![\"\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/55\/2024\/02\/81pm24TStDL._SL1500_-679x1024.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nThe subtitle for this book is The Untold Story of Mal(com) Evans. A better title might have been Malcom in the Middle, as he was indeed in the middle of everything from the early days as a bouncer for the Beatles at the Cavern Club in Liverpool,\u00a0 although the way up to the break up of the Beatles at the end of 70s, and beyond.\u00a0 By British standards, Mal was a giant of a man, and that in itself made him an ideal roadie for lugging around huge amps, guitars, and the like.\u00a0 But Mal also had a very friendly demeanor that made those who knew him well describe him as like a giant teddy bear.\u00a0 But he was also an enforcer during Beatlemania, keeping screaming fans off the stage during concerts.\u00a0 In fact, he was a jack of all trades\u2013 bring anything needed by the Beatles to them\u2014 food, drink, drugs, women, musical equipment, not to mention driving them all over creation.\u00a0 But I digress.<\/p>\n
This book was put together by Kenneth Womack, based on the vast memorabilia and diary of Mal himself, who was in the process of writing his memoirs in the 70s when his life suddenly was ended by a policeman who entered his bedroom, saw Mal holding some sort of gun, and shot first and asked questions later. Today that policeman might well be facing charges.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a sad and tragic story about a man who himself longed to be an entertainer, a producer, a song writer, but his own inner doubts and insecurities, fueled by drug induced paranoia, prevented him from ever full realizing his dream.\u00a0 And in the process he betrayed his wife by adulteries and children by neglect, in order to serve the Beatles every whim and demand.\u00a0 His desire to be near them and his love for the Beatles always prevented him from telling them no.\u00a0 \u00a0They were always priority one. It would be unfair to call him merely a sycophant or a mere groupie, as he was so much more than that\u2013 he really was someone who helped the Beatles realize their full musical potential.\u00a0 And he was often kind and generous to a fault. He especially loved children.<\/p>\n
Kenneth Womack, as an English professor at Monmouth University does a fine job of putting together a very good and lengthy account (over 500 pages) which finally saw the light of day last November after languishing since the 70s, and indeed lost for much of that time until someone found it in the basement of Putnam publishers.<\/p>\n
But for me this is a story about losing one\u2019s naivete, by which I mean my own. Growing up, starting with the Ed Sullivan show in the early 60s where the Beatles premiered in America, the Beatles and their music seemed larger than life, and special.\u00a0 As a musician these were the kind of persons you wanted to be like.\u00a0 I immediately went out and got a guitar after seeing them in the early days.\u00a0 But sadly, this music revolution also involved lots of illicit sex, and lots of drugs, most of which was hidden from the public\u2019s eyes, that is until stories leaked out about Paul\u2019s drug bust in Japan, and other such occurrences.\u00a0 And unfortunately, Mal Evans did his best to emulate his idols with vast quantities of sex and drugs.<\/p>\n
Just how much dissolution was involved is painstakingly laid out in this book.\u00a0 For instance John not only ditched his first wife Cynthia for Yoko Ono, but then adding insult to injury went after Yoko\u2019s assistance May, a much younger woman.\u00a0 There was no end to this with the Beatles and their entourage.\u00a0 Eventually Ringo and Paul straightened out enough to still be alive and compos mentis.\u00a0 John was tragically shot by a deranged fan, and George died of an incurable condition prematurely.\u00a0 Mal himself didn\u2019t make it past 40.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m glad that this book finally saw the light of day, but the truth is that none of the Fab Four or Mal were Magic Christians,<\/em> despite Ringo in the 1969 movie of that name.\u00a0 You have to weed the wheat from the chaff in the story of these folks, and inevitably it\u2019s mostly the music that is admirable, although at times there were admirable traits displayed by all these persons.\u00a0 They were not all bad, but at the same time they were no one\u2019s role models for proper ethical behavior.\u00a0 And that\u2019s the sad truth.\u00a0 So\u2026 fare thee well naivete.\u00a0 These were not messiahs, not even musical messiahs, despite the outrageous behavior by fans who were hysterical fanatics during Beatlemania.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The subtitle for this book is The Untold Story of Mal(com) Evans. A better title might have been Malcom in the Middle, as he was indeed in the middle of everything from the early days as a bouncer for the Beatles at the Cavern Club in Liverpool,\u00a0 although the way up to the break up […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":91,"featured_media":62678,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[14300],"class_list":["post-62675","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-when-being-in-the-middle-didnt-mean-meddling"],"yoast_head":"\n
