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The Beatles Guide to Love & Sex by Scott Robinson: book review


 

The Beatles Guide to Love & Sex: How the Fab Four Inspired a Cultural Revolution, 2ndedition by Scott Robinson (2024) explores the songs of John Lennon, George Harrison, Ringo Starr, and Paul McCartney. Although Paul and John composed most songs, all four band members wrote love songs. The author, who has written six books on The Beatles, states that more than half of the band’s 213 songs are love and romance songs. 

 

The book is sectioned by years with sub-sections that explores the songs and romances during that period. The five sections are: 1957-1961: I Saw Her Standing There; 1962: With Love, From Me to You; 1966: And When I Woke, I Was Alone; 1969: All I Have to Do is Think of Her; and 1970: Christ, You Know It Ain’t Easy.

 

The interesting and compelling part of the books is that readers catch a glimpse of four lads from Liverpool growing up – from teenagers to teen idols – as they progress from first loves to first marriages to divorces – and their experiences are reflected in their songs, directly or indirectly. The author states it well: “We begin, then, with four portraits of artists as young men, all eager to partner up, but even more eager to pursue the muse.”

 

Of the romances, the author begins with the “elder statesperson” in terms of long-term relationships – John Lennon’s first girlfriend and wife, Cynthia Powell. There are 4-5 pages for each partner, girlfriend, well-known casual date, dalliance, wife, or mother. The original bassist, Stu Sutcliffe, and his romance with Astrid Kirchherr, also get a mention.

 

Songs are analyzed according to imagined feelings of love, ambiguous loves, or real romances. For example, “P.S. I love you” (a letter song) is ambiguous, whereas “All My Loving” is Paul’s song for Jane Asher. The women evolve too, from teenagers to mothers. Hence, there are also love songs to their children. 

 

Maturity is expressed in songs such as “We Can Work It Out” and in Paul being wistfully nostalgic about lovers and friends in the song “In My Life” – In my life I’ve loved them all. 

 

There is also a brief section on “Beatlesex: Naughty Bits” in which Scott Robinson writes about the overt, implied, guesses, “wink winks” and euphemistic terms and the need for words to be “translated into an already-world-wise sensibility.”

 

This is a fascinating, easy-to-read, page-turning book. Robinson concludes with the final three love-song singles that were all number one hits, by three of The Beatles – John’s “The Ballad of John and Yoko” – George’s “Something” – and Paul’s “The Long and Winding Road.”


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MARTINA NICOLLS

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MARTINA NICOLLS is an Australian author and international human rights-based consultant in education, healing and wellbeing, peace and stabilization, and foreign aid audits and evaluations. She lives in Paris. Her latest book is: Innovations within Constraints Handbook (2025).

 


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