The Beatles: All These Years, Volume One: Tune In

What's in the Book

Tune In is Volume One of Mark Lewisohn's The Beatles: All These Years, published in October 2013 by Little, Brown in the UK and Crown Archetype in the US. The standard edition runs 944 pages, and the Extended Special Edition, published in two volumes, runs 1,728 pages. It covers the Beatles' family backgrounds and early lives through to the last day of 1962, with 'Love Me Do' in the lower reaches of the chart and 'Please Please Me' recorded but not yet released.

Lewisohn is widely regarded as the leading Beatles historian. His earlier books include The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions (1988), the first book based on full access to EMI's session tapes and paperwork, and The Complete Beatles Chronicle (1992), a day-by-day account of the group's working life. All These Years was conceived as the full narrative history those reference books never attempted, rebuilt from primary sources rather than from earlier biographies.

The series is planned as three volumes: Tune In, Turn On (covering 1963 to 1966) and Drop Out (1967 to 1969). No publication date for Volume Two has been announced. In 2013 Lewisohn estimated 2020 for Volume Two and 2028 for Volume Three; since then, his website has said simply that he does not know and that it is pointless to predict.

Research: Why Tune In Is in a Class of Its Own

The research is the book's great strength. Lewisohn worked from interviews, contracts, letters, diaries, council and school records, club diaries and local newspapers, and he checks each story against the evidence. Many long-repeated Beatles myths are quietly corrected, and many events are dated precisely for the first time. When sources disagree, he says so and explains which one he trusts.

For McCartney fans, this means the most accurate picture yet of Paul's early life: his parents Jim and Mary, the family's moves around Liverpool, his mother's death on 31 October 1956, and the day he met John at the St Peter's Church garden fete in Woolton on July 6, 1957. The book traces how Paul brought George into the group in early 1958, the Hamburg seasons from August 1960, the arrival of Brian Epstein at the end of 1961, and the replacement of Pete Best with Ringo in August 1962.

The book is equally precise on the road to a record deal: the failed Decca audition on 1 January 1962, the EMI session with George Martin's team on 6 June 1962, and the recording of 'Love Me Do' at EMI Studios in September, released on 5 October 1962. Lewisohn shows how close the group came to never being signed, and how much depended on Epstein's persistence.

The Extended Special Edition adds a great deal of extra material, including more background on the families, Liverpool and the music business of the late 1950s. It is for the truly dedicated. For most readers, the standard edition is more than detailed enough.

What Tune In Tells McCartney Fans

Paul was born at Walton Hospital in Liverpool on June 18, 1942, the son of Jim McCartney, a cotton salesman who had led his own dance band in the 1920s, and Mary, a nurse and midwife. Tune In follows the family through their moves around the city to 20 Forthlin Road in Allerton, the house where Paul and John wrote many of their early songs and which is now cared for by the National Trust. Jim's love of music, and the family piano, run through the whole story.

Lewisohn is especially good on the Quarrymen years. He documents Paul's first performance with the group at New Clubmoor Hall on 18 October 1957, where nerves got the better of him on a guitar solo, and the slow process by which Paul and John became a songwriting team, filling school exercise books with songs credited to both. The May 1960 tour of Scotland backing Johnny Gentle, when Paul briefly called himself Paul Ramon, is told in close detail.

The Hamburg chapters show Paul moving from guitar and piano to bass after Stuart Sutcliffe left the group in 1961, and buying the Hofner violin bass that became his trademark. For fans who know Paul mainly as the bass player of the Beatles and Wings, seeing how reluctantly and how practically that switch happened is one of the book's real rewards; our guide to Paul McCartney's bass guitars picks up the story from there.

Writing: Readable, Despite the Length

A book this long could easily be a slog, but Lewisohn writes clearly and with dry humour. The narrative moves chronologically, with each chapter covering a short period, and the story builds real momentum as the group gets closer to its first record deal.

The early chapters on family backgrounds are slower going. If you find them heavy, keep reading: once Paul and John meet, the pace picks up and rarely lets up. The Hamburg chapters are the high point, and the account of the group playing for hours a night at the Indra, the Kaiserkeller and the Top Ten explains better than any other book how they became such a tight live band.

Lewisohn is even-handed with all four Beatles and with the people around them, including Pete Best, Stuart Sutcliffe and Allan Williams. Paul emerges as ambitious, charming, musically gifted and sometimes difficult, which is the rounded portrait you want from a serious history rather than a fan tribute.

Photos and Design

Tune In is a text-driven book, and its photo sections are modest compared with the large-format books reviewed on this site. There are photographs, some rarely seen, but they are not the point, which is why our Photos/Design score is the lowest of the five.

The hardback is well made, and the index is thorough, which matters in a book this large. If you want the early years in pictures, pair Tune In with a photo book. Paul's own 1964: Eyes of the Storm starts about a year after Tune In ends; our review of 1964: Eyes of the Storm explains why the two work well together.

Paperback editions are lighter and cheaper and perfectly good for reading, though the hardback holds up better to repeated use.

Value: Which Edition to Buy

The standard hardback or paperback usually sells for well under $40, which for 944 pages of the best Beatles research available is outstanding value. It is also widely available secondhand.

The two-volume Extended Special Edition is a collector's item. It was produced in more limited numbers and can command high prices secondhand. Buy it only if you have read the standard edition and want everything Lewisohn found.

Whichever edition you choose, give yourself time. This is a book to read over weeks, not a weekend. Many fans read it once straight through and then return to particular chapters, the Quarrymen years or the Hamburg seasons, whenever a new archive release or documentary sends them back to the period.

Who It's For

Tune In is for any fan who wants the documented story of how the Beatles came together. McCartney fans in particular will value its detailed account of Paul's Liverpool childhood and the partnership with John that grew from a church fete in Woolton.

It is also the best preparation for a trip to Liverpool. Reading it before you visit Forthlin Road, St Peter's Church in Woolton, the Casbah Coffee Club in West Derby and the site of the original Cavern on Mathew Street means you will know who lived where, who played which gig and why each place mattered. Our Liverpool Beatles trip guide covers the practical side.

It works as social history too. Lewisohn places the Beatles within post-war Liverpool, the end of National Service, the rise of skiffle and the Hamburg club scene, and the result is a portrait of a generation as much as of four young musicians.

It is not a quick read or a picture book, and it covers only the years before fame. But as the foundation of a serious Beatles library, it has no equal. For more recommendations, see our roundup of the best Beatles books.