The Beatles: All These Years by Mark Lewisohn | Page 19 | Fab Forum | The Beatles Bible

I’ve asked the publisher for some information regarding precise differences between the two versions. If I hear anything back I’ll pass it on.

The price difference does seem staggering. Here in the UK the hardback copies are, on Amazon, £18 (reduced from £30), versus £75 (£120) for the deluxe.

The deluxe Kindle version is being sold in two parts, for £20 each (the single-volume standard Kindle edition can be had for just £15).

The ebook of the extended special edition comes in two parts, mirroring the two hardbacks that make up the deluxe print edition. Each part is sold separately and this is Part One, taking the story from the very beginning to their first, famous trip to Hamburg in 1960. Readers wishing to buy the whole extended special edition of Tune In in ebook should be sure to buy Part One and Part Two. 

£18 is good value for the standard hardback version, but £75 for more detail and photos, that were presumably not considered important enough to make it to the basic version, seems incredibly steep. Double the price would probably be more sensible, maybe a round £50. It feels a little like those lavish (overpriced) Genesis books that are rather cynically aimed at the affluent Beatles fan with money to burn, but we’re not all like that.

I may retract all that when my (paid for) deluxe edition arrives. Perhaps it’ll come with some cool extras. At the very least I’d like it numbered and signed.

In other news, the Daily Telegraph newspaper has what they call an interview with Mark Lewisohn, though it doesn’t seem to have many direct quotes. Right at the end it says: “Lewisohn, who is now 55, and busy with book two, fully expects to be in his seventies before completion”. So we’re facing, at the very least, a 15-year wait before Drop Out is published.

Little, Brown just sent me the standard spiel that I think is on the deluxe book listing. I guess it’s the paper/print quality that’s pushing up the price.

The extended special edition of Mark Lewisohn’s magisterial book Tune In is a true collector’s item, featuring hundreds of thousands of words of extra material, as well as many extra photographs. Designed, printed and bound in Great Britain, this high-quality edition consists of two beautifully produced individual hardbacks printed on New Langely Antique Wove woodfree paper, with red-and-white head and tail bands and red ribbon marker. The two books will sit within a specially designed box and lid featuring soft touch and varnish finishes. The whole product comes shrinkwrapped for extra protection.

Sounds like they’re going down the Genesis route then. Here’s some info I found about New Langely Antique Wove woodfree paper:

A premium woodfree antique bookwove paper with excellent optical characteristics, smooth surface, good porosity it is also wood and acid free so resistant to aging. Ideal for offset printing, silk screen printing, digital printing to produce hard and soft cover books, brochures, catalogues, business reports, product folders.

As soon as my £75 copy arrives I’ll try ripping up the pages. If they don’t tear I’ll drop a load of olive oil and coffee on them. Will report back immediately.

If the coffee and oil doesn’t work I’ll try burying it. One way or another I’ll defeat this non-wood paper voodoo thing.