What do you think?
Rate this book
The Beatles: Illustrated Lyrics, No. 2
Lyrics to Beatles songs, complimented by images.
- GenresMusicArtPoetryNonfiction
126 pages, Unknown Binding
First published January 1, 1971
1 person is currently reading
36 people want to read
About the author
Alan Aldridge
43 books33 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
Alan Aldridge was a British artist, graphic designer and illustrator.
His career began in 1965 when he happened to meet the art director of Penguin Books, and began producing illustrations for book covers. Over the next two years he took over as art director, and introduced his style which resonated with the mood of the time. In 1968 he moved to his own graphic-design firm, INK, which became closely involved with graphic images for the Beatles and Apple Corps.[1]
During the 1960s and 1970s he was responsible for a great many album covers, and helped create the graphic style of that era. He designed a series of science fiction book covers for Penguin Books. He made a big impression with his illustrations for the Beatles Illustrated Song lyrics. He also provided illustrations for "The Penguin Book of Comics", a history of British and American comic art. His work was characterised by a flowing, cartoony style and soft airbrushing - very much in step with the psychedelic styles of the times. In the theatre, in February 1969 he designed the graphics for controversial Jane Arden (director) play Vagina Rex and the Gas Oven at the London Arts Laboratory, Drury Lane.
He is possibly best known, however, for the picture book The Butterfly Ball and the Grasshopper Feast (1973), a series of illustrations of anthropomorphic insects and other creatures, which he created in collaboration with William Plomer, who wrote the accompanying verses. This was based on William Roscoe's poem of the same name, but was inspired when Aldridge read that John Tenniel had told Lewis Carroll it was impossible to draw a wasp in a wig.
Aldridge also created the artwork for Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy by Elton John in 1975.
Alan Aldridge was a British artist, graphic designer and illustrator.
His career began in 1965 when he happened to meet the art director of Penguin Books, and began producing illustrations for book covers. Over the next two years he took over as art director, and introduced his style which resonated with the mood of the time. In 1968 he moved to his own graphic-design firm, INK, which became closely involved with graphic images for the Beatles and Apple Corps.[1]
During the 1960s and 1970s he was responsible for a great many album covers, and helped create the graphic style of that era. He designed a series of science fiction book covers for Penguin Books. He made a big impression with his illustrations for the Beatles Illustrated Song lyrics. He also provided illustrations for "The Penguin Book of Comics", a history of British and American comic art. His work was characterised by a flowing, cartoony style and soft airbrushing - very much in step with the psychedelic styles of the times. In the theatre, in February 1969 he designed the graphics for controversial Jane Arden (director) play Vagina Rex and the Gas Oven at the London Arts Laboratory, Drury Lane.
He is possibly best known, however, for the picture book The Butterfly Ball and the Grasshopper Feast (1973), a series of illustrations of anthropomorphic insects and other creatures, which he created in collaboration with William Plomer, who wrote the accompanying verses. This was based on William Roscoe's poem of the same name, but was inspired when Aldridge read that John Tenniel had told Lewis Carroll it was impossible to draw a wasp in a wig.
Aldridge also created the artwork for Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy by Elton John in 1975.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
May 22, 2020
Published in 1971, this is a book with a brilliant concept: take the lyrics to some of the Beatles' songs, the classics and the obscure; solicit artists of the day to generate works inspired by the songs; compile into one psychedelic book, with quotes from the Beatles themselves peppered onto the pages . Brilliant. The art is very late 60s/early 70s, and not very good, but the book as a whole is wonderfully Beatles-y.
This is a really old book, it's literally starting to fall apart, but a great flea market purchase that's going on my Beatles bookshelf (yes, I have a Beatles bookshelf and some of my very favorite 5-star books are on it). I'd love to own the first Illustrated Lyrics volume, too.
Some of the quotes I liked:
About the song Oh Darling!: "When we were recording this track I came into the studios early every day for a week to sing it by myself because at first my voice was too clear. I wanted it to sound as though I'd been performing it on stage all week." - Paul
About the song I'm Happy Just to Dance with You: "I wrote this for George to sing. I'm always reading how Paul and I used to make him invisible or keep him out, but it isn't true. I encouraged him like mad." - John
About the song Because: "This is about me and Yoko in the early days. Yoko was playing some Beethoven chords and I said play them backwards. It's really Moonlight Sonata backwards." - John
About the song She Came in through the Bathroom Window: "This forms part of the medley of songs which is about 15 minutes long on Abbey Road. We did it this way because both John and I had a number of songs which were great as they were, but which we'd never finished." - Paul (*Seriously, only the Beatles could take a handful of unfinished songs and produce a masterpiece like this)
About the song Do You Want to Know a Secret?: "I wrote this one. I remember getting the idea from a Walt Disney film - Cinderella or Fantasia. It went something like: 'D'you wanna know a secret, promise not to tell, standing by a wishing well.' " - John (*That was Snow White, John.)
