Mark Lewisohn | |
|---|---|
 Lewisohn in 2012 | |
| Born | (1958-06-16)16 June 1958 (age 67) |
| Occupation | |
| Years active | 1977−present |
| Notable works | |
| Website | |
| marklewisohn | |
Mark Lewisohn (born 16 June 1958)[1] is an English historian and biographer. Since the 1980s, he has written many reference books aboutthe Beatles and has worked forEMI,MPL Communications andApple Corps.[2] He has been referred to as the world's leading authority on the band.[3] His major works includeThe Complete Beatles Recording Sessions (1988), a history of the group's session dates, andThe Beatles: All These Years (2013–present), a three-volume series intended as the group's most comprehensive biography.
Lewisohn has been writing about the Beatles since 1977, when he became a contributor to thefanzineBeatles Monthly.[4][5] The fanzine commissioned him to answer fan letters after he won a quiz at the first London Beatles convention.[6] When he began researching the band, he "found that it was a deep and rewarding history that was, for the most part, not very well researched by anybody else, so I just found a career by becoming a Beatles expert, I suppose you would say. Writing books and consulting on TV series, and ended up working for them. It's ridiculous. One thing just led to the next."[7]
His 1986 bookThe Beatles Live! featured a complete history of all the Beatles' live performances, in a format which Lewisohn would follow for his subsequent books. After being invited byEMI to listen to all ofthe Beatles' original session tapes, Lewisohn wroteThe Complete Beatles Recording Sessions (1988). The book was in the form of a diary, listing chronologically every recording session the Beatles had atAbbey Road Studios. It included details such as who played on each track and how many takes were recorded in each session. The book featured an introductory interview withPaul McCartney.[8]
The Beatles: 25 Years in the Life (1988) included information on what each individual member of the band was doing on any particular day between 1962 and 1987. This book was republished asThe Beatles Day by Day in 1990.The Complete Beatles Chronicle was published in 1992 and went one step further, detailing the band's entire career in the studio, on stage, and on radio, television, film and video.[9]
Lewisohn's next book wasThe Beatles' London, which he co-authored with Piet Schreuders and Adam Smith, published in 1994. This is essentially a guide book to all the Beatles-related locations in London, includingAbbey Road and theLondon Palladium, featuring maps and photographs of the band at the locations mentioned. A revised version of the book was published in early 2008.
As well as writing his own books, Lewisohn has written forewords to such books asRecording The Beatles byBrian Kehew and Kevin Ryan,Beatles Gear by Andy Babiuk and the German bookKomm, gib mir deine Hand by Thorsten Knublauch and Axel Korinth. He has also contributed toIn My Life: Lennon Remembered, a book to accompany the 10-partBBC radio series about John Lennon, and edited McCartney's bookWingspan, after working for a long time as editor and writer for McCartney's (now ceased) fanzineClub Sandwich. This led to him being invited by the former Beatle to write theliner notes for several of his albums, namelyFlaming Pie,Band on the Run: 25th Anniversary Edition andWingspan: Hits and History. He also wrote the liner notes for the retrospective six-CD box setProduced by George Martin – 50 Years in Recording, and the Beatles' albums1 andThe Capitol Albums, Volume 1. He was heavily involved inThe Beatles Anthology project.
According toDaniel Finkelstein, writing inThe Times in 2014, Lewisohn was responsible for identifying comedianJasper Carrott as the source in 1983 of the famous remark, "Ringo isn't the best drummer in the world. He isn't even the best drummer in the Beatles." This observation has generally been attributed toJohn Lennon, but Lewisohn had been doubtful because he could find no record of his having said it and thought it was out of character for Lennon to say something that he did not actually believe, though he was also well known for making mischievous remarks.[10] However, Lewisohn has since confirmed that the line actually originated in a 1981 episode of the BBC radio comedy seriesRadio Active, written byAngus Deayton andGeoffrey Perkins.[11]
In 2005, Lewisohn announced that he had started work on a three-volume Beatles biography.[12] He was quoted as saying of the work:
The Beatles story has been told very often but, in my view, rarely very well. I'm writing a wide-ranging history and my aim is true: to explore and comprehend what happened in and around the Beatles, and to write it even-handedly, without fear or favour, bias or agenda. A rock and roll group came out of Liverpool and shaped the last half of the 20th century the world over, and their music transcends changing times. The whole extraordinary story needs to be fully recorded and it needs to be done now, while first-hand witnesses are still with us.
Volume 1 was published in October 2013, entitledThe Beatles: All These Years, Volume One – Tune In.[13] Lewisohn was quoted as saying "It took longer to research and write than I could ever have anticipated".[14] In an interview published on 28 December 2013, Lewisohn estimated that the second volume would be published in 2020 and the final volume in 2028 ("about the time he turns 70").[15] However, in August 2018 Lewisohn tweeted that it was "way too early to say" when he would be able to publish Volume 2.[16]
In autumn 2019 Lewisohn toured a one-man show, Hornsey Road, around theatres in England, also stopping at Dublin and Edinburgh. The 25-date tour was an multimedia history lecture about the Beatles' last-made album,Abbey Road. The tour title referred to EMI's 1956–57 purchase of a recording studio in Holloway, north London, where the Beatles would have recorded had EMI not altered its course and decided to keep all company recording at the existing studio on Abbey Road. The revenue from the tour, which sold out several of its venues, helped fund Lewisohn's work on the remaining volumes ofThe Beatles: All These Years.[17]
Although the Beatles are Lewisohn's area of particular expertise, he has also written on a variety of other subjects. One of his best-known works is an encyclopaedia of comedy on British television screens titledRadio Times Guide to TV Comedy, published in 1998 and updated in 2003, also available online as theBBC Guide to Comedy until 2007.
He has also writtenFunny, Peculiar, a biography ofBenny Hill, published in 2002.
In the past, Lewisohn has written for magazines, including theRadio Times andMatch of the Day. He also helped to edit the bookHendrix: Setting The Record Straight, written by John McDermott andEddie Kramer.
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