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
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
An extravaganza in Bemelmans' inimitable vein, but written almost dead pan, with sly, amusing, sometimes biting undertones, breaking through. For Bemelmans was "the man who came to cocktails". And his hostess was Lady Mendl (Elsie de Wolfe), arbiter of American decorating taste over a generation. Lady Mendl was an incredible person,- self-made in proper American tradition on the one hand, for she had been haunted by the poverty of her childhood, and the years of struggle up from its ugliness,- until she became synonymous with the exotic, exquisite, worshipper at beauty's whrine. Bemelmans draws a portrait in extremes, through apt descriptions, through hilarious anecdote, through surprisingly sympathetic and understanding bits of appreciation. The scene shifts from Hollywood to the home she loved the best in Versailles. One meets in passing a vast roster of famous figures of the international and artistic set. And always one feels Bemelmans, slightly offstage, observing, recording, commenting, illustrated.
Pub Date: Feb. 23, 1955
ISBN: 0670717797
Page Count: -
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: Oct. 25, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1955
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