Jeff Walker’s just-published book Sex and the Beatles: 400 Entries is exactly what the title suggests — a look at the sexy underbelly of the Fab Four in 400 ways you probably couldn’t imagine.
Walker cites sexy anecdotes from the 46 sources he uses for the book’s 400 entries. For example, in entry No. 150: “Yoko Would Dress in Black and Wail Inside Bags,” Walker, citing May Pang’s Loving John, notes the inspiration for “Polythene Pam” dates back to 1963 when poet Roystan Ellis and John Lennon “shagged” a girl who was into black oilskins and polythene bags.
In No. 94, he uses an anecdote from Pete Best, who said he came back to the Bambi Kino in Hamburg exhausted and prepared for a night’s sleep only to encounter a giggle and a scent of perfume in the darkness. “Rest and sleep could wait,” Walker writes. And remember Jo-Jo, the man who thought he was a woman but he was another man? In entry No. 224, Walker uses a Paul McCartney anecdote from Barry Miles’ book Many Years From Now to note it was a transgendered April Ashley who often talked to McCartney at the Ad Lib Club.
In all, Walker’s 46 sources for the book’s 400 entries cover a wide range of Beatles authors from Mark Lewisohn to the seamy Albert Goldman. The resulting book is everything you wanted to know about Sex and the Beatles, but were afraid to ask. Now you don’t need to. You can just read it all here.
- Books: Sex and the Beatles: 400 Entries, by Jeff Walker (2014) - February 27, 2014
Read it and mentioned it on BeatlesandBeyond Radio. If the book had been out 50 years ago, The Beatles would not have been allowed into the USA!