The Cambridge Companion to the Beatles

Like the award of the first MA degree in The Beatles, Popular Music and Society from the UK's Liverpool Hope University, the appearance of a volume dedicated to this group in the Cambridge Companion series attests to their unique status and enduring influence. A straddling of two worlds, the academic and populist, characterises this anthology of essays, edited by a professor of English based at Pennsylvania State University's Altoona College. In his introduction, Womack emphasises the “revolutionary” nature of this band, for combining the “muscularity” of rock and roll with nostalgic “reverence for the past” and a “recognition of [both]...