Often called Rthe godfather of rock journalism, S the only chronicler to witness some of the most significant events of the T60s now shares exclusive eyewitness glimpses into the era of Bob Dylan and the Beatles.

The ultimate fly-on-the wall memoir packed with revelations, intimate insights, and history-making moments from the tour manager, friend, lover, and confidante to some of the most revered rock icons of the 60's, 70's and 80's. Chris O’Dell wasn’t famous. She wasn’t even almost famous. But she was there. From witnessing music history in the recording studio with The Beatles to working for The Rolling Stones during their infamous 1972 American tour, Chris O'Dell has seen and worked for the most influential musicians in rock history during some of their most intimate and awe-inspiring moments. She was in the studio when the Beatles recorded The White Album, Abbey Road, and Let It Be, and she sang in the Hey Jude chorus. She lived with George Harrison and Pattie Boyd and unwittingly got involved in Pattie’s famous love story with Eric Clapton. She’s the subject of Leon Russell’s Pisces Apple Lady. She’s “the woman down the hall” in Joni Mitchell’s song Coyote, the “mystery woman” pictured on the Stones album Exile on Main Street, and the Miss O’Dell of George Harrison’s song. The remarkable, intimate story of an ordinary woman who lived the dream of millions—to be part of rock royalty’s inner circle—Miss O’Dell is a backstage pass to some of the most momentous events in rock history.

An NPR Best Book of the Year • Winner of the Virgil Thomson Award for Outstanding Music Criticism “This is the best book about the Beatles ever written” —Mashable Rob Sheffield, the Rolling Stone columnist and bestselling author of Love Is a Mix Tape offers an entertaining, unconventional look at the most popular band in history, the Beatles, exploring what they mean today and why they still matter so intensely to a generation that has never known a world without them. Dreaming the Beatles is not another biography of the Beatles, or a song-by-song analysis of the best of John and Paul. It isn’t another exposé about how they broke up. It isn’t a history of their gigs or their gear. It is a collection of essays telling the story of what this ubiquitous band means to a generation who grew up with the Beatles music on their parents’ stereos and their faces on T-shirts. What do the Beatles mean today? Why are they more famous and beloved now than ever? And why do they still matter so much to us, nearly fifty years after they broke up? As he did in his previous books, Love is a Mix Tape, Talking to Girls About Duran Duran, and Turn Around Bright Eyes, Sheffield focuses on the emotional connections we make to music. This time, he focuses on the biggest pop culture phenomenon of all time—The Beatles. In his singular voice, he explores what the Beatles mean today, to fans who have learned to love them on their own terms and not just for the sake of nostalgia. Dreaming the Beatles tells the story of how four lads from Liverpool became the world’s biggest pop group, then broke up—but then somehow just kept getting bigger. At this point, their music doesn’t belong to the past—it belongs to right now. This book is a celebration of that music, showing why the Beatles remain the world’s favorite thing—and how they invented the future we’re all living in today.

(Book). The Beatles' sixth studio album, Rubber Soul , was a game changer. By December 1965, when the album was released, the Beatles had played the first arena rock show at Shea Stadium for 55,000 delirious fans, been awarded MBE (Member of British Empire) medals, and were indisputably the greatest musical phenomenon since Elvis Presley. With their first film, A Hard Day's Night , John, Paul, George, and Ringo laid down the blueprint for everyone who ever wanted to form a group. The movie, entertaining as it was, became an instruction manual for aspiring pop stars of the day on how to play, dress, and act. Richard Lester's 1964 comedy turned out to be the touchstone for every music video that followed. Then, with the release of Rubber Soul , the Beatles created an artistic benchmark to which their peers measured their craft and creativity. Touring the world over two years, the band had grown up fast. Both musically and lyrically their new album represented a major leap. Upon hearing Rubber Soul , Bob Dylan allegedly remarked, "I get it, you're not cute anymore." Newsweek hailed the Beatles as "the Bards of Pop," while critic Greil Marcus claimed Rubber Soul was "the best album they would ever make." For Traffic's Steve Winwood, the album "broke everything open. It crossed music into a whole new dimension and was responsible for kicking off the sixties rock era." In This Bird Has Flown , John Kruth not only analyzes the songs and making of Rubber Soul , putting the album in context of the turbulent times in which it was created, but captures the spirit of musical innovation and poetry that makes the record a standout in the Beatle's canon.

‘Who gave the drugs to the Beatles? I didn’t invent those things. I bought it from someone who got it from somebody. We never invented the stuff.’ – John Lennon Riding So High charts the Beatles’ extraordinary odyssey from teenage drinking and pill-popping, to cannabis, LSD, the psychedelic Summer of Love and the darkness beyond. Drugs were central to the Beatles’ story from the beginning. The acid, pills and powders helped form bonds, provided escape from the chaos of Beatlemania, and inspired colossal leaps in songwriting and recording. But they also led to break-ups, breakdowns, drug busts and prison. The only full-length study of the Beatles and drugs, Riding So High tells of getting stoned, kaleidoscope eyes, excess, loss and redemption, with a far-out cast including speeding Beatniks, a rogue dentist, a script-happy aristocratic doctor, corrupt police officers and Hollywood Vampires. ‘The deeper you go, the higher you fly...’

From the rise of Bill Haley to the death of Jimi Hendrix, this account of music in the 1950s and 1960s is “the definitive history of rock ‘n’ roll” (Rolling Stone). This is British music journalist Nik Cohn’s classic and cogent history of an unruly era—filled with outrageous tales and vivid descriptions of the music, and covering artists from Elvis Presley to Eddie Cochran to Bob Dylan to the Beatles and beyond. From the father of what would become a new literary form—rock criticism—this is a seminal history of rock and roll’s evolution, including revisions and updates made for a new edition in the early 1970s.