Long and Winding Roads: The Evolving Artistry of the Beatles

by Kenneth Womack

Overview

In Long and Winding Roads: The Evolving Artistry of the Beatles, Kenneth Womack brings the band's story vividly to life-from their salad days as a Liverpool Skiffle group and their apprenticeship in the nightclubs and mean streets of Hamburg through their early triumphs at the legendary Cavern Club and the massive onslaught of Beatlemania itself. By mapping the group's development as an artistic fusion, Womack traces the Beatles' creative arc from their first, primitive recordings through Abbey Road and the twilight of their career.




In order to communicate the nature and power of the band's remarkable achievement, Womack examines the Beatles' body of work as an evolving art object. He investigates the origins and creation of the group's compositions, as well as the songwriting and recording practices that brought them to fruition. Womack's analysis of the Beatles' albums transports readers on a journey through the Beatles' heyday as recording artists between 1962 and 1969, when the band enjoyed a staggering musical and lyrical leap that took them from their first album Please Please Me, which they recorded in the space of a single day, to Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, the White Album, and Abbey Road-albums that collectively required literally thousands of hours to produce. In addition to considering the band's increasing self-consciousness about the overall production, design, and presentation of their art, Womack explores the Beatles' albums as a collection of musical and lyrical impressions that finds them working towards a sense of aesthetic unity. In Long and Winding Roads, Womack reveals the ways in which the Beatles gave life to a musical synthesis that would change the world.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780826417466
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	05/30/2007
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	336
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Kenneth Womack is Professor of English and Head of the Division of Arts and Humanities at Penn State University's Altoona College.

Table of Contents

Preface

Chapter 1: The End

Chapter 2: The Beginning

Chapter 3: A Cellarful of Noise

Chapter 4: And the Band Begins to Play

Chapter 5: Rock and Roll Music

Chapter 6: The Biggest Showbiz Town Ever

Chapter 7: Yesterday and Today

Chapter 8: The End of the Road

Chapter 9: The Act You've Known for All These Years
Chapter 10: Roll Up for the Mystery Tour
Chapter 11: You Say You Want a Revolution

Chapter 12: Getting Back

Chapter 13: The Dream Is Over

Chapter 14: Long Live the Dream

Acknowledgements
Appendix A: Discography
Appendix B: Terminology
Notes
Bibliography

Editorial Reviews

"Any music library strong in Beatles surveys and references will welcome Long and Winding Road: The Evolving Artistry of The Beatles, which takes quite a different approach than most biographical focuses. The one maps the group's evolutionary trends from their first recordings to the height - and then fall - of their career. The Beatles' body of songs - not their lives - are considered on an analysis which does include some biography, but doesn't make this the focal point. The result is more well-rounded than most Beatles coverage with an emphasis on music over inspirational influences." James A. Cox, The Midwest Book Review, February 2008 --Sanford Lakoff

"Good on recognizing precursors to Beatles' songs, Womack does a fine job of bringing out the group's accelerated aesthetic development." -CHOICE --Sanford Lakoff

Mention in Memphis Flyer--Sanford Lakoff

Mention in The Bookseller--Sanford Lakoff

Mention in Memphis Flyer--,

Mention in The Bookseller--,

"Womack does a fine job of bringing out the group's accelerated aesthetic development."
-Choice, 2008

Mention in Memphis Flyer--Leonard Gill

Mention in The Bookseller--The Bookseller

From the Publisher