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Can't Buy Me Love: The Beatles, Britannia ja Yhdysvallat
Can’t Buy Me Love on perinteisen yhtyebiografian, innovatiivisen Beatles-musiikkianalyysin ja transatlanttisten kulttuurihistorian henkeäsalpaava yhdistelmä. Beatles-kirjoista tähän saakka lähes tyystin puuttunut musiikin analyysi on sekin loistelias ja pakottaa lukijan levyhyllyn ääreen kerta toisensa jälkeen.
Gould asettaa Beatlesin tarinan laajempaan kontekstiin: britti-imperiumin ja luokkayhteiskunnan purkautuminen ja kuohuvan 60-luvun kulttuurivirtaukset avautuvat ansiokkaasti viileää ironiaa unohtamatta. Gouldin pureutuminen Beatlesin, Britannian ja Amerikan yhteiseen populaarihistoriaan on suomalaislukijan näkökulmasta sekä mielenkiintoista että hersyvää luettavaa.
Gouldin salapoliisimaisen tarkkaa ja avartavaa teosta ei ole suotta ylistetty kaikkien aikojan parhaaksi Beatles-kirjaksi. Sen luettuaan lukija ymmärtää uudella ja kokonaisvaltaisella tavalla Beatlejen tarinan, heidän luomansa musiikin ja sen yhtymäkohdat, ja lopulta valtavan vaikutuksen koko maailman historiaan.
Gould asettaa Beatlesin tarinan laajempaan kontekstiin: britti-imperiumin ja luokkayhteiskunnan purkautuminen ja kuohuvan 60-luvun kulttuurivirtaukset avautuvat ansiokkaasti viileää ironiaa unohtamatta. Gouldin pureutuminen Beatlesin, Britannian ja Amerikan yhteiseen populaarihistoriaan on suomalaislukijan näkökulmasta sekä mielenkiintoista että hersyvää luettavaa.
Gouldin salapoliisimaisen tarkkaa ja avartavaa teosta ei ole suotta ylistetty kaikkien aikojan parhaaksi Beatles-kirjaksi. Sen luettuaan lukija ymmärtää uudella ja kokonaisvaltaisella tavalla Beatlejen tarinan, heidän luomansa musiikin ja sen yhtymäkohdat, ja lopulta valtavan vaikutuksen koko maailman historiaan.
691 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2007
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 178 reviews
March 7, 2013
The point of the book isn't really to be about the various personalities of the Beatles themselves, but more about placing them and their music in the context of the times, showing how they were influenced and benefited by what was going on around them. And then later on, how that influence worked in both directions.
In addition to that, there's of course stuff about the time in Germany, the making of the albums, the interpersonal issues and the ultimate breakdown of the group. Some of the more interesting things to me were the sections that actually talked about the music - assessing the albums and individual songs thematically and musically. I had never realized that "Eleanor Rigby" has only two chords, or that some of the other songs had lyrics cribbed from other people's songs, or poems.
In spite of the fact that it wasn't about the individual Beatles, I will say that by the time I finished the book, I liked John Lennon a lot less than I had when I started it. I don't know that any of them particularly come out covered in glory, but his flaws certainly show large in the book.
Overall, I enjoyed most of it but occasionally the story got bogged down in seemingly tangential facts, especially in the early parts. But it made me want to listen to all of the songs again and hear the various things Gould talked about, and that's got to be a good thing.
In addition to that, there's of course stuff about the time in Germany, the making of the albums, the interpersonal issues and the ultimate breakdown of the group. Some of the more interesting things to me were the sections that actually talked about the music - assessing the albums and individual songs thematically and musically. I had never realized that "Eleanor Rigby" has only two chords, or that some of the other songs had lyrics cribbed from other people's songs, or poems.
In spite of the fact that it wasn't about the individual Beatles, I will say that by the time I finished the book, I liked John Lennon a lot less than I had when I started it. I don't know that any of them particularly come out covered in glory, but his flaws certainly show large in the book.
Overall, I enjoyed most of it but occasionally the story got bogged down in seemingly tangential facts, especially in the early parts. But it made me want to listen to all of the songs again and hear the various things Gould talked about, and that's got to be a good thing.
June 25, 2015
Fabulous book!!!!! It is several things at once: American & European history, music criticism of the highest order, sociology, industrial sociology, and A history of the socio-economic changes that broke open, then separated the 50s from the 60s generation.
One of the best aspects of this book is the author's deep examination of musical structure and how each of the Beatles contributed to making that genius work. Who played/wrote which lines or songs, what each person contributed in terms of Major vs minor keys, rhythm, beat and so on.
