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'From Me To You' and 'All My Loving' share an ambiguous harmonic progression. Both use a vi resolving to I. But in between those standard chords is a very strange one. It could either be interpreted as a bVI+ or a /b6:  and  or  and  And here's what it ultimately boils down to: Is this progression three different chords (in which case the bVI+ should be used)? Or is it two different chords connected by a chromatic passing tone (in which case the /b6 should be used)? Neither is necessarily "right" or "wrong", they're just different interpretations of the same progression. Meanwhile, I wrap up the final tour of 2016 tomorrow:
Tuesday, 29 November 2016, 6:00-7:00 p.m. La Salle Public Library, 305 Marquette St, Lasalle, IL The Beatles: Band of the Sixties Explore the music of The Beatles in this 60-minute multimedia presentation (part history and part musical analysis) spanning the full 1960's: beginning with the band's seminal visits to Hamburg, continuing through Beatlemania, and concluding with Abbey Road. The program will be supplemented with audio clips of music and excerpts from interviews with the band members.
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Today, being the 20th day of the month, is the day I send out my newsletter. Inspired by popular interest, I began this free monthly email newsletter in March 2014, when I sent that initial issue to 6 people. Little by little, it's grown to the point where this morning's newsletter was sent to 945 recipients. Each newsletter details my schedule for the remainder of the current month through the end of the next month - which presentation I'm giving, where, and when. Here is this month's newsletter in PDF form: 
Anybody with a valid email address may register for the newsletter on my website: http://www.aaronkrerowicz.com/newsletter-sign-up.html. Just be sure to type the “prove you are human” part. (I get a lot of spam, so any submissions that skip that step are deleted.) Newsletter subscription is the best way to stay in touch. The emails are sent from my personal Gmail account, which allows recipients to respond easily and efficiently. This permits me to maintain a monthly dialog with Beatles fans across the globe. Plus, they feature adorable puppy pictures. In honor of my pooch, Abbey (as in Road), I started including a photo of her in each newsletter beginning in 2016. Here's November's, in honor of the Chicago Cubs' World Series victory:  The last event before Thanksgiving will take me back to Lake Zurich, Illinois, where I first spoke on June 10, 2014.
Monday, 21 November 2016, 7:00-8:00 p.m. Ela Area Public Library District, 275 Mohawk Trail, Lake Zurich, IL From the Shadow of JFK: The Rise of Beatlemania in America Many Beatles authors have cited John F. Kennedy's assassination on 22 November 1963 as a cause of the Beatles' sudden popularity in the United States in early 1964. Their logic: Kennedy's assassination made America sad, then the Beatles made America happy again. But this commonly accepted answer is overly simplistic. The real answer is that Kennedy's life and death inadvertently primed the nation for the Beatles' arrival and success. This 60-minute program will explain how and why. The Beatles' extraordinary sense of harmony can be seen in their first recordings. While several of the tracks on their first album, Please Please Me (1963), employ utterly conventional harmony (see 'Misery' or 'Boys'), several also contain exquisite and innovative progressions (see 'Ask Me Why', 'Do You Want To Know A Secret?', or 'There's A Place'). This blog will look at all 14 tracks on the album in the order in which they are heard. Each track is analyzed using Roman Numeral analysis, with the results compiled into a concordance documenting how every chord is approached (what came immediately before it) and how it progresses (what comes immediately after it), followed by a consideration and discussion of the harmonies used on that particular song. It should be noted that 6 of the 14 songs on this album are covers, meaning The Beatles did not write the harmony. Nevertheless, they chose either to retain the harmony of the originals or tweak that harmony (such as the Picardy third in 'A Taste Of Honey', which is absent from the original). This catalog analyzes the harmony heard on the album - regardless of who decided to use the chords - because that what The Beatles put forth as their finished product. 