Now and Then: A critical analysis
Opinion is clearly polarised over Now and Then, the much-hyped single issued last week in the name of the Beatles. Some fans…
Category: Music
Why did Penny Lane/Strawberry Fields fail to top the charts in 1967?
There are Beatles fans who still harbour resentment over the fact that back in 1967 the group’s double A-sided single…
Cynthia Weil and sixties pop
Sadly, Cynthia Weil died on 1 June, at the age of 82. With her main songwriting partner, husband Barry Mann,…
‘Give the pop stars a fairer share of the country’s wealth!’ The Beatles and the Taxman
The reissue of Revolver in a new and expanded edition, fifty-six years after its original appearance, has reinforced my view…
Not the ‘Cunard Yanks’: The real origins of the Beatles’ R&B covers
The merchant seamen from Merseyside known as “Cunard Yanks” are commonly credited with bringing back from the US the black…
Fifty years since ‘Something Else’ (Or the decline and fall of the Kinks)
On the evidence of singles sales, 1967 represented the high point of the Kinks’ popularity and commercial success. The year…
An overdub has no choice – the Monkees and the making of Pleasant Valley Sunday
By Bob Pitt Half a century ago, on 10 July 1967, the Monkees’ single Pleasant Valley Sunday was released. Their…
Examining the nightingale’s code
C.P. Lee, Like the Night: Bob Dylan and the Road to the Manchester Free Trade Hall, Helter Skelter, 1998. Paperback, 190pp,…
Marxism and the jazz revolution
Frank Kofsky, John Coltrane and the Jazz Revolution of the 1960s, Pathfinder, 1998. Paperback, 500pp, £15.45. Reviewed by Bob Pitt FRANK…
The Maoist propaganda songs of Cornelius Cardew
By Bob Pitt The recent publicity over the disturbing events in Brixton, among a group of people originating in a Maoist collective…