Two Of Us: The Story of a Father, a Son, and the Beatles

by Peter J. Smith

Before seven-year-old Sam Smith discovered the Beatles, he and his father had little in common. Like so many other kids his age, Sam was drawn first to the Fab Four by their trivia as much as by their music and personalities. Peter Smith was content to point Sam to all the clues of Paul McCartney’s putative demise, to reveal who "Julia" was, and so forth. But soon the Beatles opened the two Smiths to each other, and to a harmonious new friendship. They found themselves using the band’s songs and exploits to fuel discussions of life’s splendid complications -- friendship, teamwork, romance, art -- and its inevitable sorrows -- failure, betrayal, and mortality.
Music fans will delight in this singular celebration of the Beatles’ history and continuing cross-generational appeal. Smith takes us everywhere the Fab Four took him and from the boy’s Beatle-drenched bedroom to the circus of devotion that is Beatlefest to Paul McCartney’s childhood bedroom in a Liverpool row house. Ultimately, the two Smiths come to realize that the object of their affection transcends any facts that could ever be amassed about it. The Beatles’ essence isn’t in Liverpool or London or in heavily annotated lyric sheets. It is, of course, in their songs, and in how they help us understand ourselves and connect with each other.
With a wit and clarity reminiscent of of Nick Hornby’s High Fidelity and Stefan Fatsis’s Word Freak, Smith limns the intensity of an obsession. And he evokes with wry intelligence the love a father and son can share.

Genres: Nonfiction, Music, Memoir

206 pages, Hardcover

First published February 4, 2004

Reviews

[Gary Anderson]

Writer Peter Smith had a distant relationship with his father. When his son Sam is about seven, Smith feels a similar distance developing between himself and Sam. Then, on a three-day weekend car trip, Smith pops in a cassette of Abbey Road, the final Beatles album. Sam is immediately fascinated by all things related to The Beatles. Father and son explore music, movies, books, and photographs related to The Beatles. They attend a Beatles festival, delve into the Paul is Dead phenomenon, and eventually travel to London and Liverpool to understand John, Paul, George, and Ringo as much as possible. The Beatles become a portal that leads the Smiths not only to a new, deeper, better relationship but also guides them into discussions of history, death, aging, travel, friendship, family, and other topics.

While reading Two of Us: The Story of a Father, a Son, and The Beatles, my teacher lens kept refocusing on the terms project-based learning and self-directed learning project. Educators know that when students take on projects, especially when the topic is something chosen by the students, their learning usually extends far beyond the actual topic into corollary areas of study. Projects also sharpen students’ abilities to manage time, information, communication, and relationships. It’s no surprise that Peter and Sam Smith both benefited from their Beatles journey in some ways that had very little to do with The Beatles.

[Lynn Zoia · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this book for a number of reasons. The relationship that builds between dad and son is charming, especially since dad doesn't want the type of relationship he and his own dad had.
And the Beatles stuff! I was 5 1/2 when they were on the Ed Sullivan Show, and I got hooked enough that my first record album was "Meet the Beatles." My poor parents heard that thing incessantly.
Reading about Sam's newfound love of Beatles' music brought back a lot of my own feelings as their rather short career as a band moved towards their breakup in 1969. I'll have to dig out my old tapes and records...
If you really don't like the Beatles, this book is not for you. All Beatles, all the time, from early in the book, which is only 200 pages.

[Debbie Denson Campbell · Rating 1 out of 5]

Expectations of this book was high. Well, I was highly disappointed. I thought that it was more in depth of the love of the Beatles and the father/son connection. Interesting, but not enough to keep me scrambling for the next chapter or page.

[Gary Myers · Rating 3 out of 5]

A pleasant read on how the music of the Beatles brought a father & song closer together.

[Ashes · Rating 1 out of 5]

PLEASE read this review in its entirely if you're considering this book!

I've never written a review before, but I feel VERY passionately about this book because it was VERY MISLEADING. When I saw this book in a used book store (& thankfully, I only wasted $1.00 on it) I thought it was going to be an amazing story, similar to my experience with my mom. There were some good moments that made me temporarily happy before I knew any better, but there were SO many instances that infuriated me. Here are just some of many examples:

He severely puts down people who are "obsessed" with The Beatles multiple times, even calling Beatlefest attendees "insane" & "weird," which has got to be offensive to anyone who would even look at this book (because the book is geared towards fans, of course). He claims that there was a huge gap in his life when he simply "forgot about the Beatles" & then about his son: that there is "no way anyone could keep up that kind of obsessive preoccupation" the way his son did for apparently only 2 years.

He makes lots of comments about songs & band members that he & his son don't like (EXTREMELY critical & even very mean) which I not only find to be impossible, but I also think should be kept to yourself if you do feel that way. It's just not wise to tell a fanatical audience how sick of them you & your son got sometimes & how you needed to take breaks from them. What a fool for angering the only people that could ever care about a book like this. If your son loves them so much & was told he could buy any merchandise he wanted while at Beatlefest, why did he complain so much (as did the father) about being bored, wanting to leave, & not wanting to buy anything or participate? He called his son a "tortured heart" before he exclaimed about how much he hated being there & insisted that his father never take him to anything like that again. (Beatlefest is a fan's ultimate dream-come-true & at ANY age!)

