If you thought there could be nothing new added
to the bookshelf of Beatles scholarship, you owe it
to yourself to read Saja's volume to see how
everything old can be new again Essentially a
reverent updating of the late Ian MacDonald's
Revolution in the Head, Saja makes a quarter-
century-on re-evaluation of both MacDonald and
the Beatles, dissecting every Beatles song on the
50th anniversary of its recording. Saja is an
accomplished professional musician as well as an
erudite teaching scholar, and he combines his
talents and his education in a massive tome that
will enlighted anyone coming to the Beatles from
a musical, textual, or cultural viewpoint.
But this is not just an exercise in analytics. Saja
interweaves his personal experiences as he
discovered each song at different points in his
life, making this book a magical mystery tour with
each turned page. The reader will be amply
rewarded if he or she reads the book wearing
headphones and a subscription to Spotify; if you
think you know a song, Saja will point you to
something buried that you never noticed before.
Beatlemaniacs will not be disappointed.
-George Belden
Educator, writer, anthropologist Kent, Ohio