Magical book and eminently readable. It totally turned me around from seeing the Beatles As nothing more than a media phenomenon to recognizing the depth, breadth and creative genius of their work.
One of the best aspects of this book is the author's deep examination of musical structure and how each of the Beatles contributed to making that genius work. Who played/wrote which lines or songs, what each person contributed in terms of Major vs minor keys, rhythm, beat and so on.
Magical book and eminently readable. It totally turned me around from seeing the Beatles As nothing more than a media phenomenon to recognizing the depth, breadth and creative genius of their work.
June 5, 2011
I was incredibly skeptical about the Baltimore Sun review quoted on the cover ("The best book ever written about the Beatles"), but not any more.
Gould is clearly a fan of The Music. I thought I couldn't respect their albums any more than I already did, but the author's technical appreciation gave me a better understanding of just how aptly they accompanied the subtleties of each song's enthusiasm, heartbreak, jest, or sarcasm with chord changes, vocal stylings, or instrumentation. Almost 100% of the time, I agreed with Gould's overall praise or criticism of each song.
I've never read such a well thought out documentation of the changes in recording which helped allow the Beatles' transition from albums like A Hard Day's Night to Sgt. Pepper. For instance, Gould explains that George Martin resigned his role as head of Parlophone and, instead of working for EMI, essentially worked as an independent producer for the Beatles themselves. Thus when the Beatles' began to request (demand?) more studio time for each album, no one at EMI dared turn them down. (And Martin, who might have been able to convince them of the financial necessities, was no longer accountable for EMI's expenses)
This book is less biographical than others, which has the benefit of making it less sentimental and biased. Still, I learned alot, and not just about the recordings. He dug up quotes I'd never heard before from (presumably British) newspaper archives. Gould doesn't use a lot of quotes but he chooses carefully, often giving powerful insight into John Paul George or Ringo's frame of mind in the 1960s.
The only negative I can find to say about the book is that his use of similes is sometimes a bit ridiculous. ("[T]heir songs cavorted atop the pop charts like a pack of playful seals...")
Gould is clearly a fan of The Music. I thought I couldn't respect their albums any more than I already did, but the author's technical appreciation gave me a better understanding of just how aptly they accompanied the subtleties of each song's enthusiasm, heartbreak, jest, or sarcasm with chord changes, vocal stylings, or instrumentation. Almost 100% of the time, I agreed with Gould's overall praise or criticism of each song.
I've never read such a well thought out documentation of the changes in recording which helped allow the Beatles' transition from albums like A Hard Day's Night to Sgt. Pepper. For instance, Gould explains that George Martin resigned his role as head of Parlophone and, instead of working for EMI, essentially worked as an independent producer for the Beatles themselves. Thus when the Beatles' began to request (demand?) more studio time for each album, no one at EMI dared turn them down. (And Martin, who might have been able to convince them of the financial necessities, was no longer accountable for EMI's expenses)
This book is less biographical than others, which has the benefit of making it less sentimental and biased. Still, I learned alot, and not just about the recordings. He dug up quotes I'd never heard before from (presumably British) newspaper archives. Gould doesn't use a lot of quotes but he chooses carefully, often giving powerful insight into John Paul George or Ringo's frame of mind in the 1960s.
The only negative I can find to say about the book is that his use of similes is sometimes a bit ridiculous. ("[T]heir songs cavorted atop the pop charts like a pack of playful seals...")
August 9, 2020
Less of a Beatles' biography, of which there are dozens, this is an attempt to place the Beatles in their cultural context, both in Britain and America. Gould therefore spends less time than other biographers on the early years, family backgrounds and suchlike and devotes more attention to the cultural scene (teddy boys, the Angry Young Men, the satire boom) from which the Beatles made their meteoric rise to superstardom. This means he gets to Love Me Do by page 135, compared to the thousand-plus pages it took Mark Lewisohn in his magnum opus to reach the same point.
Gould is knowledgeable about music and his analyses of the various songs is always interesting, and, to me at any rate, more accessible than the weightier critiques that make up Ian MacDonald's Revolution in the Head.
Obviously Lewisohn's will remain the definitive biography (if it's ever finished) but as a one-stop combination of biography, cultural history and critical appreciation this would be hard to better.
Gould is knowledgeable about music and his analyses of the various songs is always interesting, and, to me at any rate, more accessible than the weightier critiques that make up Ian MacDonald's Revolution in the Head.
Obviously Lewisohn's will remain the definitive biography (if it's ever finished) but as a one-stop combination of biography, cultural history and critical appreciation this would be hard to better.
