Love and Let Die, John Higgs
Love and Let Die, John Higgs
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Love and Let Die
James Bond, The Beatles, and the British Psyche

Author: John Higgs

Narrator: Chris Shaw, John Higgs

Unabridged: 15 hr 56 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 03/28/2023

Includes: Bonus Material Bonus Material Included


Synopsis

The Beatles are the biggest band in the history of pop music. James Bond is the single most successful movie character of all time. They are also twins. Dr No, the first Bond film, and Love Me Do, the first Beatles record, were both released on the same day: Friday, October 5, 1962. Most countries can only dream of a cultural export becoming a worldwide phenomenon on this scale. For Britain to produce two iconic successes on this level, on the same windy October afternoon, is unprecedented.

Bond and the Beatles present us with opposing values, visions of the British culture, and ideas about sexual identity. Love and Let Die is the story of a clash between working class liberation and establishment control, and how it exploded on the global stage. It explains why James Bond hated the Beatles, why Paul McCartney wanted to be Bond, and why it was Ringo who won the heart of a Bond Girl in the end.

Told over a period of sixty dramatic years, this is an account of how two outsized cultural phenomena continue to define American aspirations, fantasies, and our ideas about ourselves. Looking at these two touchstones in this new context will forever change how you see the Beatles, the James Bond films, and six decades of cross-Atlantic popular culture.

About John Higgs

John Higgs is the author of William Blake vs the World, his first to be published in America, as well as other books published in Britain. John lives in England.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Nigeyb on September 26, 2022

I've been a big fan of John Higgs since reading The KLF: Chaos, Magic and the Band Who Burned a Million Pounds. He's one of a select band of writers whose books I pre-order. John Higgs has that incredible knack of making complex ideas simple, and finding fascinating connections between seemingly unr......more

Goodreads review by Wee on January 24, 2025

Considering it’s subject matter, not nearly enough Ringo in the book.......more

Goodreads review by CJ on April 20, 2023

John Higgs meanders through the postwar British psyche juxtaposing the "eros" of the Beatles with the "thanatos" of Bond. The concluding chapter brings together interesting ideas about changing male identity in the UK and while you might wonder where the book is going in the middle sections, Higgs i......more

Goodreads review by James on December 26, 2022

Hmmm, a mash-up of Bond and the Beatles using Love and Death as its banner themes. I thought this might be a bit compare-and-contrast-A-Level-essay - but I was completely wrong. It must have been a real challenge to draw the colossal wealth of existing material about both The Beatles and James Bond......more

Goodreads review by Tolkien on March 19, 2024

Fascinating book, examining the twin cultural influences of James Bond and The Beatles on British identity. Did you know that both the first James Bond film (Dr. No) and the first Beatles single (Love Me Do) were released on the same day in 1962 ? Higgs brilliantly expands from the idea that Bond re......more