Music historian and author Harvey Kubernik first thought of the concept for this book at George Harrison's 1974 Beverly Wilshire Hotel press conference on Wilshire Boulevard in Beverly Hills, where 10 years earlier he had seen, just down the same street, the February 1964 live Beatles, Beach Boys and Lesley Gore concert in a closed-circuit theatrical movie-house showing at the Fox Wilshire Theater.
During his ensuing 40 years of published musical journalism, Harvey would, on occasion, ask his interview subjects — songwriters, recording and mastering engineers, poets, musicians, graphic artists, philosophers, record producers, disc jockeys, authors, filmmakers, pen pals, photographers, record collectors and friends — about the Beatles timeless catalog and the influence of their rarely chronicled-at-length history with Southern California and Hollywood.
"My goal was to bring something new to the table and the fable, especially the Beatles relationship to Hollywood and Los Angeles that helped introduce their sound domestically in the first place," offers Kubernik. "I talked with all four individual Beatles as well as Mal Evans, Derek Taylor and many of the engineers and producers that were in the recording studio with them."
During the fall of 2013, while preparing for the publication of a few large format hardcover books for 2014, including "Turn Up the Radio! Rock, Pop and Roll Music in Los Angeles 1956-1972," due for release in mid-April from Santa Monica Press, Harvey realized that the 50th anniversary of the Beatles coming to America would be more than a forum for celebration to be rolled out in February 2014, but a major media event. It was time for this book.
So Harvey called on his many record industry contacts and celebrated musicians he knew to have been part of the Beatles history, to share their memories and insights in fresh 2013 interviews, and began pulling together all the memorabilia, photos, press releases, emails, letters, recorded interviews, radio broadcaster's remarks and snippets he'd captured live at media events up to the present day – and then he started writing and creating.
"For the book I involved the voices of East L.A. and West L.A. , the San Fernando Valley, downtown L.A. and the beach community — all of us who first heard the Beatles in 1964. In addition, I incorporated heralded rock 'n' roll band members hailing from New York, New Jersey and Canada and wove their voices into my manuscript while also collaborating with Gary Strobl, curating and scanning the rare and unseen visual images and artifacts I unearthed that are displayed within the pages."
Harvey invited James Cushing to write the Foreword, then dedicated the volume to Derek Taylor.
S. Ti Muntarbhorn along with MsMusic Productions in association with Harvey Kubernik and Otherworld Cottage Industries made this book a retail reality.
And in the process, Harvey Kubernik became a "Paperback Writer."
An alphabetical list of contributors is posted at www.travisedwardpike.com. For additional information or to request a review copy, email travpike@morningstone.com.
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