1. 'I Saw Her Standing There' I: 24 approach: Ø x1, IV x8, V x11, bVI x4 progress: Ø x1, IV x11, V x12 IV: 14 approach: I x11, V x3 progress: I x8, V x2, bVI x4 V: 14 approach: I x12, IV x2 progress: I x11, IV x3 bVI: 4 approach: IV x4 progress: I x4 The opening track uses fairly standard bluesy harmony. The one unusual chord is found in the refrains, when a bVI is heard on the falsetto "Oh!"  It's the first example of a bVI being used as a V substitute. In other words, this harmony would make perfect sense and be more "normal" if a V had been used instead of a bVI.  This is a trick The Beatles would pull several more times in their career (including 'Hello Goodbye'). 2. 'Misery' I: 16 approach: IV x4, V x8, vi x4 progress: IV x8, vi x8 IV: 9 approach: Ø x1, I x8 progress: I x4, V x5 V: 8 approach: IV x5, iv x3 progress: I x8 vi: 8 approach: I x8 progress: Ø x1, I x4, V x3 Plain vanilla harmony here. 3. 'Anna (Go To Him)' I: 26 approach: Ø x1, IV x2, V x6, vi x17 progress: Ø x1, IV x4, vi x21 II: 2 approach: IV x2 progress: V x2 ii: 4 approach: vi x4 progress: V x4 IV: 4 approach: I x4 progress: I x2, II x2 V: 6 approach: II x2, ii x4 progress: I x6 vi: 21 approach: I x21 progress: I x17, ii x4 Also pretty tame harmony. The use of a secondary dominant toward the end of the bridge makes a nice harmonic pull back to tonic for the return of the verse...  ... but even that is about as conventional as secondary functions get. 4. 'Chains' I: 16 approach: Ø x1, IV x10, iv x1, V x4 progress: Ø x1, IV x9, V x6 IV: 13 approach: I x9, V x4 progress: I x10, iv x1, V x2 iv: 1 approach: IV x1 progress: I x1 V: 8 approach: I x6, IV x2 progress: I x4, IV x4 Textbook 12 bar blues harmony here, with the one exception being the subdominant mode mixture (IV-iv) at the end as the track is fading out.  My favorite part of what is - let's be honest here - kind of a dull song! 5. 'Boys' I: 21 approach: IV x14, V x7 progress: IV x7, V x14 IV: 14 approach: I x7, V x7 progress: I x14 V: 15 approach: Ø x1, I x14 progress: Ø x1, I x7, IV x7 Like 'Chains', 'Boys' is also a standard 12 bar blues. Unlike 'Chains', 'Boys' doesn't deviate from the 12 bar blues model at all, making it complete standard harmony. 6. 'Ask Me Why' I: 18 approach: Ø x1, ii x6, IV x4, iv x1, V x6 progress: I+ x4, ii x9, III x3, IV x2 I+: 4 approach: I x4 progress: IV x4 II: 2 approach: iv x2 progress: V x2 ii: 15 approach: I x9, iii x6 progress: I x6, iii x9 III: 3 approach: I x3 progress: vi x3 iii: 13 approach: ii x9, IV x4 progress: Ø x1, ii x6, IV x6 IV: 12 approach: I x2, I+ x4, iii x6 progress: I x4, iii x4, V x4 iv: 3 approach: vi x3 progress: I x1, II x2 V: 6 approach: II x2, IV x4 progress: I x6 vi: 3 approach: III x3 progress: iv x3 Now we're talking! One rather crude measure of harmonic sophistication is the number of different chords used in a song. 'Boys' used just three chords; 'Ask Me Why' uses ten. Furthermore, those ten chords are used in intriguing and unconventional ways. The chord planing in the initial two phrases of each verse are unusual. This creates an ascending progression (I-ii-iii) that is immediately counter-balanced by the same pattern in reverse (iii-ii-I).  I can't think of any pop song prior to this one to do that, although the classical music of Claude Debussy (1862-1918) immediately comes to mind. The second iteration of this ascending/descending phrase is propelled by a secondary dominant (III7) to the relative minor (vi).  