Rob Sheffield Quote

If you tell people you’re writing a book about the Beatles, at first they smile and ask, Another one? What’s left to say? So I mention Baby’s in Black, or It’s All Too Much, or Lil Wayne’s version of Help or the Kendrick Lamar battle rhyme where he says blessings to Paul McCartney, or Hollywood Bowl, or Rock ’n’ Roll Music, or the Beastie Boys’ I’m Down—but I rarely get that far, because they’re already jumping in with their favorite overlooked Beatle song, the artifact nobody else prizes properly, the nuances nobody else notices. Within thirty seconds they’re assigning me a new chapter I must write. And telling me a story to go with it. Every few days, I get into a Beatles argument I’ve never had before, while continuing other arguments that have been raging since my childhood. And though I’ve spent my whole life devouring every scrap of information about them, I’m constantly learning. I guarantee the day this book comes out, I will find out something new. Things like that used to pain me. But that’s what it means to love the Beatles—you never run out of surprises.