In 1970, John Lennon<\/strong> sat down with Rolling Stone\u2019s Jann Wenner<\/strong> for what would become one of the most brutally honest interviews in rock history. Lennon was in his truth-telling phase, vigorously dismantling the carefully constructed Beatles myth that the world had swallowed whole. When Wenner asked about Hunter Davies\u2019 <\/strong>1968 authorized biography \u201cThe Beatles,\u201d John didn\u2019t hesitate: \u201cWell, it was really bullshit.\u201d 💥<\/p> Fast forward to 2014, and there\u2019s Hunter Davies again, publishing \u201cThe Beatles Lyrics: The Stories Behind the Music, Including the Handwritten Drafts of More Than 100 Classic Beatles Songs\u201d<\/em> (the hardcover edition is out of print, but it\u2019s just been rereleased in paperback.) This is the author that John dismissed. The same writer who sanitized the Beatles\u2019 story, pretended they didn\u2019t curse much, downplayed the drugs, and, despite having permission from the Beatles to mention that their late manger Brian Epstein was gay, avoided the subject. <\/p> The thing that makes the book valuable, though, is its photos of the Beatles\u2019 handwritten song lyrics\u2014complete with cross-outs, rewrites, and words scribbled on the backs of envelopes and hotel stationery. 📚<\/p> The book is still generating controversy because of Davies\u2019 analysis of those lyrics. Some fans think he should have just shut up and let the documents speak for themselves. 😅<\/p> Davies was a successful Scottish journalist and author when he approached Paul McCartney<\/strong> in 1966 about writing a theme song for the film adaptation of Davies\u2019 novel \u201cHere We Go Round the Mulberry Bush.\u201d<\/em> Paul wasn\u2019t keen on writing the song, but he was interested in something else Davies mentioned: a proper biography of the Beatles. 📖<\/p> At that point, the Beatles were drowning in misinformation. Tabloids made up stories. Fans believed myths. Nobody had yet written a serious, comprehensive account of who the Beatles actually were and how they got there. Paul saw value in an authorized biography that would set the record straight\u2014or at least establish an official version of events. Davies got approval from Brian Epstein, and for 18 months in 1966-1967, he had unprecedented access to the band. 🎬<\/p> He attended recording sessions. He interviewed the Beatles extensively, along with their families, friends, and associates. He observed them at work and at home. He was there during the creation of \u201cSgt. Pepper\u2019s Lonely Hearts Club Band.\u201d He collected the foundational stories that would become canonical Beatles mythology\u2014the Quarrymen, John meeting Paul at the Woolton fete, Hamburg, the Cavern, Brian\u2019s discovery, Pete Best\u2019s firing. Every Beatles book written since then uses Davies\u2019 1968 biography as a foundation stone, whether they acknowledge it or not. 🏗️<\/p> When the book was first published in September 1968, it was considered shockingly candid by the standards of the time. Using the word \u201cf*ck\u201d in a biography? Admitting to LSD use? This was daring stuff for 1968, when biographies of popular heroes \u201crevealed no warts,\u201d as Davies later wrote. But by 1970, when counterculture had exploded and authenticity was everything, John Lennon looked back at Davies\u2019 book as part of the mythology he was desperate to destroy. 💣<\/p> In his famous Rolling Stone interview, Lennon called the book \u201cbullshit.\u201d He complained it didn\u2019t mention the Beatles\u2019 orgies because they didn\u2019t want to hurt their wives\u2019 feelings. He wanted something \u201creal,\u201d not sanitized for mass consumption. Davies was hurt\u2014who wouldn\u2019t be?\u2014but he also understood what was happening. John was in demolition mode, tearing down everything about the Beatles myth, including the people who helped construct it. 😤<\/p> The strange thing is, John later apologized. According to Davies, Lennon eventually called him and said \u201cyou rotten sod\u201d but admitted he\u2019d been too harsh on Davies. By then, though, the damage was done. For decades, Davies\u2019 authorized biography carried the stigma of being the \u201cwhitewashed\u201d version.<\/p> So here\u2019s Hunter Davies in the 21st century: the guy who wrote the biography John called bullshit, who had to compromise his journalistic integrity for access, who became known as the authorized biographer who couldn\u2019t tell the whole truth. What could he possibly do to rehabilitate his Beatles credentials? 🤔<\/p> Turns out, he had the receipts. Literally. 📜<\/p> Here\u2019s the part of the story that transforms everything: during those 18 months Davies spent with the Beatles in 1966-1967, the band gave him their original handwritten lyrics. Just… gave them to him. Scraps of paper. Backs of envelopes. Hotel stationery. Birthday cards with verses scribbled on them. 🎁<\/p> Why? Because in 1967, these were just scraps of paper. They had no value. The Beatles wrote songs constantly, jotted lyrics wherever they happened to be, and then threw the papers away or gave them to friends or left them lying around. Paul might write a verse on an envelope while riding in a car. John would scribble on hotel letterhead. George would draft lyrics in notebooks. Ringo would write on whatever was handy. Nobody thought these were precious artifacts worth preserving. They were just the raw materials of the creative process, disposable once the song was recorded. ✍️<\/p> But Davies collected them. He kept them. And over the following decades, as the Beatles\u2019 legend grew and auction houses started selling Beatles memorabilia for astronomical sums, those scraps of paper became worth big money. (So far, the record price is $1.2 million\u2014for John\u2019s lyric sheet for \u201cA Day in the Life\u2014auctioned by Sotheby\u2019s in 2010.)