Frequently Asked Questions

• You claim to be a “professional Beatles scholar”. What exactly does that mean?

It means that I have no professional responsibilities other than analyzing, writing, and speaking about The Beatles.

• I'm skeptical. You look too young to be a Beatles expert. How old are you?

Whenever I'm asked that question, I turn it around by asking, “How old do you think I am?” I've had people guess anywhere from 16 to 44. But I'm actually 31 years old.

• So if you're too young to have personally experienced the Beatle phenomenon, how did you get so involved with the band and their music?

Mostly my dad. He grew up in the 60s and has been a huge Beatle fan his whole life. When I was growing up in the 90s, then, he would play me Beatles music. As far back as I can remember I've been a fan, too. Then when the remastered CDs were released in 2009, I listened to their music again, but this time with much more musically educated and experienced ears. That gave me a new appreciation for this band and their achievements. In 2011 I applied for and won a research grant through the University of Hartford to study the Beatles, and that grant gave me the foundation on which I began building a career. It has grown to the point where in 2015 I quit all my other jobs so I could commit to Beatles scholarship full-time.

• There are so many other Beatles scholars, authors, and fans out there already. What makes you different from other experts?

Two things: The first is that most authors focus on the band's history. And while history is both fascinating and important, the Beatles were first and foremost musicians. Somewhat surprisingly, the Beatles' music has received comparatively little consideration. There are several notable exceptions – Alan Pollack and Walter Everett top that list – but specifically musical analysis of Beatles songs remains largely unexplored. Since my background and academic education is extensive (I hold three collegiate degrees), I have the analytical techniques and a thorough understanding of music theory to conduct exhaustive and rigorous analysis of this music.

Second, over the years I've developed and honed presentation skills that allow me to explain this extremely sophisticated musical analysis in ways that an audience doesn't need a bachelor's degree in music theory to understand.
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Many people have one or the other of those abilities, but it's the combination of them that distinguishes my work and career from others. If I lacked either of those skills, my career as a Beatles scholar would never have gotten off the ground.

• Can you give me an example of how you explain detailed musical analysis?

In January 2016 I launched a series of brief educational analyses of Beatles songs titled THE BEATLES MINUTE. You can find the entire series on YouTube, or on my website by clicking here: http://www.aaronkrerowicz.com/the-beatles-minute.html

• Who is your favorite Beatle?

That's a tough question to answer because it's constantly changing. As a creative artist, I tend to identify with Paul. As a music consumer, I lean more towards John. But George at his best is as good as anything Lennon/McCartney ever wrote. And of course who doesn't love Ringo?

• What's your favorite Beatles song and album?

If you count side B of Abbey Road – the big medley – as a single song, that would have to be my favorite. I've heard people describe that medley as “the best 20 minutes in the history of recorded music” and I'm inclined to agree with that assessment (even though it's only about 16 minutes).

If the medley counts as multiple songs, then my single favorite would have to be “I Am the Walrus” because it's pure Lennon fantasy – nobody else could have written that music, it's got his musical fingerprints all over it. I vividly remember the moment when I realized the profundity the Beatles' music is: It was early 2010, I was living in Revere, MA and commuting to Boston University on the blue line subway. On one such ride I was listening to “I Am The Walrus” when it dawned on me that the Beatles were much more than just a pop group, they are a major landmark in music history. I immediately texted my girlfriend at the time (now wife) about the revelation, and I haven't looked back since.

• Tell me about your books.

I've published four books so far:

The first, The Beatles & The Avant-Garde, was released in 2014. It looks in detail at the romantic and artistic relationship between John Lennon and Yoko Ono. Yoko isn't exactly easy to like, but John was smitten. Why? What did he see in her? What attracted him to her, and vice versa? I can't guarantee that reading this book will make you like Yoko or her work, but I hope it can provide the context to where a reader can at least appreciate, if not genuinely enjoy, what she set out to accomplish.

The second, The Beatles: Band of the Sixties, was published as an Amazon Kindle ebook in April 2015. This is essentially a transcript of my presentation of the same title, which I've delivered many times in both the United States and England. It's rather short – about 9,000 words – and provides an overview of the band, their history, and their music.

