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September 8, 2008 Author's |
Book DisplayCarry that Weight
The Story of the Beatles
 by Ernst Schultze | Availability |
Description | |
CARRY THAT WEIGHT THE PSYCHEDELIC ROLLER COASTER THE BEATLES FROM THE INSIDE THE DEATH AND REPLACEMENT OF PAUL "Look -- if you weren't there you can't begin to understand the pressures they were under and their way of life. I don't give a damn how many books you've read or how many people you interview, even I can't convey to you what it was like! I was very close to them, and I was under a lot of pressure. But I was not even remotely in their league." (A quote from Allistar Taylor from: The Beatles, A Celebration) The Beatle story is one of the twentieth century's greatest tragedies in the literary sense of Oedipus Rex or Hamlet. There is a tragic inevitability about the events of the Beatles' rise and fall that places the story in the realm of great literature. Consider the Breakup: what the public knows -- the Official Version -- is not even in the same universe as what actually happened. The Beatles themselves confirm this and none of the biographies written about them go much deeper than old clippings. "Carry That Weight" is the story of what likely occurred among the Beatles. It is a weave of highly researched truth and fictitious dialogue. What was really going on during "Beatlemania?" No one really knows but the Beatles and they have kept the full truth under wraps. This is fiction offering the reader a look inside the enormously successful group. The story structure was researched to follow reality as based on accounts that are more credible. A rumor that began in the late 1960s regarding the death of Paul is part of the story adding to the dramatic element. No biographer fails to mention it and it is well known that the music of the Beatles contains many clues about his death. Examples in the music are numerous and spell-binding; especially when linked to the abundance of circumstantial evidence. Nevertheless, the book is not an attempt to prove that he died and was replaced even though readers may be convinced at the end of the read but that is not our purpose. The novel begins with the death of John Lennon as its prolog. The story traces development of the Band members on their way to "Beatlemania." The young Beatles grow up in a tumultuous environment of tough clubs, then fame and fortune. The struggle then grows to try to live normal lives and futile attempts are made among them to keep the global frenzy concerning them in perspective. Like Oedipus the Beatles had within them, even at the very beginning of their rise, the elements that would eventually lead to their downfall: their intelligence and willingness to puncture artifice -- the very characteristics that made them such carefree, brazen, and therefore appealing figures. The problems associated with enormous fame led Lennon to deep and angry disillusionment and our first and second McCartney to the edge of sanity. This resulted in Lennon's depression that finally found pause in the arms of Yoko, who the media characterizes as the Celestial Witch. McCartney's anomie and his solution for it drove a wedge between the Beatles that became their undoing. McCartney was unwilling to end the play-acting and the myth making. Attempts to shed the illusions gracefully failed miserably. After a swan song LP that glossed over the myth, they went their separate ways. The early days have the group playing in the tough clubs of Europe with the savage crowds and death following them to super stardom. The hell and orgies of the tours are described, Brian is the somewhat competent manager who is always being blackmailed and the Band forces him to quit signing them up for more tours. A disagreement as to what path the music should take and a change in life styles come to a drunken climax in the now famous Studio number 2 at Abbey Road. Paul runs outside during a lightning storm and roars off in his car and is killed on the road. Now the taxes extracted from their world revenues bailed the English economy out. England was adrift in a sterling crisis at the time and the revenues coming in from the work of the Beatles were pouring in from around the world, bringing the British government out of tough economic times. The Prime Minister was elected in part by his association with them and London became the place of style and the place to buy. The British Empire could not let the Beatles die with Paul. The government and the record company set in motion a cover-up and a replacement for the dead McCartney for England had the government tools to do so at the time. The replacement was the winner of a look-alike contest held during the early days of Beatle popularity. The story hints he might have been Paul's lost twin and the family agrees to take this knowledge to the grave as "Paul would have wanted the band to go on." The story follows the actual rumor of his death and incorporates it into what is known about them. The look-alike replacement grew up in an orphanage and is more talented than the original Paul thus the "Sergeant Pepper" Album is very different from any previous Beatle music when the dead man participated in it. The other members of the band grow weary of the Beatle road wanting to quit and live a normal life. Paul is new to being a Beatle and enjoys his newfound "family" and fame. He wants the group to go on but because of his destructive ways developed in the orphanage he ends up destroying the very group he needs most. The turmoil builds to the sad ending on his doorstep. This novel assumes the story a great deal more complex, unsettling and unknowable than the popular biographical myth. Money was involved and the 1969 Zeitgeist was baying for blood all over the world. The pressure to come up with the "Next Big Thing" time after time cannot have been much fun and the four happy-go-lucky lads from Liverpool were pretty goddamned sick of the sight of each others' faces after years together in the trenches. There are unacceptable shades of gray in the reality; it doesn't make any sense. We're missing vast amounts of information because we weren't privy to true motivations, secret alliances, glances of deep but wholly unknowable private significance between the protagonists and important connections missed because somebody somewhere was just plain stoned to the hair. The novel "Carry That Weight: The Story of the Beatles" fills in the missing pieces.
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