Book Review #791 - I, Me, Mine by George Harrison

Cherished by fans and collectors since its first publication in 1980, I, Me, Mine is now available in paperback. The closest we will come to George Harrison's autobiography, it features George in conversation with The Beatles' spokesperson Derek Taylor, discussing everything from early Beatlemania to his love of gardening. The lyrics to over 80 of his songs, many in his own hand, are accompanied by his uniquely intimate and humorous commentary. Fifty archival photographs of George with The Beatles and solo capture a journey of creative and spiritual transformation. Brimming with the wit, warmth, and grace that characterized his life, and with an introduction by his wife, Olivia, I, Me, Mine is a treasured portrait of George Harrison and his music.

My Rating: 4.5/5

This is the closest book out there to a Beatles autobiography and so on my quest to read as many books about my favourite band I had to read this one.

The reason I say this is the closest to an autobiography is because even though this book was written by George Harrison, the whole book is not autobiographical.

The book is split into three parts. The autobiography, although definitely my favourite part was by far the shortest section of the book which considering how much George hated talking about himself I guess we are lucky we even got a section at all. The writing style was straight to the point and very dead pan in humour.

The second section was photographs. This was equally as short as the autobiographical section but there were quite a lot of pictures I had not seen before especially from his childhood and early Beatles era.

I especially liked the photo of the chocolate box that inspired George to write Savoy Truffle as all the lyrics were right there on the box.

The third section was George's handwritten lyrics for all his songs along with narration of how he came to write the songs.

This was by far the most extensive part of the book and took up more than half the book on its own. 

I have read so many books breaking down Beatles lyrics but they mainly deal with the Lennon/McCartney songs so it was good to see George's songs given the proper attention and also to hear about their meanings straight from the source.