Meet the Beatles - by Steven D Stark (Paperback)

About the Book

Based on extensive research and more than a hundred new interviews, Stark offers a compelling interpretation of their story, beginning with their childhoods in England, the central importance of drugs, how the band came to create a new vision of the role of women, and the unique conditions that allowed these four to conquer America faster than any other cultural phenomenon in history.

Book Synopsis

Rob Sheffield, the Rolling Stone columnist and bestselling author of Love Is a Mix Tape, offers an entertaining, unconventional look at the most popular band in history, the Beatles, exploring what they mean today and why they still matter so intensely to a generation that has never known a world without them.

Meet the Beatles is not another biography of the Beatles, or a song-by-song analysis of the best of John and Paul. It isn't another exposé about how they broke up. It isn't a history of their gigs or their gear. It is a collection of essays telling the story of what this ubiquitous band means to a generation who grew up with the Beatles music on their parents' stereos and their faces on T-shirts. What do the Beatles mean today? Why are they more famous and beloved now than ever? And why do they still matter so much to us, nearly fifty years after they broke up?

As he did in his previous books, Love is a Mix Tape, Talking to Girls About Duran Duran, and Turn Around Bright Eyes, Sheffield focuses on the emotional connections we make to music. This time, he focuses on the biggest pop culture phenomenon of all time--The Beatles. In his singular voice, he explores what the Beatles mean today, to fans who have learned to love them on their own terms and not just for the sake of nostalgia.

Meet the Beatles tells the story of how four lads from Liverpool became the world's biggest pop group, then broke up--but then somehow just kept getting bigger. At this point, their music doesn't belong to the past--it belongs to right now. This book is a celebration of that music, showing why the Beatles remain the world's favorite thing--and how they invented the future we're all living in today.

From the Back Cover

The Beatles have profoundly touched the lives of millions. But have you ever wondered why? Why did they become the most powerful artists in history and one of the twentieth century's major symbols of cultural transformation? Meet the Beatles answers those questions and more as it examines the ways the lives of John, Paul, George, and Ringo were inextricably tied to the cultural revolutions their music helped inspire. From their long hair and interest in India to their drug use and admiration for strong women, the Beatles changed the way we look, the way we feel, and even the way we think. This is the book for those who have always been infatuated with the Beatles, as well as those who want to learn for the first time what it all really meant.

Review Quotes

"A volume worthy of its subjects . . . thoughtful, provocative, and valuable" -- Washington Post Book World

"Insightful . . . Stark embeds the band in ideas and movements" -- Newsday

"[A] remarkably fresh perspective . . . Stark's style, though scholarly, is incisive and altogether entertaining." -- Knoxville News-Sentinel

"A thorough biography of the band . . . Stark is sharp and insightful" -- Publishers Weekly

"At the forefront of a 'new wave' of Beatles studies" -- Boston Globe Sunday Magazine

"A clear, new picture of the Beatles as pop-culture phenomenon. . . . thoughly entertaining and engaging" -- Buffalo News