Full Description
For the Beatles, 1967 marks a signal crossroads that would both transform the group's career and place them on a trajectory towards their eventual disbandment. It was a year in which they exploded prevailing rock music demographics through the global onslaught and international success of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band beginning in June 1967. Yet it was also a period that saw them in a precarious state of flux throughout the summer and fall months, as the band attempted to recapture their artistic direction in the wake of Sgt. Pepper and the untimely death of manager Brian Epstein.
The Beatles, Sgt. Pepper, and the Summer of Love draws readers into that pivotal year in the life of the band. For the Fab Four, 1967 would see the band members part ways with psychedelia and the avant-garde through the trials and tribulations of the Magical Mystery Tour, a project that resulted in a series of classic recordings, while at the same time revealing the bandmates' aesthetic vulnerabilities and failings as would-be filmmakers and auteurs.
Contents
Introduction: It Was 50 Years Ago Today! - Kenneth Womack
I. A Splendid Time Is Guaranteed for All
Sgt. Pepper—with a Little Outsider Help—Taught the Band to Play - Jerry Zolten
Turning Us On: Artifice as Authenticity in Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band - Mark Osteen
The Sitar, Eastern Music and Philosophy, and the Beatles' Progress Towards Rishikesh - Kathryn B. Cox
The Act You've Known for All These Years: Discord and Harmony in the Third Space - Jacqueline Edmondson
II. The Summer of Love (and Commerce)
"All You Need Is Love": The Beatles in the Global Village - Kit O'Toole
Golden Blunders: The Fall of the Beatles' Apple and Its Unlikely Seed - Joe Rapolla
The Wretched Life of a Lonely Heart: Sgt. Pepper's Girls, Fandom, the Wilson Sisters, and Chrissie Hynde - Katie Kapurch
"You Say You Want a Revolution": The Beatles and the Political Culture of the 1960s - Kenneth L. Campbell
III. The Magical/Tragical History Tour
Dying To Take You Away: The Beatles as Cinematic Auteurs - Robert Rodriguez
The End of Fantasy: The Beatles, Magical Mystery Tour, and the Counterculture - Michael Frontani
Magical Mystery Tour: From EP to LP to CD - Bruce Spizer
