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Here's a new book about The Beatles, but the focus is on the early years from childhood up to the beginning of 1964. It's kinda interesting as I've never seen any other books that are exclusively on this period other than photo books. It says after Pete Best was let go, none of The Beatles ever saw him again, although he was paid millions of dollars for previously unreleased songs he played on that were used on the Anthology CDs. It also mentions that John was friendly with Pete but Paul & George didn't really care that much for him, Paul in particular (partly because he was way more popular than the other members), and that Ringo (who was in another band already) was not the 1st person asked to replace Pete. For about a year after joining, Ringo was not considered a full member and just got a weekly salary. Brian Epstein did ask Pete to join another group he was managing called The Mercybeats, as Brian was sad about Pete's situation and it was not his idea to fire Pete. Pete's mother Mona was basically the Beatles manager before Brian Epstein, and she tried to fire George one day because he was late to a gig, which made Paul & George angry, which is said to be another reason they wanted to get Pete & Mona out of the picture. Paul also wasn't that friendly with Stuart Sutcliffe, who was John's classmate. But Stuart left voluntarily to go to college for art and wasn't really interested in a music career.

[Edited 10/10/13 19:53pm]

Although he's a comedian, Jimmie also talks about his early career as an emcee at the Apollo Theater and for Motown tours and for other music acts like The Delfonics, Miles Davis, & Jerry Butler and that a lot of the performers carried guns because promoters often didn't like to pay. He appeared at Black Panther conventions with The Last Poets. Jimmie says Wilson Pickett & Joe Simon chewed him out because they didn't like how they were introduced. He says Edwin Starr, Smokey Robinson, & David Ruffin were "connivers of women". He mentions a concert Marvin Gaye did not long after Tammi Terrell passed, and said Marvin broke down in the middle of it and couldn't continue. Jimmy also says he opened for Bob Marley, Earth Wind & Fire, and Bruce Springsteen, when they were little known in the early 1970's. He says that he had to go on longer than planned at a Sly & The Family Stone gig, because Sly refused to perform until someone got him got a block of cocaine. After Good Times took off, he opened for acts like Peter Frampton.

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Jimmie talks about a Kool Jazz Festival tour that he emceed in the 1970's that had several acts like Natalie Cole, Stevie Wonder, Wild Cherry, Tavares, Johnnie Taylor, Aretha Franklin, and The Mighty Clouds Of Joy. He says Johnnie almost got thrown off the tour because he was drunk a lot and sometimes would either not show up to a show or play way longer than his allotted time. He says Good Times was originally titled The Black Family when they first gave him a script, and that the producers wanted Ralph Carter, but he was doing a play at the time, so they got Larry Fishburne as a substitute. Larry was almost Michael Evans, but Ralph came in at the last minute.

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Jimmie says the producers of The Wiz asked him to play the Scarecrow. He told them he couldn't dance, but they said they would work around it. But he couldn't get enough time off from shooting Good Times to do it, so they got Michael Jackson. Jimmie mentions that his company got David Letterman his first national TV appearance on The Jacksons' Variety Show.

Not what I usually would listen to but I picked up Andy Williams' autobiography Moon River And Me at the Dollar Tree, just to have something to read on vacation. I've quite enjoyed it. He's kind of sqaure and modest, but he spins a good yarn and it's kind of charming.

I just picked it up again last night and read the pages where he talks about taking acid in lieu of couples counselling. Gracious!

There's also a couple good dirty stories in there.

It was worth a dollar. I'm enjoying Steve Martin's Born Standing Up right now, also kind of a modest & charming read, not very funny ha-ha but compelling.

This 2011 book tells the basic story of Fleetwood Mac and has lots of pictures. It features sections on every album up to 2009