
When They Were Boys
The True Story of the Beatles' Rise to the Top
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Narrated by:
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Mel Foster
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By:
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Larry Kane
About this listen
This is the real story of the Beatles' harrowing rise to fame, focusing on that seven-year stretch from the time the boys met as teenagers in the 1950s to early 1964, when the Fab Four prepared to invade America. From the boys' humble beginnings in Liverpool, to the cellars of Hamburg, When They Were Boys includes stories never before told, including heartbreaks, lucky breaks, and dramatic twists of timing, fate, loyalty, and betrayal. Included are an eyewitness account of that first meeting between Lennon and McCartney, the inside story of how Ringo replaced Pete Best, an exploration of the brilliant but troubled soul of manager Brian Epstein, the real scoop on their disastrous first visit to Germany, and the death of Stu Sutcliffe. With an eye for life in Liverpool during the 50s and 60s, and with the help of his own conversations with the Beatles in the early years, Larry Kane brings to life the evolution of the group that changed music forever.
©2013 Larry Kane (P)2013 Brilliance Audio, Inc., all rights reserved.Listeners also enjoyed...
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Tune In is the first volume of All These Years - a highly-anticipated, groundbreaking biographical trilogy by the world's leading Beatles historian. Mark Lewisohn uses his unprecedented archival access and hundreds of new interviews to construct the full story of the lives and work of John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr.
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Insanely great
- By Tad Davis on 12-17-13
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Despite being hailed as one of the best guitarists of his era, George Harrison, particularly in his early decades, battled feelings of inferiority. He was often the butt of jokes from his bandmates owing to his lower-class background and, typically, was allowed to contribute only one or two songs per Beatles album out of the dozens he wrote.
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Not good
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Ticket to Ride
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Performance
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Ticket to Ride recounts broadcast journalist Larry Kane's travels with the Beatles during their first North American tour. The book provides an intimate look at the Fab Four and contains original interview recordings with the band conducted during the tour.
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A Ticket To Ride
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Being John Lennon
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Performance
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Story
What was it like to be John Lennon? What was it like to be the castoff child, the clown at school, the middle-class suburban boy who pretended to be a working-class hero? How did it feel to have one of the most recognizable singing voices in the world but to dislike it so much he always wanted to disguise it? Being John Lennon is not about the whitewashed Prince of Peace of “Imagine” legend - because that was only a small part of him. The John Lennon depicted in this book is a much more kaleidoscopic figure, sometimes almost a collision of different characters.
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Stars taken off for inclusion of MDC’s story
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Performance
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Story
Malcolm Evans, the Beatles’ long-time roadie, personal assistant, and devoted friend, was an invaluable member of the band’s inner circle. A towering figure in horn-rimmed glasses, Evans loomed large in the Beatles’ story, contributing at times as a performer and sometime lyricist, while struggling mightily to protect his beloved “boys.” He was there for the whole of the group’s remarkable, unparalleled story: from the Shea Stadium triumph through the creation of the timeless cover art for Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band and the famous Let It Be rooftop concert.
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A Must For Every Beatles Fan
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Paul McCartney in His Own Words
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Overall
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Performance
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In interviews ranging from 1968 to 2009, Paul McCartney talks about touring the UK with Wings (which was then a new band), a mid-'70s offer to re-form the Beatles, the early days of the Beatles and their final break-up. He also discusses his solo albums, receiving the freedom of the City of Liverpool, Christmas with his family, his love of music and his career since the break-up of the Beatles up to 2009.
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Nothing that isn't on YouTube
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Tune In
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- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Tune In is the first volume of All These Years - a highly-anticipated, groundbreaking biographical trilogy by the world's leading Beatles historian. Mark Lewisohn uses his unprecedented archival access and hundreds of new interviews to construct the full story of the lives and work of John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr.
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-
Insanely great
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By: Mark Lewisohn
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George Harrison
- The Reluctant Beatle
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- Length: 16 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Despite being hailed as one of the best guitarists of his era, George Harrison, particularly in his early decades, battled feelings of inferiority. He was often the butt of jokes from his bandmates owing to his lower-class background and, typically, was allowed to contribute only one or two songs per Beatles album out of the dozens he wrote.
-
-
Not good
- By PEDRO on 03-12-24
By: Philip Norman
-
Ticket to Ride
- Inside the Beatles' 1964 and 1965 Tours that Changed the World
- By: Larry Kane
- Narrated by: Larry Kane
- Length: 8 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Ticket to Ride recounts broadcast journalist Larry Kane's travels with the Beatles during their first North American tour. The book provides an intimate look at the Fab Four and contains original interview recordings with the band conducted during the tour.
-
-
A Ticket To Ride
- By William on 01-26-08
By: Larry Kane
-
Being John Lennon
- A Restless Life
- By: Ray Connolly
- Narrated by: Jonathan Keeble
- Length: 16 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
What was it like to be John Lennon? What was it like to be the castoff child, the clown at school, the middle-class suburban boy who pretended to be a working-class hero? How did it feel to have one of the most recognizable singing voices in the world but to dislike it so much he always wanted to disguise it? Being John Lennon is not about the whitewashed Prince of Peace of “Imagine” legend - because that was only a small part of him. The John Lennon depicted in this book is a much more kaleidoscopic figure, sometimes almost a collision of different characters.
