Rob Sheffield, the Rolling Stone columnist and bestselling author of Love Is a Mix Tape offers an entertaining, unconventional look at the most popular band in history, the Beatles, exploring what they mean today and why they still matter so intensely to a generation that has never known a world without them.
Dreaming the Beatles is not another biography of the Beatles, or a song-by-song analysis of the best of John and Paul. It isn’t another exposé about how they broke up. It isn’t a history of their gigs or their gear. It is a collection of essays telling the story of what this ubiquitous band means to a generation who grew up with the Beatles music on their parents’ stereos and their faces on T-shirts. What do the Beatles mean today? Why are they more famous and beloved now than ever? And why do they still matter so much to us, nearly fifty years after they broke up?
As he did in his previous books, Love is a Mix Tape, Talking to Girls About Duran Duran, and Turn Around Bright Eyes, Sheffield focuses on the emotional connections we make to music. This time, he focuses on the biggest pop culture phenomenon of all time—The Beatles. In his singular voice, he explores what the Beatles mean today, to fans who have learned to love them on their own terms and not just for the sake of nostalgia.
Dreaming the Beatles tells the story of how four lads from Liverpool became the world’s biggest pop group, then broke up—but then somehow just kept getting bigger. At this point, their music doesn’t belong to the past—it belongs to right now. This book is a celebration of that music, showing why the Beatles remain the world’s favorite thing—and how they invented the future we’re all living in today.
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“Rob Sheffield is a hip Rolling Stone writer, but his cool cultural criticism comes with a charming nerdy-fan quality. His voice is both languid and enthusiastic as he explores the long-lasting impact of the Beatles in these eclectic essays…Sheffield knows he can’t pull off a British accent, but it’s always clear when he is riffing with song lyrics or quoting a British mop top.”
— AudioFile
“You’ll have a fantastic, joyous time reading Dreaming the Beatles from cover to cover.”
— USA Today“For Sheffield, a chronicler of pop culture whose work blends thoughtful criticism and unabashed fandom, the heart of the Beatles story is about relationships.”
— Boston Globe“Dreaming the Beatles looks at the Fab Four from a fresh point of view.”
— Los Angeles Review of Books“The essential joy of Dreaming the Beatles are these connections made between historical events, mythological band history, and the song itself—it’s sparkling, insightful, occasionally humorous writing unclouded by irony or cynicism about a capital-G Great Band.”
— Spin“Rob Sheffield’s unconventional rock-band bio is must-read material.”
— Forth Worth Star Telegram“The Beatles are everything, and this is everything about the Beatles. Dreaming the Beatles is the individual exploration of a universal pop experience.”
— Chuck Klosterman, New York Times bestselling author“Sheffield reflects on what the Fab Four mean for today’s young music fans—those who learned about the band from their parents. Since Sheffield is the author of Love Is a Mix Tape, Talking to Girls about Duran Duran, and Turn Around Bright Eyes, you know the writing will be affectingly good.”
— Library JournalBe the first to write a review about this audiobook!
Rob Sheffield has been a music journalist for more than twenty years. He is a contributing editor at Rolling Stone, where he writes about music, television, and pop culture, and regularly appears on MTV and VH1. He is the author of the national bestseller Love Is a Mix Tape, Talking to Girls about Duran Duran, Turn Around Bright Eyes, On Bowie, and Dreaming the Beatles.