Revolution in the Head: The Beatles' Records and the Sixties [Hardcover]

Ian MacDonald (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1994

This “Bible of the Beatles” captures the iconic band’s magical and mysterious journey from adorable teenagers to revered cultural emissaries. In this fully updated version, each of their 241 tracks is assessed chronologically from their first amateur recordings in 1957 to their final “reunion” recording in 1995. It also incorporates new information from the Anthology series and recent interviews with Paul McCartney. This comprehensive guide offers fascinating details about the Beatles’ lives, music, and era, never losing sight of what made the band so important, unique, and enjoyable.

--This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

There's certainly no shortage of books on the Beatles. In this latest one, MacDonald--musician, composer, and former New Musical Express editor--purports to do something different by putting the group in the cultural context of its decade. His observations on the 1960s, fortunately confined largely to an introductory section, are, however, too often distressingly obvious. He's far more successful when he focuses on the music with a song-by-song chronicle of the group's career. Other Beatles books have taken the same approach, but MacDonald's incorporates session information from Mark Lewisohn's Complete Beatles Recording Sessions (1988), and it details the group's musical development and growing reliance on the recording studio and then makes some cogent observations on both the culture and the music. He makes the tie-in to 1960s culture most effectively through a month-by-month time line that follows the song-by-song main text and places the Beatles' history next to developments in world affairs and pop culture. Even if your Beatles shelf is groaning, MacDonald's work will be a useful addition. Gordon Flagg

From Kirkus Reviews

An ideal pathfinder on the Beatles' long and winding road from moptops to magi--insightful, informative, contentious, and as ambitious and surprising as its heroes. Popular music criticism is often a thankless task, falling uneasily between mindless hype and lugubrious academicism. MacDonald, former deputy editor of New Musical Express, adroitly bridges that gap, taking the factual chassis--recording session data, itineraries, etc.--laboriously assembled by Beatlemaniacs like Mark Lewisohn and bringing to bear a fan's enthusiasm, a musicologist's trained ear, and a critic's discernment to produce the most rigorous and reliable assessment of the Beatles' artistic achievement to date. Advancing chronologically through the songs, MacDonald provides an encyclopedic wealth of biographical, musical, and historical detail, yet always keeps his eyes on the prize--the uniquely rich elixir the group distilled from these disparate elements. He considers the Beatles on their own musical and cultural terms, taking his cue from contemporary influences (rhythm-and-blues, soul, and the supercharged social crucible of the '60s), rather than straining for highbrow parallels in Schoenberg or Schubert--you'll find no reference to the infamous ``Aeolian cadences'' of ``This Boy'' here. MacDonald makes no bones about his own critical convictions: He prefers the artful structures of pop, its ``energetic topicality'' that ``captures a mood or style in a condensed instant,'' to rock's ``dull grandiosity,'' a shift he attributes to a general retreat since the '60s away from depth and craftsmanship into spectacle and sensation. Accordingly, he champions the pop classicism of the Beatles' early-middle period, culminating in Revolver and Sgt. Pepper, and in his most memorably acerbic passages deplores the rockist leanings of their later work: ``Helter Skelter,'' for instance, is dismissed as ``ridiculous, McCartney shrieking weedily against a backdrop of out-of-tune thrashing.'' The ultimate Beatles Bible? Certainly a labor of love, and all the more valuable for holding the Fabs to the highest critical standards. -- Copyright ©1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 373 pages
• Publisher: Henry Holt & Co (December 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0805027807
• ISBN-13: 978-0805027808
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.2 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (53 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,237,849 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

31 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The best written analysis of the Beatles music, period, October 18, 2007

By 

TheBandit (SEA-TAC) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Revolution in the Head: The Beatles' Records and the Sixties (Paperback)

The late Ian MacDonald really nailed it with this book. I try to read any comprehensive analysis of the Beatles recorded catalog that I can - and none even come close to this. Simply put, this book changed the way I listened to the Beatles music. It made me a more attentive, discerning listener. It broadened the scope of my knowledge of '60s music by pointing the way towards other music of the era that I hadn't yet heard. I find it hard to overstate the influence this book has had on me personally - I have read it cover to cover numerous times and still find myself going back to it.

