How did George Martin get that final sound at the end of “A Day In The Life” on the Sgt. Pepper album?
What popular song written by Paul McCartney used orchestra strings in a major way for the first time in pop music and eventually became the most covered song in history?
Why did Ringo keep his mouth shut?
What did John and Yoko expect to accomplish with their Bed For Peace stunt?
Where does George rank in Rolling Stone magazine’s 100 Best Guitarists Of All Time?Now that you can get a master’s degree in Beatles Studies from Liverpool Hope University (www.hope.ac.uk/frontpage-news/hope-launches-worlds-first-beatles-ma.html), those questions will be easy, even without Google. