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Living the Beatles Legend

On the Road with the Fab Four: The Mal Evans Story

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Living the Beatles Legend

By: Kenneth Womack
Narrated by: Kenneth Womack
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About this listen

The first full-length biography of Mal Evans, the Beatles’ beloved roadie, assistant, confidant and friend

A towering figure in horn-rimmed glasses, Malcolm ‘Mal’ Evans was an invaluable member of the Beatles’ inner circle. Serving as their long-time roadie, personal assistant and protector, he was a sometime lyricist, occasional performer and regular fixer at the height of the group’s fame and beyond.

But Mal’s dedication to his beloved ‘boys’ and his own desire for stardom took its toll, leading to the dissolution of his marriage and his untimely death in January 1976.

Until now, Mal’s extraordinary life has remained shrouded in mystery. Drawing on hundreds of exclusive interviews and with full access to Mal’s unpublished archives – including his personal diaries, manuscripts and memorabilia – renowned Beatles scholar Kenneth Womack paints the first complete portrait of this complicated figure at the heart of the Beatles’ story.

Living the Beatles Legend is a fascinating but ultimately tragic tale about life at the edges of superstardom.

©2023 Kenneth Womack (P)2023 HarperCollins Publishers Limited Entertainment & Celebrities Music Celebrity

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All stars
Most relevant  
the pronounce of many of the words is American and quite annoying Such as Hamburg and places in the UK totally unrecognisable.

Great insight into the Beatles warts and all

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Ken Womack is the master of the narrow angle Beatles book - with deep dives into specific periods and specific people a speciality (in contrast to Mark Lewisohn's comprehensive, detailed approach). Though the strokes are sometimes broad, there's a lot here now to enjoy - and access to Mal's own journals was the real driver of that.

One thing lets this down, and it's not a little thing. Womack's pronunciation of English place-names, Liverpool slang and unique words (like surnames) is so consistently bad that it's borderline disrespectful. It would not have taken long to flag difficult to pronounce names and to have checked with a consultant - any British person, basically. But Womack ignorantly and wilfully ploughs on with his invented pronunciation, suggesting that he literally does not care. It feels like at no point did he ask - "am I saying this right?" - which shows contempt for his audience and the Beatles' country of origin.

A fantastic untold story

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I find myself nodding in agreement with the many complaints about the narration of this title. Whilst Kenneth Womack has produced an interesting piece of work, it is somewhat marred by the frequent mispronunciations.

My 2 main gripes:
1. I wish Ken had not so frequently used the word 'buoyed' - I lost count of its usage after about 50 mentions...
2. I wish Ken had not insisted on pronouncing the word 'buoyed' as 'booied' - once or twice would have been tolerable, but the word seemed to appear in every chapter.

Note to Ken, get yourself a thesaurus, lad!!

Over Buoyant

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Ken Womack writes in an engaging style, demonstrating the extensive research he has carried out on Mal Evans. He should therefore have the nous to let someone else narrate his book and this might have been a five star production. Unfortunately, he chose to read it himself and the result is at times painful for British listeners. He makes no attempt to pronounce place names with any accuracy and this seriously detracts from what should have been a wonderful listening experience. It's a real shame because the story he tells is fascinating. What a lost opportunity. In this case, I'd buy the book, unless one has no option but to listen.

Fascinating story let down by appalling narration

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Excellent informative story thoroughly enjoyed and learned so much about what went on behind the scenes when the Beatles were touring

Loads of info I’ve never heard before

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Mal Evans’ story his well worth hearing. He was a key part of the Fab Four’s shadow fab 4. Womack writes well, he’s weaved a compelling narrative from Mal’s fragments.

But, if you’re British, it’s torture, he mangles just about every place name he encounters, and I find myself shouting at the place names. He’s an academic, he should understand the importance of researching these things.

It doesn’t completely devalue the book. It’s a great book. But boy it’s irritating.

Great writer - lazy reader

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Awful commentary! Audio levels up and down too . Despite this if you’re a Beatles fan or just curious this gives a fly on the wall view of what life was like inside the Biggest band ever. Fantastic stories from Mal , I’ve waited a while for this and even the commentary couldn’t put me off

Fantastic insight into the biggest band on the planet

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I noticed that some readers are not happy with Ken Womack's narration but I found it fine -I even enjoy Ken's mispronunciation of English words and place names. The story of Mal is a transatlantic story, beginning in the U.SA with the western movies and the music whch would loom large in the early lives of all the Liuerpool boys who feature in this book and ending tragically in the U.S.A in 1976. This is a bittersweet story and one that all fans of the Beatles need to read, it makes you thimk about all the other people throughout human history who dedicate themselves to supporting
others. I am glad that we get to hear the voice of Gary Evans (Mal and Lil's son) at the beginning of the book and feel enriched by reading Mal's incredible story.

Thankyou Ken and Mal

Catching sparks from the sun

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I don’t know why the author chose to read the book himself - probably financial - but it ruined the book for me. The story of Mal Evan’s life and death is interesting and tragic but I wish I had read it rather than listening to the audible and suffering through a very British story told with a broad Texan accent. Norwich pronounced Nor-witch was a low point!

Interesting book wrecked by awful narration

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I am a massive Beatles fan and was very excited about this book. However the audio was unbearable-the authors continued terrible pronunciations ‘booied’ for buoyed, kway for quay, Nor-which for Norwich etc made me finish it early.

Disappointing

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