Magic Circles: The Beatles in Dream and History Book

I read this for school about eight years ago and, even as a lifelong Beatles fan, found myself continually surprised by McKinney's theses, observations, and interpretations. It was his long discussion of the White Album that finally helped me appreciate that monster, and it was this bold claim that made me sit up and pay attention: "The Beatles is their most fractured album, and their ugliest; their most unsettling and their most moving. It's their best album, and nothing else in rock and roll has ever come close to it." Okay then!

What I most enjoyed about my second reading -- other than the opportunity to appreciate all the White Album stuff again, this time having listened to the album much more -- was the last section, "Fantasy into Flesh," which is much more personal and touches on themes that interest me a great deal, such as the nature of listening to music made before your own time, appreciating and longing for an era into which you weren't born, etc. I was also struck by the similarity of McKinney's approach, in some ways, to Greil Marcus's in Mystery Train. The writing is just as dense and mysterious, and just as concerned with mythology. The "dream and history" part of the subtitle is very accurate.

For the record, I think there are four essential Beatles books: Revolution in the Head, Paperback Writer, Lewisohn's book about the recording sessions, and this one.