Revolution in the Head

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Revolution in the Head: The Beatles' Records and the Sixties
Revolution in the Head.jpg
Cover to the Third Revised Edition (2005)
Author Ian MacDonald
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish
Subject The Beatles/The 1960s
Publisher Fourth Estate (1994, 1997)
Pimlico (1995, 1998, 2005)
Publication date
December 1994
2 June 2005 (paperback)
Pages544 (paperback)
ISBN 1-84413-828-3
OCLC 57750072

Revolution in the Head: The Beatles' Records and the Sixties is a book by British music critic and author Ian MacDonald, discussing the music of the Beatles and the band's relationship to the social and cultural changes of the 1960s. The first edition was published in 1994, with revised editions appearing in 1997 and 2005, the latter following MacDonald's death in 2003.

Ian MacCormick was a British music critic and author, best known for both Revolution in the Head, his critical history of the Beatles which borrowed techniques from art historians, and The New Shostakovich, a study of Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich. MacDonald was instrumental in popularising Nick Drake during the late 1970s and early 1980s.

The Beatles English rock band

The Beatles were an English rock band formed in Liverpool in 1960. The line-up of John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr led the band to be regarded as the foremost and most influential in history. With a sound rooted in skiffle, beat and 1950s rock and roll, the group were integral to the evolution of pop music into an art form, and to the development of the counterculture of the 1960s. They often incorporated elements of classical music, older pop forms, and unconventional recording techniques in innovative ways, and in later years experimented with a number of musical styles ranging from pop ballads and Indian music to psychedelia and hard rock. As they continued to draw influences from a variety of cultural sources, their musical and lyrical sophistication grew, and they came to be seen as embodying the era's sociocultural movements.

Contents

Background

MacDonald first began working as a journalist with the New Musical Express in the 1970s. He had moved away from popular music writing by the early 1990s with The New Shostakovich, his re-evaluation of the composer Dmitri Shostakovich against earlier KGB written accounts, but revisited the subject when he started writing for the music magazine Mojo . He wrote a lengthy retrospective on Nick Drake, whom he personally knew when living in Cambridge in the early 1970s, and this led to writing a work about the Beatles. [1]

Dmitri Shostakovich Soviet composer and pianist

Dmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich was a Russian composer and pianist. He is regarded as one of the major composers of the 20th century.

KGB Main security agency for the Soviet Union

The KGB, translated in English as Committee for State Security, was the main security agency for the Soviet Union from 1954 until its break-up in 1991. As a direct successor of preceding agencies such as Cheka, NKGB, NKVD and MGB, the committee was attached to the Council of Ministers. It was the chief government agency of "union-republican jurisdiction", acting as internal security, intelligence and secret police. Similar agencies were constituted in each of the republics of the Soviet Union aside from Russia, and consisted of many ministries, state committees and state commissions.

<i>Mojo</i> (magazine) magazine

Mojo is a popular music magazine published initially by Emap, and since January 2008 by Bauer, monthly in the United Kingdom. Following the success of the magazine Q, publishers Emap were looking for a title that would cater for the burgeoning interest in classic rock music. Mojo was first published on 15 October 1993; in keeping with its classic rock aesthetic, the first issue had Bob Dylan and John Lennon as its first cover stars. Noted for its in-depth coverage of both popular and cult acts, it acted as the inspiration for Blender and Uncut. Many noted music critics have written for it, including Charles Shaar Murray, Greil Marcus, Nick Kent and Jon Savage. The launch editor of Mojo was Paul Du Noyer and his successors have included Mat Snow, Paul Trynka and Pat Gilbert.

Format

The book's main section comprises entries on every song recorded by the group, in order of first recording date, rather than date of release. [2] Each entry includes a list of the musicians and instruments present on the track, the song's producers and engineers, and the dates of its recording sessions and its first UK and US releases. MacDonald provides musicological and sociological commentary on each song, [3] ranging in length from a single sentence for "Wild Honey Pie" to several pages for tracks such as "I Want to Hold Your Hand", "Tomorrow Never Knows" and "Revolution 1".

Wild Honey Pie original song written and composed by Lennon-McCartney

"Wild Honey Pie" is a song by the English rock band the Beatles from their 1968 double album The Beatles. It was written by Paul McCartney and credited to Lennon–McCartney. Less than a minute in length, the song mainly consists of the title being chanted repeatedly and was performed by McCartney without the participation of the other Beatles.

I Want to Hold Your Hand original song written and composed by Lennon-McCartney

"I Want to Hold Your Hand" is a song by the English rock band the Beatles. Written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney, and recorded in October 1963, it was the first Beatles record to be made using four-track equipment.

Tomorrow Never Knows original song written and composed by Lennon-McCartney

"Tomorrow Never Knows" is a song by the English rock band the Beatles. It was released in August 1966 as the final track on their album Revolver, although it was the first song recorded for the LP. Credited as a Lennon–McCartney song, it was written primarily by John Lennon. The song marked a radical departure for the Beatles, as the band fully embraced the potential of the recording studio without any consideration for being able to reproduce the results in concert.

