Imagine if you suddenly found a roll of film you hadn’t seen since you used it nearly 60 years ago. That’s essentially what happened to Paul McCartney, who captured a treasure trove of 35mm photography during The Beatles’ heyday that will be shared in an upcoming book titled 1964: Eyes of the Storm.
Out June 13th via Liveright, 1964: Eyes of the Storm compiles 275 photographs McCartney took near the end of 1963 and beginning of 1964, just as Beatlemania caught on like wildfire in the United States. Captured in Liverpool, London, Paris, New York, Washington, D.C., and Miami, the photos convey the “pandemonium” in which Paul, John, George, and Ringo found themselves in — say it with us now — the eye of a storm. Pre-orders are ongoing.
“Anyone who rediscovers a personal relic or family treasure is instantly flooded with memories and emotions, which then trigger associations buried in the haze of time,” McCartney writes in a statement. “This was exactly my experience in seeing these photos, all taken over an intense three-month period of travel, culminating in February 1964. It was a wonderful sensation to be plunged right back. Here was my own record of our first huge trip, a photographic journal of The Beatles in six cities, beginning in Liverpool and London, followed by Paris (where John and I had been ordinary hitchhikers three years before), and then what we regarded as the big time, our first visit as a group to America.”
1964: Eyes of the Storm comes complete with a foreword by McCartney as well as Beatleland, an introduction by Harvard historian and New Yorker essayist Jill Lepore. Check out a trailer for the book below.
McCartney’s daughter Mary McCartney delved into the history of one of the world’s most famous musical landmarks in If These Walls Could Sing, the new Disney+ documentary about Abbey Road Studios. The ex-Beatle also recently teamed up with Dolly Parton on the country icon’s upcoming album Rock Star, an album of rock covers.