June 2, 2009
Rather misleadingly titled, this book devotes only a fraction of its considerable bulk to a study of the titular threesome of subjects, insisting instead on analyzing, album by album, track by track, the music of the Beatles. While this jerky change of topic might be forgiven in light of the (limited) value of the analysis, Gould suffers from delusions of academia and insists on psychoanalyzing the minutest detail, whether lyrical, conceptual or personal, droning on in a snooty monotone that ends only when the last song of "Abbey Road" has been parsed beyond recognition. Not worth it.
May 11, 2016
What I loved about this book is that it didn't just tell the story of how John, Paul, George, and Ringo met, wrote songs together and fell apart. Gould's exploration of how the cultures of Britain and America affected and were affected by the Beatles was fascinating.
January 28, 2021
I had mixed feelings about this. On the one hand I found it really readable. I thought Gould was a really entertaining writer and I liked it a lot. On the other hand I felt that the book was kind of light on the stuff you really want from a biography (biographical detail) and heavy on the wishy-washy music journalism bilge that sadly swamps these kinds of books. He writes in-depth musical analyses of every single Beatles recording. From a musical point of view I felt that everything he was saying was accurate but I question the efficacy of telling the reader about key changes and structural ideas. I can never get over that quote about how writing about music is like dancing about architecture. I've never found a writer who has been able to convince me that that quote is incorrect. Gould will make some observation about how a shift in key has this kind of effect on the listener or how a certain rhythm is supposed to convey this sort of mood or how successful or unsuccessful he thinks certain musical or lyrical decisions have been and I can't help thinking "that's just like, your opinion man". If you tell us stuff that happened to John Lennon in his life then that's demonstrably true stuff and no-one is going to challenge you on that. If you tell us why a piece of music works or doesn't work then that's just your opinion and I would wager that this is not what most readers sign up for when they pick up a biography. They presumably already have a lot of their own opinions about the artist and their music. Your job as a biographer is to fill in the gaps in the reader's mind concerning the life of the artist. It is not to inform their opinions on the music itself. I started skipping the musical analysis bits when I got halfway through the book.
The other thing that there was too much of was the wider social context. There was a lot of pondering about the extent to which the effect of postwar rationing or the assassination of President Kennedy or the relative sexual conservatism of the era had on the youth and their receptiveness to the music of The Beatles. Again, this falls into the "that's just like your opinion man" category of music journalism. Did the assassination of President Kennedy cause some kind of socio-psychological hothouse for the popularity of the beatles. I don't know. And neither does Jonathan Gould. So why does he waste my time with it? And more to the point, it's not what I (or presumably most other readers) signed up for. The book is ostensibly about The Beatles, yes? So why is so much of your book NOT about The Beatles?
The beatles were interesting guys. I think they're a band where a big part of their popularity is due to the fact that the 4 members were such distinct, compelling and even clashing personalities. I can't think of another band where the personalities of all 4 members are so well known and such a core part of how we think of the band. So I think any half decent biography about these 4 cool dudes will be pretty enjoyable. So I sort of enjoyed it. And I think it sort of wasted my time. I probably wouldn't recommend it. I might read another Beatles biography though.
The other thing that there was too much of was the wider social context. There was a lot of pondering about the extent to which the effect of postwar rationing or the assassination of President Kennedy or the relative sexual conservatism of the era had on the youth and their receptiveness to the music of The Beatles. Again, this falls into the "that's just like your opinion man" category of music journalism. Did the assassination of President Kennedy cause some kind of socio-psychological hothouse for the popularity of the beatles. I don't know. And neither does Jonathan Gould. So why does he waste my time with it? And more to the point, it's not what I (or presumably most other readers) signed up for. The book is ostensibly about The Beatles, yes? So why is so much of your book NOT about The Beatles?
The beatles were interesting guys. I think they're a band where a big part of their popularity is due to the fact that the 4 members were such distinct, compelling and even clashing personalities. I can't think of another band where the personalities of all 4 members are so well known and such a core part of how we think of the band. So I think any half decent biography about these 4 cool dudes will be pretty enjoyable. So I sort of enjoyed it. And I think it sort of wasted my time. I probably wouldn't recommend it. I might read another Beatles biography though.
August 23, 2023
This was a long and dense book BUT I found it utterly fascinating. I have never read about the Beatles before so most of this was fresh new information for me. Obviously I know the songs and I know about Yoko "breaking up the band" but I didn't really know anything meaningful about John, Paul, George, and Ringo. Jonathan Gould write a dense (600+ pages) book about the Beatles career, discography, and the influence that it had on America and Britain. I also loved how he went into depth about all the songs and it made it fun to listen along while I read. It was a bit of a slog BUT I have such a bigger appreciation for The Beatles and their music. I'm getting ready to go on a road trip and this book has inspired me to listen to all their albums in order. Again this book is dense and it may have info found in many of the other Beatles books, but I haven't read them and don't know - so to me it was a great introduction!