This isn't terribly rare, but it's also not terribly common - or least not for the time. The Beatles would frequently use this pattern in a variety of contexts throughout the decade (see 'Your Mother Should Know' from 1967,and 'There's A Place' below). The pull towards vi is a potential threat to I's tonal authority. But that peril is immediately quashed by a strong half cadence that is reinforced with a secondary dominant of its own (this time the more conventional II functioning as a V of V, which ensures I is still tonic).  Also note another example of subdominant mode mixture (iv) similar to the end of 'Chains' except in this case there's no IV preceding the iv. 'Ask Me Why' is also the first use of an augmented chord - in this case a I+. This enhances the secondary function of the chord, as it pulls toward resolution on IV to start the bridge.  Also notice how the IV chord is approached by a iii. This, too, is somewhat unusual - and something The Beatles will use periodically throughout their career (see 'I Want To Hold Your Hand', 'Getting Better', or 'There's A Place' below). Finally, we've seen above how the III7-vi progression threatens but never overthrows I. The end of the song, however, does overthrow I. The calm alternation between I and IV at the end reinforces the sense of conclusion. And a lesser composer might have ended the song conventionally by retaining I's authority...  .. but John Lennon chose the far more intriguing and highly unusual jazzy iii7.  I have a feeling this is the kind of song Bob Dylan had in mind when he said of The Beatles, "They were doing things nobody was doing. Their chords were outrageous, just outrageous, and their harmonies made it all valid. Everybody else thought they were teenyboppers, that they were gonna pass right away. But it was obvious to me that they had staying power. I knew they were pointing to the direction where music had to go." (Encyclopedia of leadership, edited by George R. Goethals, Georgia Jones Sorenson, James MacGregor Burns, page 87) 7. 'Please Please Me' I: 24 approach: Ø x1, IV x9, V x14 progress: Ø x1, bIII x4, IV x19 ii: 3 approach: IV x3 progress: vi x3 bIII: 4 approach: I x4 progress: IV x3, bVI x1 IV: 25 approach: I x19, bIII x3, vi x3 progress: I x9, ii x3, V x13 V: 14 approach: IV x13, bVI x1 progress: I x14 bVI: 1 approach: bIII x1 progress: V x1 vi: 3 approach: ii x3 progress: IV x3 The harmonies of 'Please Please Me' are, for the most part, standard. But a few chords on this album's title track are somewhat unusual. The opening phrases of each of the three verses contains an energetic non-diatonic progression of three major chords each a major second higher pitched than the previous.  As I illustrate in my presentation The Beatles: Band of the Sixties, this unusual progression was likely lifted from Carl Perkins' song 'Lend Me Your Comb' (1957).  The famous story is that 'Please Please Me' was originally a slow ballad until George Martin suggested they ramp up the tempo and turn it into a rock song instead. Presumably, this was when John borrowed from Perkins' example as a way to inject some enthusiasm into the song. The other progression that likely resulted from Martin's suggestion was the coda, which employs a secondary dominant on bIII (rather unusual) and uses bVI as a pre-dominant (something The Beatles would use again several times in the future - see 'Run For Your Life', 'Day Tripper', and 'We Can Work It Out').  8. 'Love Me Do' I: 28 approach: Ø x1, IV x27 progress: Ø x1, IV x23, V x4 IV: 27 approach: I x23, V x4 progress: I x27 V: 4 approach: I x4 progress: IV x4 I can tell this was an early attempt at songwriting. The chords, while pleasant, are about as conventional as harmony gets. Not much to say here... 9. 'P. S. I Love You' I: 22 approach: ii x4, IV x6, V x3, bVII x6, vii° x3 progress: Ø x1, ii x4, IV x8, V x7, bVI x2 ii: 4 approach: I x4 progress: I x4 IV: 9 approach: Ø x1, I x8 progress: I x6, vii° x3 V: 11 approach: I x7, vi x4 progress: I x3, bVI x4, vi x4 bVI: 6 approach: I x2, V x4 progress: bVII x6 vi: 4 approach: V x4 progress: V x4 bVII: 6 approach: bVI x6 progress: I x6 vii°: 3 approach: IV x3 progress: I x3 Quite similar to 'Please Please Me', 'P. S. I Love You' also employs the non-diatonic progression of three major chords each a major second higher than the previous. In this case, however, it's using bVI-bVII-I (whereas 'Please Please Me' used bIII-IV-V).  While they're not identical (different keys, different chords, different scale degrees), they are quite similar. I suspect that 'P. S. I Love You' was also inspired by Carl Perkins' 'Lend Me Your Comb', though it's a less obvious influence. 'P. S.' is also The Beatles' first use of a diminished chord. In the introductory bridge - and, curiously, only in the introductory bridge - a highly unusual vii° is inserted in between the conventional IV and I.  Why this diminished chord is not reprized in the two subsequent the bridges has mystified me for years. And right now, as I'm typing this, it finally dawned on me: The other bridges contain harmony vocals, but the introductory bridge does not. To retain the vii°, then, would have required alterations to the vocal harmonies to reinforce that diminished chord in a way that was not necessary in the intro. 10. 'Baby It's You' I: 17 approach: Ø x1, ii x3, IV x4, V x5, vi x4 progress: IV x3, vi x14 ii: 3 approach: vi x3 progress: I x3 IV: 9 approach: I x3, vi x6 progress: I x4, V x5 V: 5 approach: IV x5 progress: I x5 vi: 14 approach: I x14 progress: Ø x1, I x4, ii x3, IV x6 'Baby It's You' employs five chords, all in standard ways. The one possible exception might be the cadence ii-I.  This is unusual in classical contexts, but fairly standard in pop contexts. The Beatles would use this resolution on occasion (see 'Till There Was You' or 'I Want To Tell You'). 11. 'Do You Want To Know A Secret?' I: 15 approach: V x12, bVI x3 progress: iii x15 i: 2 approach: Ø x1, iv x1 progress: bIII x1, iv x1 bII: 1 approach: bIII x1 progress: V x1 ii: 21 approach: biii x15, IV x2, v x1, vi x3 progress: V x16, bVI x3, vi x2 bIII: 1 approach: i x1 progress: bII x1 biii: 15 approach: iii x15 progress: ii x15 iii: 15 approach: I x15 progress: biii x15 IV: 5 approach: V x4, v x1 progress: ii x2, V x3 iv: 1 approach: i x1 progress: i x1 V: 20 approach: bII x1, ii x16, IV x3 progress: Ø x1, I x12, IV x4, vi x3 vi: 2 approach: vi x2 progress: ii x1, IV x1 bVI: 3 approach: ii x3 progress: I x3 vi: 5 approach: ii x2, V x3 progress: ii x3, v x2 'Do You Want To Know A Secret' incorporates 13 different chords - the most of any song on Please Please Me. This is due, in part, to the introduction. Four of the intro's five chords are never heard again in the song - the one exception being the V.  While the first phrase is harmonically conventional (i-iv-i), the second is anything but. It's the first example in The Beatles' work of a Neapolitan chord (bII). And the tritone root motion of bII-V also fits into Dylan's "just outrageous" category. Overall, the intro to 'Secret' strongly foreshadows Lennon's introduction to 'If I Fell' from one year later. Similar to 'Ask Me Why', 'Secret' also employs chord planing - in this case iii-biii-ii.  Unlike 'Ask', however, this time it's chromatic. No doubt the inspiration was 'Till There Was You'.  Similar to 'I Saw Her Standing There', 'Secret' also uses a bVI as a V substitute.  This passage could easily have instead used the more conventional V.  Lastly, 'Secret' is the first example in The Beatles' catalog of a deceptive cadence (V-vi).  12. 'A Taste Of Honey' I: 1 approach: IV x1 progress: Ø x1 i: 14 approach: Ø x1, IV x8, bVII x5 progress: bIII x3, IV x11 bIII: 5 approach: i x3, IV x2 progress: bVII x5 IV: 11 approach: i x11 progress: I x1, i x8, bIII x2 bVII: 5 approach: bIII x5 progress: i x5 'A Taste of Honey' is the first Beatles song in a minor key. As I blogged about yesterday, just 40 (19.0%) of the band's 211-song catalog employ at least one minor tonality. And of those 40, just eight are only in minor - and 'Honey' is the first. In that sense, the harmonies of 'Honey' are unusual for The Beatles simply because they're in minor. But within that somewhat unusual minor framework, the harmonies are pretty standard. That being said, it's worth mentioning the Picardy third that concludes the song as it's one of only two in the Beatles catalog (the other being 'And I Love Her').  