The Beatles Play Shea

By: James Woodall

Narrated by: Christopher Price

Length: 1 hr and 38 mins

Publisher's summary

The Beatles' third tour of North America was nearly a year in the planning. By late 1964, manager Brian Epstein knew that they were not only the biggest act in his stable: they had become the biggest act on earth. America worshipped them. Somewhere different for the start of this tour, in New York - somewhere appropriately massive - had to be found.

It was: a baseball stadium in Flushing, Queens. On August 15, 1965, The Beatles played the concert of their lives there. This is that story. Here also are the huge strides in writing, musicianship, and recording the group made in the 12 months or so leading up to Shea Stadium. Some of this was played at the gig but little above the screams was heard. The Beatles at Shea 50 years ago remains, nonetheless, a watershed 1960s moment: the climax in the live career of the greatest quartet the world has known.

©2015 James Woodall (P)2016 Audible, Inc.

An interesting but short book on The Beatles

T book is brief but here's an interesting if you see the events of the Shea Stadium concert. I quite enjoyed it.

Horrible reading of interesting information

It was very tedious listening to the reader speak in small clumps of words always ending in a descending tone with extra pauses in every sentence. Interesting facts I was unaware of.

Wow. This story about the Beatles is awesome.

Great review of the band. Extremely detailed with plenty of insight into the beginning and the end of the band. Worth hearing.

An informative read

Having been an attendee at Forest Hills Summer 64, this work filled in some key pieces of all that led up to Shea. Well written and well narrated. Wish that it included a few partial songs

Pretty good!

Just was expecting something additional like pieces of their music. All is all it was a good historical piece of information about them. Well done and the narrator was very good!

Vivid and gripping

Woodall, unlike may others who have written about The Beatles, focuses on the bands music, performances, and recordings leading up to and including the epic concerts at Shea Stadium. He is incredibly insightful about their songwriting and brings to life the way they worked together as a band in those early years. This is not a long book but it is excellent.

Just When You Think You Know It All

I have to say, this is an entertaining little book. I've read most of the Beatle books over the years, so I wasn't expecting to be surprised, but there was lots of new information. Well done.

More About Musical Analysis than the Concert Itself

I saw this Kindle Single book about the Beatles concert at Shea stadium and thought it would interesting, since I'm a Beatles fan. This short book turned out to be far different than I expected. It starts with a bit of background on the Beatles landing in the US in 1964. It then gives analysis on some of songs on the early albums and the ones picked for the concert. There is one chapter about legendary promoter Sid Bernstein that was interesting and informative. This book would've been much better off giving more details about the concert instead of what seemed like a dissertation of their musical talent. If you are a music major, you will enjoy this book. Otherwise, it was lacking for me in details a fan would enjoy. Very disappointing.

Loved this quick listen!

James Woodall wrote an interesting book about the Beatles at Shea Stadium, when the Beatles were at their peak in performing.
Woodall goes into depth about the recordings of the songs at the concert and pertinent information about the songs to understand why the Beatles used these specific songs in concert.
Woodall also explains situations that influenced the Beatles music, such as using pot and taking LSD.
I liked this book a lot.
At the end, Woodall gives a suggested list of the best Beatles books to read.
Now that there are so many books on the Beatles, where does one start?
Great performance also.