New Book Series Puts Beatles Recording History in Context

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The book cover of Ribbons of Rust: The Beatles’ Recording History In Context.

The first volume of a new series of books that explores the Beatles’ story in relation to their lives and times, has been published. Ribbons of Rust: The Beatles’ Recording History In Context, from bestselling award-winning authors Robert Rodriguez (Revolver: How The Beatles Re-Imagined Rock ‘n’ Roll, Something About The Beatles podcast) and Jerry Hammack (The Beatles Recording Reference Manual series) arrived on February 11, 2025, via Parading Press. It’s available to order in the U.S. here and in the U.K. here.

From the press release: Although The Beatles have been covered in thousands of books, memoirs, discographies and academic tomes, many of these works focus on their history with little regard to how they experienced their own times. The artistic entity comprised of John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr, along with producer George Martin, did not operate in a bubble: they were inspired and challenged by the sounds going on around them.

Ribbons of Rust: The Beatles’ Recording History In Context presents the band’s story like never before, interactively immersing you in the sounds of the music they listened to and created along with the times they inhabited. Richly illustrated with period ephemera throughout, this first volume of Ribbons of Rust takes the reader along with the four individuals who became The Beatles, from the first inspiring sounds they heard to those nascent original compositions and covers they committed to recording tape (composed of iron oxide bonded to polyethylene terephthalate—“ribbons of rust”).

Rodriguez and Hammack transport you back to Liverpool and to the rough and tumble red light district of Hamburg, where The Beatles developed a sound that drew upon their own resources and their deep love of records—American rock ‘n’ roll to be sure—but also traditions that went back far within their own culture, reaching the destination of a recording contract at EMI.

“If we’ve done our job correctly, the reader will become immersed in 1950s Britain as a nation struggling to regain its footing after a calamitous world war came to terms with a rapidly changing zeitgeist,” says Rodriguez. “No one could’ve predicted that a revolution in youth culture was coming into being through a confluence of politics, near-simultaneous musical developments on either side of the Atlantic, and the coming of age of a generation born in wartime and just now asserting an identity apart from their parents. What made the individuals who became The Beatles exceptional was their innate talent, but everyone of their age at that time was being swept along with the same tide. The proof is in the flowering of this new spirit across the array of arts during the 1960s.”

Says Hammack: “To follow their narrative thread from those that influenced them to the influence they have had on others to this day has been a great way to expand upon the work of my reference manuals, and to once again, help fans and scholars to look at their work and experience their music in an entirely new light.”

Volume 1: July 1954 Through January 1963 invites readers into the post-war era of deprivations in England where kids reaching adolescence had their world rocked by the twin sensations of Lonnie Donegan’s skiffle and Elvis: two phenomena that set a generation down a path of musical (and personal) discovery. The Beatles’ road to stardom has rarely been described with such attention to what was going on around them: the British music scene and stars of the day that they followed as they found their way to reach their goal, making a record themselves. And every “ribbon of rust” along the way is described in detail. You are in the room with them, from the first Liverpool recording at the Percy Phillips facility to Forthlin Road, their Hamburg sessions with Tony Sheridan, Decca, and Parlophone.   Lennon once said of the period, “You shoulda been there!”

Rodriguez has written extensively about The Beatles: five books so far, including Solo in the 70s and 2012’s acclaimed Revolver: How The Beatles Re-Imagined Rock ‘N’ Roll. He has contributed numerous articles to Beatlefan magazine and has been a regular interviewee on radio and TV about the group.

Musician, producer and recording engineer Hammack’s previous books, The Beatles Recording Reference Manuals, have all been Amazon #1 bestsellers in both the U.S. and U.K.