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34 of 34 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A study in music criticism, not just for Beatle fans, 10 April 2000
By A Customer
At last, here is a serious, artistic book about the greatest popular music force since jazz, and one of the greatest collection of musicians since Mozart and Beethoven........Scrap all that............You see, the beauty of "Revolution in the Head" is that it is objective and does not eulogise the Fabs nor forgive their bad moments. Fans may be shocked to read the slating MacDonald gives to "Across the Universe" or "Ob-La-Di Ob-La-Da", but it only serves to increase ones respect for the man - here is not some star-struck individual writing a glorified fan-zine, but someone genuinely attempting (and for the most part succeeding) to write an analysis of an important body of work to rival famous critiques of the world's greatest writers, poets and musicians. On almost every page, even the most knowledgeable Beatle fan cannot fail to be impressed by those little insights which MacDonald picks up on. An example, if a little corny, is when he points out that "For No-One" ends on an unresolved chord, mirroring the relationship described in the lyric. And his long critiques of arguably the Beatles' two most important works, "Revolution" and "A Day in the Life" are astonishing. The Beatles were so prolific, considering the fact that they were only recording for 8 years, and yet most people would agree that their work is consistently strong, with scores of works of brilliance and even genius. Unfortunately, the proliferation of books written about them is mostly infinitely below this standard. Well here is a book about the Beatles which is as good as (almost) any of their songs. And you can't give more praise than that!
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by Ian MacDonald
by Hunter Davies
by Philip Norman
by George Martin
by Richard DiLello
