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Ian MacCormick (pseudonym Ian MacDonald) (3 October 1948 – 20 August 2003) was a British music critic and author, best known for Revolution in the Head, his forensic history of The Beatles which borrowed techniques from art historians, and The New Shostakovich, a controversial study of the Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich. MacDonald was instrumental in popularising the then forgotten Nick Drake during the 1980s. MacDonald briefly attended King's College, Cambridge, at first to study English but transferred to Archaeology and Anthropology. He dropped out after a year. While at... MORE

Ian MacCormick (pseudonym Ian MacDonald) (3 October 1948 – 20 August 2003) was a British music critic and author, best known for Revolution in the Head, his forensic history of The Beatles which borrowed techniques from art historians, and The New Shostakovich, a controversial study of the Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich. MacDonald was instrumental in popularising the then forgotten Nick Drake during the 1980s. MacDonald briefly attended King's College, Cambridge, at first to study English but transferred to Archaeology and Anthropology. He dropped out after a year. While at Cambridge, he was distantly acquainted with the singer/songwriter Nick Drake. From 1972 to 1975 he was assistant editor at the NME. He began a songwriting collaboration as lyricist with Quiet Sun, which included his brother Bill MacCormick and future Roxy Music guitarist Phil Manzanera. This collaboration was resumed in the late 1970s, when MacDonald provided lyrics for the album Listen Now. Later, Brian Eno assisted MacDonald in producing Sub Rosa, an album of his own songs release on Manzanera's label. In his book Revolution in the Head: The Beatles' Records and the Sixties, first published in 1994, LESS