March 15, 2016
When it addressed social history, the ascent of the Beatles, and the England-U.S. interaction in the recording industry, it was excellent. Unfortunately, when breaking down individual songs, it got terribly long-winded and pedantic. It could easily have been compressed into a 300 page book. The stories on manager Brian Epstein and studio man George Martin are definitely worth checking, the material on Yoko Ono got tedious. Exactly a 3 rating.
May 28, 2016
I really enjoyed this book. Gould did a wonderful job of integrating biographical information about the Beatles and the people around them with an analysis of their music, all while providing historical context. No better way to understand the Beatles.
July 7, 2020
Massively comprehensive look at the Beatles as a group and their songs, largely focused on the music, its creation, and publication. Gould is quite good at music analysis but the exhaustive descriptions of each and EVERY song that the Beatles ever wrote got a bit tiresome to me. I did enjoy greatly the biographical parts and the commentary on the current events of the Beatles era. Being such an iconic group and so influential in American and British culture - if you want to understand the 60s, you need to learn about the Beatles.
Having read this book during the time of Covid and the 2020 race riots, I was stunned to see the parallels between 1968 and our current time (and, yes, they even had a pandemic in 1968 - although they didn't freak out about it as much as we are today). So, if anyone thinks that this is the craziest America has gotten, think again - we've been through some pretty insane times before. There is hope!
Having read this book during the time of Covid and the 2020 race riots, I was stunned to see the parallels between 1968 and our current time (and, yes, they even had a pandemic in 1968 - although they didn't freak out about it as much as we are today). So, if anyone thinks that this is the craziest America has gotten, think again - we've been through some pretty insane times before. There is hope!
August 23, 2021
Comprehensive and authoritative. In addition to being a really good history of the Beatles (including the childhoods of all of them), I liked that almost all of their songs were described and analysed by the author, even though the music terminology is too advanced for me (tonic, syncopated, arpeggiated, glissando etc). I also really enjoyed how the Beatles were placed in the context of the times - there are history lessons on the British invasion, the summer of love, Woodstock etc, as well as comparisons to Bob Dylan, The Rolling Stones and more. Even though it took me quite a while to get through (606 pages), I really enjoyed it.
January 19, 2023
A very lengthy but very enjoyable telling of The Beatles story. Jonathan does a great job addressing some of the culturally significant events that surrounded the group. Anyone who likes this band even a little bit, should read this book. It's a marathon, not a sprint.
December 23, 2025
Although a familiar story about the Beatles, this version was very informative on both the details within the recording of the music and quite a lot of explanations of the cultural changes occurring at these times.
November 10, 2024
Perfectly crafted music bio, but the White Album shade was unnecessary and wrong!
May 13, 2024
SO HAPPY TO BE DONE WITH THIS BOOK.
Learned a lot about The Beatles— respect the music a lot more, respect the men a lot less.
Great read if you are interested in music history. Great read for me to learn that I am not.
Learned a lot about The Beatles— respect the music a lot more, respect the men a lot less.
Great read if you are interested in music history. Great read for me to learn that I am not.
April 28, 2022
All said, an enlightening account of the Beatles lives, music and significance. The author Jonathan Gould does a remarkable job separating the Beatles from “Beatlemania” and providing a concise look at their evolution as individuals and as a group within the context of the times. Gould was able to sift out the minutiae and extraneous details that could have easily bogged this work down. His writing is competent, dynamic, captivating and witty; and it sets this book apart in the ocean of Beatle’s literature.
August 18, 2021
The author took an interesting approach in tying the Beatles--music and phenomenon to cultural and political changes in the US and Britain. In many cases he went into great detail in the structure of songs which was interesting. Hover in some cases he made highly critical comments about individual songs which seemed more based on personal opinion (his book, so he is allowed) rather than anything objective. Like always, books about the Beatles make me a bit sad, thinking what could have been had they stayed together another 5 or 10 years.
May 23, 2008
I took a class on the Beatles in college. It counted as a general ed requirement! I still feel lucky. I do like the Beatles and this will be the second book "about them" that I'll have read (The first was "Shout," for the class). I hope I like it.
MAY 3 UPDATE
This is a great book. The author makes a point early of describing how he wanted this book to differentiate itself from the other books about the band, and his angle was examining the music from a cultural and historical perspective. I love examining things from cultural and historical perspectives! It's like he wrote it with me in mind.
He also points out that it is a biography of the band, not the individuals. That is not something I probably would have noticed, but now that I know this it is holding up true. I am really enjoying it, at least the first sixth of it. It could theoretically tank.
