Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.

McKinney's Beatles are cultural heroes, risen from the "toilets" of Liverpool and Hamburg to confront boredom and fear. Defying stasis, they imagine and reimagine what they could make of themselves (and their fans could make of them) and yet are always aware of the fragility of the enterprise. An independent scholar, McKinney is at his best at probing and analyzing the group's symbiotic relationship with its fans, a relationship, he argues, that by 1966 had turned the Beatles from subjects to objects, from actors to symbols, vilified and physically threatened by those opposed to change, by the "nondreaming" world. No less illuminating are McKinney's credible, complex interpretations of key Beatles texts, including the 1962 Star Club recording, the 1966 Budokan shows in Japan, and 1967's Sgt. Pepper, the last characterized as a failure, a nostalgic "cover-up" of the fact that the countercultural dream was dead. McKinney also attends to Charles Manson's appropriation of the Beatles' so-called White Album and to the "Paul-is-dead" myth. Although McKinney's methods include psychology and a bit of history, his work is best characterized as informed, imaginative narration, as he constructs the past from the inside out. A fascinating, important, and beautifully written book. Summing Up: Essential. All collections. General Readers; Lower-division Undergraduates; Upper-division Undergraduates; Graduate Students; Researchers/Faculty; Professionals/Practitioners. Reviewed by W. Graebner. From: Syndetics Solutions, Inc. Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.