Word: spitz
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...disciplinary work need only look to Spitz’s analysis of the band’s formation to see a master at work. The book does not begin with the creation of the band. The narrative begins in 1800s Liverpool, mapping out the socioeconomic formation of the city. Spitz uses this setting as a platform to describe the historic Irish migration patterns that brought both the Lennons and McCartneys to Liverpool...
...took this month's fury to alert France to the unemployment, economic deprivation, racial segregation, and social exclusion felt in its banlieues, everyone in Blois seemed fully aware of the problem. "We have the second largest housing project population-per-total municipal population in France," comments Willy Spitz, president of the "Quartier Proximit?" association, whose 16 members pair off each night to patrol Blois's projects to defuse conflict situations. Roughly 18,000 of Blois's 51,000 total population reside in its 150 hectare "northern section" of projects, notes Spitz; internal tensions and feelings of injustice there have periodically...
That kind of gratuitous cruelty isn't all that uncommon in The Beatles. The Fab Four hated the silly, lovable mop-top image they created, and on that score alone they would probably love Spitz's book. He marshals a staggering mass of research in support of the conclusion, broadly speaking, that Lennon was a drug-addled, attention-hungry rageoholic who picked fights and cheated on his wife; Paul McCartney was a smarmy, manipulative charmer; and George Harrison was dour and sour. Before you lose faith entirely, it turns out Ringo really was just a lovable goofball...
...miracle that these four geniuses found one another, and it's a miracle they didn't then kill each other. But The Beatles isn't all dirt. Spitz brings readers inside the studio, where the Beatles, none of whom could read music, generated a staggering catalog of innovations, including the first use of feedback. He also pries open the songwriting dyad of McCartney and Lennon, who couldn't seem to stop writing perfect pop songs even when they couldn't stand each other. Anything was raw material: a cornflakes jingle (Good Morning, Good Morning), a snippet of Shakespeare...
...Spitz isn't much for big theories, but that's O.K. The details are what's new and interesting anyway. Similarly, the beginning of the book is more interesting than its end, which is pretty much the Yokotastrophe you'd expect. When John was 5, his mom and dad separated. His father sat him down and made him choose which parent he would live with. At first he chose his father, but after his mother left, the desperate little boy went running up the street after her. That poignant image hints at the ineffable, aching heart of Lennon's creativity...