Jonathan Gould is a former professional musician and the author of Can't Buy Me Love: The Beatles, Britain, & America, and Otis Redding. He divides his time between a home in Brooklyn and a house near Hudson, NY.
‘Gould has written a scrupulous, witty and, at times, appropriately
skeptical study… As a clever person once said… “Writing about music
is like dancing about architecture.” Gould, it turns out, is an
astute and sensitive choreographer... If I had the space I’d cite
dozens more examples of Gould’s graceful unfolding of various
Beatle tunes. At his best, he lets you hear with keener ears the
way a great novelist lets you feel with keener emotions. He even
made me want to listen to “Eleanor Rigby” again. I can’t think of
higher praise.’
—Bruce Handy, New York Times Book Review
"Gould, a former musician, has written an engrossing book, both
fluid and economical (aside from one overlong section on the
concept of charisma). Page after page, you can hear the music;
Gould's deft hand makes the book sing. This is music writing at its
best."
—Publishers Weekly, starred, signature review
"What separates writer and musician Gould's first book from the
multitudinous others is his threefold focus; Gould deftly mixes
biography with social commentary and musical and lyrical analysis,
illustrating how the band crafted its groundbreaking songs and how
its achievements impacted, and were impacted by, the tumultuous
1960s. Highly recommended for all academic, public, and music
libraries."
—Library Journal
"Gould's combination group biography, cultural history, and musical
criticism artfully places the Beatles in their time and social
context while examining with great skill how they became an
international phenomenon comparable only to themselves. ... Setting
Gould's book apart are his careful dissection of cultural history
and his astute critical eye. ... Long on history, short on gossip,
he gives nuanced assessments of the world's most admired rock band
and of its era."
—Booklist, starred review
"Every so often – every rare once in a while – it is good and
cleansing and necessary to have one compact volume that sums
everything up, hitting the heights and depths and sticking with the
facts all the way to the bitter end. Jonathan Gould’s Beatles
biography 'Can’t Buy Me Love' is that book – and, aware as it is of
the fact that even titling the book 'Can’t Buy Me Love' is
something so completely simple and banal, it tells the sprawling,
complicated Beatles story in a refreshingly straight-forward
manner. ... Gould succeeds in not only expertly telling that tale,
but infusing it with a voice that’s all his own."
—Santa Barbara News-Press
"Gould excels at depicting the complexities involved in creating
songs destined to become classics…He juxtaposes their personal
history, the genius, the outrageous statements, the women, the
drugs—with the arc of world events then. If you loved the Beatles,
you'll love this book."
—Dayton Daily News
“It’s been said that not only did the world want the Beatles in the
1960s, it needed them. Gould, for the first time, really explains
why….Gould has written a book that both fans and rock historians
will enjoy.”
—DailyVault.com
“Can't Buy Me Love provides a thrilling account of how four nowhere
kids from Liverpool translated their love of American rock and
blues into a body of popular music unmatched in the nearly forty
years since they ended their careers as Beatles. Writing with a
scholar's attention to history and a musician's interest in
songcraft, Gould meticulously charts the group's evolution from
three-chord sprints like "She Loves You" to multi-partite,
symphonic masterpieces like ‘A Day in the Life.’ If you've ever
wanted to know why the Beatles' music is great and how better to
appreciate it, look no further than this brilliant book.”
–People magazine
“Essential….his narrative literally sings itself off of the
pages.”
—The Boston Globe
“Excellent and engrossing….Gould has the two gifts essential to a
critic–passionate expertise plus a bulletproof sense of humor–and
his descriptions of the music are hilariously on target….Yet Gould
also possesses that third essential gift: the capacity for
awe.”
—James Marcus, The Los Angeles Times
“Excels by providing what’s been missing from many biographies:
context.”
—USA Today
“Volumes have been written on the Beatles….Now comes one of the
best, Jonathan Gould’s Can't Buy Me Love, a smashing group
biography that doubles as a masterful cultural history.”
—Play-Taste
“Offers a fresh vision that, like the Beatles, brims with entergy,
wit and charm.”
—Glenn Frankel, Washington Post Book World
“Can’t Buy Me Love the book is not just a book, it is an experience
and if I had to name must-read/must-own books on the subjects
covered, it would be in the Top Ten of all my lists. Don’t miss one
of the best music history books ever written!”
—Fulvuedrive-in.com
“If what follows in this book review reeks of juvenile gushing, I
won’t even attempt to apologize for it. ... Gould has created in
this, his ... first publication, what can only fairly be described
as the ultimate musician’s guide to song writing and producing. ...
I’m about to re-read and re-savor this writer’s work, this time in
an effort to shake-off self-doubt, and siphon off some of that
determination and talent.”
