EPILOGUE

WHEN THIS BOOK FIRST APPEARED in 1988, the Beatles' career was a closed subject. Unless you were a bootleg scavenger, the arc that went from 1963’s PLEASE PLEASE ME to 1969’s ABBEY ROAD and 1970’s LET IT BE provided enpough aesthetic curves to intimidate generations of bands. The arc is now classic: early idealism followed by middle-period maturity, and as Mark Moses pointed out in the Boston PHOENIX, "conceptual coup [SGT PEPPER], followed by renunciation of coup [WHITE ALBUM], roots move, fall to pieces." You could scour post-career compilations like ROCK'N'ROLL or REEL MUSIC for touch-ups to mixes, "fixed" mistakes, and the odd remaster, but basically the story was over, the solo careers were grandiose apologies to expired greatness, and Lennon’s death precluded any real reunion talk.