Description: As we mark the fiftieth anniversary of the most momentous year in the life of the Beatles, the contributors to The Beatles, Sgt. Pepper, and the Summer of Love perform wide-ranging analyses of the group's enduring sociocultural influence and achievements.
Brief description: Kenneth Womack is one of the world's foremost writers and thinkers about the Beatles. He is Professor of English and Popular Music at Monmouth University, USA. He also serves as the Music Culture critic for Salon, as well as a contributor to a host of print and web outlets, including Slate, Billboard, Time, Variety, USA Today, The Guardian, Smithsonian Magazine, The Independent, NBC News, and The Philadelphia Inquirer. He is the author of The Beatles Encyclopedia (2014), Maximum Volume (2017), Sound Pictures (2018), Solid State (2019), John Lennon 1980 (2020), and Living the Beatles Legend: The Untold Story of Mal Evans (2023). In October 2020, Rolling Stone magazine published a feature story outlining Womack's groundbreaking research associated with Lennon's life and work.
Review Quotes: Largely because of the Beatles, 1967 was the most important year for song since 1840. This study of the Beatles' work of 1967 offers deep and stimulating new research and speculation on the surrounding politics, communications media, commerce and the counterculture; inspiration ranging from non-western to avant garde musics; tension in the Beatles' masquerade; the role of gender in reception; and the album's influence on followers.