The Beatles Are Here!: 50 Years after the Band Arrived in America, Writers, Musicians & Other Fans Remember

The Beatles Are Here!: 50 Years after the Band Arrived in America, Writers, Musicians & Other Fans Remember

by Penelope Rowlands
The Beatles Are Here!: 50 Years after the Band Arrived in America, Writers, Musicians & Other Fans Remember

The Beatles Are Here!: 50 Years after the Band Arrived in America, Writers, Musicians & Other Fans Remember

by Penelope Rowlands

Paperback

$15.95 
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Overview

The arrival of the Beatles was one of those unforgettable cultural touchstones. Through the voices of those who witnessed it or were swept up in it indirectly, The Beatles Are Here! explores the emotional impact—some might call it hysteria—of the Fab Four’s February 1964 dramatic landing on our shores. Contributors, including Lisa See, Gay Talese, Renée Fleming, Roy Blount, Jr., and many others, describe in essays and interviews how they were inspired by the Beatles.

This intimate and entertaining collection arose from writer Penelope Rowlands’s own Beatlemaniac phase: she was one of the screaming girls captured in an iconic photograph that has since been published around the world—and is displayed on the cover of this book. The stories of these girls, who found each other again almost 50 years later, are part of this volume as well. The Beatles Are Here! gets to the heart of why, half a century later, the Beatles still matter to us so deeply.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781616203504
Publisher: Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill
Publication date: 02/04/2014
Pages: 288
Product dimensions: 5.60(w) x 8.20(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

PENELOPE ROWLANDS has written about culture and the arts for Architectural Digest, the Daily Beast, Vogue, WSJ. Magazine, and other publications. Her books include the anthology Paris Was Ours and A Dash of Daring: Carmel Snow and Her Life in Fashion, Art, and Letters, a biography of the legendary editor-in-chief of Harper’s Bazaar. Find her at www.peneloperowlands.com.

Table of Contents

Introduction xv

Tools of Satan, Liverpool Division Joe Queenan 1

Greil Marcus, rock critic 8

We Saw Them Standing There Amanda Vaill 10

A Newspaper Article Gay Talese 15

In Love with Gorgeous George Penelope Rowlands 19

A Letter from Vickie Brenna-Costa 26

Henry Grossman, photographer 28

Good Bye, Mitzi Gaynor Verlyn Klinkenborg 36

Jamie Nicol Bowles, fan 43

Billy Joel, musician 47

Swimming to John Noelle Oxenhandler 50

Gay Talese, reporter 58

My Four Friends Cyndi Lauper 64

A Facebook Encounter 67

Vickie Brenna-Costa, fan 68

America's Beatlemania Hangover Debbie Geller 74

"Cousin Brucie" Morrow, disc jockey 78

Sister Mary Paul McCartney Mary Norris 88

Peter Duchin, bandleader 102

Anne Brown, fan 104

A Diary Entry Anne Brown, age 15 111

Springsteen's Hair Stands on End Peter Ames Carlin 112

FUN by Véronique Vienne 113

Vicky Tiel, fashion designer 122

Tom Long, fan 125

Janis Ian, musician 126

A Way to Live in the World Carolyn See 130

Up, Up, Up Lisa See 140

Joann Marie Pugliese Flood, fan 144

Into the Future Pico Iyer 151

Fran Lebowitz, nonfan 154

Michael Laven, fan 162

An E-mail from Phillip Lopate 165

White Out Judy Juanita 166

Renée Fleming, soprano 173

Where Music Had to Go Anthony Scadutto 176

Tom Rush, musician 178

Thawing Out Barbara Ehrenreich 183

Laura Tarrish, fan 184

Screening the Beatles David Thomson 187

Gabriel Kahane, composer and songwriter 194

Vera, Chuck and Dave Roy Blount 198

Linda Belfi Bartel, fan 204

David Dye, radio show host 210

The Back of the Album David Michaelis 213

Will Lee, musician 230

Why Couldn't They Leave Us Alone? Sigrid Nunez 236

Leah Silidjian, fan 244

Independence Day, 1976 Will Hermes 246

Contributors 247

Sources and Permissions 253

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