Reviews

Can't Buy Me Love by Jonothan Gould

ketzigirl33's review against another edition

4.0

love the way this book is laid out. great surprises even for big Beatles fans.

alexsiddall's review against another edition

4.0

A well-told story of the Beatles from their beginnings to their break-up. Gould is particularly perceptive in his track-by-track analysis of their songs, which time and again took me back to the music, and time and again I heard things I hadn't appreciated before.
There have been some excellent books about the Beatles. This is one of the best I've come across.

henrik_w's review against another edition

5.0

Comprehensive and authoritative. In addition to being a really good history of the Beatles (including the childhoods of all of them), I liked that almost all of their songs were described and analysed by the author, even though the music terminology is too advanced for me (tonic, syncopated, arpeggiated, glissando etc). I also really enjoyed how the Beatles were placed in the context of the times - there are history lessons on the British invasion, the summer of love, Woodstock etc, as well as comparisons to Bob Dylan, The Rolling Stones and more. Even though it took me quite a while to get through (606 pages), I really enjoyed it.

shelfimprovement's review against another edition

4.0

What I loved about this book is that it didn't just tell the story of how John, Paul, George, and Ringo met, wrote songs together and fell apart. Gould's exploration of how the cultures of Britain and America affected and were affected by the Beatles was fascinating.

supereddie's review against another edition

3.0

A lot of detail...maybe too much but the author is trying to provide enough background to help understand better the story and how it effected there lives. I think it could be presented in a much simpler way.