Can't Buy Me Love: The Beatles, Britain, and America
by Jonathan Gould
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Book Summary Information
Author: Jonathan GouldEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2008-11-04
ISBN: 0307353389
Number of pages: 672
Publisher: Three Rivers Press
Book Reviews of Can't Buy Me Love: The Beatles, Britain, and America
Book Review: Definitive Beatles Book
Summary: 5 Stars
I'm by no means an expert on the many volumes written about the Beatles, but I've read a few of the major ones: the Hunter Davies biography, Wilfred Mellors' "Twilight of the Gods", Geoff Emerick's "Here, There, and Everywhere". If you could roll all three of those books into one volume, you might have something approximating the scope of Jonathan Gould's "Can't Buy Me Love."
I cannot imagine a better book being written about the Beatles' saga, and particularly the musical magic that remains the group's legacy. Gould lists about 400 source books in the bibliography and a multitude of periodicals are cited for quotations by and about the Beatles. I think even the most dedicated Beatles fan will find fresh perspectives, because Gould was unbelievably thorough in his research.
Though the first 100 or so pages are inevitably a little dry, in establishing the well-known beginnings of the group, it is when Gould reaches the years when the Beatles recorded their music that the book becomes a pure pleasure. No one has ever written so compellingly and with such verve about the fascination of the Beatles' music.
Another pleasant aspect of the book is the fact that Gould recognizes and appreciates the creative genius of each Beatle. He has no favorites. And when he necessarily writes about the group's demise under the pressure of financial mistakes and personal rifts, Gould does not assign blame to any Beatle. He merely lets the facts speak for themselves. That being said, it is evident that Gould has little patience for Yoko Ono, whom he paints as a somewhat fraudulent figure who capitalized on John Lennon at a time when he was sinking further into drug use. He also has few kind words for Allen Klein, the Barnum-like figure who wheedled his way into the Beatles' finances. Gould could have taken the politically correct route and tiptoes around Ono and Klein, but he let the chips fall, and I found that refreshing.
In summary, anyone who reads this book will come away with a new and greater appreciation of the Beatles' gifts, and a desire to revisit the music. When future generations seek to understand the Beatles, I think they should start here, with this wonderful book.
Summary of Can't Buy Me Love: The Beatles, Britain, and America
Nearly twenty years in the making, Can?t Buy Me Love is a masterful work of group biography, cultural history, and musical criticism. That the Beatles were an unprecedented phenomenon is a given. In Can?t Buy Me Love, Jonathan Gould seeks to explain 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.Beginning with their adolescence in Liverpool, Gould describes the seminal influences??from Elvis Presley and Chuck Berry to The Goon Show and Alice?s Adventures in Wonderland??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 musician?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. And he sheds new light on the significance of Sgt. Pepper?s Lonely Hearts Club Band as rock?s first concept album, down to its memorable cover art.
Behind the scenes Gould explores the pivotal roles played by manager Brian Epstein and producer George Martin, credits the influence on the Beatles? 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 group?s breakup after their final masterpiece, Abbey Road. Most significantly, by chronicling their revolutionary impact on popular culture during the 1960s, Can?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 JFK?s assassination, Gould captures the pulse of a time that made the Beatles possible?and even necessary. As seen through the prism of the Beatles and their music, an entire generation?s experience comes astonishingly to life. Beautifully written, consistently insightful, and utterly original, Can?t Buy Me Love is a landmark work about the Beatles, Britain, and America.
From the Hardcover edition.
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