『The Beatles vs James Bond』 John Higgs (author), Takuya Asakura (translator).
Price：3,500yen＋tax
Release：2024/02/26
ISBN:978-4-910511-67-2
For adults who are tired of the usual rhetoric.
A Beatles/James Bond story that is well worth reading.
Still overwhelmingly popular and influential in the 21st century,
A provocative portrayal of two of the most popular and influential British pop cultures of the 20th century, which are still overwhelmingly popular and influential in the 21st century,
This groundbreaking non-fiction book has received rave reviews from the British media.
On 5 October 1962, the very same day the Beatles' debut single hit the shops, the first film in the 007 series, Dr No, was released. The two titans of British pop culture, which appeared on the exact same day, were opposites in every way: 'love' on one side, 'licence to kill' on the other, 'working class' on the other, 'fiction by upper class authors' on the other, 'mop hair' on the other, 'Three-Seven hair parting' on the other... ... but, surprisingly, they also intersected.
It is clear that Bond and the Beatles embodied different attitudes to class, privilege, violence, masculinity and Britishness. But Higgs wants to go further and argue that they are engaged in a kind of enduring 'struggle for the soul of [British] culture'.
── from The Guardian book review.
Table of Contents
Part I. Start the countdown.
1945 No one to talk to on a rainy day
1952 All the darkness within oneself
1956 If only I had been able to watch it grow
1960 Sanctuary of the infamous whore
1961 For pleasure and money without shame or shame
1961 Overloaded
Part 2: Let it roar!
1962 More awesome than the Beatles, right?
1962 Sean Connery (1930-200)
1963 The truth was hidden in that cry
1964 Ian Fleming (1908-1964)
1964 Four Longhaired Dumb Bastards Film
1965 Blow up everything else
1965 Not as great as James Bond
1965 More than the sum of its parts
1965 All for England
1967 Then what can I tell you?
1967 More expansive than reality
1967 007 (Shanty Town)
1967 Trying to rule over here with witchcraft
1968 On the banks of the Ganges
1968 Yoko and Billy
1969 The Marriage of John, Paul and James
1969 George Lazenby's haircut
1969 Paul is already dead
Part 3: Aftermath.
1970 Answer: no.
1970 'Mother' or 'Love'?
1970 The Best
1970 Phil and Alan
1970 We have to deny that love is lovely bullshit
1973 Christopher Lee (1922-2015)
1973 The problem is Bond
1974 In the Material World
1977 He didn't even risk his life for the sake of entertainment
1980 Unmarked
1980 John Lennon (1940-1980)
1981 For a true artist, a way of life is a work of art
Part IV Grow up, 007
1983 Symbols of authentic values in the liberal world
1984 Good job sign with a bright red face
1995 The good times go on far too long
1999 Desmond Llewellyn (1914-1999)
2001 George Harrison (1943-2001)
2002 Whatever happens to the pixels then
2003 Look, Mr Putin's with us.
2008 How Strawberry Fields died
(lxxii) A common theme aiming at one goal
2015 What is the new great evil of the world?
2021 Time to be dead
2021 Ringo and Paul
2022 See you in the next one