This isn't a history of the Beatles - it is a song-by-song analysis, in the order the songs were recorded, of everything officially released by the group. And make no mistake, it is not an objective collection of facts - there ARE mostly reliable recording dates, release dates, and song credits for every entry, so it can be used as a quick reference. But this is a highly opinionated piece of writing - Mr. MacDonald was not afraid to ruffle feathers by offering critical evaluations of some of the Beatles most popular songs (he is quite harsh, for instance, towards classics like "Across the Universe" and "While My Guitar Gently Weeps").

Mr. MacDonald does a great job of placing this body of work within the context of the time it was released - but he also manages to assess each song purely on its own terms, as well. While quite obviously a true-blue Beatles fan, MacDonald maintained a certain level of objectivity throughout - never getting caught up in fanboy idolization. He's tough on this music - when he feels a song isn't up to the band's established standards, he makes it very clear what he doesn't like. In a way, I think MacDonald managed to have a significant impact on certain aspects of popular opinion towards the Beatles music. That may sound like a bit much, but keep in mind that this book was originally published in 1994 and has become (arguably) the standard for critical analysis of the Beatles music.

Throughout the book, MacDonald challenges many of the long-held notions that had gone more or less unchallenged in many, many Beatles-related wiritings. Some of the stereotypes - i.e. John was the intellectual and innovator, Paul was the lightweight romantic - had practically become accepted as facts by music fans. There isn't so much revisionism for it's own sake in this book, but rather a serious re-examination of those popular opinions/theories that often yields a fresh perspective. That's where the value really can be found in this book - you may not agree with every idea MacDonald puts forth, but it is guaranteed you will be forced to take a fresh look at the Beatles music.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Interesting take on the Beatles, September 6, 2002

By 

R.J. (Toronto, Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Revolution in the Head: The Beatles' Records and the Sixties (Hardcover)

Revolution In the Head is a song by song survey and analysis of all the Beatles songs, and the fan will find himself fascinated by all the tidbits and details. The author shows how the songs were developed, and one leaves this book very appreciative of the "hooks" in their songs, and the undervalued importance of the "middle eight" and the "bridge" in pop music. One thinks of songs of the last decade of so, and how they contrast with the two and a half minute gems that Lennon and McCartney composed. Today's songs tend to drone on and on for 5 minutes, with no change of pace, and songs tend to have the whole bag of tricks thrown in right away. Reading this book was a refreshing antidote, especially playing the Beatles while reading this.

The author shows the good and bad, the brilliant mixes, the bad editing and cutting on some songs, especially the earlier ones, and gives credit where credit is due. He can get a bit too overbearing at times, I happen to love the keyboard solo in "In My Life", I hardly notice the little flourish at the end of it which the author dislikes. On certain songs such as "Revolution", the author dispenses with song analysis altogether and starts writing an essay about the politics and culture of the time. This I found a bit annoying. The Beatles were a phenomenon, but as John Lennon once said, "we were just a little band who made it big". The music is meant to be enjoyed, from "Little Child" to "Glass Onion" to "For No One", there's no great social meaning to all this, it's just a rich pop tapestry.

Overall, a fascinating book, well worth it for Beatles fans and for those just discovering them.

18 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Terrific Book, But Nothing New in the 3rd Ed, August 8, 2007

By 

Magnus - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Revolution in the Head: The Beatles' Records and the Sixties (Paperback)

This is an indispensable book about Beatles music appreciation. MacDonald was one of the most idiosyncratic critics of music that ever lived. This book must be owned by anyone, especially musicians and songwriters, who wants to truly get to the heart of the music of the Beatles.

The only disappointment for me (and for anyone who's been faithfully buying and reading the updates of this book since its release in the mid-1990s) is that the 3rd edition is NOT REVISED. If you own the second edition, you do not need to buy this book. There is not one difference in the text.

Oddly enough, this edition has slightly better quality paper, for some reason, whereas the previous edition uses sort of newspaper/telephone book quality sheets that tear easily. Two other subtle changes are: a different pic on the front cover, and the omission of one of the members of Oasis' profanely worded endorsement of the book.

Happy reading if you've never been inside the book before, but if you have the 2nd revised edition, you can sit this one out.