—Antimusic
“In Can’t Buy Me Love: The Beatles, Britain and America, author
Jonathan Gould presents perhaps the most comprehensive, enjoyable
read concerning the Fab Four ever written. More importantly,
Gould’s book illustrates how events influence our thought
processes, and how we turn to idols to make sense of it all. This
isn’t just a good book–it should be required reading for anybody
interested in the influence of the sixties, and how we perceive
ourselves now.”
—Ray Ellis, Culture Salad Online
“In Can't Buy Me Love, freelance writer Jonathan Gould has produced
the best book ever written about the Beatles. An elegant and
economical stylist, Gould is a brilliant narrative historian, with
an archaeologist's ability to re-create the world inhabited by his
subjects. Can't Buy Me Love is a magical mystery tour that must not
be missed.”
—Glenn C. Altschuler, American studies professor at Cornell
University
“Can’t Buy Me Love joins the late Ian MacDonald’s Revolution in the
Head (released last year in a third edition by Chicago’s A Cappella
Books) on the very short shelf of essential Beatles reads… Prickly,
smart, loving without being blind to its protagonists’ follies, and
comprehensive without resorting to mounds of pointless minutiae,
Can’t Buy Me Love is an involving, wildly intelligent book that
allows us to experience anew the band’s great moment in all its
glorious, world-shaking velocity. A better title may have been
Re-Meet the Beatles.”
—Los Angeles City Beat
"A nearly 20-year labor of love by a first-time writer, it's a
fascinating, witty, and highly original take on Beatles music and
mystique, and a worthy addition to 'Beatle lit.'...Gould delivers a
multifaceted gem of a book that should delight and surprise even
the most oversaturated fan."
—Christian Science Monitor
As a teenager, I collected every album the Beatles put out, starting with their first U.S. release, 1964's Meet the Beatles, to their last, Let It Be, in 1970. As Paul sang "Mother Mary comes to me/ speaking words of wisdom," I heard the wisdom of an aged sage. But as Jonathan Gould states in his brilliant biography of the Beatles, the band had "effectively ended before any of them had reached the age of thirty." There have been several biographies of the band (including two outstanding ones, Bob Spitz's The Beatles and Devin McKinney's Magic Circles: The Beatles In Dream and History), but Gould leaves the gossip to others and instead relies on their music to tell the story, starting with the early days as a band in Liverpool (with Paul McCartney on guitar and Stuart Sutcliffe on bass) to the recordings at the Abbey Road studios in London (where Yoko became everpresent and George stormed out threatening to quit). They got their start in Hamburg, Germany, and were soon managed by a young, eager former furniture salesman named Brian Epstein, and produced by George Martin, a recording executive known for novelty records. Gould, a former musician, has written an engrossing book, both fluid and economical (aside from one overlong section on the concept of "charisma"). Page after page, you can hear the music; Gould's deft hand makes the book sing. This is music writing at its best. "It begins with a musical wake-up call," Gould writes of "A Hard Day's Night"-"the harsh clash of a solitary chord that hangs in the air for an elongated moment, its densely packed notes swimming into focus like eyes adjusting to the light." On "Here Comes the Sun," Gould describes George's music, written as he became more steeped in Indian philosophy amidst turmoil within the band, as "rays of sun cutting across the melting ice of winter... of coming through a long and arduous experience and emerging whole at the end." Focusing on the Beatles' influences, musical (Elvis, Chuck Berry, Bob Dylan, the Beach Boys) and otherwise (marijuana, LSD, the Maharishi Mahesh yogi), Gould elucidates the mystery of the band that changed the course of Western popular music. (Oct.) Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information.
'Gould has written a scrupulous, witty and, at times, appropriately
skeptical study... As a clever person once said... "Writing about
music is like dancing about architecture." Gould, it turns out, is
an astute and sensitive choreographer... If I had the space I'd
cite dozens more examples of Gould's graceful unfolding of various
Beatle tunes. At his best, he lets you hear with keener ears the
way a great novelist lets you feel with keener emotions. He even
made me want to listen to "Eleanor Rigby" again. I can't think of
higher praise.'
-Bruce Handy, New York Times Book Review
"Gould, a former musician, has written an engrossing book, both
fluid and economical (aside from one overlong section on the
concept of charisma). Page after page, you can hear the music;
Gould's deft hand makes the book sing. This is music writing at its
best."
-Publishers Weekly, starred, signature review
"What separates writer and musician Gould's first book from
the multitudinous others is his threefold focus; Gould deftly mixes
biography with social commentary and musical and lyrical analysis,
illustrating how the band crafted its groundbreaking songs and how
its achievements impacted, and were impacted by, the tumultuous
1960s. Highly recommended for all academic, public, and music
libraries."
-Library Journal
"Gould's combination group biography, cultural history, and
musical criticism artfully places the Beatles in their time and
social context while examining with great skill how they became an
international phenomenon comparable only to themselves. ... Setting
Gould's book apart are his careful dissection of cultural history
and his astute critical eye. ... Long on history, short on gossip,
he gives nuanced assessments of the world's most admired rock band
and of its era."
