For myself I have found three books of value over the years relating to the Beatles.
The Beatles by Hunter Davies
Can't Buy Me Love- The Beatles, Britain and America by Jonathan Gould
The Beatles Day by Day by Mark Lewisohn
For general appeal and knowledge I did like the group biography The Beatles by Bob Spitz. I also liked Here, There and Everywhere My Life Recording the Beatles by Geoff Emerick. It is not necessarily a Beatle book but I find the collected Rolling Stone interviews with John Lennon also of interest.
I cannot offer anything about Springsteen as he is not an intense favorite for me. Good luck in your reading efforts.
"....there's a merry song that starts in 'I' and ends in 'You', as many famous pop songs do....'
Dave Marsh's Born to Run: The Bruce Springsteen Story, (Doubleday) 1979, is excellent. A very insightful read full of anecdotes and it quotes him extensively. It is very thorough in covering early autobiographical details, how he would lock himself up in his room for 8 hrs and practice and fight with father, what he was like at school, his early bands, the people who guided his career... you get a real sense of the stuff that formed him. I think most of the quotes where he waxes philosophically about his art etc - which are very candid and very interesting - are circa the Darkness On The Edge Of Town and eve of River period when Marsh wrote it. And it includes awesome b&w pictures.
It is out of print now but Marsh combined it and a later book (Glory Days - covering up to the Born In The USA period. BTW, I read this one as well and although it was very good it wasn't as intimate in its details as the first. It glossed over more, and the author got a bit carried away with his own analysis) and further writing into another book: Bruce Springsteen Two Hearts: The Definitive Biography, 1972-2003, so I'd check that out. Don't know whether it includes all the pictures of the earlier volume.
And let's not forget 'Revolution in the Head' by Ian MacDonald. It analyzes every single Beatles song in order of recording and is a feat of amazing scholarship, both in terms of technical analysis of the songs and dissection of how they relate to the context they sprang from. I don't always agree with his judgements on songs, but the book is a superb work of analysis and a great companion to listening to their music.
There's more to life than books, you know, but not much more
Agree with "Revolution in the head" and I would certainly highly recommend any of Mark Lewisohn's books.
For the insider's story of the Fabs - Cynthia's first book (A Twist of Lennon- now reissued) and Allan Williams' book (The Man Who Gave The Beatles Away) are superb. Both written pre-1980, of course.
Christopher Sjoholm wrote:Can't Buy Me Love- The Beatles, Britain and America by Jonathan Gould
I've been reading and/or collecting Beatle books for 30+ years (and no, I'm not bragging) and I thought the Gould book was exceptionally insightful. For completeness, the Spitz book is up there. My other favorites tend to be more for the completist (Lewisohn, Spizer, John Winn).