Customer Reviews

The Beatles as Musicians: Revolver through the Anthology

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The Beatles As Musicians (BAM) is one of a kind. No other book discusses the Beatles' music comprehensively from the point of view of a working musician. This is the only book about the Beatles which is aimed squarely at the literate musician.

The current volume handles the 1966-1969 period. Everett goes through each album and song examining basic techniques and materials. One real strength is his description of the recording process and the classification of exactly which guitars were used.

This book is a basic source reference. It's the kind of book you turn to when you need to know *more* about a particular song. It is exceedingly well annotated with references for almost all information provided. These alone makes the book worthwhile.

It does not attempt to sumarise the work of the Beatles or generalise about style. That kind of work can't be contemplated until books such as BAM are first made available.

For me, it's the first useful book about the Beatles music, from a musical viewpoint, since Wilfred Mellers wrote "The Twilight Of The Gods" in the sixties. Our understanding of the Beatles music has come along way since then. BAM is the book that makes that progress visible.

Ian Hammond

The author recommends the reader have several years of college-level music training. He uses harmonic/melodic analysis as one would use in dissecting W.A. Mozart, et al, in theory class. This is an interesting and insightful approach that sometimes gets a bit too clever, given the subject matter. The author demonstrates genuine admiration for the Beatles as composers/poets/performers, but occasionally becomes condescending, perhaps a product of his academic background. On the other hand, he seems to be very precise regarding who played what on which track--that's interesting for a musician at any level. All in all, an engrossing work. The more knowledge of music theory the reader possesses, the more he/she will enjoy this book.

A goldmine for anyone interested in the Beatles! By far the best study of the Beatles' music, indeed of any repertory of popular music. Everett includes technical analyses that will assist and inform musicians and scholars. BUT the general reader must not be scared off by the technical sections! If you're not familiar with music theory, skip the technical parts and you still have the best coverage of the Beatles as composers, with historical and personal details accurately recounted for each song and album. Impressed by Everett's work, the Beatles gave Everett unprecedented access to sketches and other unpublished material.

Both author and publisher deserve 10 stars for this magnificent effort.

Everett's study is a superb guide to the Beatles' music for those seriously interested in the architecture of the songs. Reading Everett as you listen to the music opens up new vistas -- you'll hear things you never noticed before. The study is meticulous and insightful. Even when Everett describes theoretical aspects of the songs, he writes with such clarity that the muscially illiterate (such as myself) can appreciate his argument. This is the best study of the music since MacDonald's Revolution in the Head. I would think that this book, Revolution in the Head, and the Beatles Anthology would be essential for anyone seriously interested in the Beatles as artists and not simply as pop icons.

This book and its companion (which traces the Beatles' music from its beginnings through "Rubber Soul") demonstrate that there are writers who are serious about the remarkable music of the Beatles. Apart from Mellers' rather professorial, pedantic book and Riley's excellent, approachable book, there is a dearth of material on the music of the Beatles, apart from their sociological or gender ramifications, their cultural iconic status and their effect on fashion and morals, etc. And the music is the only aspect of the Beatles that should matter, since they were incredible musicians and their music has clearly withstood the test of time. Forget other recent books about the Beatles, such as "Meet the Beatles," which reassesses their sociological and gender significance largely by repeating what was previously written about them. Everett succeeds brilliantly in reviewing the Beatles' music as if he were reviewing the music of any great composer. For those who do not have a background in music theory, certain parts of this book may be difficult to comprehend. However, it is worth the effort. A fine achievement.

If you are interested in the technical aspects of the Beatles' music, then make this book your best friend. This book has a plethora of information that will enthrall readers from those who are mildly interested in the Beatles to their most inveterate fans.

As noted in another review, for those who are not interested in the technical parts of this work, skip ahead to other parts of this book and prepare to be delighted. This book is a compliment to the intelligence of its readers; this author has done a sterling job of researching his material.

Hats off and a 10+ star review for this book!

One might read this book's title and think, "Musicians? As opposed to what else?". Then one might suppose the intent is to analyze the Beatles's music technically. Well, yes, there are Schenkerian sketches here, but the book talks about the Beatles as cultural icons, discusses recording studio minutiae, and worries about how much of "Eleanor Rigby"'s lyric was Paul McCartney's and how much John Lennon's, for example, just as much as it concerns itself with the Beatles's music. In other words, it is a compendium of Beatles ephemera. That would be fine if it were better organized and well-written--and if it weren't entitled "The Beatles as Musicians". In fact, the author seems to have done a lot of research and then fed us his notes. He hasn't made a nest of the twigs he's gathered together: he's left them in a heap and published that.

Nevertheless, some of the twigs will be of particular interest to Beatles nuts (and berries) such as myself. I'm thinking especially of the musical reconstruction in score form of the orchestral segment of "A Day in the Life". (I recommend to those to whom this sounds intriguing George Martin's "All You Need Is Ears" for its inclusion of fragments of his "Eleanor Rigby" and "I Am The Walrus" scores, and I eagerly await the day all these scores will be published in toto.)

I'm not a trained musician, nor scholarly; however, I've played guitar for years and have always admired the Beatles and their music. Although many parts of this book are probably tedious for non-classically trained musicians, it's nontheless very entertaining and interesting. The book reaffirms my longheld belief that there was nothing "gimmicky" about the lads from Liverpool...their talents, jointly and individually, were simply awesome and the Beatles truly were in a league of their own. I highly recommend this book.

To understand the majority of this book one would need a music theory background, possibly at the graduate level.

I was surprised at the amount of other information provided as to ho played which instrument.

Very well researched.

I am a moderate guitar player ( with a Hamburg type Rickenbacker guitar) and wanted to learn a little more about the guitar cords used in Beatle songs. I am not afraid to tell that I don't understand anything. If you haven't learned music theory for at least some years at school this book could be a dissapointment for you as it turned out to be for me