-Booklist, starred review
"Every so often - every rare once in a while - it is good and
cleansing and necessary to have one compact volume that sums
everything up, hitting the heights and depths and sticking with the
facts all the way to the bitter end. Jonathan Gould's Beatles
biography 'Can't Buy Me Love' is that book - and, aware as it is of
the fact that even titling the book 'Can't Buy Me Love' is
something so completely simple and banal, it tells the sprawling,
complicated Beatles story in a refreshingly straight-forward
manner. ... Gould succeeds in not only expertly telling that tale,
but infusing it with a voice that's all his own."
-Santa Barbara News-Press
"Gould excels at depicting the complexities involved in creating
songs destined to become classics...He juxtaposes their personal
history, the genius, the outrageous statements, the women, the
drugs-with the arc of world events then. If you loved the Beatles,
you'll love this book."
-Dayton Daily News
"It's been said that not only did the world want the Beatles in the
1960s, it needed them. Gould, for the first time, really
explains why....Gould has written a book that both fans and rock
historians will enjoy."
-DailyVault.com
"Can't Buy Me Love provides a thrilling account of how four
nowhere kids from Liverpool translated their love of American rock
and blues into a body of popular music unmatched in the nearly
forty years since they ended their careers as Beatles. Writing with
a scholar's attention to history and a musician's interest in
songcraft, Gould meticulously charts the group's evolution from
three-chord sprints like "She Loves You" to multi-partite,
symphonic masterpieces like 'A Day in the Life.' If you've ever
wanted to know why the Beatles' music is great and how better to
appreciate it, look no further than this brilliant book."
-People magazine
"Essential....his narrative literally sings itself off of the
pages."
-The Boston Globe
"Excellent and engrossing....Gould has the two gifts essential to a
critic-passionate expertise plus a bulletproof sense of humor-and
his descriptions of the music are hilariously on target....Yet
Gould also possesses that third essential gift: the capacity for
awe."
-James Marcus, The Los Angeles Times
"Excels by providing what's been missing from many
biographies: context."
-USA Today
"Volumes have been written on the Beatles....Now comes one
of the best, Jonathan Gould's Can't Buy Me Love, a smashing
group biography that doubles as a masterful cultural history."
-Play-Taste
"Offers a fresh vision that, like the Beatles, brims with
entergy, wit and charm."
-Glenn Frankel, Washington Post Book World
"Can't Buy Me Love the book is not just a book, it
is an experience and if I had to name must-read/must-own books on
the subjects covered, it would be in the Top Ten of all my lists.
Don't miss one of the best music history books ever written!"
-Fulvuedrive-in.com
"If what follows in this book review reeks of juvenile gushing, I
won't even attempt to apologize for it. ... Gould has created in
this, his ... first publication, what can only fairly be
described as the ultimate musician's guide to song writing and
producing. ... I'm about to re-read and re-savor this writer's
work, this time in an effort to shake-off self-doubt, and siphon
off some of that determination and talent."
-Antimusic
"In Can't Buy Me Love: The Beatles, Britain and America,
author Jonathan Gould presents perhaps the most comprehensive,
enjoyable read concerning the Fab Four ever written. More
importantly, Gould's book illustrates how events influence our
thought processes, and how we turn to idols to make sense of it
all. This isn't just a good book-it should be required reading for
anybody interested in the influence of the sixties, and how we
perceive ourselves now."
-Ray Ellis, Culture Salad Online
"In Can't Buy Me Love, freelance writer Jonathan Gould has
produced the best book ever written about the Beatles. An elegant
and economical stylist, Gould is a brilliant narrative historian,
with an archaeologist's ability to re-create the world inhabited by
his subjects. Can't Buy Me Love is a magical mystery tour that must
not be missed."
-Glenn C. Altschuler, American studies professor at Cornell
University
"Can't Buy Me Love joins the late Ian MacDonald's Revolution
in the Head (released last year in a third edition by Chicago's A
Cappella Books) on the very short shelf of essential Beatles
reads... Prickly, smart, loving without being blind to its
protagonists' follies, and comprehensive without resorting to
mounds of pointless minutiae, Can't Buy Me Love is an
involving, wildly intelligent book that allows us to experience
anew the band's great moment in all its glorious, world-shaking
velocity. A better title may have been Re-Meet the Beatles."
-Los Angeles City Beat
"A nearly 20-year labor of love by a first-time writer, it's a
fascinating, witty, and highly original take on Beatles music and
mystique, and a worthy addition to 'Beatle lit.'...Gould delivers a
multifaceted gem of a book that should delight and surprise even
the most oversaturated fan."
-Christian Science
Monitor
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