Meet the Beatles: A Cultural History of the Band That Shook Youth, Gender, and the World by Steven D

At the outset of this interesting and often incisive cultural history, Steven Stark tackles this obvious question: “Why on earth would anyone need another book about the Beatles?” Does anyone still care to read about a group that broke up in 1970, and whose disintegration was as messy and public as Michael Jackson’s latest trial? Would anyone in his right mind want to tackle a subject that has been written about endlessly and is still glaring back at us today from the pages of the New York Times, in the form of a commemorative section culled from the newspaper archives, or an eerily blue-and-orange pseudo-psychedelic image of John Lennon advertising a new musical, surprisingly enough called Lennon?

With over 50 pages of sources tacked on at the end, one can see why the task of writing something fresh about the Beatles would be a daunting one. To Stark’s credit, he has done his homework. He spent much time in Liverpool, immersing himself in the atmosphere and culture of the city, and conducted over a hundred interviews with those who were “outside the bubble” (former screaming fans, club presidents, and the like) but still played a part in furthering the cultural fixation with the band during its heyday. Though he uses some materials from those closer to the band, he avoids retracing the steps of many of the past social commentators who have already labored over the legacy of the Fab Four by writing a history that focuses on what happened during that time, as well as on the more important question, why.

In order to explore the impact the Beatles had on the countercultural world of the 1960s, as well as trace their meteoric rise and ultimate decline, Stark first defines the cultural contexts of England, Europe–Hamburg, Germany in particular–and, most importantly, America. He then places the Beatles firmly in the midst of these landscapes. He does all of this intelligently and in vivid detail by weaving together oral history, musical analysis, and stories of the seminal figures that most profoundly shaped the image and direction of the band.

These influential figures include Astrid Kirchherr, a German photographer who considered herself an artist and in rebellion against her middle-class upbringing, and who imparted important new concepts to the fledgling musicians she met in August 1960; Mona Best, mother of Pete Best, the oft-forgotten first drummer for the group, who opened up the Casbah Club in the basement of her house in Liverpool where the band played some of its first gigs (in addition to the better known Cavern Club); Brian Epstein, the band’s gay first manager who was vitally responsible for shaping the androgynous “Beatle image” that would take America by storm in 1964 (driving thousands of young girls to distraction) and lined up their first recording contracts; and finally, George Martin, the Beatles’ long-time producer, who would not only orchestrate their recording sessions but take a strong hand in shaping the band’s sound.

As Stark traces the origins of the Beatles, he does a particularly good job of establishing the cultural context of Liverpool, the birthplace of all four members of the band. In his description of the rowdy and dangerous Liverpool of the 1940s and ’50s and its “antiestablishment attitude,” represented in part by an accent that has a “built-in air of grievance” about it, Stark demonstrates what he believes was a central part of the Beatles’ appeal to the counterculture of the sixties — in its cultural and geographical disconnection from the establishment of London, Liverpool ingrained in the band an inherent radicalism that spoke to legions of youthful followers.

Building on this premise of the outsider, Stark posits a sharp new idea — he focuses his attention on how the Beatles “feminized” the culture (which ran counter to the more masculine singers of the day, such as Elvis), how through their music, dress, hairstyle, and relationships they showed a “sympathetic and special bond with women.” Veteran Beatles aficionados might argue that both Paul McCartney and John Lennon were hardly guardians of the feminine mystique; however, Stark effectively explores (in sometimes grinding and on occasion superfluous detail) how the deaths of their mothers when they were young, the lyrics to their songs, and, later, their marriages to Linda Eastman and Yoko Ono shaped a more sympathetic relationship with women for both men.

Stark is at his strongest as he paints the broad palette of the world of the sixties. He is equally convincing in showing the lifestyle changes the Beatles, a “communal band of equals,” brought to the youth of America and England, in his analysis of the groundbreaking and influential music they were writing, and in discussing honestly, but with a certain level of dispassion, the band’s decline into rampant drug use, petty bickering, isolation from each other and, collectively, from the changing tastes of America’s youth that resulted in Paul McCartney filing suit to dissolve the Beatles’ partnership at the end of 1970. Stark is less effective when he resorts to psychoanalysis and the inclusion of seemingly unimportant details that do little to carry forth his argument. But, mercifully, these are rare occasions.

This is a book for both the ardent Beatles lover and those who are just coming to know the group. In the end, Steven Stark has shed considerable light on the significance of the omnipresent legacy of “the band that shook youth, gender, and the world,” and that makes all those Times advertisements at least palatable. More significantly, it makes revisiting the music today all the more satisfying.