The Other Side of John

I've always been a Beatles aficionado but never to the point of digging for details of their lives.
Well, Philip Norman's latest book, the 800-page biography of John Lennon, sounded like way too much information for a sane person. Still, I decided to give it a try.
To my surprise, thus far, Norman's account of Lennon's life feels like a nice portrait of Liverpool and England in the sixties.
Boy, try reading it while listening to the compilation Beatles Love by Sir George Martin!

Even if John is sometimes regarded as The Beatles leader, there was never such a thing. He being the most extravagant beatle, sometimes downplays Paul's stardom, even the latter having written alone stuff like Lady Madonna, Yesterday... But what about the so-called Lennon/McCartney partnership? When it came to writing the songs, just a few would be written eyeball to eyeball. That's where the famous rivalry begins and this is meticulously described in the book.

Anyone out there who enjoyed The Anthology would love reliving John's reluctance in letting Paul join the band (The Quarrymen at the time) or watching an insecure John accusing Paul of always overshadowing him by trying to write more songs.

"I didn't write any of that [Magical Mystery Tour] except The Walrus ... You'd already five or six songs, so I'd think, 'Fuck it, I can't keep up with that.'"

A psychiatrist who treated him declared that "at the center of all that fame and wealth and adulation was just a lonely little kid".

Reading Norman's book feels as if i could kick Ring out of the band and become a beatle for a day.