Can't Buy Me Love

By: Jonathan Gould

Narrated by: Richard Aspel

Nearly 20 years in the making, Can't Buy Me Love is a masterful work of group biography, cultural history, and musical criticism. That the Beatles were an unprecedented phenomenon is a given. Here Jonathan Gould seeks to explain why, placing the Fab Four in the broad and tumultuous panorama of their time and place, rooting their story in the social context that girded both their rise and their demise. Can't Buy Me Love illuminates the Beatles as a charismatic phenomenon of international proportions, whose anarchic energy and unexpected import was derived from the historic shifts in fortune that transformed the relationship between Britain and America in the decades after World War II.

©2007 Jonathan Gould (P)2013 Bolinda Publishing Pty Ltd

Critic reviews

"Not just another biography of the Fab Four, Gould's ambitious, decades-in-the-making volume tells their larger-than-life story and uses it as a lens through which to look at the cultural and historical forces that shaped the band - and its ongoing significance." ( Rolling Stone)

"Fascinating.... An essential addition to Beatle literature." ( The Guardian)

"Brilliant.... Engrossing.... Gould's deft hand makes the book sing. This is music writing at its best." ( Publishers Weekly, starred, signature review)

Best Beatles biography among them all

Excellently written in depth biography of The Beatles. All four lives are deeply examined in detail. Almost every single Beatles song is dissected and reviewed. If you love The Beatles, you will adore this account of their lives and music. The story begins with lots of history that influenced and formed the absolute best band of all time..... from their birth dates all the way until they broke up. Everything in this book checks out as fact.

can't buy me love

very in depth story about beatles and the events that made them the most popular rock band on the world

Perhaps the best book on the Beatles.

I know that more than 500 books haver been written on the Beatles, so it's unlikely anyone could speak of any one of them as being the best. But Gould's stand apart as a marvelous treatment of the lives of the Beatles and the times during which they made their music. What distinguishes the book, however, is Gould's incisive analysis of the music itself. While many biographies of the Beatles are caught up in gossip surrounding the four musicians, Gould keeps his eye on what makes the music revolutionary, beautiful, and even, at times, profound. I especially like how he analyzes the music in terms of its placement on record, where a break occurs at the halfway point, the disc is turned over, and a kind of new beginning takes place. The continuous format of a CD disguises and disrupts the ingenious placement of the songs--especially noticeable on Sgt. Pepper.

4.5 Stars-Great Book….but….

I really enjoyed this audiobook. The author does a wonderful job of detailing the events during the Beatles career by telling the reader how and when those happenings fit into and impacted the historical timeline of the 60s. Many Beatles books do not do that very well. The story provides the big picture.

My only complaint is that the author has a complete adoration for Paul McCartney, especially evident during his critiques of the Beatles song catalog. And, the author often gives McCartney the benefit of a doubt, making excuses for Paul when Paul flops.

Overall, I recommend this audiobook. The narration is excellent and moves at a listenable pace. And the story offers lots of historical tidbits that even the most knowledgeable of Beatles fans will enjoy.

awful narrator

...I didn't enjoy the style or the sound or the narrator's voice at all. The book was informative, but his voice was very irritating. He may very well be a fine person.