Listen free for 30 days

Listen with offer

Preview

£0.00 for first 30 days

Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Revolution in the Head

By: Ian MacDonald
Narrated by: David Morrissey, Robyn Hitchcock, Danny Baker, Peter Curran, Matt Berry, David Hepworth, Geoff Lloyd
Try for £0.00

£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £15.99

Buy Now for £15.99

Pay using card ending in
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.

Summary

Regarded as the greatest and most revealing account of how the Beatles recorded every one of their songs, Revolution in the Head is brimming with details of the personal highs and lows experienced by Lennon, McCartney, Harrison, and Starr as they made some of the most enduring popular music ever created.

©1994 The estate of Ian MacDonald (P)2014 Talking Music
activate_Holiday_promo_in_buybox_DT_T2

Listeners also enjoyed...

Moon the Loon cover art
Overpaid, Oversexed and Over There cover art
The History of Jazz, Second Edition cover art
A Fabulous Creation cover art
Ulysses cover art
The Adventure of English cover art
Positively 4th Street cover art
Unfamiliar Fishes cover art
Play It Loud cover art
Solid State cover art
Original Gangstas cover art
The Caped Crusade cover art
Billy Joel cover art
Daily Rituals cover art
The McCartney Legacy cover art
Can't Buy Me Love cover art

What listeners say about Revolution in the Head

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    97
  • 4 Stars
    56
  • 3 Stars
    21
  • 2 Stars
    9
  • 1 Stars
    6
Performance
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    52
  • 4 Stars
    65
  • 3 Stars
    33
  • 2 Stars
    10
  • 1 Stars
    5
Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    86
  • 4 Stars
    49
  • 3 Stars
    16
  • 2 Stars
    7
  • 1 Stars
    4

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Thorough, impeccably detailed and wonderfully intuitive.

Just superb. It was everything I needed it to be, and more.

What. A. Book.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Provocative take on the greatest rock canon of them all

Having read this donkeys years ago, a chance to re-listen post-Lewisohn was welcome. Can be a little too technical at times, and the author's opinions are often ones that I disagree with - any criticism of 66/69 Beatles immediately sets my teeth on edge - but it remains fascinating stuff, underlining just how important The Beatles were and remain.
Well performed by and large, I could have done without Berry and Lloyd, and more of Hitchcock and Hepworth.
Great value overall, well recommended.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Multiple narrators don’t work

This is an interesting look at the Beatles recorded output and their influence on 60s music and culture.
The multiple narrators ruined it for me though.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Interesting and intruiging

I don't agree with all the author says but that's good. A real insight into the songs and their recording.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Great insight to the greatest band ever!


The book is often quite critical of the music, which I don’t agree with, but interesting to hear an unbiased opinion.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Good insight into the order of Beatle songs

Being a massive fan this book had been recommended to me often. I can't say I loved it as I'm pretty sure some of the information is wrong and he wasn't shy about critiquing beloved Beatle songs and the beatles themselves. To a point that I thought it was a bit much.
That said I think his overall conclusion is quite fair and his analysis while highly personal I can respect.
I wanted better but think he is a good author limited by a subject where the truth can be hard to find.
Some narrators are better than others but most are excellent.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

great journey through great songs

Overall a really good listen with impressive insights into songs. agreed with most options and disagreed with a couple. Found the chapters where the author went banging on about hippies very boring so skipped those.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

A Comprehensive History and Analysis

I found Revolution in the Head a comprehensive history and analysis of every Beatles recording. Not being musical myself, most of the musical terms went over my head. None the less the depth of information was very interesting, and I could imagine myself in the the studio with the Fab Four watching them create some of the greatest popular music of the twentieth century. If I am to be negative about the book, I was turned off by Ian McDonald's rather unnecessary critique of a lot of the songs;. making snide remarks about the quality of their musicianship and lyrical content.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Subjective But Well Written

This is for the audio book. MacDonald's is a good trawl through the recordings of the Beatles, which only raised my eyebrows a few times with highly debateable opinions. I'll probably read my physical copy sometime because while I can recommend this title I can't say the same for the list of readers. Some, like David Morrisey, are very good, but why do we have Jenny Boyd, sister of Pattie, forced upon us? Her poor pronunciation of several words simply isn't good enough for an audio book. Also, one of the other readers decided to sing song lyrics (really badly), which was idiotic.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Brilliant

Would you consider the audio edition of Revolution in the Head to be better than the print version?

Well I managed to listen to all over it in a few days - mainly on my computer's speakers - can't imagine I would have managed that had I been reading... books sometimes take weeks to read...

What was one of the most memorable moments of Revolution in the Head?

I enjoyed the little digs taken at the hippy movement... Was also v interested to learn about the history of the How Do You Do track. Had no idea about that...

What does the narrators bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you had only read the book?

Getting to hear people like Danny Baker and Dave Hepworth narrating...

Did you have an emotional reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

Made me happy to live in a country with such a rich cultural history...

Any additional comments?

Definitely worth listening to...

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

5 people found this helpful