Reading the 20th Century discussion

Welcome to our November 2018 buddy read of....


As Time Goes By by Derek Taylor

Originally published in 1973. A new Faber and Faber reissue came out on 5 April 2018.

Available on Kindle and in paperback

As Time Goes By is....

....Derek Taylor's iconic memoir is a rare opportunity to be immersed in one of the most whirlwind music sensations in history: Beatlemania. As Time Goes By tells the remarkable story of Derek Taylor's trajectory from humble provincial journalist to loved confidant right at the centre of the Beatles' magic circle.

In charming, conversational prose, Derek Taylor shares anecdotes and reminiscences so vivid and immediate that you find yourself plunged into the beating heart of 1960s counterculture.

Whether watching the debut performance of 'Hey Jude' in a country pub or hearing first-hand gossip about a star-studded cast of characters, Derek Taylor's unique narrative voice forges an autobiography like no other.

Reissued here in a brand new edition with a foreword by celebrated writer Jon Savage, this long-admired memoir is a cult classic of the genre awaiting a new readership.




As Time Goes By by Derek Taylor

As it is now mid-November, I declare our discussion Open :)

I was interested to read this and felt it had a real sense of immediacy about it. It did read as quite dated, as were his views on drugs, etc. but it was a fascinating read.

I have it on my shelf ready to go.


I have to finish Cider With Rosie first though - which is one to savour

I'll be back once I get started

I started reading this yesterday. So far I am enjoying it although it is not quite what I expected.

I had a similar feeling, Andrew. It isn't really a memoir, as such, is it? More lots of little snapshots.

I agree that it is more a collection of anecdotes than a memoir. Although many of these are interesting or amusing. As far as the drugs go, it would not really be a book about the music industry in the late sixties without references to LSD and drugs generally, particularly in the circles that Derek Taylor was moving in.

Yes, he is certainly writing this with a very romantic view of drugs, isn't he? I was somewhat shocked at the amount of drugs his wife seemed to take, considering she seemed to be almost constantly pregnant!

I've just read the Jon Savage introduction to the new edition....


...this has all the crackling energy of a first book. At once angry and confused, fluent and blunt, erudite and crude, these twenty-six chapters have all the urgency of a burden shared and thus lifted.

Oooh

Certainly tees it up nicely

It is a period of its time, I think. I have read a few books about the Apple period, including the brilliant, The Longest Cocktail Party which Derek Taylor is very kind about.

I was not aware of The Longest Cocktail Party - thanks for that.


Back to As Time Goes By by Derek Taylor, I've read the first two chapters now and really like it.

Very impressionistic.

Just little glimpses into his world..... the electric gate at the Tate residence; the wife of the mayor who, despite her disgust, wanted her daughter to meet the Fabs etc.

I like the playful style too. And how he wrote it reluctantly and under duress.

I think I'm going to really enjoy this one.



As Time Goes By by Derek Taylor

I also liked the fact that that he does not just talk about the Beatles in the early part of the book.

Yes, that's true, Andrew. There is a lot about other artists, especially as he stopped working for the Beatles for a while in the mid-Sixties.

It is curious how many of the acts that he worked with start with the letter B.....


The Beatles
The Byrds
Beefheart
The Beach Boys

It is a strangely popular letter isn't it carissa?

That is interesting, Carissa. Which band, Beatles apart, have the most books written about them, do you think?

I'm struck by just how much Derek Taylor loves The Byrds. I must confess I share his enthusiasm. A wonderful group which could never contain so much talent, and so many egos, but, as they splintered, we got yet more wonderful music from the various offshoots.... the Flying Burritos, CSNY, Gene Clark etc

Any fellow fans out there?

Derek Taylor had quite the life didn't he? He must have been very likeable and open minded to have been embraced and accepted by so many different movers and shakers of the era.

