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The Beatles As Musicians: The Quarry Men Through Rubber Soul |  | Author: Walter Everett
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Category: Book
List Price: $40.00
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Rating:  11 reviews
Sales Rank: 320301
Media: Paperback
Edition: illustrated edition
Pages: 472
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.4
Dimensions (in): 9.2 x 5.7 x 1.2
ISBN: 0195141059
Dewey Decimal Number: 782.421660922
EAN: 9780195141054
ASIN: 0195141059
Publication Date: November 1, 2001
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Product Description
The Beatles as Musicians: The Quarry Men through Rubber Soul is a comprehensive, chronologically-ordered study of every aspect of the group's musical life--composition, performance, recording and reception histories--from its beginnings in 1956 through 1965. Richly authoritative interpretations from every available reliable musical document are interwoven through a documentary study of many thousands of audio, video, print, and multimedia sources. The text will enable general readers and musicians as well as educated music theorists to learn new levels of beauty in the music of the Beatles.
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Showing reviews 1-5 of 11
The only indispensable Beatles book, but... September 3, 2009
A. ameli (Rome, Italy)
It is not a work for everybody, if you mean to read it and understand it all. To read this book you need a more than basic knowledge of music theory + a certain amount of time to get used to the author's analytical technique + the transcriptions of (almost) all the Beatles recorded works as published by Wise in UK and Hal Leonard in USA (with all their mistakes, as pointed out by Everett) + all the recordings by the group, not only the official ones but as many bootlegs you can put your hands on. Everett spent lots of time listening to the works, reading all published material (especially interviews) on the subject, getting to all available recorded, photographic and video sources. His analysis of the single recordings is amazing, very in-depth, deconstructing the songs to the minimal unit and demonstrating how each of these units fit into the whole construction of the best songs.
I have heard this music since a was a child and still reading Everett's book made me perceive so many unheard before aspects I never knew existed. So I want to thank him for this not small feat.
In the title of my review though there's a hint of an objection. Which is this: I think Everett is absolute master of his method, he has musical knowledge as few other writers have and dedication and passion for the music he analyzes. And still...I don't think he has that quid (lat.) which differentiate the great critic from the academic. His work is a great study, but it is not a great book. He should have been able to differentiate the essential points from the dross. I don't think that much of his analysis is necessary for the appreciation of the songs and he doesn't make aesthetical choices, the songs being relevant only for their technical, musical aspects. Everett is not able to analyze lyrics convincingly in conjunction with the music and he rarely, if ever, does it, limiting himself most of the time to quote the authors themselves as to how they came on to a particular catch-phrase. Still words are inherent in songs, inextricably married to the music: I'd expect more from such a book in that respect.
A minor grievance is how some musical analysis terms and techniques are not explained or sufficiently well explained. F.e., his schemes with the skeleton of the songs are not explained as to how they're constructed, so it remains hard to follow explanations based on them. Also, in spite of the glossary at the end of the volume, some symbols and abbreviations used in the book are absent or not sufficiently explained. It also leaves me perplexed at how he renounces analyzing a song like Holly's Words of Love because aesthetically irrelevant: I think this is (debatably, of course) the Beatles greatest cover version and a great improvement on Holly's version.
Still, I repeat, this is the best book written on the Beatles yet, (though I should probably re-read Mellers before declaring it such) but not the definitive one it aims to be. Thank God, we won't ever have such a one!
Great research on a brilliant band! December 2, 2008
sleeping beauty (NC)
I have an assignment comparing The Beatles to their predecessors, and no book or article I have read/studied thus far has been as helpful as this book. Everett goes so in depth, it's unbelievable. And, he manages to make it interesting, to boot!
I would suggest, however, if you are not a musician, to bone up on your chord progressions. He references a lot of chord structures that may be unfamiliar.
All in all, a great book--and especially a wonderful reference for research!
The author REALLY listens carefully January 29, 2008
Stuart M. Paine (Arlington, VA USA)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I've never seen such a detailed description of the architecture of The Beatles' music and its performance. (Where else can one find charts on the guys' vocal ranges, for instance?) And all the discussion of their instruments. And all the songlists even from the very beginning of their partnership! I enjoyed this book thoroughly.
To be truthful, considering the amount of detailed musical analysis here, it's difficult for me to imagine the average fan who is not a professional musician being able to follow a great amount of Mr. Everett's discussion. For a musician, however, it's an invigorating exercise in thinking through song structures and harmonic patterns.
I've long been interested in some of the same questions Mr. Everett poses.
Many years ago, out of simple curiosity I put on A HARD DAY'S NIGHT and played through every number in turn, mapping out the various keys and structures; I found that the fourteen songs exhibited thirteen different song forms! This just five years after Buddy Holly!
Add to that that "the boys" experimented with unusual scales, modulations and meter changes and did about everything conceivable with the harmonic sequence, modifying it bit by bit in ever more adventurous ways until finally breaking free altogether. Given all this, it was obvious from the beginning that, whether or not the members of the group were capable of reading a score, they were consciously manipulating the materials of musical construction. Their work deserves this kind of scholarly attention.
Again, GREAT book and I especially appreciate all the attention the author gave to the very early repertoire.
Serious scholarship March 13, 2007
Steve Seminario (Portland OR)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Walter Everett subjects the music of The Beatles to the kind of theoretical examination usually reserved for classical music. This book, along with its companion volume, is serious-minded, intellectually rigorous, extremely well-conceived and yet, for the informed reader, not at all tedious. I know of no other instance where popular music has been subjected to this kind of analysis with such compelling results.
These volumes seem to implicitly ask whether The Beatles' music is actually good enough to withstand the rigor of intensive analytical scrutiny. As Professor Everett ably demonstrates, it truly is. His dissection of the famous medley on side two of "Abbey Road" (in the companion volume) is eye-poppingly brilliant. In all, both volumes are superb treatises, books that set a new and very high standard for scholarship in popular music. They are also a welcome addition to literature on the band that is still the standard by which all others are measured.
A Fine Review Of The Beatles' Early Music July 14, 2005
Maclen (Hawaii, USA)
As I indiciated in my review of Everett's companion book, which traces the music of the Beatles from "Revolver" through "The Anthology," these books are the definitive works about the music of the Beatles. There are so many books about the Beatles' cultural iconic significance, their sociological and gender influence and a whole host of other irrelevant topics. What matters most is that the Beatles were timeless musicians who defined the music of the 20th century. Everett reviews their music as he would any great composer. If his perspective is too technical and professorial, you may want to consider Riley's "Tell Me Why," which is still my favorite book about the Beatles' music. It provides succinct and probing insights into their music. Everett's book is nevertheless excellent, and I highly recommend it.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 11
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