The third, From the Shadow of JFK: The Rise of Beatlemania in America, was released in June 2015. It's common for authors to suggest a relationship between the president and the band since they were so close together in chronology (the Beatles' debut on Ed Sullivan came less than three months after Kennedy's assassination). But it's just as common for authors to dismiss any connection. Personally, I never believed in the connection until I started researching Kennedy – reading biographies, studying transcripts of his speeches, viewing photographs of the pop culture phenomenon he inspired both during and after his life. Then, and only then, did I realize how both the Fab Four and JFK were leaders of Youth Culture. How the band replaced the president as leaders of Youth Culture is what this book is all about.

And the fourth is Days in the Life: A Father and Son on a Beatles Tour. Most of my lecture tours are done solo, but in March 2016 my dad and I road tripped together to Phoenix. This book is essentially a co-written travelogue of where we went, who we met, and what we did. It's centered around The Beatles but supplemented with anecdotes about birding (Dad's favorite past time) and baseball (my favorite past time). It's certainly the most accessible (lease analytic) of all the books I've written.

• Do you have plans for any more books?

Oh, yes. Quite a few, actually. I'm currently working on a two-volume series titled BEATLESTUDY, the first volume of which is an encyclopedia of how Beatles songs are structured, the second is an encyclopedia of harmony in Beatles music. They're both on pace for publication in May 2017.

I also have plans for a book about the album Let it Be, and one about Ringo and his substantial contributions to the band. Plus, I'm constantly getting new ideas for presentations and books, so it's highly probable that book concepts will surface that I've not yet conceived.

• How can you write and publish so quickly?

Remember that I have no other professional responsibilities – I dedicate 100% of my career time and energy to Beatles study, which allows me to work at a pace far faster than those authors who write as a hobby or a side job.

Plus, I tend to write very short books. One of my biggest problems with books - and Beatles books in particular - is getting to the end and thinking, "This would have been a great 215-page book. Unfortunately it's 386 pages." I'm a firm believer in the "less is more" philosophy: Say what you need to say as tersely possible. Twitter has the right idea in limiting tweets to 140 characters.

• Who publishes your books?

I self-publish all my work through CreateSpace under the title AK Books.

• Self-publishing? Yuck!

Oh, no – I love self-publishing. It gives me complete control over my product. There is a strong stigma against self-publishing because anybody can print anything they want, irrespective of factual accuracy, but that's slowly changing. I've sometimes compared that to the gradual acceptance of rock 'n' roll – at first rock 'n' roll in general and the Beatles in particular were dismissed as a passing fad. But little by little, as rock 'n' rollers proved their worth, the population slowly accepted the genre as legitimate. Similarly, as more and more quality writers self-publish their work, the population has and will continue to slowly accept self-publishing as legitimate. Self-publishing means greater freedom for the author, but it also means much greater responsibility to ensure a high-quality product. At some point I'll contact a publisher, but at this point my time is better spent self-publishing.

• Where can I purchase your books?

All my books are available on Amazon.com. I also sell them after each presentation at a discounted rate.

• How many different presentations do you have?

I believe I'm up to 38 now, and I'm constantly coming up with new ones. Most of them are about The Beatles, but I have ones on the history of rock 'n' roll, the music of Star Wars, baseball, naked-eye astronomy, origami, and piano playing. The full list can be found in the document “Educational Presentations Repertoire” at the bottom of my website home page.

• Which of your presentations are your favorites?

By far the most popular with audiences and libraries is “The Beatles: Band of the Sixties”, which I've delivered more than 100 times throughout the United States and England. But my personal favorites would have to be “The Influence of American Rock 'n' Roll on the Beatles” and “Let it Be: The Beatles, January 1969” because they feature the greatest degree of original analysis. Outside of the Beatles, I'm quite fond of my “Music of Star Wars” program because John Williams' music, like that of the Beatles, is extraordinary.

• Do you play any instruments or write any of your own music?

I'm the kind of guy who can pick up any instrument and make music with it, and all of my degrees are in composition. I released an album titled Odds 'n' Ends in early 2016, for which I wrote all of the music and on which I also perform on mandolin, guitar, ukulele, piano/keyboard, trombone, and sing low bass. Unlike my books, the CD is not available for purchase online – it's only available to buy in person, after my presentations.

• How can I stay informed of all your latest news and upcoming events?

Inspired by popular interest, I began a free monthly email newsletter in March 2014. I sent that initial newsletter to six people. Little by little, it's grown, to the point where my most recent newsletter (March 2017) was sent to 1,047 people. You can register for that 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.

• How can I ask you a question, or book one of your talks?

There's a Contact page on my website. Fill out and submit, and I'll be in touch.