I've also just read the part where he is trying to raise money and so goes to the West Indies with his reel to reel tape recorder to tape interviews with the Beatles to then sell to radio stations. I winced when I read that. Could you imagine? No wonder Macca was a bit scornful, though it seems they all helped him out after getting over their surprise (or should that be horror?)

Yes, that was a bit embarrassing, wasn't it? However, the Beatles seemed to feel for him, after they got over the shock of seeing him there!

The Byrds are a band I like when they come on the radio, but know nothing much about.

Has anyone seen the Beatles Anthology, because both Derek Taylor and Neil appeared - the only non Beatles to do so. I have to say that I had the pleasure to meet Derek Taylor once or twice and he was a real gentleman and very, very kind to fans. I think, in Apple, it is clear that they were a little too kind to fans, to the extent of taking in all kinds of waifs and strays!

One of the things I liked about the book is that Derek Taylor was honest about some of the mistakes he made. The West Indies trip being one of them.

I have recently been listening to a 4 CD restrospective collection of The Byrds I have and realising how I underestimated them at the time. However, I have always loved CSNY from my schooldays and Neil Young is one of my all time favourites.

Yes indeed Andrew, The Byrds back catalogue is awash with riches. They were also very influential. After instigating the 12 string psych, they pretty much invented country rock with Sweetheart of the Rodeo which baffled people at the time, and carried on making interesting music in their various incarnations, albeit with somewhat diminishing returns into the 1970s.

Neil Young is also an all time favourite of mine too.

Susan, I don't think I have seen the anthology. I believe DT was working on it when he died.

The whole things appears to be on YouTube so I'll give it a go...

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list...

Good to learn that DT was a gent in person.

I'm really looking forward to reading about his Apple experiences. I've read a few accounts of that era. It's one of those seminal moments when hippy idealism had a head on collision with cold hard commercial reality and individual opportunism.

I always thought it was interesting that Derek and Neil were included. It was good that the Anthology was made while George was still around.

Wonderful chapter on the Monterey Festival.


I loved the contemporaneous part about issuing press passes.

By focussing on small details via his selected vignettes, Derek reveals broader truths and insights.

A really charming and absorbing read

Susan wrote: "Which band, Beatles apart, have the most books written about them, do you think?"

If we broaden it out to musical artists more generally, I'd guess Dylan or Bowie

There are at least 2000 books about the Beatles listed on fan sites. I wonder how many about Dylan or Bowie? I keep meaning to read a Bob Dylan biography, but never seem to do so. My New Year's Resolution perhaps!

Susan wrote: "I wonder how many about Dylan or Bowie?"


I'd guess a few hundred on each artist, maybe 200. Nothing like the 2000 for the Beatles.

https://www.theguardian.com/books/201...

This is obviously pre-Lewisohn (and yes, I've read them all).

Nice quote from Derek Taylor: "Writing about the Beatles has saddled me with two heavy burdens. The first is that almost everyone considers themselves an expert on what the band’s publicist Derek Taylor called “the 20th century’s greatest romance”.

Well, when I finish this, I'll have read one in that list.


I must admit to being staggered by the omission of Revolution In The Head: The Beatles Records and the Sixties anywhere in that Top 10 books about the Beatles list. 'RITH' is a masterpiece and completely blew me away.

I'm really enjoying this one but it feels far more playful and, being frank, inconsequential than Ian Macdonald's remarkable tome.

Those other books must be quite something if the compiler ranks them all above 'RITH'.

^ I've just read the below the line comments. Seems many people agree with my assertion above. I didn't originally notice the list was compiled by Philip Norman, who would doubtless have found it hard to be objective.

I just finished a somewhat odd but nonetheless charming chapter on Derek's brief period working as Mae West's press agent. She's still the greatest as he remarks at the end.

The bit about Mae deciding to make herself a cup of coffee, having never made one in her life, is worth the price of admission on its own

Yes, that was funny :) She was in a film with Ringo - Sextette

http://maewest.blogspot.com/2005/12/m...

