Review by Booklist Review
In the introduction, Stark boldly asks, Why on earth would anyone need another book about the Beatles? He proceeds to describe his as an attempt to connect the band to the larger cultural forces they triggered and came to represent. To that end, he expounds on the provocative premises that the Beatles feminized the culture, challenging the concept of masculinity, while Beatlemania empowered young women; that the group converged with its era in an unprecedented way, coming to embody 1960s counterculture; and that it possessed an unprecedented power over crowds. Adopting a generally chronological approach, Stark examines the Beatles' musical development as they continually reinvented themselves from their Liverpool days to their late '60s dissolution, which mirrored the collapse of the counterculture, and offers perceptive insights into their continuing appeal. Although he treads well-covered ground, Stark draws from fresh interviews with more than 100 Beatles experts and intimates and convinces us that his contribution is at least as worthy as the entire plethora of self-important insiders' memoirs and coffee-table tomes. --Gordon Flagg Copyright 2005 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Journalist Stark wants to tell the story of John, Paul, George and Ringo in a "somewhat new way," focusing as much on the cultural trends that produced the Beatles-and the trends they created-as on the Fab Four themselves. He explores how the band's 1964 arrival in America coincided with both the adolescent explosion of the baby boomers and the cultural void left by Kennedy's assassination. He then backtracks to the Beatles' childhoods in Liverpool, a city with traditions of absent fathers, strong mothers and permissive attitudes toward androgyny-all major elements in the Beatles' music. Their moptop haircuts? A combination of "mild gender-bending" and German art college chic. Their trademark wit? Inspired by the Goon Show, a popular BBC radio program. Their long-term impact? Practically impossible to overestimate, as Stark finds their influence on '60s protest movements, drug culture, women's liberation and more. Stark provides a thorough biography of the band and includes bits of trivia, such as the band's 1960 gig playing backup to a stripper. Throughout, Stark is sharp and insightful, even when he wades into the psychoanalytic waters of the John/Yoko and Paul/Linda relationships. Photos. Agent, Nat Sobel. (June 1) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
With so many Beatles books published each year, it's refreshing when a title emerges that sheds new light on the Fab Four. National Public Radio commentator Stark (Glued to the Set) has written such a book, forgoing a regurgitation of well-documented facts and dates and focusing instead on the forces within and outside the group that helped it become an unmatched cultural phenomenon. Often glossing over details, Stark draws on a vast range of resource materials and includes well-selected quotes from scores of Beatles associates (surviving band members Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr declined to be interviewed) to set up and support his arguments in the book's first half. Of particular note here are his theories exploring the Beatles's role in the feminist movement and counterculture of the 1960s. For the second half, however, Stark relies too heavily on speculation and stacks his deck with overly selective quotes to support his spin on the Beatles's final years. But where most other books on the topic obsess over the whats, wheres, whens, and hows, Stark's work explores the whys, an avenue of approach that has been sorely lacking in the vast Beatles literature. The extensive source listing stands on its own as a more than adequate Beatles bibliography. Recommended for most collections.-Lloyd Jansen, Stockton-San Joaquin Cty. P.L., CA (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
Yet another scribe takes a run at the Fab Four's legend and comes up empty. "Why on earth would anyone need another book about the Beatles?" A very good question, posed without irony by National Public Radio commentator and author (Telemania, 1997, etc.) Stark at the outset of his ultimately pointless cultural history of the English quartet. The title--also the title of the Beatles' first American album--portends much, as if we're going to encounter the band for the first time. But Stark brings little that's fresh to the table and relies heavily on the work of such earlier, astute Beatles chroniclers as Hunter Davies, Philip Norman, Mark Lewisohn, Tim Riley and the late Ian MacDonald. The story is now so familiar that it virtually tells itself. Beginning with the Beatles' sensational arrival in the U.S. in February 1964, Stark slogs through the tale even casual readers will know by heart: Liverpool roots, Hamburg trial by fire, nurturing by manager Brian Epstein and producer George Martin, worldwide fame and acclaim, and the flameout of utopian dreams in a bitter breakup. Stark, who displays an encyclopedic knowledge of the more engaged writers who have come before him, tries to dress things up by emphasizing certain aspects of the saga: the band's androgynous appeal, the role of women (fans, girlfriends, wives) in the group's image and success, the impact of Epstein's homosexuality and of the band members' drug use. But all those roads have in fact been traveled before, and the slim insights Stark provides in no way justify another trek down Penny Lane. The author lived in Liverpool for a spell and interviewed several dozen witnesses, but his original research likewise unearths nothing blazingly original. To quote the Fabs: "Dear sir or madam, will you read my book, it took me years to write, will you take a look?" No, thanks. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Review by Booklist Review
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Review by Library Journal Review
Review by Kirkus Book Review