When they were lucky enough to travel & visit great Beatles landmarks, these ungrateful two skipped out on most of it because they were completely uninterested in ANY of it (making the trip utterly pointless) while so many fans around the world would give anything to have these opportunities & might never be able to. How could you possibly find Beatles tours "listless" & "dated," or your trip to England a "disappointment?" His son didn't even want to go to England & kept forgetting about the trip as the date approached.

He also mentioned some unnecessary facts like Paul being born on the 22nd, that "Tug Of War" came out 7 years after John passed away, that George was stabbed in 1998, & how Paul had written songs like "I'll Follow The Sun" in his bedroom rather than in the parlour…all of which are incorrect factual statements. Why would you say your son's love of The Beatles was "like an infection?" How does on "move on" from something they allegedly love as though it was a fad or phase? How do you not "need" The Beatles anymore? He couldn't even get many song titles correct AND left out 20+ songs of theirs when he decided to list all of the band's songs at the end of the book! WHY?

However…this man decided to write a book geared towards REAL fans & tried to convince us all that they were both fans too. What on earth is a fan supposed to take from a book like this? I couldn't even count the cruel criticisms & insults said in this book! Do not waste your time on this book that will most certainly enrage anyone who would be interested in this book: FANS. He clearly was just trying to make money off of a popular subject matter, but with his apathy & ludicrous commentary, he very much gave himself away as an ineffective poser…in my humble opinion.

For more, please visit:

http://beatlenut9.blogspot.com/2010/12/im-truly-sorry-this-review-is-so-nasty.htmlt

[Brooke · Rating 2 out of 5]

So this book could have been much shorter. I wanted to read it because the cover copy made it seem as if the core of the book was the trip to England the dad and son took to see Beatles locations and landmarks. I took that trip a couple of years previous to when these two took that trip. So I was interested to see where they went and the thoughts of the dad and how the son reacted. And that part of the book was good (except for the 9-year-old's coffee drinking each morning, which was bizarre). It's the first part of the book that had the real issues. The book begins with the 4-year-old son discovering and becoming obsessed with the Beatles. Which is great, but that was years before the memoir was written (I assume the dad wasn't working on the memoir for five or six years concurrent with the child's experiences). So most of the conversations are recreated from the dad's memory (I would guess), and are stilted and strange. You just don't talk to 4-year-old children this way: "A lot of people thought of Paul as the happy-go-lucky Beatle and John as the darker, more tortured one." Huh? I mean, maybe this kid is just super unusual (he did have an obsession with the film "Titanic" at age 3) and way brilliant and into grown-up talk, but my kids would look at me like I had three heads if I talked to them like that. And that is the first 3/4 of the book: conversations that just don't flow and that are peppered with Beatles facts. I'm guessing if you pick up this book, you already know all those facts. Anyway, the editor should have been all over these issues.

[Diane · Rating 2 out of 5]

The author writes about his 7-year-old son who unexpectedly became obsessed by the Beatles. Smith, who came of age during the Beatles mania and who himself was obviously a Beatles lover, delighted in his sons new found interest. Through their common interest, they develop a close father/son relationship that Smith never was able to have with his own father. There are a lot of Beatles factoids in this book, which brought back a lot of memories of my own growing up. Smith tries to explain why the Beatles are still the greatest band for many in his generation and for a lot proceeding generations. I enjoyed the author's description of his son, his obvious affection towards him, and respect for him.

[Corri · Rating 3 out of 5]

Two of Us took a weekend to read. It is a true story of how a father couldn't related to his young son until his son discovered the Beatles. It is a small tutorial on Beatles trivia as well as a heartwarming story of how the Beatles opened a door to a relationship with this father and son. The coolest part for me was when they went to Beatlefest in NJ and met a Paul McCartney look-alike - the very same guy that I met when I went to Beatlefest. Then, they went to London and Liverpool and went on some of the same walking tours that I went on. It was a great way for me to relive those experiences; a quick read with a great ending.

[Paul Morris · Rating 4 out of 5]

A father realizes that he's not connecting to his eight-year-old son. (The boy leaves his image out of a family drawings.) But once his son begins to listen to the Beatles, they begin to talk about the Fab Four and slowly start opening up and talking to each other in a different way. The book ends with a trip to England to visit Beatle tourist sites. Nicely done memoir.

[David Ward · Rating 4 out of 5]

Two of Us: A Story of a Father, A Son, and the Beatles by Peter Smith (Houghton Miflin 2004) (Biography). A father and young son bond 40 years after Beatlemania over their mutual love of the band. My rating: 7.5/10, finished 2006.

[dgw · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book was very interesting in that it covered a lot of neat information about the Beatles in an easy-to-read, everyday-conversation kind of style. The stories of Sam and his dad were nice.

[Edwin Arnaudin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun experiential journalism.

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a sweet story.

[NancyInWI · Rating 3 out of 5]

A father and his 7 year old son finally connect through their mutual love for the Beatles.