Another book on the Beatles? It\u2019s\u00a0hard to imagine a writer shedding new light on the band given the mountain of literature already in existence. But there is a freshness of perspective in Ian Leslie\u2019s book, which tells of Lennon and McCartney\u2019s unique alchemy through the songs they wrote together. Leslie\u2019s background in psychology serves him well in a study that jettisons the usual narrative of male rivalry; their partnership, Leslie suggests, was closer to a marriage.<\/p>\n
He begins with the pair\u2019s early songwriting sessions, usually in McCartney\u2019s front room, where rather than each taking ownership of songs, they worked in sync. Other fabled\u00a0musical partnerships such as\u00a0Leiber and Stoller, or Rodgers and Hammerstein, divided the labour between lyrics and melody, but Lennon and McCartney worked together on both. Pointing to their profound connection, Leslie notes how in the song If I Fell they performed \u201can\u00a0intricate courtship dance, moving apart and close again as the song unfolds, like birds weaving in and out of each other\u2019s flight path, alternately shielding and leading the other\u201d.<\/p>\n
The Thick of It actor Chris Addison is the book\u2019s fluent and engaging narrator, and his enthusiasm for the topic is clear. The audio edition also has a bonus chapter featuring a terrific conversation between Leslie and presenter and podcaster Geoff Lloyd, where they ponder the continued enthusiasm for all things Beatles: \u201cIn terms of scale and complexity of achievement, there\u2019s very few people who come close to what John and Paul did,\u201d says Leslie. \u201cPeople say \u2018Do we need more books about the Beatles?\u2019 It\u2019s only just begun, in my view.\u201d<\/p>\n
Available via Faber, 14hr 9min<\/p>\n
Further listening<\/p>\n
Stone Yard Devotional
Charlotte Wood, Sceptre, 6hr 36min
This novel by The Natural Way of Things author finds a middle-aged woman leaving her life and marriage in Sydney to return to the religious community in the Australian outback where she grew up. Narrated by Ailsa Piper.<\/p>\n
skip past newsletter promotion<\/a><\/p>\n Sign up to Inside Saturday<\/p>\n The only way to get a look behind the scenes of the Saturday magazine. Sign up to get the inside story from our top writers as well as all the must-read articles and columns, delivered to your inbox every weekend.<\/p>\n Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Privacy Policy<\/a>. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy<\/a> and Terms of Service<\/a> apply.<\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n Peach Street to Lobster Lane
Felicity Cloake, HarperCollins, 10hr 47min
The Guardian food writer embarks on a coast-to-coast cycle across the US during which she discovers new culinary delights such as crawfish stew, sauerkraut balls and Tex-Mex gyoza. Read by the author.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Another book on the Beatles? It\u2019s\u00a0hard to imagine a writer shedding new light on the band given the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":86537,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[49,48,75,341],"class_list":["post-86536","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-entertainment","tag-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86536","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=86536"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86536\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/86537"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=86536"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=86536"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=86536"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}