MAY 14 UPDATE
Holy crap! The more I learn about Yoko Ono the freakier she gets. From the few things I had read about the Beatles breaking up I had figured she really was scapegoated but this author is painting an entirely different story and I am digging hating on the ocean child. John Lennon achieved great heights of dickery, too.
MAY 15 UPDATE
Turns out all the Beatles were dicks at the end. But that didn't really hamper my enjoyment of the book, and I'm sure once they separated they more or less settled back down to the normal, convivial people that they started out as. I don't really know much about them.
OVERALL RESPONSE
I really enjoyed this book. I thought the close readings of individual songs and album analysis was fantastic, and I wish I'd had the CDs plugged in right next to me as I was reading, but that would have added what? Another 20 hours to my reading?
It started to drag after Sgt Pepper. I just really couldn't follow the financial messes that caused so much distress, but that's not why it dragged (because there really only were a few pages of that). And I'm hardly the first person to say it, but once the Beatles started going through the motions of being a band and hardly tolerating each other, the book lost a lot of steam. The format and writing style didn't change at all, but the content ceased to be compelling and you just started watching a bunch of assholes get what was coming to them. Which is sort of sad, because they didn't set out to be a bunch of assholes but the stress gets to you in the end. I can totally understand how being put upon inspires the desire to kick others in the face. Now imagine what I would do with millions of dollars I can't get to, people demanding my time and presence, a lot of testosterone in my system (because I am a guy), and not even having the levelheadedness of turning thirty yet.
Oh well. At least they had Hamburg.
Man, does that author hate Yoko, though! He was outrageously catty towards her character. I enjoyed every word.
EPILOGUE:
I found a misspelling in someone's name as I was reading the book but let it slide. I'd only been surfing the net looking for more information about a television personality the author had mentioned: Cathy McGowan. He'd spelled it McGowen. I didn't know if he or the website was correct. Now I learn that he spelled the author Margaret Forster as Margaret Foster. That's pretty sloppy. Dude. How long could it take for an intern to check names online? Less than a day.
I may email the publishers just so I can stop fretting about it.
MAY 3 UPDATE
This is a great book. The author makes a point early of describing how he wanted this book to differentiate itself from the other books about the band, and his angle was examining the music from a cultural and historical perspective. I love examining things from cultural and historical perspectives! It's like he wrote it with me in mind.
He also points out that it is a biography of the band, not the individuals. That is not something I probably would have noticed, but now that I know this it is holding up true. I am really enjoying it, at least the first sixth of it. It could theoretically tank.
MAY 14 UPDATE
Holy crap! The more I learn about Yoko Ono the freakier she gets. From the few things I had read about the Beatles breaking up I had figured she really was scapegoated but this author is painting an entirely different story and I am digging hating on the ocean child. John Lennon achieved great heights of dickery, too.
MAY 15 UPDATE
Turns out all the Beatles were dicks at the end. But that didn't really hamper my enjoyment of the book, and I'm sure once they separated they more or less settled back down to the normal, convivial people that they started out as. I don't really know much about them.
OVERALL RESPONSE
I really enjoyed this book. I thought the close readings of individual songs and album analysis was fantastic, and I wish I'd had the CDs plugged in right next to me as I was reading, but that would have added what? Another 20 hours to my reading?
It started to drag after Sgt Pepper. I just really couldn't follow the financial messes that caused so much distress, but that's not why it dragged (because there really only were a few pages of that). And I'm hardly the first person to say it, but once the Beatles started going through the motions of being a band and hardly tolerating each other, the book lost a lot of steam. The format and writing style didn't change at all, but the content ceased to be compelling and you just started watching a bunch of assholes get what was coming to them. Which is sort of sad, because they didn't set out to be a bunch of assholes but the stress gets to you in the end. I can totally understand how being put upon inspires the desire to kick others in the face. Now imagine what I would do with millions of dollars I can't get to, people demanding my time and presence, a lot of testosterone in my system (because I am a guy), and not even having the levelheadedness of turning thirty yet.
Oh well. At least they had Hamburg.
Man, does that author hate Yoko, though! He was outrageously catty towards her character. I enjoyed every word.
EPILOGUE:
I found a misspelling in someone's name as I was reading the book but let it slide. I'd only been surfing the net looking for more information about a television personality the author had mentioned: Cathy McGowan. He'd spelled it McGowen. I didn't know if he or the website was correct. Now I learn that he spelled the author Margaret Forster as Margaret Foster. That's pretty sloppy. Dude. How long could it take for an intern to check names online? Less than a day.
