that are told could have had a bit more to them than what was printed if Facebook wasn’t used as the tool to get the stories told.   Honestly, I do not know the answer, and I do think that using Facebook for a project like this is a pretty awesome idea because it reaches so many different fans from around the world.

The stories themselves are very charming and wonderful to read.   Many of them have appeared on this blog over the years (with the original author’s permission, I may add).  One of the stories that was brand new to me was about George Harrison going to Liverpool in 1996.   It was a really good one to read, although I am a bit baffled as to why a photograph of George Harrison that was from the Living in the Material World book – taken from George Harrison’s own camera was included with that story.   (The photo of George with Bob Dylan and Bob’s wife Sara and their kids from Woodstock in November 1968 where George is wearing that bucket hat).     

This was a very easy book to read.  I read it while on the train to Chicago this weekend, and it took me only an hour to read the whole thing.  It would be a great book to take with you while you wait at the Doctor’s office or at the airport.  The photos are in color (as long as they were originally printed in color), and that really adds to the book.    

From what I gather, Dean Johnson and friends plan on making more of these books in the future. This is a good start, but I hope they consider putting things in chronological order for future books.   

The link below is the affiliate link to Amazon, where you can purchase this book.  I get a small percentage of anything purchased through this link.  Money made from the Amazon Afflication is used to pay the annual fee to keep this site online.  Thank you for your support.  Sara

https://amzn.to/439ISx1