The Beatles Illustrated Lyrics (Edited by Alan Aldridge), a Sinable Picture Book for Grown-Ups

Posted by: Sing Books with Emily on: August 31, 2010

In: Heartfelt Musings | Singable Book Title | Vocal Tracks
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The Beatles Illustrated Lyrics
Words and Music by The Beatles
George Harrison, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr
Illustrated by Various Artists
Edited by Alan Aldridge

I own the book pictured above, but I like these covers (found online) of earlier printings:

The book prints Beatles’ lyrics and illustrates the songs with amazing pictures (by many-a-various artist),

The lyrics are also printed with short commentaries for each song by one of The Beatles or someone close to them.

It’s an amazing and exciting book. The vast majority, but not ALL the songs are there. For example, ”Here Comes the Sun,” is not included.

My children’s summer day-camp was a 20 minutes drive from the house. So my kids and I decided to listen to The Beatles albums on the trips to camp in the morning and on the way home at night as a way of listening to the whole boxed set we’d gotten for the family last Christmas,

We made it up to The White Album. Our favorite albums so far, are “Please Please Me,” “Rubber Soul,” and “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band,” although amazing songs can be found on each. We’ve been listening to the albums in order and I loved the experience of hearing The Beatles find their own voices and style, from sounding like a typical (but fantastic) early 60′s rock-and-roll band to finding their sublime sound and songwriting style that could be The Beatles and only The Beatles.

“Illustrated Lyrics” is definitely for grown-ups with adult material sometimes depicted, but it will be fun to comb through the pages and find a song or two to share with the children. Definitely MORE of The Beatles songs should be illustrated!

I did run across an illustration of “Yellow Submarine,”

Yellow Submarine
Words and Music by John Lennon and Paul McCartney
Illustrated by Cathy Holly

This illustration is good enough for an excuse to share the fabulous song with children, but it isn’t terrifically inspiring.

So many of The Beatles’s individual songs could use terrific Singable Picture Book illustrations. But until then, the terrific compilation of “The Beatles Illustrated Lyrics” will have to do.

Late August/Early September of 2010, Rolling Stone Magazine publishes a special issue listing their selection of the Beatles’s top 100 songs:
http://www.rollingstone.com/music/photos/28431/194023

Most of these songs are in the illustrated lyrics.

Sing-Along with “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds”
(The TRUE story of this song is in the Rolling Stone special’s Special Collectors Edition “RollingStone The Beatles 100 Greatest Songs”)

www.youtube.com/watch?v=A7F2X3rSSCU