The Beatles Unseen
Mark Hayward with Keith Badman
McArthur & Company
$50 (Hardcover)
**** (out of five)
Between 1963 and 1966, the Beatles went from being four exuberant twentysomethings enjoying that fresh taste of fame to being four twentysomethings practically clamouring for some semblance of privacy.
By the time Paul McCartney inadvertently announced the group's split in 1970, snapshots of the four became less and less about group activity and more about a need to express individuality.
At the very least, that's the impression left in The Beatles Unseen, a sort of scrapbook on the Fab Four.
The entire Fab 4, including Ringo, pose with a stuffed panda for Beatles Come To Town.
Along with rock writer Keith Badman providing enough historical context and a straightforward overview of the Beatles existence, producer/musician/memorabilia collector Mark Hayward offers rare photographs of McCartney, John Lennon, George Harrison and Ringo Starr snapped in their most leisurely of moments.
While 1960s Beatlemania was in full swing, though, the group as portrayed here hardly took their fame all that seriously. You see Harrison, for instance, join a scrum of news photographers wanting a snap or two or six of the group; you see Starr on holiday with Maureen, his wife at the time, relaxing with a beard growth that was uncommon for him in 1965.
Paul works on a crossword with the help of Harrison's future wife Patti Boyd (right).
You also see reluctant pop star Lennon trying to deal with the trappings of fame and Starr's 1964 fill-in, Jimmy Nichol, looking bemused and simultaneously star-struck (no pun intended) at the spectacle he landed himself in.
Of the Beatles, however, McCartney is easily the pair's favourite subject. Whether he's hamming it up with the other guys, signing many a fan autograph or privately attending his brother's wedding with girlfriend-at-the-time Jane Asher in tow, Macca comes off as the most photogenic and playful. Yet by the time of the Beatles' breakup, photos of Harrison, Starr and Lennon show them appearing liberated; McCartney, on the other hand, appears at his most vulnerable, particularly in the 1970 pix.
The Lennon and Yoko Ono photos taken in New York just two days before his Dec. 8, 1980, assassination almost appear as an afterthought — albeit a sad one, looking at John's relaxed poses — as if to just acknowledge the coming 25th anniversary of his untimely passing. To avoid a nod to Harrison's Nov. 29, 2001, passing is almost as criminal as The New Rolling Stone Album Guide: Completely Revised And Updated 4th Edition completely omitting Harrison's discography.
An oversight, yes, but not enough to take away from these rare glimpses of, to paraphrase Lennon's spot-on estimation, just four ordinary guys who happened to make it very, very big, that's all.
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