Product Description
The most comprehensive analysis of The Beatles’ music ever published, this groundbreaking work sets out to explore The Beatles' songwriting techniques in a clear and readable style aimed not only at trained musicians but anyone who has ever enjoyed the work of one of the most productive and successful songwriting partnerships of the 20th century.
Author Dominic Pedler explains the chord sequences, melodies and harmonies that made up The Beatles’ self-penned songs and how they uncannily complemented the lyrical themes. He also assesses the contributions that rhythm, form and arrangement made to The Beatles’ unique sound. Throughout the book the printed music of the Beatles' songs appears alongside the text, illustrating the author’s explanations.
The Beatles’ records are now seen as crucial in taking rock music from its raw roots into its most imaginative and sophisticated phase, while at the same time pioneering the transition from fifties rock’n’roll to the bold new rock sounds of the sixties and beyond. Without doubt the most important musical act to emerge in pop thus far, their intuitive songwriting skills have changed popular music forever.
The Songwriting Secrets of The Beatles is an essential addition to Beatles literature - a new and perceptive analysis of the music itself as performed by what Paul McCartney still calls ‘a really good, tight little band’.
Press Reviews
“… should sit on your shelf alongside the late Ian MacDonald’s equally erudite Revolution
In The Head.” – Nigel Williamson, Q magazine
“Massively erudite.” - Charles Shaar Murray, MOJO magazine
“… forms more of a basis for serious debate than any other book on the Fab Four and will doubtless be referred to by probing historians in the decades to come.” – Mike Read, Record Collector magazine
“An extraordinary technical insight into what The Beatles produced…” – Rod Davis (The Quarrymen), The British Beatles Fan Club Magazine
“Thoroughly explores the techniques used by the most successful songwriting partnership in history and why their material is still so influential.” - Total Guitar
