Colin Campbell investigates the nature of the story that can be extracted from the intriguing words and powerful images contained in this famous Beatles’ song. Eleanor Rigby is one of the most well-loved of all Beatles’ songs, both because of its haunting melody, and also – memorably - for lyrics that have fascinated and intrigued Beatles’ fans all round the world since it was first released in 1966. This scholarly work assesses the plausibility of the many different stories that commentators and fans have spun from the enigmatic words and phrases of this lyric and, while dismissing the more fanciful, tries to arrive at a version that is both consistent and tenable. At the same time Professor Campbell explores both the reasons for the enduring appeal of this much-loved lyric and its significance for the Beatles’ development from jobbing song-writers to sophisticated artists.

“More popular than Jesus.” Despite the uproar it caused in America in 1966, John Lennon’s famous assessment of the Beatles vis-à-vis religion was not far off. The Beatles did mean more to kids than the religions in which they were raised, not only in America but everywhere in the world. By all accounts, the Beatles were the most significant musical group of the twentieth century. Their albums sold in the hundreds of millions, and the press was always eager to document their activities and perspectives. And when fan appreciation morphed into worship, Beatlemania took on religious significance. Many young people around the world began to look to the Beatles—their music, their commentary, their art—for meaning in a turbulent decade. Speaking Words of Wisdom is a deep dive into the Beatles’ relationship to religion through the lenses of philosophy, cultural studies, music history, and religious studies. Chapters explore topics such as religious life in Liverpool, faith among individual band members, why and how India entered the Beatles’ story, fan worship/deification, and the Beatles’ long-lasting legacy. In the 1960s, the Beatles facilitated a reevaluation of our deepest values. The story of how the Beatles became modern-day sages is an important case study for the ways in which consumers make culturally and religiously significant meaning from music, people, and events. In addition to the editor, the contributors to this book include David Bedford, Kenneth Campbell, John Covach, Melissa Davis, Anthony DeCurtis, Mark Duffett, Scott Freer, Murray Leeder, Sean MacLeod, Grant Maxwell, Christiane Meiser, and Eyal Regev.

In this rigorous study, Marcus Collins reconceives the Beatles' social, cultural and political impact on sixties Britain.

Looking back over the last 60 years of sociology in the UK, this book addresses the question of progress in the discipline. Campbell's critical and autobiographical reflections offer fresh insights into the history of sociology, and engages with the notion of academic reputation, how it is measured, and what it can tell us about scholarly progress. Has Sociology Progressed? will be of special interest to all sociologists and would-be sociologists interested in the past, present and future of their discipline, as well as scholars contemplating academic progress and motivation in general.

In 1968, Theodore Hammett entered a war he believed was wrong, pressured by his father's threat to disown him if he withdrew from a Marine Corps officer candidate program. He hated the Vietnam War and soon grew to hate Vietnam and its people. As a supply officer at a field hospital uncomfortably near the DMZ, he employed thievery, bargaining and lies to secure supplies for his unit and retained his sanity with the help of alcohol, music and the promise of going home. In 2008, he returned to Vietnam for a five-year "second tour" to assist in improving HIV/AIDS policies and prevention programs in Hanoi. His memoir recounts his service at the height of the war, and how the country he detested became his second home.

Novelist and critic Alexander Theroux analyzes the pop song. National Book Award nominee, critic and one of America’s least compromising satirists, Alexander Theroux takes a comprehensive look at the colorful language of pop lyrics and the realm of rock music in general in The Grammar of Rock: silly song titles; maddening instrumentals; shrieking divas; clunker lines; the worst (and best) songs ever written; geniuses of the art; movie stars who should never have raised their voice in song but who were too shameless to refuse a mic; and the excesses of awful Christmas recordings. Praising (and critiquing) the gems of lyricists both highbrow and low, Theroux does due reverence to classic word-masters like Ira Gershwin, Jimmy Van Heusen, Cole Porter, and Sammy Cahn, lyricists as diverse as Hank Williams, Buck Ram, the Moody Blues, and Randy Newman, Dylan and the Beatles, of course, and more outré ones like the Sex Pistols, the Clash, Patti Smith, the Fall (even Ghostface Killa), but he considers stupid rhymes, as well ― nonsense lyrics, chop logic, the uses and abuses of irony, country music macho, verbal howlers, how voices sound alike and why, and much more. In a way that no one else has ever done, with his usual encyclopedic insights into the state of the modern lyric, Theroux focuses on the state of language ― the power of words and the nature of syntax ― in The Grammar of Rock. He analyzes its assaults on listeners’ impulses by investigating singers’ styles, pondering illogical lunacies in lyrics, and deconstructing the nature of diction and presentation in the language. This is that rare book of discernment and probing wit (and not exclusively one that is a critical defense of quality) that positively evaluates the very nature of a pop song, and why one over another has an effect on the listener.