<\/p> Davies eventually loaned his collection to the British Library permanently, where they now reside in the Manuscript Room alongside the Magna Carta, Shakespeare folios, and Wordsworth manuscripts. <\/p> But Davies wasn\u2019t the only one with Beatles lyrics. Over the decades, these documents scattered across the world. Museums acquired them. Universities bought collections. Private collectors hunted them down at auctions. Friends of the Beatles kept lyrics they\u2019d been given casually in the 60s, not realizing they were holding small fortunes. The Beatles\u2019 creative process, documented in their own handwriting, was fragmented and hidden in collections worldwide. 🌍<\/p> For \u201cThe Beatles Lyrics,\u201d Davies embarked on a quest to track down as many original manuscripts as he could find. He contacted collectors, auction houses, universities, and museums. He negotiated access to private collections. He identified Northwestern University as having the largest public collection. The resulting book reproduces over 100 handwritten lyrics, providing an unprecedented look at how the Beatles actually wrote songs. 🔍<\/p> For example, some songs show that John and Paul would start with one idea and then completely transform it through revision. Verses that seemed essential get crossed out. Choruses get rewritten multiple times. Words that appear in the final recording were sometimes never written down at all, but improvised in the studio and never documented. The gap between the handwritten draft and the recorded song reveals how much of the Beatles\u2019 genius happened in performance, arrangement, and spontaneous creativity rather than careful pre-planning. 🎹<\/p> \u201cThe Beatles Lyrics\u201d <\/em>is structured chronologically, taking readers through the band\u2019s catalog from their earliest songs to their final recordings. Each song gets its own section with Davies\u2019 commentary explaining the context of when and how it was written, what the lyrics mean, and what the handwritten manuscripts reveal about the creative process. 📋<\/p> And this is where the book becomes controversial. Because while everyone agrees the handwritten documents are fascinating and invaluable, readers are sharply divided on whether Davies should have included so much of his own analysis. Some love his insider perspective and personal memories. Others wish he\u2019d shared fewer opinions. 😬<\/p> Davies discusses John Lennon\u2019s tendency to deliberately write nonsense to defy intellectual analysts who tried to find deep meaning in everything. He explains which songs were personal, which were fictional constructions, and which started as one thing and evolved into something completely different. He shares anecdotes from his time with the band that illuminate how their lives as musicians and people shaped their lyrics. For fans who want that context, Davies delivers. 🎯<\/p> But the negative reviews are brutal. One Goodreads reviewer asks in frustration: \u201cWhy oh why is Hunter Davies compelled to offer analysis on Beatle songwriting? He\u2019s no musicologist, and his opinions are appalling.\u201d Multiple reviewers complain that Davies dismisses songs they love, offering what feels like dismissive commentary on tracks he considers substandard. 📉<\/p> What makes the book valuable despite these criticisms is something Davies himself emphasizes: \u201cthe words by themselves just don\u2019t reveal the power of the finished songs.\u201d Beatles lyrics on paper, stripped of melody, harmony, arrangement, and performance, are often fairly simple. Sometimes they\u2019re nonsense. Sometimes they\u2019re clich\u00e9d. The genius was in how the Beatles made those words work within the complete musical package. Seeing the handwritten drafts reinforces this\u2014these weren\u2019t poems meant to stand alone. They were scaffolding for something greater. 🏗️<\/p> Take \u201cI Want to Hold Your Hand.\u201d The lyrics are repetitive, simple, almost childlike in their directness. But paired with that driving beat, those harmonies, that energy\u2014it\u2019s transcendent. Or \u201cShe Loves You\u201d\u2014lyrically, it\u2019s just someone reporting on a relationship. But the \u201cyeah yeah yeah\u201d refrain became a cultural phenomenon because of how it sounded, not what it meant. The words were vehicles for melody, harmony, and feeling. 💕<\/p> The handwritten manuscripts reinforce this. You see lines crossed out and replaced with other lines that aren\u2019t necessarily \u201cbetter\u201d in a literary sense\u2014they\u2019re just better for singing, for fitting the melody, for creating the sound the Beatles were after. The creative process wasn\u2019t about crafting perfect poetry. It was about finding words that worked with the music to create an emotional impact. 🎤<\/p> This might explain why some readers find Davies\u2019 commentary disappointing. They want him to explain the genius of Beatles lyrics, but the genius isn\u2019t primarily in the words themselves\u2014it\u2019s in how those words became music. And Davies, who\u2019s not a musicologist, can\u2019t fully articulate that transformation. He can show you the raw materials, but the alchemy that happened in the recording studio is harder to capture on the page. 