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Fab Four FAQ: Everything Left to Know About the Beatles ... and More!
40 years after the release of the iconic ÊSgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club BandÊ the Beatles continue to captivate music fans of all ages. There's something always more to discuss about the Fab Four. What were their greatest live performances? Their worst moments? Stories still unknown by most music fans trends still unseen history still uninterpreted are all revealed in ÊFab Four FAQÊ. Pop culture authors Stuart Shea and Rob Rodriguez provide must-know fan trivia and offer obscure Beatles facts and stories in an easy-to-read provocative format that will start as many arguments as will end them. With more than sixty chapters of stories history observation and opinion ÊFab Four FAQÊ lays bare the whys and wherefores that made the Beatles so great giving credit where credit is due and maybe bursting some bubbles along the way.
- GenresMusicNonfiction
547 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2007
5 people are currently reading
44 people want to read
About the author
Stuart Shea
37 books1 followerPop culture historian Robert Rodriguez has written or contributed to nine books. His newest, Fab Four FAQ 2.0: The Beatles' Solo Years 1970-1980 will be published in March 2010. His most recent, Fab Four FAQ, has been published to critical and fan acclaim. Be sure to check out the new website www.fabfourfaq2.com."
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
February 28, 2011
Being a fan is a hapless thing. I’ve been a fan of a few musicians in my time. You can tell you’re a fan because you have to have everything pretty much. All the albums, all the stuff that was never on an album, the bootlegs, the videos, the bootleg videos, the books, the ephemera, the badges, stickers, life-sized cutouts, all of that junk. Okay, I was never quite like that, but I have been pretty much a music completist of several bands and artists. When it’s someone like Jimmie Rodgers, the Singing Brakeman, being a completist is easy peasy lemon squeezy, you just buy the 6 cd complete works and the biography by Nolan Porterfield, and the memoir by Carrie Rodgers and you’re done. Being a Beatle fan, though, is a life sentence. It’s something I may need to get counselling about. I mean, I should not be buying a book like this one – Fab Four FAQ indeed.
Books like this – and there are many, many others – are like Pringles or ginger biscuits – an hour goes by and my god, they’re gone how could I have that was disgraceful the whole packet by yourself and you didn’t even notice it was like you were in this daze or fugue state and two thousand calories passed into your welcoming orifice. If only I was bulemic and could vomit forth all the Beatle books I have read. Bleurrrghhhh – out would gush Mick Jagger singing in the crowd in All You need is Love, Jane Asher telling the world the engagement was off, out would spew the giggling Maharishi and the Indian 78s of Love Me Do, pictures of Patti Boyd and her equally swinging sister posing for Mademoiselle, April 1967 issue, David Mason’s piccolo trumpet, the noise only dogs can hear on the run-out groove, cranberry sauce, Brian Epstein’s rough trade, the Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band, about eleven fifth Beatles, Cilla Black’s screech, Mary Hopkin’s minidresses, bonfires in Alabama, Aunt Mimi’s false teeth, Stu Sutcliffe’s paintings, Astrud Kirchner’s photographs, Lizzie Bravo and Gayleen Pease, and an apple scruff drowing helplessly in a gloopy psychedelic stream of reverbed, vari-speeded, tape-looped flanging ending in a giant E chord in which the very heartbeat of the universe can be monitored if you shove your head up close enough.
Enough. Yes. Enough.
Pretty good book though.
Books like this – and there are many, many others – are like Pringles or ginger biscuits – an hour goes by and my god, they’re gone how could I have that was disgraceful the whole packet by yourself and you didn’t even notice it was like you were in this daze or fugue state and two thousand calories passed into your welcoming orifice. If only I was bulemic and could vomit forth all the Beatle books I have read. Bleurrrghhhh – out would gush Mick Jagger singing in the crowd in All You need is Love, Jane Asher telling the world the engagement was off, out would spew the giggling Maharishi and the Indian 78s of Love Me Do, pictures of Patti Boyd and her equally swinging sister posing for Mademoiselle, April 1967 issue, David Mason’s piccolo trumpet, the noise only dogs can hear on the run-out groove, cranberry sauce, Brian Epstein’s rough trade, the Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band, about eleven fifth Beatles, Cilla Black’s screech, Mary Hopkin’s minidresses, bonfires in Alabama, Aunt Mimi’s false teeth, Stu Sutcliffe’s paintings, Astrud Kirchner’s photographs, Lizzie Bravo and Gayleen Pease, and an apple scruff drowing helplessly in a gloopy psychedelic stream of reverbed, vari-speeded, tape-looped flanging ending in a giant E chord in which the very heartbeat of the universe can be monitored if you shove your head up close enough.
Enough. Yes. Enough.
Pretty good book though.
April 8, 2013
The first of two massive (500 page) guides to the Fab Four (the second covers the decade after the split), the authors create something a little different than your average Beatle bio. Not quite an alphabetical dictionary, but also not a linear history, topics are clustered into groups -- 10 most noteworthy Beatle photo shoots, 10 technological inventions created as a result of the Beatles' songwriting, etc. Built to be picked up, consumed in small chunks, and put down again, you'll find a lot of the same info retold in various ways if you read end to end, as I did, but all of it shockingly well researched and authoritative. However, there's no lack of objective opinion, as the authors deftly deflate several long-standing myths about the group -- Yoko broke up the Beatles, Ringo couldn't play the drums -- with superb scholarship and no small quantity of wry humor.
People looking for a one-volume chronological history of the Fabs will probably want to look elsewhere. (Fortunately, the book contains a nice review of some of the best of them!) However, once you've got the main events in a line, Fab Four FAQ is a marvelous set of pathways off the main road, providing fans with a cornucopia of thought-provoking opinions, argument-settlers, and some great images of rare memorabilia. Also, if you've loved the Fabs in the past but thought you might be "over" them, this will have you racing to all your old albums (and maybe checking out the "Anthology" collections if you don't have those) to hear these chestnuts in a new light. I had a blast, and you will too.
People looking for a one-volume chronological history of the Fabs will probably want to look elsewhere. (Fortunately, the book contains a nice review of some of the best of them!) However, once you've got the main events in a line, Fab Four FAQ is a marvelous set of pathways off the main road, providing fans with a cornucopia of thought-provoking opinions, argument-settlers, and some great images of rare memorabilia. Also, if you've loved the Fabs in the past but thought you might be "over" them, this will have you racing to all your old albums (and maybe checking out the "Anthology" collections if you don't have those) to hear these chestnuts in a new light. I had a blast, and you will too.
July 10, 2010
I really learned so much from this book-perhaps too much... Well, most of it was fascinating, but there were some chapters that were about other people who really had no connection to the Beatles. That's why I gave it four stars. Those chapters- like "other groups produced by George Martin" had me struggling to finish. Some of my favorite chapters, though were about their girlfriends, kids, why Paul is dead, and most of the really early history. I did learn a ton of useful facts that may or may not help me in life, but increased my knowledge as a fan. And for that, I thank this book.
March 25, 2011
Your interest in the Beatles has to be pretty much absolute for this but, being one of them types, I enjoyed every page.
May 22, 2025
pretty boring at times but that’s on me for reading it start to finish instead of using it as more of a reference marerial. ian leslie’s book i’m also currently reading is way more interesting. i learned some great facts from this though that i will very much enjoy dropping in conversation at parties.
September 26, 2020
Excellent resource book.
April 19, 2024
This was super interesting as a Beatles fan. Thank you to my neighbour for giving it to me.
May 12, 2010
The beatles were the best! I love them!!!!!!!! I wish that the book was in a bit better chronological order and that there were more pictures of them other then from albums or newspapers. Overall I learned a lot and got really attached to it. My little baby has gone off to college and I am depressed! I love the beatles!!!! The Beatles forever!!!! Whoo!!!
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews