Revolution in the Head: The Beatles' Records and the Sixties

[Carvill, John]

That link to a PDF about the Beatles that 'Alice' sent crashed my
browser! Anyway a lot of what was quoted from it seemed a bit confused
to me. I'm especially puzzled by the assertion that Lennon's father
first met him when John was 5 years old. Anyway, it is John's Aunt Mimi
who is usually quoted as bemoaning John's 'faked' Scouse accent. Care
must be taken when considering the highly complex subject of 'Class &
The Beatles'. 


The best book I have ever read about the Beatles, Ian MacDonald's
'Revolution in the Head' is very much focused on the Beatles' records,
but also contains the most accurate and incisive analysis of how the
phenomenon of The Beatles related to the tenor of The Sixties, and all
the social changes going on, etc.


Amazon link:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Revolution-Head-Beatles-Records-Sixties/dp/00995
26794/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1250507812&sr=1-1


Guardian obit on MacDonald:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/2003/sep/08/guardianobituaries.artsobitua
ries



Beatles wiki entry:

http://www.beatleswiki.com/wiki/index.php/Revolution_in_the_Head


"That the twin phenomena of 'The Beatles' and 'The Sixties' were
integral to one another is a theme which runs right through MacDonald's
book. With subtle forcefulness, he uses the records the group made to
illustrate how in tune with their times they were, and how they also
played a role which was broadly similar to that played in America by Bob
Dylan, in that they had a significant hand in shaping those times
(although they had a much more globally pervasive effect). The Beatles
changed the world; sometimes - indeed, maybe even mostly - when they
weren't even trying to: 

'Indeed, the American folk-protest movement had thrust plain speaking so
obtrusively into the pop domain that every transient youth idol was then
routinely interrogated concerning his or her 'message' to humanity. If
it has any message at all, that of I WANT TO HOLD YOUR HAND is 'Let go -
feel how good it is'. This though (as conservative commentators knew
very well) implied a fundamental break with the Christian bourgeois
status quo. Harbouring no conscious subversive intent, The Beatles, with
this potent record, perpetrated a culturally revolutionary act. As the
decade wore on and they began to realise the position they were in, they
began to do the same thing more deliberately.' "

- Which points up how 'revolutuionary' those early records, eg. I Want
To Hold Your Hand, were.