Ken Womack – An Author Profile
Author Ken Womack is a workaholic! He always has a new book project looming or lurking around each corner. He has no trouble creating a fine and delicate balance between his academic studies as a professor and author, to discuss those topics in books that strike a popular chord with a mass pop-culture audience. I first met Ken a few years ago, on a Facebook page I was running, and quite frankly, my life has not been the same since. I am overwhelmed with Ken’s abundant Beatles-related knowledge base and his ability to analyze events on both a musical and cultural basis. I would like to take this opportunity to expose the current members of Buzz’s Beatles book blog to the wide scope of Ken’s Beatles catalog of print material. Ken’s Beatles-related books are well respected and admired by a very large audience. Here are a few samples of his prolific and stellar Beatles library of books:
Long and Winding Roads, Revised Edition: The Evolving Artistry of the Beatles Hardcover – January 12, 2023 Bloomsbury Academic
Ken’s recent revised edition of his earlier work by the same name. This book uses more recently discovered group outtakes released in the intervening years since the last edition. He examines the great debt the Beatles owe to rhythm and blues as one of the focal points. Like most of Ken’s work, his books are both scholarly and extremely interesting to his large readership base.
John Lennon 1980: The Last Days in the Life Paperback – September 15, 2020-Omnibus Press
by Kenneth Womack (Author)
Ken’s analysis of the final days of the life of John Lennon. Ken’s words transport you and make you feel like you are there witnessing the creation of John’s final musical creations. Ken manages to find the healthy balance between John’s eccentric nature and his genius, wit, and insecurities.
Fandom and The Beatles: The Act You’ve Known for All These Years Paperback – March 12, 2021-Oxford University Press
by Kenneth Womack (Editor), Kit O’Toole (Editor)
A collaborative effort between two scholars I admire very much. This book analyzes the Beatles fan base and why their cross-generational appeal continues beyond the realm of first-generational Beatles fans. This is an excellent title that helps to explain the Beatles’ seemingly universal appeal.
Solid State: The Story of “Abbey Road” and the End of the Beatles Hardcover – Illustrated, October 15, 2019
by Kenneth Womack (Author), Alan Parsons (Foreword)
Cornell University Press, 2019
The story of Abbey Road and The End of the Beatles. This book and a book by Ken McNab entitled “And In the End” make excellent companion pieces for this time frame.
The Beatles Encyclopedia [2 volumes]: Everything Fab Four Hardcover – June 30, 2014
by Kenneth Womack (Author)-Greenwood
An exhaustive informational 2-volume book set that will help to explain why those four young men from Liverpool turned the world on its ear and continues to fascinate the younger generations as well.
The Cambridge Companion to the Beatles by Kenneth Womack
Cambridge University Press | December 14, 2009. A work of a more academic nature but this work will be enjoyed by a wide array of readers.
Organized into three sections, covering Background, Works, and History and Influence, the Companion is ideal for course usage and is also a must-read for all Beatles fans.
Maximum Volume: The Life of Beatles Producer George Martin, The Early Years, 1926–1966 Paperback – September 3, 2019
The superb 2-volume biography of Beatles producer George Martin. Both books were published by Chicago Review Press.
Sound Pictures: The Life of Beatles Producer George Martin, The Later Years, 1966–2016 Paperback – September 3, 2019 by Kenneth Womack
The Beatles, Sgt. Pepper, and the Summer of Love (For the Record: Lexington Studies in Rock and Popular Music) Hardcover – July 3, 2017
Published by Lexington Books
by Kenneth Womack (Editor), Kathryn B. Cox (Editor), Kenneth L. Campbell(Contributor), Jacqueline Edmondson PhD (Contributor), Michael Frontani (Contributor), Katie Kapurch(Contributor), Mark Osteen (Contributor), Kit O’Toole (Contributor), Joe Rapolla (Contributor), Robert Rodriguez (Contributor), Bruce Spizer (Contributor), Jerry Zolten (Contributor)
An excellent academic analysis of the Summer of Love by an impressive coterie of contributors.
The Beatles in Context (Composers in Context) Hardcover-Publisher Cambridge University Press-Dec 23, 2021
Edited by Kenneth Womack
Another fascinating academic analysis of the Beatles musical and cultural impact.
Reading the Beatles: Cultural Studies, Literary Criticism, and the Fab Four Annotated Edition
SUNY Press 2006 by Kenneth Womack (Editor), Todd F. Davis (Editor)
Addresses the band’s resounding impact on how we think about gender, popular culture, and the formal and poetic qualities of music.
All Things Must Pass Away: Harrison, Clapton, and Other Assorted Love Songs Hardcover – July 20, 2021
by Kenneth Womack (Author), Jason Kruppa (Author) Chicago Review Press 2021
Renowned Beatles expert Ken Womack and music historian Jason Kruppa explore Harrison and Clapton’s musical and personal collaboration, friendship, and rivalry
This is a very entertaining book exploring the friendship between two men who found the same woman to be a muse and yet despite this apparent conflict, they would remain good friends to the end.
And the best is yet to come as I write this!
Living the Beatles Legend: The Untold Story of Mal Evans Hardcover – November 14, 2023
by Kenneth Womack (Author)
Ken Womack has secured a two-volume book deal to tell the fascinating story of the late Beatles road manager, Mal Evans. Volume 1 of the 2 book series will be the biography of Mal and is tentatively scheduled for release in November of 2023. Volume 2 will consist of Mal’s diaries, notes and immense collection of photographs that he compiled over the years and is scheduled for a 2024 release.
Ken Womack’s insatiable appetite for new and interesting Beatles information will no doubt provide many more pleasant surprises for fans everywhere!!! The man never ceases to amaze me!
Buzz
