Book Review: The Beatles and me on Tour

Ivor Davis and George Harrison during the 1964 North American tour

                                           Photo:  Ron Joy-Belle Schwartz estate 

Ivor Davis, Al Sussman, Chuck Gunderson and Bruce Spizer talk about the Beatles in 1964 during the Fest for Beatle fans Chicago 2014.  Photo by Coral Schmidt

If you want to read a book written by someone who not just met the Beatles, but traveled with them and got to know them personally, then Ivor Davis' book, The Beatles and me on Tour is a great book for you.

If the things you have been reading on this blog about the Beatles 1964 tour is of interest to you and you are just not sure where to start to learn more, I highly recommend this book.   Ivor was a journalist from England who moved over to California and reported on Hollywood for the British paper The Daily Express.    He was hired by the paper to not only be the ghost writer for the George Harrison column (yep...those newspaper articles written by George were actually written by Ivor!), but to travel with the Beatles during the entire 1964 tour and report back what happened.    Ivor has some amazing first hand accounts in this book as well as re-telling some other fun stories from books such as Larry Kane's Ticket to Ride as well as various other places.    I really enjoyed that you not only got Ivor's stories, but also side stories from these other sources in the same book.

While the book does not tell the story of the tour in chronological order, it does give you a great feeling of what it was like to travel with the Fab 4 during the amazing year of 1964.   While this isn't a "tell all" book, Ivor didn't hide the fact that the Beatles (especially Paul) were bringing ladies back to the hotel rooms or that pills were being taken by the guys.    Ivor tells it like it was and doesn't sugar coat the story the way that so many writers seem to think we want them to. 

The biggest shocker to me (spoiler alert----spoiler alert!!!!) was that according to Ivor, the Beatles smoked pot with Bob Dylan NOT at the Delmonico hotel on August 28, 1964, as has been published so many times.   Instead, Ivor says that the pot smoking took place after the Paramount charity benefit show at the Riveria Idlewild Hotel on September 20, 1964!    He goes on to say that the Beatles DID meet up with Dylan at the Delmonico and hung out, but there wasn't any pot smoking.  He was there and recalls the towels stuffed in the door crack and the smell from the room and how the Beatles were unable to participate in any last interviews before heading home because they were "sound asleep."    Ivor has some strong arguments in the change of the day and he has made me a believer!

I had the fortune of meeting Ivor in person last month at the Fest for Beatle fans in Chicago.   He is very good at telling his stories in person, and if you get a chance to hear him (I am pretty sure he is going to be at the Fest in L.A. next month), I highly recommend it.   He is a very nice fellow and extremelyl funny.

If you would like to purchase this book in print, it is recommended that you go to through amazon.com

If you are interested in the e-book version, I have a special deal just for you readers of MTBFR.