“Baby you can drive my car”: New book about the Beatles’ cars

How did the Beatles get to their first gigs? What unusual special equipment did John Lennon have installed in his Rolls-Royce? And why did Paul McCartney have to give up his driving license for a whole year?

The author Siegfried Tesche, who has already written about the cars of Elvis Presley, James Dean and the vehicles from the James Bond films, has immersed himself deeply in the history of the Beatles. He talks about the beginnings of the band, when ten people were squeezed into a van without seats to drive to Hamburg, and about the drive to their gig at New York’s Shea Stadium at the height of Beatlemania, which the band went to For security reasons, he was brought in a cash-in-transit vehicle belonging to the financial group Wells Fargo.

It’s never just about the vehicles, but always about the overall context, the extensive history of the legendary band and its individual members, which Tesche delves deeply into in his “auto-biography”. The author looks back on the childhoods of John, Paul, George and Ringo and on personal fates. It’s about important career steps, performances and recordings of the Beatles. There is also a whole chapter about the films from “A Hard Day’s Night” (German title: “Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!”) to “Yellow Submarine”, which of course also used various vehicles.

“Motor Legends – The Beatles: Baby you can drive my car. The autobiography of the Beatles” contains many interesting and sometimes strange anecdotes, including the theft of a harmonica in Hamburg, John Lennon’s driving test in front of numerous onlookers in London, George Harrison’s Hinduism-inspired paint job on his Mini or Lennon’s strange idea of ​​being chauffeured in a Rolls-Royce in a gorilla costume and frightening passers-by on the street. Because he drove too fast in Scotland in 1969, Paul McCartney had to give up his driving license – and only got it back after a year. By the way: McCartney wasn’t the only Beatle who temporarily lost his driver’s license.

Siegfried Tesche also researched in great detail what later became of the band members’ vehicles and where some of them ended up. In addition to many historical photos, the 240-page book contains a detailed timeline with important milestones in the band’s history and significant private events. Speaking of the Beatles: On November 2nd, their last single, “Now And Then”, was released thanks to modern studio technology.

• Siegfried Tesche, “Motor legends – The Beatles: Baby you can drive my car. The auto-biography of the Beatles”Motorbuch Verlag, hardcover 240 pages, 31.50 euros)