🔬<\/p> So should you read \u201cThe Beatles Lyrics\u201d? Depends on what you want from it. 📖<\/p> If you want to see the actual handwritten documents\u2014the crossed-out lines, the revised verses, the spontaneous additions, the evidence of the creative process happening in real time on scraps of paper\u2014this book is essential. These documents exist nowhere else in one comprehensive collection. The visual element alone is worth the price. If you want Davies\u2019 personal memories and insider perspective, you\u2019ll find that too. He was there. He knew them. That\u2019s worth something, even when you disagree with his conclusions. 👥<\/p> In his 2012 New Statesman essay<\/em>, Davies admitted that \u201clooking back, although I did reveal a few warts, on the whole I subscribed to the carefully cultivated image of the Beatles. Bullshit, or what?\u201d That\u2019s a remarkable admission. The authorized biographer acknowledging that John was right\u2014the official version was bullshit, sanitized, incomplete. But the handwritten lyrics don\u2019t lie. They show the process, the revisions, the spontaneity, the reality of how Beatles songs actually came together. 🎯<\/p> Here\u2019s the final irony: Paul McCartney published his own two-volume set called \u201cThe Lyrics: 1956 to the Present\u201d<\/em> in 2021\u2014a massive, expensive, beautifully produced collection of his lyrics with his own commentary and memories. It was published with all the prestige and marketing budget that Paul\u2019s legend commands. It sold well. Critics loved it. Nobody called it bullshit. 💎<\/p> But Davies got there first. And Davies has John\u2019s handwriting, George\u2019s revisions, Ringo\u2019s drafts\u2014the perspectives Paul can\u2019t provide because they\u2019re not his. The authorized biographer\u2019s book, flawed as it is, captures something Paul\u2019s book can\u2019t: the complete picture of how all four Beatles wrote, revised, and transformed words into songs. 🎸<\/p> In Rolling Stone\u2019s ranking of the best Beatles books, Davies\u2019 1968 authorized biography came in at number six\u2014one place behind \u201cLennon Remembers,\u201d the very interview where John called it bullshit. That\u2019s poetic justice. The book John dismissed is now considered one of the essential Beatles texts, valuable precisely because it captures that specific moment in 1968 when the myth was still being constructed. 🏆<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Hunter Davies and the Handwritten Lyrics That Changed Everything 🎸<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"amazonpipp_noncename":"","amazon-product-isactive":"","amazon-product-single-asin":"","amazon-product-content-location":"","amazon-product-content-hook-override":"","amazon-product-excerpt-hook-override":"","amazon-product-singular-only":"","amazon-product-amazon-desc":"","amazon-product-show-gallery":"","amazon-product-show-features":"","amazon-product-newwindow":"","amazon-product-show-list-price":"","amazon-product-show-used-price":"","amazon-product-show-saved-amt":"","amazon-product-timestamp":"","amazon-product-new-title":"","amazon-product-use-cartURL":"","amazon_featured_post_meta_key":"","_amazon_featured_alt":"","amazon-product-template":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[33,1],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2x2Mt-cjl9f","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weberbooks.com\/kindle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181925561"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weberbooks.com\/kindle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weberbooks.com\/kindle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weberbooks.com\/kindle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weberbooks.com\/kindle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=181925561"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.weberbooks.com\/kindle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181925561\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":194564267,"href":"https:\/\/www.weberbooks.com\/kindle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181925561\/revisions\/194564267"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weberbooks.com\/kindle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=181925561"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weberbooks.com\/kindle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=181925561"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weberbooks.com\/kindle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=181925561"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}How Hunter Davies Became the Beatles\u2019 Biographer (And Why John Hated It)<\/h2>
The Handwritten Lyrics: How Davies Ended Up With Beatles Gold<\/h2>
This essay continues below. Click on the title of this product to view on Amazon. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.<\/em><\/h6>
The Beatles Lyrics: The Stories Behind the Music, Including the Handwritten Drafts of More Than 100 Classic Beatles Songs<\/a><\/h1>
![\"Buy](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com\/public\/images\/346fe1b2-c762-4d7d-9b49-7649fe526352_389x500.jpeg?w=640&ssl=1\")
<\/figure>What the Book Reveals (And What Davies Gets Wrong)<\/h2>
The Uncomfortable Truth About Beatles Lyrics<\/h2>
Why This Book Matters Despite Its Flaws<\/h2>
The Redemption of Hunter Davies<\/h2>