About the song Polythene Pam: "I wrote this one in India, and when I recorded it I used a thick Liverpool accent because it was supposed to be about a mythical Liverpool scrubber dressed up in her jackboots and kilt." - John
About the song I Want You (She's So Heavy): "This is about Yoko. She's very heavy, and there was nothing else I could say about her other than I want you, she's so heavy. Someone said the lyrics weren't very good. But there was nothing more I wanted to say." - John
About the song From Me to You: "Paul and I wrote this when we were on tour. We nearly didn't record it because we thought it was too bluesy at first, but when we'd finished it and George Martin had scored it with harmonica it was all right." - John
About the song Anytime at All: "Another of those songs we wrote about the time of A Hard Day's Night. I don't write in the same way anymore, but I suppose I could if I tried." - John
About the song I Call Your Name: "I like this one. I wrote it very early on when I was in Liverpool, and added the middle eight when we came down to London." - John
About the song Not a Second Time: "I wrote this for the second album, and it was the one that William Mann wrote about in The Times. He went on about the flat sub-mediant key switches and the Aeolian cadence at the end being like Mahler's Song of the Earth. Really it was just chords like any other chords. That was the first time anyone had written anything like that about us." - John
About the song I Feel Fine: "I wrote this at a recording session. It was tied together around the guitar riff that opens it." - John (*Casually, just like that, at a recording session? HOW?)
About touring: "I don't intend to be a performing flea anymore. I was the dreamweaver, but although I'll be around I don't intend to be running at 20,000 miles an hour trying to prove myself. I don't want to die at 40." - John
A quote from Derek Taylor, former Beatle aide and Press Officer, about the difficulties of working for them: "A poached egg in the Underground on the Bakerloo line between Trafalgar Square and Charing Cross? Yes, Paul. A sock full of elephant's dung on Otterspool Promenade? Give me ten minutes, Ringo. Two Turkish dwarfs dancing the Charleston on the sideboard. Male or female, John? Hair from Sonny Liston? It's early closing, George (gulp), but give me until noon tomorrow."
This is a really old book, it's literally starting to fall apart, but a great flea market purchase that's going on my Beatles bookshelf (yes, I have a Beatles bookshelf and some of my very favorite 5-star books are on it). I'd love to own the first Illustrated Lyrics volume, too.
Some of the quotes I liked:
About the song Oh Darling!: "When we were recording this track I came into the studios early every day for a week to sing it by myself because at first my voice was too clear. I wanted it to sound as though I'd been performing it on stage all week." - Paul
About the song I'm Happy Just to Dance with You: "I wrote this for George to sing. I'm always reading how Paul and I used to make him invisible or keep him out, but it isn't true. I encouraged him like mad." - John
About the song Because: "This is about me and Yoko in the early days. Yoko was playing some Beethoven chords and I said play them backwards. It's really Moonlight Sonata backwards." - John
About the song She Came in through the Bathroom Window: "This forms part of the medley of songs which is about 15 minutes long on Abbey Road. We did it this way because both John and I had a number of songs which were great as they were, but which we'd never finished." - Paul (*Seriously, only the Beatles could take a handful of unfinished songs and produce a masterpiece like this)
About the song Do You Want to Know a Secret?: "I wrote this one. I remember getting the idea from a Walt Disney film - Cinderella or Fantasia. It went something like: 'D'you wanna know a secret, promise not to tell, standing by a wishing well.' " - John (*That was Snow White, John.)
About the song Polythene Pam: "I wrote this one in India, and when I recorded it I used a thick Liverpool accent because it was supposed to be about a mythical Liverpool scrubber dressed up in her jackboots and kilt." - John
About the song I Want You (She's So Heavy): "This is about Yoko. She's very heavy, and there was nothing else I could say about her other than I want you, she's so heavy. Someone said the lyrics weren't very good. But there was nothing more I wanted to say." - John
About the song From Me to You: "Paul and I wrote this when we were on tour. We nearly didn't record it because we thought it was too bluesy at first, but when we'd finished it and George Martin had scored it with harmonica it was all right." - John
About the song Anytime at All: "Another of those songs we wrote about the time of A Hard Day's Night. I don't write in the same way anymore, but I suppose I could if I tried." - John
About the song I Call Your Name: "I like this one. I wrote it very early on when I was in Liverpool, and added the middle eight when we came down to London." - John
About the song Not a Second Time: "I wrote this for the second album, and it was the one that William Mann wrote about in The Times. He went on about the flat sub-mediant key switches and the Aeolian cadence at the end being like Mahler's Song of the Earth. Really it was just chords like any other chords. That was the first time anyone had written anything like that about us." - John
About the song I Feel Fine: "I wrote this at a recording session. It was tied together around the guitar riff that opens it." - John (*Casually, just like that, at a recording session? HOW?)
About touring: "I don't intend to be a performing flea anymore. I was the dreamweaver, but although I'll be around I don't intend to be running at 20,000 miles an hour trying to prove myself. I don't want to die at 40." - John
A quote from Derek Taylor, former Beatle aide and Press Officer, about the difficulties of working for them: "A poached egg in the Underground on the Bakerloo line between Trafalgar Square and Charing Cross? Yes, Paul. A sock full of elephant's dung on Otterspool Promenade? Give me ten minutes, Ringo. Two Turkish dwarfs dancing the Charleston on the sideboard. Male or female, John? Hair from Sonny Liston? It's early closing, George (gulp), but give me until noon tomorrow."
October 29, 2015
I got this book long ago when it first came out. Around '69. I wish I also had volume 1. It's a great book with wonderful artwork much surreal and very appropriate for that era.The art all corresponded with the lyrics of each song. It's something to have and collect and great to go through every once in awhile. My copy is still in like new shape, but the dust cover is kind of bedraggled.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews