The more time I spend trimming my six-hour class on the Beatles down to ninety minutes, the more I wonder why I offered to do so in the first place. Much ado about nothing, you say? Oh, I beg to differ. Using just one incomparable Beatles song as a focal point, indulge me as I lay out a few of the unpleasant dilemmas facing me while constructing my final playlist for the presentation I'm doing about a month from now.
* If I choose not to use And Your Bird Can Sing how to best demonstrate how advanced the Beatles were with respect to guitar harmony?
* If I do use And Your Bird Can Sing as my selection from the British version of Revolver, which of the equally important songs from that breakthrough album do I scuttle? Eleanor Rigby? Taxman? Here There and Everywhere?
* Is a compromise in order with respect to And Your Bird Can Sing? That is, can I instead use that piece of musical magic and say it was from the vastly inferior American toss off LP called Yesterday and Today? If yes, how much time do I devote to making a distinction between the American and British versions of all the albums before Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band? And then, what other Beatles ephemera do I leave out while rhapsodizing on their endlessly influential oeuvre?
There's more where this came from, honest. If I began describing my turmoil about Abbey Road and what I'll play from that gem in this truncated class vs. what was included in my longer offering, you might begin to worry about my mental health. The White Album? If you still have any pity left for this unadulterated Beatles geek, please don't go there.
This seems like a very fun class! The Beatles definitely have a lot of amazing songs (i.e., Eleanor Rigby, Strawberry Fields Forever, Norwegian Wood, I am the Walrus) so it’s definitely hard to narrow it down/make the entire course about one of the world’s most famous bands concise, considering they have a massive, distinct, eclectic discography. I don’t know if you know about its existence but I occasionally ponder over Carnival of Light and what it sounds like, it was recorded during the Sgt. Pepper era, a nearly 14-minute avant-garde suite, hopefully Paul or Ringo release it for Sgt. Pepper’s 60th anniversary. Joe Strummer, respectfully I disagree, but phony Beatlemania has NOT bitten the dust all these years later
ReplyDeleteDaniel; Thanks for the comment. And I agree that Joe Strummer missed the mark in that lyric.
DeleteI have THE WHITE ALBUM with the white records! Had the original but don’t need to tell why I no longer do😩
ReplyDeleteCookie; Thanks for the comment. And I give up: Why don't you have the original?
DeleteMy father sold it in a yard sale when I was in college😩😩
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