The list of errors follows:
Please remember these are at "first glance" since these errors were found within minutes of picking up the book and thumbing through it. It is in no way meant to be all-inclusive. We believe that if we have found this many errors already, there must be pages more. But as we see it, you the fans should have this information as we are getting it, as soon as possible.
Photo captions:
1. Numerous photos from their fall 1960 visit to Hamburg were captioned as being taken at the Star Club. Interesting...since the Star Club didn't open until 1962. We all know that on their first trip to Hamburg in 1960, they played the Indra and Kaiserkeller.
2. Photos taken in Hamburg in 1961 were ALSO captioned as shots from the Star Club when, in fact, they were taken at the Top Ten Club. Again, the Star Club didn't open until 1962.
3. Even Astrid's famous "Hugo Haas" fairground photo taken in Hamburg in 1960 was captioned as being taken after they played a gig at the Star Club! Again, no cigar!
4. There's a photo showing Gerry Marsden, George's friend Arthur Kelly, George and Pattie. It's captioned as having been taken at Paul's 21st birthday party (which would have been in June 1963). Hmmm. George and Pattie didn't meet until the spring of 1964 when "A Hard Day's Night" was being filmed.
5. Page 6 of photos the caption reads: "George with Pattie Boyd, soon after they met on the set of Help!" Wrong: refer to #4 above
6. One of Albert Marrion's famous leather suit photos from December 1961 was labeled as The Beatles in 1962. Nope.
7. There's a photo identified as a shot of The Beatles playing one of their final gigs at the Cavern in 1963. It's clearly NOT taken at the Cavern, making this a gross faux paux!
8. Page 16 of photos: "The Beatles last appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show in August 1965" is wrong. The photo is from their Feb. 1964 appearance.
9. Page 5 of photos: "In a rare display of fatherhood, John shows off Julian, age two, to Uncle Paul and Uncle Ringo". That photo is from the Central Park, NYC photo shoot in Feb. 1964, where John was holding someone else's daughter. Julian, John's ten month old son was in Liverpool at his aunt's house. (For the record, the little girl's name was Debbie Fyall and her father was a London Daily Express reporter following the Beatles. Of course, Bob could have found that out with simple research. There was a 40th anniversary story about that little girl and it can be seen at
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/gossip/story/158154p-138835c.html )
Text:
10. p 419: Twist and Shout was the "first EP ever to enter the top 10."
How's that? What about the 13 EPs Cliff Richard had in the top 10, the 6 by The Shadows, 2 by Adam Faith and 1 by Peter Sellers, to name just a few, all prior to August 1963, when Twist and Shout entered the top 10.
11. p587: Run For Your Life was "one of the last songs recorded for the album."
It was actually the very first.
12. p588: Rubber Soul was to have "an unheard of 14 cuts."
All their UK albums thus far had 14 cuts, except A Hard Day's Night, with 13.
13. p591: George Martin was "not a pianist by training."
Piano was a required instrument of all students at Guildhall, easily checkable in All You Need Is Ears, which Spitz cites repeatedly.
14. p604: "layers of overdubs on take 5 of Got To Get You Into My Life."
This is on Anthology 2, just two tracks of the four were used, no tape reductions.
15. p605: backward sounds on Taxman and She Said She Said.
Not exactly sure what Ringo is doing on She Said; it sounds backward at certain points, but there's no evidence to support that anything was backward on that song, and the way it was recorded left no room for backward additions. Ditto Taxman.
16. p612: George Martin recorded Spike Jones!
I guess he's older than we thought.
Of course we must acknowledge that many Beatle books in the past have been known to contain a factual error or two. As the author himself, Bob Spitz, writes:
"One of the drawbacks in preparing a definitive biography of the Beatles is the stunning lack of reliable source material. Most of the nearly 500 volumes that make up their canon lack proper citations, and even in those remarkable cases where sources are offered, the accuracy remains suspect . . . For better or worse, misinformation has always been a key element of the Beatles' legend."
But who would've thought he was describing his own book?
There may be some good aspects of this book as reported by the New York Times' Janet Maslin (one only wishes Allan Kozinn was the one to review the book). However, in her one-sided review, she failed to mention that the book contains inaccuracies.
Something else must be noted. Outside of a blatant disregard for accuracy, we are appalled by Mr. Spitz's lack of professionalism when confronted with our concerns over his book. Daytrippin's editor, Trina Yannicos, sent a letter to him, outlining just a few of the errors in his book. This was Bob Spitz's response, quoted word for word: "You need an enema. Really! Do something useful with your life."
Did his publicist advise him that a response like this would be good promotion for his book?
The bottom line is this: We, as Beatle fans and journalists, feel a responsibility for getting the history of the Beatles correct, for this generation as well as the ones to come. We've seen the horrors that myth and error can cause for historical legends. With so many resources available to us now, the "truth is out there", so let's not foul it up.
We think we'll take Bob Spitz's advice, and do something useful--we won't be wasting time reading his book, looking for more inaccuracies. We've got better things to do.
--Trina Yannicos and Shelley Germeaux
Daytrippin' Editor-in-Chief and Daytrippin' West Coast Correspondent
