Beschreibung (Kurztext)

A biography on a par with Peter Guralnick's work on Elvis Presley and Jon Savage's on the Sex Pistols, Jonathan Gould's "Can't Buy Me Love" is more than just a book on the Beatles; it's a stunning recreation of the 1960s in England and America through the prism of the world's most iconic band. The Beatles, perhaps more than any act before or since, were a quintessential product of their time, and Gould brilliantly blends cultural history, musical analysis and group biography to show the unique part they played in the shaping of post-war Britain and America. Gould examines the influence of R & B, rockabilly, skiffle and Motown as the Fab Four forged a sound of their own; he illuminates the mercurial relationship the most productive and lucrative in recording music history between John Lennon and Paul McCartney; he critiques the songs they played and the movies they made, and their impact on competing bands and musicians, as well as on fashion, hairstyles, and humour; and he shows how events on both sides of the Atlantic from the Angry Young Man movement of John Osborne and the Profumo scandal to the advent of television and the assassination of John F Kennedy created exactly the right cultural climate for the biggest music phenomenon of 20th century. Beautifully written, insightful, and wonderfully evocative, "Can't Buy Me Love" is a magisterial biography by a popular historian of the very first rank.