13. 'There's A Place' I: 16 approach: Ø x1, II x2, IV x10, vi x3 progress: III x2, IV x11, vi x3 II: 2 approach: vi x2 progress: I x2 III: 2 approach: I x2 progress: vi x2 iii: 2 approach: V x2 progress: IV x2 IV: 14 approach: I x11, iii x2, V x1 progress: Ø x1, I x10, V x1, vi x2 V: 4 approach: IV x1, vi x3 progress: iii x2, IV x1, vi x1 vi: 8 approach: I x3, III x2, IV x2, V x1 progress: I x3, II x2, V x3 'There's A Place' is a sibling of 'Ask Me Why'. Both are "under the radar" kind of songs, with neither typically considered among The Beatles' best work, but their harmony is extraordinary and similar. One noteworthy aspect of 'Place' that is not found in 'Ask Me Why' is a particular pattern of four chords in which the second and fourth are the same, but the first and third are similar but not identical. In this case, its the progression iii-IV-I-IV.  Two things stand out about this phrase. First, this four-chord pattern will reappear periodically throughout The Beatles' catalog ('No Reply' comes to mind, which uses vi-iii-IV-iii). The band obviously liked this pattern since they continued to use it. Second, it's another example of iii functioning as a leading tone (or more precisely leading chord) to IV, something also found in 'Ask Me Why'. Just as scale degree 7 has a strong harmonic pull towards scale degree 1, so too scale degree 3 has a strong pull toward 4. That's unsurprising as 3-4 and 7-1 are the two half steps in the major scale. What is somewhat surprising, however, is the use of the iii chord (not just scale degree) resolving to the IV chord. As mentioned earlier, this is distinctly unclassical (I don't believe Beethoven ever wrote such a progression), but it's relatively common in popular styles. Another earcatcher is the cadence II-I, similar to the ii-I cadence mentioned above in both 'Ask Me Why' and 'Baby It's You'.  This, too, is distinctly unclassical, yet it's relatively common in pop contexts. Finally, the above is also another example of III functioning as a secondary dominant of vi, as cited above in the consideration of 'Ask Me Why'. 14. 'Twist And Shout' I: 34 approach: Ø x1, V x33 progress: Ø x1, IV x33 IV: 33 approach: I x33 progress: V x33 V: 33 approach: IV x33 progress: I x33 Like 'Boys' and 'Love Me Do', the three-chord harmony on 'Twist And Shout' could hardly be more simple. Now, let me be clear: Simple doesn't mean bad. In this case, the minimal quantity of chords are used to maximum effect - particularly the two "ah" build-ups on V that create so much harmonic tension that their resolutions are absolutely eargasmic. Tomorrow I return to my signature program:
Thursday, 17 November 2016, 6:00-7:00 p.m. Mead Public Library, 710 N 8th St, Sheboygan, WI The Beatles: Band of the Sixties Explore the music of The Beatles in this 60-minute multimedia presentation (part history and part musical analysis) spanning the full 1960's: beginning with the band's seminal visits to Hamburg, continuing through Beatlemania, and concluding with Abbey Road. The program will be supplemented with audio clips of music and excerpts from interviews with the band members. The vast majority of The Beatles' recordings are in a major key. In fact, 171 (81.0%) of the band's 211 tracks are exclusively in major keys. That leaves 40 songs (19.0%) that use (a) minor key(s). Eight are in minor and only in minor:
Much more common are songs that are partially in minor. This is found on 30 tracks:
Lastly, two are neither major nor minor:
Tomorrow evening I speak for a third time at the Fremont library (during which I will miss my only chance to see Deconstructing The White Album - oh well!).
