The Beatles: Paperback Writer collects the most illuminating interviews, articles, reviews, and essays on the rock icons, from contemporary accounts of the group’s rise in 1962 to recent analyses of their enduring cultural legacy. The band’s influence on the Baby Boomer youth culture and its descendants is discussed by figures from all places on the pop culture spectrum: mainstream reporters, rock journalists, cultural commentators, performers, and the band’s acquaintances and friends. Provocative articles cover the Beatles’ pop-redefining experimentation with song structure and recording techniques and their embracing of psychedelic drugs, hippie utopianism, and pacifism — all set against the dramatic backdrop of the counterculture. Editor Mike Evans includes penetrating pieces on such fascinating byways as the right-wing claims that the group was communist and the “Paul is dead” myth. The band’s acrimonious split and each member"s disparate, post-Beatles path are also profiled in this book that’s a must-have for any serious Beatles fan.