That the Beatles were an unprecedented phenomenon is a given. In Canrsquo;t Buy Me Love; Jonathan Gould explains why; placing the Fab Four in the broad and tumultuous panorama of their time and place; rooting their story in the social context that girded both their rise and their demise. Nearly twenty years in the making; Canrsquo;t Buy Me Love is a masterful work of group biography; cultural history; and musical criticism. Beginning with their adolescence in Liverpool; Gould describes the seminal influencesndash;ndash;from Elvis Presley and Chuck Berry to The Goon Show and Alicersquo;s Adventures in Wonderlandndash;ndash;that shaped the Beatles both as individuals and as a group. In addition to chronicling their growth as singers; songwriters; and instrumentalists; he highlights the advances in recording technology that made their sound both possible and unique; as well as the developments in television and radio that lent an explosive force to their popular success. With a musicianrsquo;s ear; Gould sensitively evokes the timeless appeal of the Lennon-McCartney collaboration and their emergence as one of the most creative and significant songwriting teams in history. Behind the scenes Gould explores the pivotal roles played by manager Brian Epstein and producer George Martin; credits the influence on the Beatlesrsquo; music of contemporaries like Bob Dylan; Brian Wilson; and Ravi Shankar; and traces the gradual escalation of the fractious internal rivalries that led to the grouprsquo;s breakup after their final masterpiece; Abbey Road. Most significantly; by chronicling their revolutionary impact on popular culture during the 1960s; Canrsquo;t Buy Me Love illuminates the Beatles as a charismatic phenomenon of international proportions; whose anarchic energy and unexpected import was derived from the historic shifts in fortune that transformed the relationship between Britain and America in the decades after World War II. From the Beats in America and the Angry Young Men in England to the shadow of the Profumo Affair and JFKrsquo;s assassination; Gould captures the pulse of a time that made the Beatles possiblemdash;and even necessary. As seen through the prism of the Beatles and their music; an entire generationrsquo;s experience comes astonishingly to life. Beautifully written; consistently insightful; and utterly original; Canrsquo; t Buy Me Love is a landmark work about the Beatles; Britain; and America.
#108518 in eBooks 2007-10-02 2007-10-02File Name: B000WCWVLM
Review
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful. a beautiful and moving bookBy tribecanAn exquisitely told tale; in verse and prose; of the violent world of the emperors court in China; and how a lords cruelty was finally avenged. Written by the greatest living British poet; and a remarkable work.2 of 2 people found the following review helpful. Avoid the Kindle versionBy A. ChenThe Kindle version has no formatting. I was reading and couldnt understand what was going on until I realized that the character names and the dialogue are all merged together and it takes some work to decipher who is speaking and what theyre saying.Get the print version.