The Beatles from A to Zed
An Alphabetical Mystery Tour
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A legendary record producer and performer takes readers on an alphabetical journey of insights into the music of the Beatles and individual reminiscences of John, Paul, George, and Ringo.
Peter Asher met the Beatles in the spring of 1963, the start of a lifelong association with the band and its members. He had a front-row seat as they elevated pop music into an art form, and he was present at the creation of some of the most iconic music of our times.
Asher is also a talented musician in his own right, with a great ear for what was new and fresh. Once, when Paul McCartney wrote a song that John Lennon didn’t think was right for the Beatles, Asher asked if he could record it. “A World Without Love” became a global No. 1 hit for his duo, Peter & Gordon. A few years later Asher was asked by Paul McCartney to help start Apple Records; the first artist Asher discovered and signed up was a young American singer-songwriter named James Taylor. Before long he would be not only managing and producing Taylor but also (having left Apple and moved to Los Angeles) working with Linda Ronstadt, Neil Diamond, Robin Williams, Joni Mitchell, and Cher, among others.
The Beatles from A to Zed grows out of his popular radio program “From Me to You” on SiriusXM's The Beatles Channel, where he shares memories and insights about the Fab Four and their music. Here he weaves his reflections into a whimsical alphabetical journey that focuses not only on songs whose titles start with each letter, but also on recurrent themes in the Beatles’ music, the instruments they played, the innovations they pioneered, the artists who influenced them, the key people in their lives, and the cultural events of the time.
Few can match Peter Asher for his fresh and personal perspective on the Beatles. And no one is a more congenial and entertaining guide to their music.
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In conversational prose, record producer Asher, who met the Beatles in 1963 and became the first head of A&R for Apple records, romps through the Beatles' song catalogue with glee and an insider's knowledge about the music and its times. Each section includes popular Beatles songs as well as other topics associated with a particular letter that come to Asher's mind. The T section opens, for example, with reflections on "Ticket to Ride" and "Taxman," written by George Harrison, who was lamenting the outrageous tax rates in Britain at the time; Asher then meditates on time signatures, using "Happiness Is a Warm Gun" to demonstrate ways in which the Beatles changed signatures within the same song. Under D, Asher considers drums and Ringo Starr's drumming in which the fills were quite specific, with each beat placed in the right spot as he reflects on "A Day in the Life." He recalls hearing Paul and John playing piano in his basement one day and being asked his thoughts on a song they had just written "I Want to Hold Your Hand." Asher's inviting prose and knack for storytelling provide an entertaining tour of the Beatles' music.