I may email the publishers just so I can stop fretting about it.
August 5, 2013
I blame Tuck. He asked me a question about a particular Beatles book on my review of Revolution in the Head, and I sent him an article/discussion of 'best Beatles books'. Of course it made me think, haven't read that one or that one, and I've ended up buying 'Love Me Do', a slim fly-on-the-wall paperback following the Beatles on tour and making programmes like Juke Box jury from 1964, and getting this one from the library, in contrast a massive 700 page tome, published in 2007 and covering everything, including the importance of the scouse accent. Read 50 pages before I knew it...
..enjoyed, more later...
I didn’t learn too much that was new about the band (hardly surprising given the number of Beatle books consumed) but the astonishing story of four scousers changing the world still grips. I did learn a bit more about America’s complex relationship with the Bealtes, treating them first as saviours, the fan worship, the Ed Sullivan shows, the distraction from the Kennedy assassination, to the later condemnation (the Maryland Ku Klux Klan burning their records outside the Washington stadium) to their two way influence on West Coast music.
Also the psychology of the band – eg their self-reliance, their interaction - and their influence on society is well explored, (possibly overdone) using Weber and Freud to explain the phenomenon. The music comes to the fore in the second half of the book, some songs only warranting a brief mention, others get pages (Penny Lane, I am the Walrus etc). One or two new sidelines on the music for me – And Your Bird Can Sing (my favourite track, despite it being a throwaway according to Lennon) was apparently inspired by Guy Talese’s profile of Frank Sinatra that appeared in the April 1966 issue of Esquire. “Bird,” Talese wrote, “is a favourite Sinatra word.” The article compared the Beatles unfavourably to Sinatra, and this is Lennon’s riposte. I’d always thought (read somewhere) it was about Mick Jagger’s then girlfriend Marianne Faithful (‘bird’ being British slang for ‘girl’) who had a song in the charts at the time. Gould is a good music critic (being a musician might help), eg describing George’s repetitive riff playing on ‘Dizzy Miss Lizzy’ as having the self absorption of a child perfecting his signature, and each repetition seems to affirm some deeply held belief that these eight notes, in this configuration, represents the only conceivable accompaniment to the song.
I will stop on the Beatles books now, at least until Mark Lewishon’s three volume magnum opus ‘The Beatles’ comes out in the autumn.
..enjoyed, more later...
I didn’t learn too much that was new about the band (hardly surprising given the number of Beatle books consumed) but the astonishing story of four scousers changing the world still grips. I did learn a bit more about America’s complex relationship with the Bealtes, treating them first as saviours, the fan worship, the Ed Sullivan shows, the distraction from the Kennedy assassination, to the later condemnation (the Maryland Ku Klux Klan burning their records outside the Washington stadium) to their two way influence on West Coast music.
Also the psychology of the band – eg their self-reliance, their interaction - and their influence on society is well explored, (possibly overdone) using Weber and Freud to explain the phenomenon. The music comes to the fore in the second half of the book, some songs only warranting a brief mention, others get pages (Penny Lane, I am the Walrus etc). One or two new sidelines on the music for me – And Your Bird Can Sing (my favourite track, despite it being a throwaway according to Lennon) was apparently inspired by Guy Talese’s profile of Frank Sinatra that appeared in the April 1966 issue of Esquire. “Bird,” Talese wrote, “is a favourite Sinatra word.” The article compared the Beatles unfavourably to Sinatra, and this is Lennon’s riposte. I’d always thought (read somewhere) it was about Mick Jagger’s then girlfriend Marianne Faithful (‘bird’ being British slang for ‘girl’) who had a song in the charts at the time. Gould is a good music critic (being a musician might help), eg describing George’s repetitive riff playing on ‘Dizzy Miss Lizzy’ as having the self absorption of a child perfecting his signature, and each repetition seems to affirm some deeply held belief that these eight notes, in this configuration, represents the only conceivable accompaniment to the song.
I will stop on the Beatles books now, at least until Mark Lewishon’s three volume magnum opus ‘The Beatles’ comes out in the autumn.
November 20, 2017
I really enjoyed this book. I've read quite a few Beatles books and I learned some new stuff from this one. Very thorough.
My only complaints, and they are very minor:
* I love how "thorough" the book was/is, but sometimes it was just overkill, especially on the early albums. For example there was 45 - 60 mins (I listened to audible version) on the Beatles early haircut and mod outfit, yet the last 30 mins of the book basically covered finalizing Abbey Road, Let It Be and the breakup and post breakup activities. That felt very rushed but the early part of their career I often felt bored with how in depth it went.