Wednesday, 16 November 2016, 7:00-8:00 p.m. Fremont Public Library, 1170 N Midlothian Rd, Mundelein, IL The Beatles & The Rolling Stones Ask anybody to name two English rock bands from the 1960s and the response will likely be The Beatles and The Rolling Stones. But despite often being portrayed as rivals in the media, the two groups were actually quite friendly towards each other, both socially and musically. This 60-minute presentation will compare and contrast the two through musical examples and interviews with the band members to illustrate the relationship between The Beatles & The Rolling Stones. Upon checking Twitter this morning, I discovered that Scott Freiman's lecture series Deconstructing The Beatles is being turned into a documentary series of the same name. The first, Deconstructing The White Album, is scheduled to open in theaters on Wednesday, November 16. Here's the trailer: While I've never met or attended any of Scott's presentations, I have heard extraordinary things about them. But we've never been in the same place at the same time, so I've never had the opportunity. Now that he's recorded his lectures, I will FINALLY have the chance!
At least, I hope so. Unfortunately, it appears that its run is limited to just one day at most theaters. I know there are all sorts of legal complications regarding copyright, which is a major reason I have never recorded my presentations (in face-to-face educational contexts I can play copyrighted clips under fair use provisions, but to record and reproduce those same clips does not). The full schedule is available here: http://www.beatleslectures.com/see-the-film/ It appears that November 16 is the ONLY day to watch the film, except for a few lucky locations. While it is being shown at many locations around the Milwaukee/Chicago area, I'll be busy that evening delivering "The Beatles & The Rolling Stones" at the Fremont library in Mundelein, IL. So maybe I won't be able to see it, which would be a tremendous disappointment! Regardless of what happens Wednesday, tomorrow I'll be doing my Beatles thing in Franklin, WI: Tuesday, 15 November 2016, 6:30-7:30 p.m. Franklin Public Library, 9151 W. Loomis Rd, Franklin, WI From the Shadow of JFK: The Rise of Beatlemania in America Many Beatles authors have cited John F. Kennedy's assassination on 22 November 1963 as a cause of the Beatles' sudden popularity in the United States in early 1964. Their logic: Kennedy's assassination made America sad, then the Beatles made America happy again. But this commonly accepted answer is overly simplistic. The real answer is that Kennedy's life and death inadvertently primed the nation for the Beatles' arrival and success. This 60-minute program will explain how and why. After opening the tour in Janesville, WI on Thursday, I traveled to Madison, home of Jim Berkenstadt, "The Rock 'n' Roll Detective". Jim's latest book is The Beatle Who Vanished a biography of Jimmie Nicol, who played with the band in June 1964 and then mysteriously disappeared. Jim and I have been corresponding via Twitter for several months, but we had never met in person before going for lunch last Friday. We had tried to coordinate back in May, when I spoke in the Madison area, but we couldn't find a common time, so we postponed to November. I arrived at his office in Madison to find it decked out in ever more Beatles memorabilia than my own office! (Granted, he has a larger office space, and so can fit more in.) We walked to the nearby Madison Sourdough bakery, where we continued chatted for about hour. Turns out Jim is a Chicago Cubs fan (I've been wearing my Cubs hat everywhere and I've received quite a few comments on it - and my next Abbey picture, for my December newsletter, will feature her wearing the cap) and even worked for the Cubs back in the 80s. He told an anecdote about skipping school at the University of Southern Illinois to attend a Cubs/Cards game at the old Busch stadium in St. Louis. He made a spectacular catch on a foul ball that garnered replays, and thus his professors found out he skipped class. It reminded me of the Seinfeld episode where Elaine skipped work to attend a New York Yankees game, to which she