The long and winding road to an MA in Beatles songs
Their thirst for reinvention saw the elegantly quiffed Hamburg rockers become the mop-topped fab four, hippy harbingers of sexual liberation and, eventually, druggy psychedelic visionaries.
Forty years on, the Beatles and their songs are to be hauled into the halls of academia and dissected by postgraduate students at a Merseyside university.
The masters degree in The Beatles, Popular Music and Society is being billed by Liverpool Hope University as the first such course in the UK and "probably the world".
Among the topics covered on the course, which comprises four 12-week modules and a dissertation, are the postwar music industry, subcultures, and the importance of authenticity and locality.
Mike Brocken, senior lecturer in popular music at the university, said it was time the band were put under an academic microscope.
"There have been over 8,000 books about the Beatles but there has never been serious academic study and that is what we are going to address," he said.
"The Beatles influenced so much of society, not just with their music, but also with fashion, from their collar-less jackets to their psychedelic clothes."
As well as investigating different ways of studying popular music, the MA will look at the studio sound and compositions of the Beatles and examine Liverpudlian life from the 1930s to see how events helped to shape the music emerging in the city.
Brocken said that the size of the MA course, which begins this September, would depend on the number of applicants, but would not exceed a "possible" maximum of 30 places.
He added that he had already received inquiries about the full- or part-time course from people in the UK and the US.
Asked what employment benefits a course scrutinising songs such as Octopus's Garden, While My Guitar Gently Weeps and I Want to Hold Your Hand might yield in the current economic climate, Brocken said: "I think any MA equips people with extra study and research skills. MAs of any description are vital for the workplace. You will find that once you have done a master's degree it separates you from the pack."
Similar arts and humanities MAs at the university cost around £3,445 for full-time students from the UK. Brocken said that although there might be some bursaries, "people will have to self-fund unless they have some backing from an institution".
Students on the full-time course will attend two evening sessions a week and cover all four modules in one academic year. Part-time students, meanwhile, will attend one evening session a week for two years. In both cases a dissertation will be due towards the end of the following August.
The songs and social significance of John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr have been picked over countless times since Philip Larkin observed that "sexual intercourse began/In nineteen sixty-three/(which was rather late for me)/Between the end of the Chatterley ban/And the Beatles' first LP".
But in recent years, the band and its output have been the subject of academic studies and polemics.
Last year, a Cambridge University historian attacked the view that the Beatles were counter-cultural heroes, claiming they were instead capitalists who milked the booming youth culture for their own financial gain.
"They did about as much to represent the interests of the nation's young people as the Spice Girls did in the 1990s," said David Fowler, who argued that the band provided family entertainment rather than an authentic youth perspective. "They were young capitalists who, far from developing a youth culture, were exploiting youth culture by promoting fan worship, mindless screaming and nothing more than a passive teenage consumer," said the author of Youth Culture in Modern Britain.
Čuveni pevač i pesnik Leonard Koen (Leonard Cohen) održaće koncert 2. septembra u Beogradskoj areni, koja je i organizator ovog događaja.
Kako su organizatori saopštili ulaznice će uskoro biti puštene u prodaju.
Turneja u okviru koje će Koen nastupiti u Beogradu počela je prošle godine u junu, i to je njegova prva posle pauze od 15 godina odsustva sa svetske scene.
Već četiri decenije Leonard Koen, rođen u Kanadi 1934. godine, jedan je od najznačajnijih i najuticajnijih muzičara našeg vremena. Svojom ozbiljnošću i širinom tema njegove pesme su postavile standard koji se ne može uporediti ni sa jednim drugim muzičarem.
Koen je objavljivao zbirke pesama i romane, još od 1950-ih, pre nego što se okrenuo muzici.
Njegov prvi album ’Songs of Leonard Cohen’ objavljen je 1967. godine, a na njemu se nalaze klasici poput ’Suzanne’, ’Sisters of Mercy’, ’So Long, Marianne’ i ’Hey, That’s No Way to Say Goodbye’.
Naredna dva albuma, ’Songs From a Room’(1969) na kom je numera ’Bird on the Wire’, i ’Songs of Love Hate’(1971), bili su dokaz da debitantski uspeh nije bio samo početnička sreća.
Usledila su izdanja "New Skin for the Old Ceremony" (1974), "Death of a Ladies' Man " (1977), "Recent Songs" (1979) i "Various Positions " (1984).
Mlađa publika možda se najbolje seća albuma - koji su, takođe, do sada stekli kultni status - "I’m Your Man’(1988) i ’The Future’(1992), na kojima se nalaze numere poput ’I’m Your Man’, ’Everybody Knows’, ’Waiting for the Miracle’, ’Closing Time’, ’Anthem’ i ’Democracy’.
Koen je 2001. godine izdao ’Ten New Songs’ i 2004. ’Dear Heather’.