* The author was not as objective as I felt he should be with describing some of the albums. It felt his personal distaste for The White Album and Abbey Road and Let It Be really impacted his description of those tracks/albums rather than just focusing on the facts and reception. He would mention they sold over 4M copies sold in a few months but because the collaboration on the tracks by the band had pretty much stopped, he was very negative on most.
Overall, very good book and I would recommend it to any Beatles fan or anybody that would want to learn more about them. I would just suggest really power through the early years if you are getting bored because it does get very riveting after the release of Please Please Me.
My only complaints, and they are very minor:
* I love how "thorough" the book was/is, but sometimes it was just overkill, especially on the early albums. For example there was 45 - 60 mins (I listened to audible version) on the Beatles early haircut and mod outfit, yet the last 30 mins of the book basically covered finalizing Abbey Road, Let It Be and the breakup and post breakup activities. That felt very rushed but the early part of their career I often felt bored with how in depth it went.
* The author was not as objective as I felt he should be with describing some of the albums. It felt his personal distaste for The White Album and Abbey Road and Let It Be really impacted his description of those tracks/albums rather than just focusing on the facts and reception. He would mention they sold over 4M copies sold in a few months but because the collaboration on the tracks by the band had pretty much stopped, he was very negative on most.
Overall, very good book and I would recommend it to any Beatles fan or anybody that would want to learn more about them. I would just suggest really power through the early years if you are getting bored because it does get very riveting after the release of Please Please Me.
June 20, 2009
This book exceeded my expectations far more than any book I've read in a very long time. In addition to being a biography of the group as a whole, this is also a social history. Everything about the Beatles, from their childhoods in Liverpool to the seedy nightclubs of the Reeperbahn in Germany, from their Scouse accents to the musical arrangements of their most popular songs, is placed carefully within the perspective of Britain and the United States at the time.
The writing flows wonderfully. Despite a textbook feel to the prose, it never becomes weighted down or abstruse. Short, well-focused chapters keep the pace moving briskly along and I never lost interest. In fact, I often found it hard to put the book down! There is also a good balance between the principal players, with of course the greatest attention paid to John Lennon and Paul McCartney. Decades later, it is still painful to follow the disintegration of such a close collaborative friendship.
That the Beatles changed society and popular music and helped lead a generation goes without saying. But this book does say it, laying out the intricate ways in which the Beatles shaped their world and were shaped by it. It is a fascinating read.
The writing flows wonderfully. Despite a textbook feel to the prose, it never becomes weighted down or abstruse. Short, well-focused chapters keep the pace moving briskly along and I never lost interest. In fact, I often found it hard to put the book down! There is also a good balance between the principal players, with of course the greatest attention paid to John Lennon and Paul McCartney. Decades later, it is still painful to follow the disintegration of such a close collaborative friendship.
That the Beatles changed society and popular music and helped lead a generation goes without saying. But this book does say it, laying out the intricate ways in which the Beatles shaped their world and were shaped by it. It is a fascinating read.
November 29, 2011
Its both comprehensive and vague at same time. Quite an achievement
Sure he mentions offhandedly how certain Beatles movies (HELP! mostly) looked like modern MTV [or rather, what MTV used to be) - but no mention of their ACTUAL MUSIC VIDEOS?
Like.. oh I dunno... Paperback Writer/Rain combo being filmed in the park specifically for sending out as promos? Or Strawberry Fields/Penny Lane hiring a movie director and havin fancy mini-movie editing and even full concepts instead of them just standin around pretending to play
Yoko's giant ego would be pleased by how much she and John are mentioned in final chapters. The other boys' family life barely gets a line (especially Ringo. Not even that!), but J/Y relationship and publicity stunts take up pages!
Now that their heroin and meth timeline is in proper alignment - no longer feel sorry for her miscarriages. Bitch deserved to not reproduce while that full of drugs!
The author also does give a quick rundown of their solo work followups, but wooooow does he downplay the Vicious Vendetta that is John's "How do you sleep?"
Sure he mentions offhandedly how certain Beatles movies (HELP! mostly) looked like modern MTV [or rather, what MTV used to be) - but no mention of their ACTUAL MUSIC VIDEOS?
Like.. oh I dunno... Paperback Writer/Rain combo being filmed in the park specifically for sending out as promos? Or Strawberry Fields/Penny Lane hiring a movie director and havin fancy mini-movie editing and even full concepts instead of them just standin around pretending to play
Yoko's giant ego would be pleased by how much she and John are mentioned in final chapters. The other boys' family life barely gets a line (especially Ringo. Not even that!), but J/Y relationship and publicity stunts take up pages!
Now that their heroin and meth timeline is in proper alignment - no longer feel sorry for her miscarriages. Bitch deserved to not reproduce while that full of drugs!
