Yeah, yeah, yeah! New Toronto Beatles course
Strabbo
wrote:
The course is taught by PhD student Len McCarthy, who
>has been a devout fan and analyst of the Beatles for decades.
Let us know how it goes, Len!
His
>presentation, called Slow Down!, which explains how the Beatles
>revolutionized time (tempo and meter) in popular music, has been
>included with 25 other papers from the conference in a newly published
>book called Beatlestudies 3.
Has anyone here read Beatlestudies 1 or 2?
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David McKay
shortened!
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David McKay
http://members.ozemail.com.au/~musicke
>
> The course is taught by PhD student Len McCarthy, who
> >has been a devout fan and analyst of the Beatles for decades.
>
> Let us know how it goes, Len!
>
>
Len McCarthy
Quite convenient for Beatles' work, though! ;-)
"David McKay" <mus...@ozemail.com.au> wrote in message news:<eUkr7.2532$cu4.1...@ozemail.com.au>...
Len McCarthy
*I* have all three books, but I got them when I was in Finland last
year giving my paper at the University of Jyvaskyla. Number 1 & 2
were around $30 US each, (#3 was complimentary copy, since my paper's
in it, so I don't know the cost; it's the biggest of the three books,
so it might be more. Vol 1 is 185 pgs, Vol 2 is 255 pgs, Vol 3 is 312
pgs. Lots to enjoy and digest, believe me!) This university's music
department has a five-year plan to focus upon the Beatles as their
primary musical investigation. (This is similar to the way some other
music departments usually focus upon dead white guys like Beethoven,
Mozart or Wagner.) The people involved (at the university) are the
ones who have published these books. The books are pretty amazing,
along the lines of Walter Everett's books. As a matter of fact
Everett was one of the presenters (along with Tim Riley, author of
Tell me why) at the Beatles 2000 conference, as keynote speakers. Both
of their addresses (along with my paper) are included in Beatlestudies
3.
Overall, the books are also similar in tone and approach to Ian
Inglis' recent (2000) book: The Beatles: A thousand voices: basically
academic writing and approach, i.e., highly detailed, with ongoing
citations, footnotes and support for virtually every opinion. Not
what the casual reader is probably willing to take - i.e., too many
minute details, with too much contextual and associated information -
but for those Beatle scholars out there, they're pretty amazing books.
Well written, sometimes pretty unusual, and always informative takes
on "the act you've known for all these years". These books aren't
strictly musicological analyses, by the way. They include forays into
sociology, the dynamics of the commercial aspects of the music
business, psychology, reception studies, gender, recording techniques,
equipment, song construction, the Beatles on the internet, and
historical implication.
Unfortunately, the Beatlestudies books do not have the usual
distribution, i.e., through the major booksellers (like Amazon,
Indigo, Chapters, etc.), but they can be ordered directly from the
publisher in Jyvaskyla (which, by the way, is about 150 miles north of
Helsinki. The university is one of the oldest in Finland, back to the
late 1800s, I believe. It's a really interesting place, a mixture of
traditional and contemporary approaches. The music department is
extremely hip and knowledgable about all music, but *especially* the
Beatles. They're the only university in the world that has taken the
Fabs with such intellectual intensity and rigour.)
The following is an excerpt from an email to me from Yrjo Heinonen,
the editor of all three books. The website cited below is to the
university. Should you wish to reach Yrjo, you will find his email on
the university website.
If you (or anyone else) would like a copy of my paper from
Beatlestudies 3, I have it in rtf format. Contact me and I will email
a copy to whoever would like to read it. I can't really post the
article, because it's too long and is highly dependant upon graphs,
charts and tables to present the data about rhythm and tempo that I
collected from detailed analysis of over 1000 different pieces of
music from the sixties (in addition to all of the Beatles' songs). In
a nutshell, the data demonstrates pretty conclusively that the Beatles
instituted a change in approach to rhythm and groove in their late 60s
material that almost immediately caused a similar change for the rest
of pop & rock. By 1971, the majority of pop & rock musicians had
changed their rhythmic approach to the one that the Beatles
prioritized in their 1967-70 period. Both Everett and Riley were at
my presentation and were highly enthusiastic about my findings.
If any of you should decide to order the books,please email Yrjo and
let him know that you read about them here. I had told him that I
would post a message on RMB about the books. He would be delighted to
hear from any other Beatles scholars out there.
Len
ORDERING INFO:
>All volumes of Beatlestudies can be ordered from
> >
> >Bookstore Kampus Kirja
> >Kauppakatu 9
> >40100 Jyvaskyla
> >FINLAND
> >
> >Tel. +358-14-260 3157
> >Fax. +358-14-611 143
> >e-mail kirja...@kampusdata.fi
> >
> >Please contact the bookstore to get detailed information
concerning the
> >prices and distribution. Information concerning the books can be
found from > >the University of Jyvaskyla website:
> >http://www.jyu.fi/musica/b2000
str...@hotmail.com (Strabbo) wrote in message
> Len McCarthy's
Ger Tillekens
news:f9eda688.01092...@posting.google.com...
> Unfortunately, the Beatlestudies books do not have the usual
> distribution.
That's right, but some of the articles -- like Tuomas Eerola's
"The rise and fall of the experimental style of the Beatles"
(Beatles Studies 1), Yrjö Heinonen and Tuomas Eerola's
"Songwriting, recording, and style change" (Beatles Studies 1)
and my own "Words and chords. The semantic shifts of the Beatles'
chords" (Beatles Studies 3) are available online on the Beatles
pages of the journal "Soundscapes".
I think the books are worth their money. The examples on the
site offer you the opportunity to check it out for yourself.
Regards
Ger Tillekens