Beatles Anthology book review: Tell Me What You See

by Marshall Terrill

It’s big, it’s bulky and it’s beautiful. Weighing in at six pounds, 360 pages, 340,000 words and $60, the long-awaited Beatles Anthology book has finally arrived — and, I might add, was well worth the wait.

[Editor’s Note: This review (which appeared in Daytrippin’ Magazine Issue 13) was written for the original 2000 release of The Beatles Anthology hardcover edition which did have a $60 price tag. The Beatles Anthology book 2025 reissue, priced at $50, has been released in paperback format with the same cover, except for the half-size dust jacket which cleverly makes it look like a totally new cover. But as you can see in the video below, it’s really the same cover!]

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The coffee-table sized book comes 30 years after the Beatles split up, taking six years to compile. Anthology is written by George Harrison, John Lennon, Ringo Starr and Sir Paul McCartney. It was specially prepared for publication by an editorial team at Genesis Publications for Apple, with the cooperation of Derek Taylor, the late spokesman for the Beatles. Anthology has already attracted advance orders for 1.5 million copies, and once negotiations are completed for the book to be translated into Chinese, are expected to exceed 20 million.

The surviving Beatles, together with Yoko Ono, have agreed to tell their combined story especially for this book. Some might think when they first pick up the book that it’s a word-for-word transcription of the video series, but it’s so much more. They have also made available the complete transcripts (including all the outtakes) of the television and video series The Beatles Anthology. Just the outtake pictures from the ill-fated Yesterday and Today “Butcher Cover,” and the landmark Sgt. Pepper and Abbey Road album covers are worth the cost alone.

Much of the photographs, documents and memorabilia reproduced is from the personal archives of the Beatles themselves. Where else would you find:

• A color copy of John Lennon’s letter to the Queen returning his MBE on Bag One stationary
• Handwritten lyrics to “Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds” and several other songs.
• Release forms from the stars who agreed to have their wax dummy replica appear on the cover of Sgt. Pepper.
• A letter from Peter Brown asking John Lennon to recall if a government representative from the Philippines took $17,000 in cash so that Apple could get back a refund

If that isn’t enough to satisfy fans, the book also includes a contract for the Beatles performance at Candlestick Park in San Francisco where Brian Epstein got $50,000 cash and 65 percent against the gross.

Also included is a memo from Paul McCartney to Allen Klein scolding him for the extra strings, horns and voices added to the song, “The Long and Winding Road.”

“Don’t ever do it again,” McCartney ends the letter.

And the book even offers some new revelations, such as in 1996, the three surviving Beatles turned down an offer of $175 million to perform 17 concerts in the United States, Germany and Japan.

In addition to the mostly 1,300 one-of-a-kind photos, beautiful artwork and high quality paper, you get the Beatles definitive story in their own words. Each page sparkles with each of the four Beatles personal recollections and rare pictures.

Snapshots from their family collections take us back to the days when John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Richard Starkey were just four lads from Liverpool. They talk in turn about those early years and how they came to join the band that would make them known around the world as Joh, Paul, George and Ringo — The Beatles!

They tell the amazing story of life as The Beatles from their own perspective. From their humble beginnings in Liverpool to their Hamburg sexcapades. They also talk about the inspiration for their songs, the influence of drugs, the trippy ’60s to their painful breakup in April 1970.

Interwoven with these (and just as compelling) are the recollections of such associates as road manager Neil Aspinall, producer George Martin and spokesman Derek Taylor.

You’ll experience the many lifetimes the Beatles endured on their walk of fame. The book provides the frankest account of how the band ruled the music and pop culture world in the 1960s. And without pulling any punches.

It’s absolutely, positively, the most definitive account of the Beatles to date.

***

Marshall Terrill is the author of more than 30 books and has executive produced two documentaries on Steve McQueen and Johnny Cash.

CLICK HERE TO GET YOUR COPY OF THE BEATLES ANTHOLOGY 2025 EDITION AT A DISCOUNT
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