The Act You've Known for All These Years: A Year in the Life of Sgt. Pepper and Friends - Hardcover

Heylin, Clinton

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1841959189 ISBN 13: 9781841959184

Publisher: Canongate U.S., 2007

Synopsis

“It was forty years ago today” that Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band by The Beatles was released, an LP which changed the face of popular culture and continues to top public and critical polls of the greatest albums ever made. The Act You’ve Known for All These Years reconstructs the life and times of Sgt. Pepper, the cultural backstory of the band and rock's turbulent early adulthood. Weaving the activities of the Beatles in with those of their contemporaries and rivals — notably Bob Dylan, the Beach Boys and Pink Floyd — heralded music critic Clinton Heylin reveals the inspirations and explodes the myths behind this talismanic, iconic album — and "the summer of love" itself. In addition, the book surveys what happened next, telling the history of the LP’s "afterlife" from 1967 to the present day. Featuring interviews both with those who were there at the time and those who followed in the Beatles’ wake, The Act You’ve Known for All These Years is the definitive book on the defining LP of the pop era.

About this title

About the Author

Clinton Heylin is the author of the definitive Bob Dylan biography Bob Dylan: Behind the Shades, among many other works, including Can You Feel the Silence? Van Morrison: A New Biography; Despite the System: Orson Welles versus the Hollywood Studios; and Babylon's Burning: From Punk to Grunge. He lives in Somerset.

Review

...if you want a dispassionate voice to separate the hoopla, myth and mystique from the actual Sgt Pepper recordings. His is as articulate, intelligent and reasonable as any I've read. * * Mail On Sunday * * Rather than settle for the bog-standard making-of, Heylin takes a couple of steps back and assesses the broader cultural landscape of the times. * * Record Collector * * The shift from pop to Rock, from entertainment to art - signposted by Sgt. Pepper - was a fraught and exciting period in popular music. Clinton Heylin gleefully resurrects all the old arguments and discussions that accompanied the transition, which was by no means a smooth one . . . Like reading a personal diary of the time. -- Barry Miles

Edition details

• Publisher: Canongate U.S.
• Publication date: 2007
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1841959189
• ISBN 13: 9781841959184
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 352