The book also contains the essay "Fabled Foursome, Disappearing Decade", MacDonald's analysis of the Beatles' relationship to the social and cultural changes of the 1960s. [3] Later editions of the book added further commentary: the preface to the first revised edition discusses the British art school scene that spawned the Beatles and some of the differences between British and US culture that affect the two nations' respective views of the group; and the second covers subjects such as the Beatles' continued popularity into the 21st century, criticism of their lyrics, and the death of George Harrison. The book concludes with a month-by-month chronology of the 1960s (consisting of a table listing events in the Beatles' career alongside significant events in UK pop music, current affairs and culture), a bibliography, a glossary, a discography, and an index of songs and their keys.

The first edition of the book was published in 1994 and covered every song that had been officially released by the group during their active career between 1962 and 1970. [2] The first revised edition, published in 1997, added tracks that had recently been officially released on Live at the BBC and the Anthology series. [4] A second revised edition incorporated a number of factual updates taken from books including The Beatles Anthology and Barry Miles' Paul McCartney: Many Years From Now; [5] this edition had been prepared by MacDonald, but was published posthumously in 2005. [6]

<i>The Beatles Anthology</i> (book) book by The Beatles

The Beatles Anthology is a book published in October 2000 as part of The Beatles Anthology film project. It includes interviews with all four band members, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr, and others involved, most notably George Martin, plus over 1,200 rare photos and colorful illustrations. Many of the interviews quoted are from those featured in the documentary films, and additional interviews were conducted specifically for the book. The book went straight to the top of the New York Times bestsellers list. In 2002, the book was released as a large-format paperback.

Barry Miles is an English author known for his participation in and writing on the subjects of the 1960s London underground and counterculture. He is the author of numerous books and his work has also regularly appeared in left-wing papers such as The Guardian. In the 1960s, he was co-owner of the Indica Gallery and helped start the independent newspaper International Times.

Critical response

The book drew a favourable response from critics. The Guardian 's Richard Williams wrote "no other critic ... contributed more to an enlightened enjoyment of the work of the Beatles." [1] Music journalist John Bergstrom said the book surpassed Mark Lewisohn's earlier Sessions as the de facto factual reference for the group's recording career, adding that it "will leave you scrambling to your Beatles collection for a new listen rather than a familiar or nostalgic one, and that is quite an accomplishment". [7] Charles Shaar Murray noted that the book clearly displayed MacDonald's favouritism towards mid-1960s pop, but nevertheless said anyone wanting to disagree "is going to have to argue as cogently and energetically as he does". [8]

<i>The Guardian</i> British national daily newspaper

The Guardian is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as The Manchester Guardian, and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers The Observer and The Guardian Weekly, the Guardian is part of the Guardian Media Group, owned by the Scott Trust. The trust was created in 1936 to "secure the financial and editorial independence of the Guardian in perpetuity and to safeguard the journalistic freedom and liberal values of the Guardian free from commercial or political interference". The trust was converted into a limited company in 2008, with a constitution written so as to maintain for The Guardian the same protections as were built into the structure of the Scott Trust by its creators. Profits are reinvested in journalism rather than distributed to owners or shareholders.

Richard Williams is a British music and sports journalist.

John Bergstrom is an American music critic and journalist. He is best known for his features and reviews on the international webzine PopMatters. He is also a contributor to Trouser Press. He has also written for the alternative weekly newspaper Shepherd Express.

Paul McCartney has said he read the book, and has commented on it in interviews with Pitchfork in 2007 and with Rolling Stone in 2014. He disputes the accuracy of MacDonald's readings, and is irritated when inaccurate assertions from "a very highly respected tome" are propagated as facts. [9] [10]

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References

Citations
  1. 1 2 Williams, Richard (8 September 2003). "Obituary : Ian MacDonald". The Guardian. Retrieved 8 August 2014.
  2. 1 2 MacDonald 2005, p. 41.
  3. 1 2 Carvill, John (24 November 2009). "Re-Meet the Beatles: PopMatters Salutes the Still Fab Four: Revolution in the Head; The Beatles' Records and the Sixties by Ian MacDonald". PopMatters . Retrieved 17 December 2011.
  4. ↑ MacDonald 2005, p. xvii.
  5. ↑ MacDonald 2005, p. xiv.
  6. ↑ MacDonald 2005, p. x, Publishers' Note.
  7. ↑ Bergstrom, John (28 October 2007). "Revolution in the Head by Ian MacDonald". PopMatters. Retrieved 8 August 2014.
  8. ↑ Murray, Charles Shaar (27 June 2003). "The People's Music by Ian MacDonald". The Independent.
  9. ↑ Dahlen, Chris (May 21, 2007). "Sir Paul McCartney". Pitchfork . Retrieved May 11, 2016. I suppose people are allowed to just read into it, but it's a bit irritating when I know it's not true.
  10. ↑ Vozick-Levinson, Simon (July 17, 2014). "Paul McCartney: The Long and Winding Q&A". Rolling Stone . Retrieved May 11, 2016. ...these books that are written about the meaning of songs, like Revolution in the Head – I read through that. It's a kind of toilet book, a good book to just dip into. I'll come across, 'McCartney wrote that in answer to Lennon's acerbic this,' and I go, 'Well, that's not true.' But it's going down as history. That is already known as a very highly respected tome, and I say, 'Yeah, well, okay.' This is a fact of my life. These facts are going down as some sort of musical history about the Beatles. There are millions of them, and I know for a fact that a lot of them are incorrect.
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