January 2024

The author of Shout: The Beatles In Their Generation has brought out his third Beatles individual biography, forty plus years after the publication of his group one. George Harrison: The Reluctant Beatle was put together tapping Norman’s body of old interviews (with witnesses now beyond reach) as well as fresh research and new conversations (including his star witness, Pattie Boyd). The complexity of the subject matter is matched by the complexity of the narrator, who through series of unforced errors has led many a Beatle fan to view him with scorn. But SATB has always been about opening doors rather than shutting them, and if one is prepared to listen without prejudice, one can make up one’s own mind on the value of what he has to say about George in this book. 

We have discussed the insights of 1st gen fans who, frankly, were screamers in the presence of The Beatles (Debbie Gendler, author of this upcoming memoir and Carol Tyler, author of this one); see thisfor a detailed discussion.     Then there’s Sibbie O’Sullivan – a high schooler when Deb and Carol were middle-schoolers. She too was swept up in the wave of mania in her native Maryland; like Deb, she witnessed an in-person Ed Sullivan Show taping, but unlike many girls, she did not scream. Her book, My Private Lennon: Explorations From A Fan Who Never Screamed, offers a series of essays, rich with insight and perceptive observations about her very personal fandom and what The Beatles meant to her, then and now. Leading the discussion is Dr. Allison Bumsted, who is cultivating a specialty in examinations of Beatles fandom.  An essay by Sibbie here.  Allison’s review of Sibbie’s book here.