The author also does give a quick rundown of their solo work followups, but wooooow does he downplay the Vicious Vendetta that is John's "How do you sleep?"
June 26, 2013
I have a weird feeling when I read books about the Beatles book that is chronological, I get more and more excited and then about the time they start talking about the White Album, I get sad. I get all swept up in the narrative of their career and then get sad when they break up. That may be why I've only see "Let it Be" once all the way through.
I think with the Beatles, reading books about them is the same reason my Dad reads books about WWII: he knows pretty much everything there is to know about WII and could recite the chain of events from memory BUT there's always some new insight, a new angle on it that wasn't apparent before.
I've read Beatle books from a lot of different angles and this one took a bigger picture perspective on why the Beatles blew up the way they did. Its not full of a lot of biographical details, only really the ones that colored what kind of people they grew up to be. Though, it suffers from something I've seen in a LOT of Beatle books: around '68, '69, it starts running out of steam. I dunno. Can't be helped, I guess.
I think with the Beatles, reading books about them is the same reason my Dad reads books about WWII: he knows pretty much everything there is to know about WII and could recite the chain of events from memory BUT there's always some new insight, a new angle on it that wasn't apparent before.
I've read Beatle books from a lot of different angles and this one took a bigger picture perspective on why the Beatles blew up the way they did. Its not full of a lot of biographical details, only really the ones that colored what kind of people they grew up to be. Though, it suffers from something I've seen in a LOT of Beatle books: around '68, '69, it starts running out of steam. I dunno. Can't be helped, I guess.
January 3, 2019
Jonathan Gouldin kuusisataasivuinen mammutti "Can't Buy Me Love : Beatles, Britannia ja Yhdysvallat" (Johnny Kniga, 2010) on joissakin mainoshenkisissä puheissa leimattu parhaaksi koskaan kirjoitetuksi Beatles-historiikiksi. Se on melko paljon sanottu, vaikka kirjailija kieltämättä ihan hyvää jälkeä tekeekin. Liverpoolin moppitukkien vaiheet käydään läpi ties monennenko kerran, eikä yhtyeeseen perehtyneelle tarjota mitään suuria paljastuksia tai upouusia teorioita.
"Can't Buy Me Loven" ansioksi on kuitenkin sanottava, että se onnistuu analysoimaan varsin oivallisesti yhtyeen tuotantoa, levy levyltä ja kappale kappaleelta (seikka, joka jää esimerkiksi Philip Normanin "Shout!"-perusteoksessa vähemmälle huomiolle). Paikoitellen teksti jää musiikin teoriaa tuntemattomalle hieman hämäräksi, mutta ei kuitenkaan haitaksi saakka. Hyvä perusteos!
"Can't Buy Me Loven" ansioksi on kuitenkin sanottava, että se onnistuu analysoimaan varsin oivallisesti yhtyeen tuotantoa, levy levyltä ja kappale kappaleelta (seikka, joka jää esimerkiksi Philip Normanin "Shout!"-perusteoksessa vähemmälle huomiolle). Paikoitellen teksti jää musiikin teoriaa tuntemattomalle hieman hämäräksi, mutta ei kuitenkaan haitaksi saakka. Hyvä perusteos!
November 16, 2007
I wish I could say that I finished it but I didn't. I got bogged down in the middle by the minute details of each song and each album and I gave up. I love the Beatles but I guess I don't love them enough to know all the guitar chords for each song on Rubber Soul. This book is truly well researched though and is definitely for the ultimate fan.
July 25, 2011
Järkälemäisen teoksen kahlattua ei jää epäilystäkään yhtyeen vaikutuksesta länsimaiseen populaarikulttuuriin. Ja olihan se melkein loppuun luettua helpompi seurata bändin nimikkokävelykierrosta Lontoossa. Kirjan sisältämä biisien analysointi oli todella yksityiskohtaista ja hieman puuduttavaakin, mutta usein kesken lukemisen teki mieli keskeyttää ja kuunnella josko löytää itse samat nyanssit.
December 11, 2014
A friend who teaches a college course on the Beatles recommended this, saying it's the textbook for his class. I can see why! It's a terrific book, interesting for both new Beatles fans and first generation fans like myself.
July 25, 2016
Not just another Beatles book. It recounts the familiar tale of these four individuals, "clearing away the ephemeral, the apocryphal, and the merely anecdotal" in order to focus on the bigger picture, their lives and their music in social and historical context. Fab.
June 21, 2019
Surely the one stop shop if you want a biography on the Beatles. The author not only captures the life and music of the Beatles, but puts them in the context of history. Very entertaining and informative.
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