by Luke Meddings

They were the artists who revolutionised popular music and took it to new levels of originality and influence. But they didn’t do it in a bubble.

In fact, The Beatles, Beach Boys and Bob Dylan remade modern music by listening to each other, and using what they heard to drive and enhance their own creativity. 

 Using timelines derived from release dates, studio sessions and personal encounters, Luke Meddings reveals the paths of influence across an astonishing 4-year period between 1963 and 1967, in which these iconic artists cross-pollinated like crazy - via recordings, rivalry, rumours, artistic envy and quite a few drugs. 

 Teeming with original, astute and often funny insights, What They Heard will change the way you listen to this music forever.

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‘These three ‘60s superpowers kept a weather eye on each other with a fascinating mixture of intrigue, public affection, intense rivalry and barely concealed paranoia. This thoroughly engaging and beautifully written book inspects their fragile, complex relationship and its effect on the white heat of their creativity. Contains evidence of influence, pastiche and – quite possibly - outright theft!’ Mark Ellen

‘What a fabulous idea and a great achievement. Considering one music in the context of another is what we all do; but this book brilliantly contextualises and explains many of those seemingly, yet often surprising, threads which bind artists and ‘scenes’. This book is an invitation to hear these familiar records anew.’ Charles Hazlewood

‘What They Heard shows in forensic detail just how consistently the Beatles, Dylan and the Beach Boys played off each other’s achievements. I was absorbed and entertained from start to finish.’ DJ Taylor, author of The Prose Factory and Rock and Roll is Life

‘Here is a book that urges us to listen, and listen deeply. Through that listening we not only learn about the music but we learn about ourselves and our interconnectedness. Read and hear. Hear and read.’ Ian McMillan, poet and host of The Verb, Radio 3

Published September 2021

296 Pages

Paperback with flaps