2017
“Dreaming the Beatles is equal parts history and cultural criticism, as Sheffield draws from dozens of sources to lay down the story of how the Beatles came to be, before writing about why any of it matters. The book follows them from genesis to dissolution: It delves deeply into the band’s reported mythology, such as the real identity of “Sexy Sadie,” how many times “Ob La Di, Ob La Da” was recorded in the studio, and how Paul McCartney announced his breakup with the band via a bitchy press release. That raw material is best incorporated as fuel for Sheffield’s imaginative riffs. “I love those stories, even when I don’t believe a word—I eat that stuff up,” he writes. “Yet all that nowhere-mansplaining doesn’t come close to solving the mystery. Interesting as the inside story is, I’m always more fascinated by the outside story—not where the songs came from, but where they went, and how they live on in the world they helped create.” –excerpt from Jeremy Gordon’s review in Spin