YMMV / Paperback Writer

• Alternative Character Interpretation: John, Paul and Ringo are generally portrayed with their familiar traits taken up to eleven, but for some reason Shipper decided to make George a self-righteous, uptight Christian. Presumably it was meant as a commentary on his Hindu/Hare Krishna leanings, to make the point that the Anvilicious religious material in his music wouldn't be so easily accepted if it were done with a Western religion. But given that George was the Beatle who engaged in the most Self-Deprecating Humor (and did things like quote a Mel Brooks movie in one of his solo songs), the portrayal just seems very odd and is the book's most obvious misstep.
• Cult Classic: Long a favorite among Beatles fans.
• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • The events of December 8, 1980 would prevent any full Beatles reunion from ever happening.
  • More ominously, one of John's songs for the reunion album is about death (well, it's called "Please Freeze Me" and is about becoming a Human Popsicle).
  • The disappointed reaction to the reunion album foreshadowed the initial reception of Double Fantasy, which got some really savage reviews at first suggesting Lennon shouldn't even have bothered making a comeback.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • The 1979 reunion album Get Back includes two songs where George Harrison tries to mix preachy Christian lyrics with contemporary-sounding music. In Real Life, 1979 would be the year that Bob Dylan released the similarly-oriented New Sound Album Slow Train Coming.
  • For their reunion tour, they end up as the opening act for Peter Frampton, who after the book was published co-starred in the film version of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.
  • The "okay, cool! They're back together!" reaction, followed by underwhelmed disinterest from the audience, to their reunion album and tour prefigured the similar reception toward the release of the Posthumous Collaboration Beatles reunion single "Now and Then" in 2023.

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