Magic Circles

by Bob Mason

ISBN 1 876631 87 2

$30.00

Publication date: May 2004

This ground-breaking book shows how John Lennon and Paul McCartney turned pop song lyrics into private conversations, which gradually extended to other major songwriters of the 1960s, including Bob Dylan and the Rolling Stones. These 'magic circles' introduced radical ideas about sex, drugs and rebellion that were to transform popular music and culture in the 1960s.

Bob Mason documents the early formation of the intense rivalries and complex patterns of influence that emerged within the Beatles, and with other songwriters. These relationships were reflected in their lyrical discussions, which are here traced through hundreds of well-known songs.

A fascinating combination of biography, history and cultural analysis, Magic Circles looks more deeply than ever before at what the Beatles were saying through their songs. It makes the Beatles, those familiar icons of popular culture, seem strange, wonderful and new.