***THIS STORY IS PRELUDE TO THE NOVEL TWO LIVES FOR ELEANOR RIGBY. THE NOVEL IS AVAILABLE NOW*** “I understand your feelings, but you know that living in the virtual world and ignoring the world around you is not healthy. You have difficulties dealing with your traumas. Living a virtual life is an escape from your problems. It won’t help you to get a grip on the real issues which are preventing you from living your life fully. You live in a dream, Eleanor Rigby.” Nurse MacKenzie “When Eva Mendez looked into my eyes, my life began. I remember that day clearly. The events took place in London, in the hologram matrix of the second reality I have entered voluntarily to live in…” Eleanor Rigby feels an irresistible attraction towards Eva Mendez, the first Green Party’s candidate for prime minister of Great Britain; but Eva is not a real person—she is a hologram in a computer simulation of a secondary reality that runs autonomously. Eleanor, on the other hand, is an organic person who has volunteered to live as an avatar in the computer simulation that is populated by other avatars, and holograms like Eva. Leading a lonely life in a halfway house, Eleanor escapes the primary reality via an electronic disc she attaches to her temple. When Eva returns Eleanor’s affection and offers her a job, Eleanor is tempted to stay in her new life that seems to provide everything real life doesn’t. As she prepares to leave the primary reality behind for good, nurse MacKenzie knocks on the door of her room…

The Little Black Songbook returns to give you all the complete lyrics and chords to over 195 classics by the greatest band of all time: The Beatles! This handy chord songbook is perfect for any aspiring guitarist, ideal for group singalongs, a spot of busking or simply to play some of the most finely crafted pop and rock songs ever written. This little book includes: - Across The Universe - All My Loving - All You Need Is Love - And Your Bird Can Sing - Blackbird - Can't Buy Me Love - Come Together - Don't Let Me Down - Eight Days A Week - Happiness Is A Warm Gun - A Hard Day's Night - Help! - Here Comes The Sun - Here, There And Everywhere - Hey Jude - Hold Me Tight - The Inner Light - It's Only Love - The Long And Winding Road - Long Long Long - Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds - Michelle - Mother Nature's Son - Only A Northern Song - Penny Lane - Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band - She Said She Said - Something - Strawberry Fields Forever - Sun King - Tell Me Why - Ticket To Ride - Twist And Shout - When I'm Sixty-four - While My Guitar Gently Weeps - Wild Honey Pie - With A Little Help From My Friends - Within You Without You - Yellow Submarine - Yesterday And many, many more!

Music Theory and Composition: A Practical Approachpresents a pragmatic, accessible approach to music theory through an emphasis on melody and counterpoint. This focus explains the “why” of musical construction more clearly than the traditional approach of beginning with chords. By starting with a single melodic line and gradually adding voices in counterpoint, the book drills part-writing while simultaneously explaining functionality, first with scale degrees and then with harmony. The text has students learn musical techniques and progressively build on their functions and importance to create their own compositions. With short, digestible chapters, Music Theory and Composition clearly presents otherwise complicated ideas not as strict rules, but as artistic ideals, encouraging the interactive creation of new compositions as a tool for learning. The textbook is versatile and easily customizable, suiting Different skill levels with species counterpoint providing a framework for the beginner while providing an interesting challenge for more experienced students Different curricular schedules with complete exercises in two, three, and four voices, allowing for an optional skip from two voices to four Different pedagogical approaches with species exercises encouraging students to consider harmonic choices and figured bass ensuring functional progressions Instructor Resources: Instructor’s Manual: The Instructor’s Manual includes sample syllabi and student handouts Test Bank: The test bank includes sample tests and answer keys in MS Word format. Student Resources: Companion Website with Downloadable Workbook Sections: http://textbooks.rowman.com/stone Additional Features: complete curriculum for first-year theory courses over 500 musical examples drawn from Common Practice Era compositions as well as more contemporary and popular pieces focus on active composition throughout the text and workbook sections large pop music section to expand student’s application of theory conversational tone to encourage student engagement Designed for first-year college music theory courses, but accessible enough for the interested lay reader or high school student, the text offers a true balance of counterpoint and harmony.​

This novel is as a keepsake. It comes to us from times irreversable, when the Kyrgyz Republic was still solidly embedded in the USSR and few people dared to dream about an independent future. For most Kyrgyz, contacts with the West were limited to the one-way traffic of Beatles-cassettes brought about by Soviet soldiers serving in Eastern Europe. In those late seventies, early eighties, a period of stability in Soviet history, the events of this story take place. Four students experimenting with telepathy turn upside down their home village when one of them fixes in his dream a date with an english girl. In expectation of her arrival, the students agitate the whole population to tidy up their houses, the streets and in the meantime their morality. Kyrgyz tradition prescribes hospitality, but the isolated village lacks of many elementary conveniences. By depicting the struggle with the bureaucratic authorities which the students have to fight in order to improve the life circumstances, the writer shows the defects of the political system. The novel is a cultural critique, a profound complaint against the mentality of inertness fostered throughout decades of Soviet rule. Though the students are oriented to the West, they love their homeland and keep hoping for a better future. Now that reality has surpassed all dreams and Kyrgyzstan has become a democratic republic, people ardently try to get rid of the past. Contacts with the West flourish in the form of international organisations which aim to develop a civil society in Central Asia. As a journalist, the author is watching the changes in his country attentively. His novel was an invitation for the West to come, but the story doesnt end with it. We can expect a following-up, since these times of transformation are fascinating for all who are interested in the young republics of the former USSR. The editor, Kirsten Verpaalen (anthropologist)