Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Knowledgeable, intelligent and well-written, 12 Aug 2006
MacDonald understood music, society, and the occasionally disastrous effects of drugs, mysticism and fame. This is a gem of a book ; scholarly but never dull, written by a man who actually knew about harmony and music theory, unlike the vast majority of pop music critics, who are inclined to know lots about make-up and trousers and zilch about music. It is not 'pretentious', to quote an earlier reviewer on this site, to point out that it actually matters what chords, what guitars and what recording techniques they used. There is a good clear glossary of musical terms, an excellent bibliography, and useful indexes. The 58 pages of time-lines juxtaposing events in the Beatles' career with those in UK pop, current affairs and 'culture' are a fascinating and illuminating extra, also.
MacDonald is no starry-eyed fan ; he praises the Beatles when they deserve it most (A Day in the Life), yet criticises both Lennon and McCartney at appropriate moments.
He illustrates clearly when and why they lost 'their ability to discriminate between creativity and self-indulgence'. He makes it clear to what extent Lennon damaged the group by messing up his mind with LSD and heroin, and argues persuasively that during the latter stages of the Beatles' career McCartney was on the one hand 'the clear-minded sensitive caretaker' of the band, but also 'the immature egotist who frittered away the group's patience and solidarity on sniggering nonsense like 'Maxwell's Silver Hammer.'
MacDonald's tone here is of course more consistent here than in 'The People's Music', since the latter is collection of journalism on a wide range of topics, but the same intelligent, unsentimental and lucid mind is at work in both books. If you are to read only one book of his, make it this one.
There are unexpected delights ; when asked to provide sleeve-notes for John and Yoko's 'Two Virgins' album, McCartney apparently came up with 'When two great saints meet, it is a humbling experience.' So... read this and you will smile at least once, learn a huge amount about the sixties and their impact on popular culture, and regret deeply the death of such a fine writer. Need any more persuading ? Charles Shaar Murray, the author of a marvellous book on Hendrix, and Jonathan Coe, who writes so well about music and society in his novels, both praised this book to the skies. Nick Hornby thought it was 'quite brilliant', and even the vain and silly (but best-selling) Tony Parsons could see it was 'a brilliant piece of work.'
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Revolution in the Head: The "Beatles" Records and the Sixties, 5 May 2007
I bought this book upon first release and have read it on a daily basis since; why I don't know every word I can only put down to my short term memory. My attraction to the Beatles when I was in my 20's was during the anthology period. I had heard of the Beatles like most people (my mum was a big fan and wanted to call me McCartney, they settled on Paul - thank god), what inspired me to by this book was seeing the I am the walrus video. I was already a Lennon fan at this point but did not know the history of his band, I heard working class hero and was hooked but what surprised me, and still does is the change from "she love you - yeah, yeah, yeah" to " I am the walrus" and this booked explained it and summed it up 100%. I personally would like for Mr McDonald to do the same with Lennon's solo work.
Buy it, read it, keep it, love it, 5 stars aren't enough
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Everything they say is true, 16 Jun 2007
Not only the best book ever written about the Beatles, possibly one of the greatest rock tomes ever created. People who deny it are like people who say the Beatles aren't all they're cracked up to be - they're just being contrary for the sake of it. Brilliant.
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by Ian MacDonald
by George Martin
~ The Beatles
by Ian MacDonald
~ The Beatles