wore a Baltimore Orioles cap behind home plate. The enemy hat in such a prominent seat attracted attention, and thus her bosses found out she ditched work. Turns out Jim is also friends with Julia Louis-Dreyfus, the actress who played Elaine on Seinfeld. The two met when they were both students at Northwestern University. Jim also commented on his next book, a series of "rock 'n' roll mysteries", including chapters on the FBI's investigation of The Kingsmen's 'Louie Louie', and the hazy story of a guitar stolen by John Lennon on 15 November 1959. Needless to say, I eager await the read! Then on Saturday I dined with Aviv Kammay of the Beatles tribute band Get Back Wisconsin. I met Aviv at the 2014 Beatles conference at Penn State Altoona, and we've stayed in touch - in part because he lives in Wisconsin, a state I visit regularly because it's where I grew up and where my parents still live. With plans for another Beatles conference at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor the first weekend of June to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Sgt. Pepper, we're both preparing presentations: I'm on schedule to published BEATLESTUDY volume I: Structural Analysis of Beatles Music in May 2017 in anticipation of the UMich conference, so I'll be speaking on how the band's music is structured. Aviv is working on "Beatles comic relief" motif - of how the band often counters profundity with humor, such as the run-out groove after the concluding piano chord of 'A Day in the Life'. Finally, I was surprised to find Aviv turned 35 years old on Saturday - the same day I turned 31. "You say it's your birthday? Well it's my birthday, too!" I'll be back in Wisconsin in August 2017, at which time I'm hoping to co-present with both Jim and Aviv at least once. The busiest stretch of this less-than-greulling tour (just 9 talks in 20 days - compared to last month's 30 in 27 days) begins tomorrow, the first of four speaking engagements in four days:
Monday, 14 November 2016, 7:00-8:00 p.m. Muskego Public Library, S73W16663 Janesville Rd, Muskego, WI The Beatles: Band of the Sixties Explore the music of The Beatles in this 60-minute multimedia presentation (part history and part musical analysis) spanning the full 1960's: beginning with the band's seminal visits to Hamburg, continuing through Beatlemania, and concluding with Abbey Road. The program will be supplemented with audio clips of music and excerpts from interviews with the band members. On this date (November 9) in 1966, John Lennon met Yoko Ono at the Indica Gallery exhibition 'Unfinished Paintings And Objects' in London. As I wrote in the conclusion of the Yoko chapter in The Beatles & The Avant-Garde: The night of 9 November 1966 at the Indica Gallery was a pivotal moment in Beatles history. Although John and Yoko would not pair romantically for another eighteen months, their meeting set in motion the dynamics that would redefine the band. Once John found Yoko, she completely eclipsed Paul as John’s primary artistic collaborator. With John more interested in Yoko than the Beatles, Paul was able to replace him as unofficial leader of the group; and with the introduction of a full-fledged avant-garde artist, Paul’s involvement and enthusiasm for the movement abated, freeing John to adopt the role. November 9 of the current year is also the eve of my ninth and final Beatles lecture tour of 2016, which will take me through Wisconsin and Illinois over the next three weeks, starting in Janesville:
Thursday, 10 November 2016, 6:00-7:30 p.m. Hedberg Public Library, 316 S Main St, Janesville, WI The Beatles' Alter Ego, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band Since its release in 1967, the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band has often been regarded as the single greatest rock album, and one of the first rock concept albums. This 60-minute multimedia presentation will observe and discuss the landmark album track by track, citing musical and historical precedents, and illustrating the development of the songs through excerpts from interviews with the band members and clips of discarded takes. |
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