Album ’Blue Alert’, na kom je kao producent i koautor sarađivao sa svojim nekadašnjim pratećim vokalom, Anjani Tomas, koja i peva na albumu, objavljen je 2006. godine.
U martu 2008. Koen je primljen u Rok en rol kuću slavnih u Njujorku, u društvu Madone, Džona Melenkampa i grupa "The Dave Clarke Five" i "The Ventures".
Poklonici njegove muzike su brojni poznati izvođači, među kojima "U2", "REM", Sting, Nik Kejv, Rufus Vejnrajt, kao i pokojni Džoni Keš.
Real `Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds' gravely ill
AP, Jun 13, 2009 9:36 am PDT
They were childhood chums. Then they drifted apart, lost touch completely, and only renewed their friendship decades later, when illness struck.
Not so unusual, really.
Except she is Lucy Vodden — the girl who was the inspiration for the Beatles' 1967 psychedelic classic "Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds" — and he is Julian Lennon, the musician son of John Lennon.
They are linked together by something that happened more than 40 years ago when Julian brought home a drawing from school and told his father, "That's Lucy in the sky with diamonds."
Just the sort of cute phrase lots of 3- or 4-year-olds produce — but not many have a father like John Lennon, who used it as a springboard for a legendary song that became a centerpiece on the landmark album "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band."
"Julian got in touch with me out of the blue, when he heard how ill I was, and he said he wanted to do something for me," said the 46-year-old Vodden, who has lupus, a chronic disease where the immune system attacks the body's own tissue.
Lennon, who lives in France, sent his old friend flowers and vouchers she could use to buy plants at a local gardening center, since working in her garden is one of the few activities she is still occasionally well enough to enjoy. More importantly, he has offered her friendship and a connection to more carefree days. They communicate mostly by text message.
"I wasn't sure at first how to approach her. I wanted at least to get a note to her," Julian Lennon told The Associated Press. "Then I heard she had a great love of gardening, and I thought I'd help with something she's passionate about, and I love gardening too. I wanted to do something to put a smile on her face."
Vodden admits she enjoys her association with the song, but doesn't particularly care for it. Perhaps that's not surprising. It was thought by many at the time, including BBC executives who banned the song, that the classic was a paean to LSD because of the initials in the title. Plus, she and Julian were 4 years old in 1967, the "Summer of Love" when "Sgt. Pepper" was released to worldwide acclaim. She missed the psychedelic era to which the song is indelibly linked.
"I don't relate to the song, to that type of song," said Vodden, described as "the girl with kaleidoscope eyes" in the lyrics. "As a teenager, I made the mistake of telling a couple of friends at school that I was the Lucy in the song and they said, 'No, it's not you, my parents said it's about drugs.' And I didn't know what LSD was at the time, so I just kept it quiet, to myself."
There's no doubt the fanciful lyrics and swirling musical effects draw heavily on the LSD experiences that were shaping Lennon's artistic output at the time — although many of the musical flourishes were provided by producer George Martin, who was not a drug user.
"The imagery in the song is partly a reflection of John's drug experiences, and partly his love of `Alice in Wonderland,'" said Steve Turner, author of "A Hard Day's Write," a book that details the origins of every Beatles song. "At the time it came out, it seemed overtly psychedelic, it sounded like some kind of trip. It was completely new at the time. To me it is very evocative of the period."
Turner said his research, including interviews with Vodden and Julian Lennon, confirm that she is the Lucy in the song. He said it was common for John Lennon to "snatch songs out of thin air" based on a simple phrase he heard on TV or an item he read in the newspapers. In this case, Turner said, it was the phrase from Julian that triggered John's imagination.
Veteran music critic Fred Schruers said Julian Lennon's reaching out to help Vodden as she fights the disease is particularly moving because of the childlike nature of the song.
"It's enormously evocative but with a tinge of poignancy," he said. "It's the lost childhood Julian had with that little Lucy and the lost innocence we had with the psychedelic era, an innocence we really cherished until it was snatched away."
Vodden was diagnosed with lupus about five years ago after suffering other serious health problems. She has been struggling extreme fatigue, joint pain, and other ailments.
"She's not given up, she's a fighter, and she has her family backing her, that's a good thing," said Angie Davidson, campaign director for St. Thomas' Lupus Trust, which funds research. "We need more people like her, more Lucys."
Davidson, who also has the disease, said it affects each person differently, typically causing exhaustion and depression. When the disease kills, she said, it does so by attacking the body's internal organs.
It has become difficult for Vodden to go out — most of her trips are to the hospital — but recently she and her husband went to a bookstore and heard the song playing over the store's music system. When they went to another shop, the song was on there as well.
"That made me giggle," she said.
_________________ I don't mean to sound bitter, cold, or cruel, but I am, so that's how it comes out.
— The late, great Bill Hicks
You are not entitled to your opinion. You are entitled to your informed opinion. No one is entitled to be ignorant.
— Harlan Ellison
Verovatno ste vec chuli do sada da Tajler napushta Aerosmith...
