on The Beatles

The Beatles left an indelible mark not only on music, but on the culture in which they created it. In a time of great and sudden change, they led a generation into new territory, redefining the social landscape as a place where men and women could try on new roles. They led this change through their music, their public personae, and - under...

It’s nearly impossible to think of the Beatles in the context of their times without thinking of their politics: their positions on the Establishment, the counterculture, the Vietnam War, the Feminist Movement, the class struggle – we remember it all.

And yet… the fact is, they were constrained from sharing their political opinions either in...

It’s nearly impossible to think of the Beatles in the context of their times without thinking of their politics: their positions on the Establishment, the counterculture, the Vietnam War, the Feminist Movement, the class struggle – we remember at all.

During their eight years recording together as a band, they delivered 14 songs that had...

The Beatles had a lot of music in them, and it’s the best music in the pop/rock universe. They are the all-time best selling band in history, with more #1 hits - both as a band and as solo artists - than any of their peers.

But they also had a great deal to say. As the pacesetters of pop culture in the Sixties, they were at the forefront of young...

Unlike Her Majesty, the Beatles had a lot to say. And the world had much to say about them.

So much so, in fact, that one book can’t hold it all. It would take dozens of books, we can safely assert, to capture everything of value that the Beatles offered up during their tenure as the heralds of youth culture, sexual revolution, and the quest for...

When they were together, the Beatles put out 28 #1 hit singles - a record that remains unbroken, almost years later. Astonishingly, they proceeded to accumulate 20 more as solo artists, a feat likewise never duplicated. All 48 songs are documented in this accessible, trivia-filled compendium, a must-have for lovers of the band’s timeless music.

If the Beatles hadn’t written and recorded “A Day in the Life”, “I Am the Walrus”, “Strawberry Fields Forever”, “Blue Jay Way”, “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” and other proto-progressive songs - if they’d never cobbled together “Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite”, applied Western tuning to a sitar on “Norwegian Wood”, flipped George’s guitar on...

In his previous book, The Progressive Beatles, Scott Robinson asserted that without the Beatles, there would have been no Yes, no ELP, no Genesis, no King Crimson - no progressive rock genre. In this new work, Robinson argues that without Bach, Beethoven, Chopin and other classical influences, there would have been no Beatles - or at least not...

The first volume of Rock Candy: The Beatles was written almost 15 years ago, concurrent with the first edition of The Quotable Beatles and To the Toppermost of the Poppermost. As a result, many quotes from the former and songs from the latter were included in Rock Candy, to add to its variety.

The same is true today, with this second Rock Candy...

The Rock Candy series combines pop-music scholarship with a sense of fun and entertainment. This entry surveys the best of what is not-so-commonly known about the Beatles, with broad commentary on their creativity, innovation, cultural experimentation, and the scope of their impact on modern music and culture.