For The Beatles, 1966 sparked a revolution
Every corner of the planet had discovered The Beatles by 1966, but it was the year when we would all discover who they were becoming. Steve Turner’s new biography Beatles ’66: The Revolutionary Year (Ecco, 464 pp., *** out of four stars) narrows in on the explosive midpoint of the band’s career, which begins, unremarkably, with a badly needed break from the business of being Beatles. Off the road and out of the studio for the first time in ages, the weary quartet settle into their own lives in and around London, sopping up avant-garde culture and experimenting with mind-altering drugs.
When they reassemble at Abbey Road in April to record Tomorrow Never Knows, John Lennon’s rendering of an acid trip, the transformation is unmistakable. As Bob Dylan vastly underestimates when he hears the song: “Oh, I get it. You don’t want to be cute anymore.” Beatles '66 is in many ways a companion piece to Ron Howard’s new Eight Days a Week: The Touring Years documentary. Where that project culminates in the group’s discomforting final tour in 1966, Beatles '66 tracks the evolution of the music that forced their retirement from the road.
The meat of the story is familiar to even casual fans, who are at least glancingly acquainted with the group’s seemingly sudden transition from love songs to psychedelic rock. What music journalist Turner brings to his rambling retelling is fantastic access (the book draws upon his interviews with The Beatles, as well as producer George Martin and George Harrison’s mentor Ravi Shankar) and an extraordinary, Peter Guralnick-like (Last Train to Memphis: The Rise of Elvis Presley) attention to detail.
By: Kim Willis
Source: USA Today