-
-
Stars taken off for inclusion of MDC’s story
- By rob on 12-09-22
By: Ray Connolly
-
Living the Beatles’ Legend
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- By: Kenneth Womack
- Narrated by: Gary T. Evans, Kenneth Womack
- Length: 19 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Malcolm Evans, the Beatles’ long-time roadie, personal assistant, and devoted friend, was an invaluable member of the band’s inner circle. A towering figure in horn-rimmed glasses, Evans loomed large in the Beatles’ story, contributing at times as a performer and sometime lyricist, while struggling mightily to protect his beloved “boys.” He was there for the whole of the group’s remarkable, unparalleled story: from the Shea Stadium triumph through the creation of the timeless cover art for Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band and the famous Let It Be rooftop concert.
-
-
A Must For Every Beatles Fan
- By shannonsongs on 11-23-23
By: Kenneth Womack
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Paul McCartney in His Own Words
- By: Sir Paul McCartney
- Narrated by: Paul McCartney
- Length: 2 hrs and 20 mins
- Original Recording
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
In interviews ranging from 1968 to 2009, Paul McCartney talks about touring the UK with Wings (which was then a new band), a mid-'70s offer to re-form the Beatles, the early days of the Beatles and their final break-up. He also discusses his solo albums, receiving the freedom of the City of Liverpool, Christmas with his family, his love of music and his career since the break-up of the Beatles up to 2009.
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Nothing that isn't on YouTube
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John Lennon
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Performance
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Story
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Really Bad Abridgement Job (slash job)
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Not great
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Better than average McCartney bio
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John
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Performance
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In John, Cynthia recalls those times with the loving honesty of an insider, offering new and fascinating insights into the life of John Lennon and the early days of the Beatles. And with the perspective only years can provide, she also tells the compelling story of her marriage to a man who was to become a music legend, a cultural hero, and a defining figure of the 20th century.
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Great book, even if Paul was your favorite.
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Performance
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Four human beings
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Nearly 20 years in the making, Can't Buy Me Love is a masterful work of group biography, cultural history, and musical criticism. That the Beatles were an unprecedented phenomenon is a given. Here Jonathan Gould seeks to explain why, placing the Fab Four in the broad and tumultuous panorama of their time and place, rooting their story in the social context that girded both their rise and their demise.
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Light on gossip, rich on context
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Great Book - Interesting and Sad Story
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What listeners say about When They Were Boys
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
- Laurzie
- 08-12-13
Some new stories, many inaccuracies, poor narrator
How could the performance have been better?
I found the narration quite irritating. The narrator's voice is cheesy, his pace is slow, and he constantly sounds amazed by everything, which gets old very quickly. The overall effect is that he almost sounds like he is speaking to an audience of young children. When reading quotations by interviewees, almost all of whom are British, he adopts a very gruff, folksy (American) style that seems totally out of place. If he couldn't do a Liverpudlian accent, he should have just read the quotes in his regular voice instead of using an exaggeratedly American accent that obviously sounds nothing like the original speakers. In contrast, German interviewees were portrayed with German accents, which was weird and inconsistent. The narrator's mispronunciation of names was also annoying; for example, he repeatedly pronounces the name of Liverpool's famous Liver Building as in the organ rather than as in the word "alive".
Any additional comments?
The most positive thing that I can say about this book is that it contains quite a bit of original research; Larry Kane clearly conducted new interviews with many players in the Beatles' early days, both in Liverpool and Hamburg. As someone who has read MANY books about the band, I appreciated hearing new stories and perspectives.
Unfortunately, the book is riddled with inaccuracies that are very obvious to the well-versed listener. For example, when Kane describes Yoko Ono's first visit to John's Aunt Mimi, he quotes her as saying something along the lines of "John's Uncle George was just sitting in the corner, like he was afraid to speak." It's not surprising that Uncle George didn't say much, given the fact that he had been dead for more than a decade. Since this is a book that only covers the band's early days, I felt that the treatment of their childhoods was generally quite superficial, and this is borne out by the fact that Kane fails to mention Uncle George's death at all (possibly not being aware of it himself?). The obvious misquoting of Yoko also makes me wonder who else he is misquoting throughout the book.
The book is not very well-written and its style can be very grating. When Kane quotes interviewees, the constant interposition of his own name is totally excessive, and suggests that he is trying to reinforce his own "insider" status. Even if everyone he interviewed really did preface all their statements with "you know, Larry," and "I'll tell you, Larry," these phrases should not have been included in the quotations. The style is generally very informal and at times it seems like it is aimed toward children rather than adults, due to digressions like "Can you imagine what it was like to use an outdoor toilet in 30 degree weather?" Also, I got the impression that Kane pretty much took the part of everyone he interviewed, so that if he had happened to interview a different set of people, the book's perspective would have been totally different. He is especially credulous when it came to the sacking of Pete Best, pretty much accepting the Best family's interpretation of events without looking very much to other sources or perspectives. Without any comment, he repeats a Best family claim that George Martin told Pete's mother that he had booked a session drummer because Pete's drum sound was "too big," which makes no sense (as well as coming from a very biased source). Kane never seems to evaluate the reliability of his interview subjects or to assess their possible motives, which I think makes his reporting much less credible.
Overall, the book is probably worth a listen if you are a serious fan, because it does contain some new information, but do not expect an excellent piece of journalism. Having access to many Beatles insiders, I think that Kane largely wasted his opportunity to produce a definitive document of Beatles' early days.
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