Thorough, impeccably detailed and wonderfully intuitive.

Just superb. It was everything I needed it to be, and more.

What. A. Book.

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A Comprehensive History and Analysis

I found Revolution in the Head a comprehensive history and analysis of every Beatles recording. Not being musical myself, most of the musical terms went over my head. None the less the depth of information was very interesting, and I could imagine myself in the the studio with the Fab Four watching them create some of the greatest popular music of the twentieth century. If I am to be negative about the book, I was turned off by Ian McDonald's rather unnecessary critique of a lot of the songs;. making snide remarks about the quality of their musicianship and lyrical content.

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5 people found this helpful

Subjective But Well Written

This is for the audio book. MacDonald's is a good trawl through the recordings of the Beatles, which only raised my eyebrows a few times with highly debateable opinions. I'll probably read my physical copy sometime because while I can recommend this title I can't say the same for the list of readers. Some, like David Morrisey, are very good, but why do we have Jenny Boyd, sister of Pattie, forced upon us? Her poor pronunciation of several words simply isn't good enough for an audio book. Also, one of the other readers decided to sing song lyrics (really badly), which was idiotic.

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Provocative take on the greatest rock canon of them all

Having read this donkeys years ago, a chance to re-listen post-Lewisohn was welcome. Can be a little too technical at times, and the author's opinions are often ones that I disagree with - any criticism of 66/69 Beatles immediately sets my teeth on edge - but it remains fascinating stuff, underlining just how important The Beatles were and remain.
Well performed by and large, I could have done without Berry and Lloyd, and more of Hitchcock and Hepworth.
Great value overall, well recommended.

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Multiple narrators don’t work

This is an interesting look at the Beatles recorded output and their influence on 60s music and culture.
The multiple narrators ruined it for me though.

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Interesting and intruiging

I don't agree with all the author says but that's good. A real insight into the songs and their recording.

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Great insight to the greatest band ever!

The book is often quite critical of the music, which I don’t agree with, but interesting to hear an unbiased opinion.

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Good insight into the order of Beatle songs

Being a massive fan this book had been recommended to me often. I can't say I loved it as I'm pretty sure some of the information is wrong and he wasn't shy about critiquing beloved Beatle songs and the beatles themselves. To a point that I thought it was a bit much.
That said I think his overall conclusion is quite fair and his analysis while highly personal I can respect.
I wanted better but think he is a good author limited by a subject where the truth can be hard to find.
Some narrators are better than others but most are excellent.

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great journey through great songs

Overall a really good listen with impressive insights into songs. agreed with most options and disagreed with a couple. Found the chapters where the author went banging on about hippies very boring so skipped those.

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Brilliant

Would you consider the audio edition of Revolution in the Head to be better than the print version?

Well I managed to listen to all over it in a few days - mainly on my computer's speakers - can't imagine I would have managed that had I been reading... books sometimes take weeks to read...

What was one of the most memorable moments of Revolution in the Head?

I enjoyed the little digs taken at the hippy movement... Was also v interested to learn about the history of the How Do You Do track. Had no idea about that...

What does the narrators bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you had only read the book?

Getting to hear people like Danny Baker and Dave Hepworth narrating...

Did you have an emotional reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

Made me happy to live in a country with such a rich cultural history...

Any additional comments?

Definitely worth listening to...

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5 people found this helpful