A Hard Day's Write: The Stories Behind Every Beatles Song

by Steve Turner

New and Updated Edition

"Invaluable."
Paul du Noyer, Mojo

A Lavishly Illustrated, Rollicking Account of the Real People and Events That Inspired the Beatles' Lyrics

Who was "just seventeen" and made Paul's heart go "boom"? Was there really an Eleanor Rigby? Where's Penny Lane? In A Hard Day's Write, music journalist Steve Turner shatters many well-worn myths and adds a new dimension to the Fab Four's rich legacy by investigating for the first time the ordinary people and events immortalized in the Beatles' music and now occupying a special niche in popular culture's collective imagination.

Arranged chronologically by album, the book breaks new ground by exploring how private incidents influenced the group's writing and how their music evolved. Turner reveals that 'Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds' was really a drawing by Julian Lennon of his childhood friend; 'Bungalow Bill' was an all-American tiger hunter; 'Doctor Robert' was a New York "speed doctor"; and much more. A long-time Beatles admirer, Turner tracked down and interviewed the real-life subjects of the songs, probed public records and newspaper archives, and spoke in depth to the people closest to the Beatles to unearth tales that have never before been made public. The result is a book that chronicles an untold story of the Beatles themselves.

Illustrated with over 200 photographs, A Hard Day's Write is a visually alluring and highly entertaining journey to the land stretching just beneath your conscious mind, mapped out with strawberry fields, fool-topped hills, and long and winding roads.

Steve Turner is a highly respected music journalist and biographer who was written for Rolling Stone and New Musical Express. His books include Conversations With Eric Clapton; A Decade of the Who; Hungry for Heaven; U2: Rattle and Hum; Linda McCartney's Sixties; Van Morrison: Too Late to Stop Now; and Cliff Richard: The Biography.