"Mae was a terrible flirt. She tried it on me twice. I didn't mind really." He laughed. "She said she was 85, her maid said she was 87, and George Raft, who appeared with us in the film, said she was more likely to be 94."
• • "I'd like to know what she was on because I tell you she looked bloody fantastic." [Born in 1893, actress Mae West was 85 when Ringo met her.]

There are a lot of books about Elvis Presley - I have no idea how many, but I would think it might rival the number about the Beatles!

PS, on Bob Dylan, I loved No Direction Home: The Life and Music of Bob Dylan by the late Robert Shelton, who was a friend of Dylan and "discovered" him, but it only really goes up to the mid-60s although he did update it a bit. Dylan's own memoir, Chronicles, Volume One was also good (doesn't seem as if any other volumes are appearing!)

I don't know which more recent biographies are any good - I did read one but it must have been pre Goodreads, so I don't have a note of which one it was, and I thought it wasn't very good anyway!

http://www.elvis-history-blog.com/elv...

Yes, I forgot Elvis. According to the above link, there are approximately two titles a month. Goodness knows how many Beatles books there are a month - I certainly can't keep up with them :)

I read a two volume biography of Elvis which was very interesting, although it left me feeling a little depressed. Last Train to Memphis: The Rise of Elvis Presley and Careless Love: The Unmaking of Elvis Presley

Elvis! Of course. There will be loads. Thanks Judy.

The Peter Guralnick books are stunning...


Last Train to Memphis
Careless Love: The Unmaking of Elvis Presley

There is even a book on the one, and only, meeting between Elvis and the Beatles...

Elvis meets the Beatles

George is very amusing about that in the Anthology.

Back to As Time Goes By by Derek Taylor....


I just read the wonderful chapter about the spontaneous trip to Harrold, Bedfordshire after recording a brass band in Bradford with Paul McCartney

Quite how Derek Taylor managed to function semi-coherently through some of these days whilst regularly ingesting LSD is a mystery.

That is a wonderful chapter - probably my favourite in the book, to be honest. He is in a wonderful position - to view what is going on as both an insider and an outsider. After all, although those in the business new him, he still probably had anonymity and yet he viewed really intense fame from the centre of the storm.

I also thought the Peter Guralnick books about Elvis were great, if a bit depressing, as you say, Susan.

I like the Byrds and Dylan. My sister had several 45s of Presley - Hound Dog, etc., but other than those hits, he never really caught on in my family. Especially after he died - I was going to school in Tennessee at the time and all every channel showed for like a week was Presley movies. I probably watched PBS all the time then. And I wasn't even near Nashville or Memphis, way the other side of the state. I never liked him much and especially didn't after that. And now they still celebrate his death with his movies. Why not his birth?

I think Elvis is great driving music. I often play him when I'm on a long drive. The Beatles I play all the time, but only my daughter is really a fan. I took her to Liverpool and we visited John and Paul's childhood homes, which the National Trust now run. She is also a fan of Queen, as is her friend at school. So, these classic bands do seem to be picking up fans from the younger generation, which is nice to see.

I still seek out and listen to loads of new music. The old classics also get an airing too, but I would estimate that it's 75% new songs to 25% old favourites. I have a ludicrous number of vinyl albums, CDs etc and probably as much again digitally.

My kids tend to use Spotify and are completely haphazard about era and genre, which I think is quite interesting. We occasionally go to concerts together too, which is something my parents would never have done with me. Recently we've seen Metronomy, The Vaccines, Frank Turner, Half Man Half Biscuit, Vampire Weekend and of course we often go to festivals in the Summer where there's all manner of wonderful music to enjoy. The End of the Road festival is a family favourite.

My wife is more into classical music so she tends to leave us to it.

Both kids play instruments - guitar and piano - and are getting very accomplished, which is something I file under "good parenting". I wish I had learned to play an instrument.


