THE LOST BEATLES INTERVIEWS

``Tedious'' is a better adjective than ``lost'' for the various documents Fab Four biographer Giuliano (Blackbird: The Life and Times of Paul McCartney, 1991, etc.) has gathered here. Interviews of the group by British reporters get the book off to a slow, repetitive start as the Beatles slough off questions about the their growing fame and their music with wisecracks (Question: ``Do you go to the barber at all?'' Paul: ``It's really only our eyebrows that are growing upwards''). From there, the pieces—which include press releases and news accounts along with actual interviews—require a fairly complete knowledge of the group's history for full comprehension. In the interviews, George, Ringo, John, and Paul come across as who they were: megacelebrities who cherished their privacy, masterfully avoiding unguarded moments during dreaded but necessary promotional gigs. By the end, most of the other major, recognizable players who are interviewed (George Martin, spouses, Ravi Shankar, various gurus) give way to studio technicians and obscure relatives, like Paul's half-sister, whom he barely knew. And what enlightenment is supposed to ensue from a transcript of a press conference in which movie producer George and actress Madonna promote the disastrous Shanghai Surprise is difficult to tell. To be sure, there are some nice moments (fairly complete documentation of John's controversial remark that the Beatles were bigger than Jesus Christ, a long interview with Yoko Ono after John's death), but they are hardly worth waiting for. Giuliano obviously has a mountain of material and, as evidenced by his earlier biographies, the knowledge to write a book that would separate the wheat from the chaff for his readers. In this case, he should have done so.