Well-worn information and questionable musical analysis add up to a very disposable take on the Fab Four.
Another year, another Beatles biography.
Anyone tackling the oft-told tale of John, Paul, George and Ringo had better come up with a new angle, or new facts, or new interviews, or new something—or risk suffering the wrath of zillions of Beatles nuts. This long-winded debut will certainly put Gould in the crosshairs. The book rehashes biographical information that even casual Beatlemaniacs are quite familiar with. Bob Spitz’s monolith The Beatles: The Biography (2005) is the ultimate Fab Four bio, and it would take an experienced, well-connected investigative journalist to unearth any fresh information beyond that. A former professional musician, Gould chooses to explicate virtually every song in the Beatles canon, but his approach isn’t as much analytical as it is explanatory and interpretive. He spends a goodly number of pages describing the musical theory behind the band’s compositions. Of “A Day in the Life,” for example, he writes: “John’s voice ends the verse on high falsetto G. He clings to that note at the start of the refrain…before descending a fifth to warble the second half of the line…between a pair of adjoining notes.” Musicians are likely the only readers interested in this kind of academic nuts and bolts, and musicians buying a nearly-600-page Beatles tome are likely to already be familiar with Lennon and McCartney’s chord changes and time-signature shifts. Laypeople, on the other hand, will be bored by these incongruous theoretical breakdowns. It’s been well documented that many of Lennon and McCartney’s lyrics are nonsensical, so Gould’s attempts to get into the composers’ heads could be construed as pretentious and superfluous—adjectives that, regrettably, describe this book as a whole.
Well-worn information and questionable musical analysis add up to a very disposable take on the Fab Four.Pub Date: Oct. 2, 2007
ISBN: 978-0-307-35337-5
Page Count: 576
Publisher: Harmony
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2007
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis...
Privately published by Strunk of Cornell in 1918 and revised by his student E. B. White in 1959, that "little book" is back again with more White updatings.
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis (whoops — "A bankrupt expression") a unique guide (which means "without like or equal").Pub Date: May 15, 1972
ISBN: 0205632645
Page Count: 105
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1972
This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)
Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996
ISBN: 0-15-100227-4
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