Back to As Time Goes By by Derek Taylor, I'm now onto the Apple years, and specifically how Alan Klein came into the Beatles fold. I must say I'm finding it less interesting and rewarding than what came previously. I thought I'd find the Apple stuff quite interesting but, so far, he's being frustrating vague and I now wonder if that aspect of The Beatles' story might actually be quite boring. I'll keep you posted.

On the finances of The Beatles I heard the author of You Never Give Me Your Money: The Beatles After the Breakup, Peter Doggett, discussing this book and it sounded absolutely fascinating. Anyone read it? Is it as good as I anticipate?

When Paul McCartney told the world in 1970 that he had no plans to work with the Beatles again, it was widely viewed as a cultural tragedy by the media and public alike. But one of the most fascinating phases of the Beatles' story was just about to begin.

Now, for the first time, You Never Give Me Your Money tells the dramatic story of the Fab Four post 1969. It charts the almost Shakespearean rivalry of the Lennon and McCartney families, the conflict in George Harrison's life between spirituality and fame, and Richard Starkey's efforts to conquer his personal demons. It also chronicles the transformation of their multi-media company, Apple Corps, from a bastion of 1960s counter-culture into a corporate behemoth.

From court battles to chart success, the best of rock'n'roll writers, Peter Doggett traces the untold story of a group and a legacy that will never be forgotten.



You Never Give Me Your Money: The Beatles After the Breakup by Peter Doggett

That's one of the few Beatles books I haven't read, Nigeyb. I love Pete Doggett's work though. Perhaps a future buddy read?

A definite maybe Susan. My library don't have a copy and it's a bit pricey for something which, whilst I am sure I'd enjoy, I wouldn't prioritise above all the books on my shelf and kindle which are patiently awaiting my attention.

I am pretty sure I have it on my kindle. I tend to download all Beatles related books, so, if I get to it, then I'll let you know what I think. I want to read Electric Shock: From the Gramophone to the iPhone - 125 Years of Pop Music by him too.

Susan wrote: "I'll let you know what I think (about You Never Give Me Your Money: The Beatles After the Breakup by Peter Doggett)"

Thanks Susan. I'd be very interested to know your reaction, as someone steeped in Beatles lit and lore. If I come across a bargain priced copy I'll be right back atcha.

Going back to Derek Taylor, I sometimes wondered at how truthful he was being, possibly even to himself. For example, he is critical of Paul, I am sure with good reason, but he obviously got on very well with George. For example, when George gets busted on Paul's wedding day, he suggests that poor George was kept from the festivities. As far as I know, Paul had no intention of inviting any of the other Beatles to his wedding at that time, nor would George had gone. There is a lot made of how people disliked Yoko in various books, but I don't think Linda was made very welcome either. I was also amused at the part about the Derek Taylor Fan Club!

I haven't reached any of those parts yet Susan


I'm a bit mired in day-to-day Apple activities at the moment which are less interesting to me than the earlier sections in America

Sorry, Nigeyb. Obviously, I found the Beatles related content much more interesting than Captain Beefheart (I have no idea who he is, to be honest!) or his time outside of the Beatles orbit.

Completely understandable Susan. The Fabs are your passion. I am interested too. I really thought I'd find the Apple stuff fascinating but his writing seems to be at its most achingly clever and hip, and the stories, so far, are just not that interesting unless you want to know about day to day details of being in their offices.

I've preferred unexpected anecdotes about Mae West, or the wife of an American mayor demanding he wake the Beatles up, or his trip with Paul to Harrold, Bedfordshire where they end up carousing with a dentist, his wife and most of the village.

One of my ex girlfriends, who came from Fraserburgh near Aberdeen, told me how Paul and John came back to their family house in the early 1960s after a concert and had a singsong around their piano for a few hours. She heard this from her older siblings and parents. She was just a baby. I think there's probably a lot of these type of stories from their early touring days.