Shout!

The Beatles in Their Generation

De: Philip Norman

Narrado por: Matthew Lloyd Davies

Updated to include Paul McCartney’s knighting and the deaths of John Lennon and George Harrison.

Philip Norman’s biography of the Beatles is the definitive work on the world's most influential band—a beautifully written account of their lives, their music, and their times. Now brought completely up to date, this epic tale charts the rise of four scruffy Liverpool lads from their wild, often comical early days to the astonishing heights of Beatlemania, from the chaos of Apple and the collapse of hippy idealism to the band's acrimonious split. It also describes their struggle to escape the smothering Beatles’ legacy and the tragic deaths of John Lennon and George Harrison. Witty, insightful, and moving, Shout! is essential reading not just for Beatles fans but for anyone with an interest in pop music.

The granddaddy of Fab bios is still the best

Norman is still a sour, conservative whiner in this latest edition, and there’s still very little music discussed, but this Beatles bio is still the most readable of them all.

Highly critical and overly general

The best part of this book is the early days in Liverpool and Hamburg. Once The Beatles start to succeed Norman becomes a critic. We get a lot of his opinions most of which are not shared by fans or history. For example, his derision of The White Album, one of the most iconic records in any genre, is more humorous than intended. This author is a real lover of MOR music. He completely fails to note that coming several months prior to the release of Led Zeppelin 1, Helter Skelter invented the music that would come to be called “Heavy Metal.” In mentioning Lennon’s Rock & Roll album, he fails to mention the annoying history of how that record came about. This is a straight old man’s view of The Beatles and it fails to place their reactions and behaviour in the context of the general milieu of those very unusual times.

I Will Always Love The Beatles

Way back in 1981, the first published edition of SHOUT was released and I read it (and read it and read it again). As an avid Beatles fan, this was an excellent biography of the band -- how John and Paul met, how Paul brought George into the group and how George Martin told them to ditch their original drummer (Pete Best) and find someone who was better (Ringo Starr). I had since read multiple biographies of the band but this one always stood out as the best.

The author offers the story of how this magnificent group came together...but does so in an honest, well-researched manner; he had no contribution from anyone in the Beatles camp in the writing of this book. As a result, it is a sincere, honest, well-written account of their story; there is no sense of obsequiousness in the writing of it.

For anyone interested in the true story of the Beatles but who doesn't want to get mired in the weeds as Bob Spitz' book tends to do, this is the book to read!

JANUARY 2026 -- UPDATED VERSION VIA AUDIOBOOK
As indicated above, I have always considered SHOUT! to be the best biography of The Beatles that I have read. This updated version takes us beyond the breakup and throughout the deaths of John Lennon and Linda McCartney. The the author offers his own opinions about each of the members of the group from a different vantage point...meaning, many decades after the Betles disbanded.

It's not that his opinions aren't worthy but I do believe they are tilted in favor of only one Beatle: John Lennon. He seems to have established a minor hatred or disrespect for Paul as he manages to send criticisms Paul's way at every turn. He isn't particularly poitive about George, either, and the same with Ringo, whom he barely gives a page to. Ths was extremely disappointing from a reader who has always loved the original SHOUT!