Living the Beatles Legend--a Review<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The subtitle for this book is The Untold Story of Mal(com) Evans. A better title might have been Malcom in the Middle, as he was indeed in the middle of\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Living the Beatles Legend--a Review\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The subtitle for this book is The Untold Story of Mal(com) Evans. A better title might have been Malcom in the Middle, as he was indeed in the middle of\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/2024\/03\/18\/living-the-beatles-legend-a-review\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Bible and Culture\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-03-18T05:02:49+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-02-25T21:53:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/55\/2024\/02\/81pm24TStDL._SL1500_-scaled.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"509\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"768\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Ben Witherington\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Ben Witherington\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/2024\/03\/18\/living-the-beatles-legend-a-review\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/2024\/03\/18\/living-the-beatles-legend-a-review\/\",\"name\":\"Living the Beatles Legend--a Review\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2024-03-18T05:02:49+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-02-25T21:53:00+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/#\/schema\/person\/67da39aff728f9d015878d198839df4b\"},\"description\":\"The subtitle for this book is The Untold Story of Mal(com) Evans. A better title might have been Malcom in the Middle, as he was indeed in the middle of\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/2024\/03\/18\/living-the-beatles-legend-a-review\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/2024\/03\/18\/living-the-beatles-legend-a-review\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/2024\/03\/18\/living-the-beatles-legend-a-review\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Living the Beatles Legend–a Review\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/\",\"name\":\"The Bible and Culture\",\"description\":\"A One-Stop Shop for All Things Biblical and Christian\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/#\/schema\/person\/67da39aff728f9d015878d198839df4b\",\"name\":\"Ben Witherington\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8cf1998568f0b6ccbd63f56b44d47303?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8cf1998568f0b6ccbd63f56b44d47303?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Ben Witherington\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/author\/benw333\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Living the Beatles Legend--a Review","description":"The subtitle for this book is The Untold Story of Mal(com) Evans. A better title might have been Malcom in the Middle, as he was indeed in the middle of","robots":{"index":"noindex","follow":"follow"},"og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Living the Beatles Legend--a Review","og_description":"The subtitle for this book is The Untold Story of Mal(com) Evans. A better title might have been Malcom in the Middle, as he was indeed in the middle of","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/2024\/03\/18\/living-the-beatles-legend-a-review\/","og_site_name":"The Bible and Culture","article_published_time":"2024-03-18T05:02:49+00:00","article_modified_time":"2024-02-25T21:53:00+00:00","og_image":[{"width":509,"height":768,"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/55\/2024\/02\/81pm24TStDL._SL1500_-scaled.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Ben Witherington","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Ben Witherington","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/2024\/03\/18\/living-the-beatles-legend-a-review\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/2024\/03\/18\/living-the-beatles-legend-a-review\/","name":"Living the Beatles Legend--a Review","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/#website"},"datePublished":"2024-03-18T05:02:49+00:00","dateModified":"2024-02-25T21:53:00+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/#\/schema\/person\/67da39aff728f9d015878d198839df4b"},"description":"The subtitle for this book is The Untold Story of Mal(com) Evans. A better title might have been Malcom in the Middle, as he was indeed in the middle of","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/2024\/03\/18\/living-the-beatles-legend-a-review\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/2024\/03\/18\/living-the-beatles-legend-a-review\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/2024\/03\/18\/living-the-beatles-legend-a-review\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Living the Beatles Legend–a Review"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/","name":"The Bible and Culture","description":"A One-Stop Shop for All Things Biblical and Christian","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/#\/schema\/person\/67da39aff728f9d015878d198839df4b","name":"Ben Witherington","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8cf1998568f0b6ccbd63f56b44d47303?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8cf1998568f0b6ccbd63f56b44d47303?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","caption":"Ben Witherington"},"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/author\/benw333\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62675","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/91"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=62675"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62675\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/62678"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62675"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62675"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62675"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/55\/2024\/02\/81pm24TStDL._SL1500_-scaled.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n