Various - Pleased

  by Eoghan Lyng

published: 26 / 5 / 2023

intro

Eoghan Lyng is impressed by 'Pleased', a new anthology of short stories, each of which have been inspired by The Beatles' 'Please Please Me'.

The opening story of 'Pleased' is enchanting. Amid the elegant prose comes a gently human story of attachment and desire, showcasing one person's engagement with the band that broke the pop mould. With the understanding that The Beatles' legacy is as mythical as it is implausible, Cáithlin Mulligan recalls the numbers that led to the band's jaunty debut: "One, two, three, four.." What follows is a parable, a plea of acceptance from one fan to the readers that have followed the four Liverpudlian musicians in one vicinity or another. In this tidy anthology, thirteen authors have banded together in the hopes of presenting their collective truths about the quartet, approaching the music in a manner that's almost as lyrical and far-reaching as the ballads that makes up the Lennon - McCartney songbook. Interestingly, Mulligan comes across as more of a Harrison fan, tying her memories to the sound of 'While My Guitar Gently Weeps', which was given a tasty makeover on the 'Kubo and The Two Strings' soundtrack in 2016. Harrison's caché has risen in the last twenty years, with many songwriters -not least Beatle disciple Lol Creme of 10cc fame - singling him out as their favourite Beatle. The anthology reveals an earthy prose that's in keeping with the more guttural sounds The Beatles made in their early interviews, not least in Gayle Ramage's 'Anna', which boasts a form of dialect which is rooted in the type of words which populate Scotland and parts of Ireland. This is no happy accident, but a well founded look at the band's history which was ultimately more Celtic than English. (Paul McCartney's mother grew up in Monaghan, Ulster, and George Harrison was known to frequent Dublin as a child, while Stuart Sutcliffe, the ill-fated bassist who died at the heartbreaking age of twenty one, boasted Scottish roots.) Unsurprisingly, Andrew Lawston's 'Chains' takes a more industrial form, concocting a tale bolstered by disdain for the work in question. You can smell the flames emanating off the buzzsaws, as workers wade through a constant stream of papers, push-ups and deadlines. Although the book is mostly celebratory, 'I Saw Her Standing There' and 'Chains' offer greater pathos, suggesting that the band's work provided comfort for listeners in their hours of darkness. At 132 pages long, the book breezily pushes the narrative along, and each author lets their voice shine through the proceedings, offering a more telling overview than might have stemmed from one person's hand. Ramage serves as editor, but the book largely follows the tracklisting and the emotional beats of The Beatles debut album, 'Please Please Me', a work that may have lacked the sophisticated production design of their later efforts, but compensated by way of its diversity of songcraft and enthusiasm. The book's concept, although lofty, is a tasty homage to the record, delivering a book that's filled with restraint, romance, comedy and contradiction. It's beautifully packaged, tipping a hat back at the album cover that introduced the quartet to the world (For those that are unfamiliar with the 'Please Please Me' image, it shows the band in natty knitwear, and although the picture looks charming, drummer Ringo Starr looks decidedly uncomfortable holding a smile, which might explain why the band donned a more sombre look on their followup sleeves). If the anthology boasts a masterpiece, it's TK Toppin's 'There's A Place"' a gently written elegy recalling the importance of the here and now. It's based on a track John Lennon wrote, but the tone of the story is decidedly more Harrisonesque, not least in its demonstration of stoic, sombre reflection. Life takes great commitment to capture its colour, but the buoyancy and enthusiasm should be enough to qualify the journey.

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