Joe Perry: Steven Tyler has quit Aerosmith Tyler, 61, suffered broken shoulder in fall from a stage in August
Aerosmith guitarist Joe Perry said today that singer Steven Tyler quit the band following a recent concert in Abu Dhabi.
Bassist Tom Hamilton told the Boston Herald’s Inside Track that there is dissension among the “Bad Boys From Boston,” but that he hopes things can be worked out. He dismissed a report that guitarist Brad Whitford discussed the possiblity of Aerosmith finding a new frontman.
However, Perry told the Las Vegas Sun today that he believes Tyler is history.
“Steven quit as far as I can tell,” Perry said from his Boston home. “I don’t know anymore than you do about it. I got off the plane two nights ago. I saw online that Steven said that he was going to leave the band. I don’t know for how long, indefinitely or whatever. Other than that, I don’t know.”
Part of the problem, he says, is that Tyler doesn’t return his phone calls.
“He’s notorious for that,” Perry said. “That’s one thing I’ve learned to live with. I try to overlook it. I like to pick my battles. Frankly, the last few months I’ve been wanting not to rock the boat. I don’t want him canceling any more gigs. We really wanted to do these last four. We just kind of didn’t want to call him out or anything and get him anymore pissed off, for whatever reason. So we just let things lie. So we did the gigs and, like I said, I got off the plane and saw this online. That’s how I know about it.”
Slavni britanski gitarista Erik Klepton (Eric Clapton) nastupiće 9. juna u „Beogradskoj areni" koja je i organizator ovog koncerta. Klepton nastupa zajedno sa Stivom Vinvudom (Steve Winwood), starim prijateljem iz benda „Blind Faith".
Obojica gitarista, i Klepton i Vinvud, imaju veoma ugledne karijere i brojne titule vezane za svoja imena. Njihovi muzički stilovi prvi put su se spojili 1969. godine u bendu „Blind Faith", grupi koja je bila pionir u spajanju rok i bluz muzike i koja je postigla ogroman uspeh kako studijskim radom tako i nastupima uživo. Uprkos dobrim ocenama kritike i publike, grupa je kratko trajala i obuhvatila jedan album i turneju. Od tada su ova dvojica velikana ostali dobri prijatelji. Godine 2008. održali su svoj prvi koncert kao duo, u Medison Skver Gardenu, i to posle 40 godina od poslednjeg zajedničkog nastupa. Klepton će na evropskoj turneji svirati svoje najveće hitove iz solo karijere, kao i numere koje je snimio s bendovima „Derek and The Dominos" i „Blind Faiih".
Erik Patrik Klepton, rođen 1945. u engleskom gradiću Ripli, odavno je postao deo muzičke istorije - u skoro svim rangiranjima biran je za jednog od najboljih gitarista svih vremena, a vlasnik je i neobičnog rekorda: jedini je muzičar koji je u rokenrol „Kuću slavnih" primljen čak tri puta, kao solo izvođač i kao član grupa „The Yarbids" i „Cream".
Karijeru je započeo kao sedamnaestogodišnjak u sastavu „The Roosters", a krajem 1963. pridružio se grupi „The Yarbids". Ubrzo je postao jedan od najtalentovanijih mladih gitarista u Britaniji. Bend „The Yarbirds" napušta 1965, odmah nakon objavljivanja hita „For Your Love". Ubrzo se priključuje sastavu „Bluesbreakers", ali ni ovde se nije dugo zadržao; u julu 1966. zajedno sa Džekom Brusom i Džindžerom Bejkerom osniva grupu „Cream". U naredne dve godine bend je objavio tri albuma koji su prodati u više od 35 miliona primeraka, a veliki hitovi su bile numere „I Feel Free", „Spoonful", „Sunshine Of Your Love", „Crossroads"... Sredinom 1968. grupa se raspada, a Klepton osniva bend „Blind Faith", koji se takođe ubrzo rasformira. Nakon toga Klepton formira sastav „Derek and The Dominos" koji 1970. objavljuje album „Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs", koji je najavio megahit „Layla". Godine 1974. objavljuje drugi solo album „461 Ocean Boulevard" sa kojeg se izdvojila obrada velikog hita Boba Marlija „I Shot the Sheriff", a u naredne tri decenije objavio je 18 albuma sa kojih su se izdvojili brojni hitovi kao što su „Wonderful Tonight", „Cocaine", „Tears In Heaven"...
Danska performans grupa Hotel Pro Forma je ponudila dvojcu The Knife da napiše muziku za operu Tomorrow, Ina A Year, koja se bavi životom Charlesa Darwina. Karin Dreijer Andersson i Olof Dreijer, ne samo što su prihvatili ponudu, nego su i pozvali svoje drugare iz bandova Planningtorock i Mt. Sims da im pomognu. Materijal će kompletno biti objavljen u martu, a za sada možete da čujete i downloadujete Colouring Of Pigeons.
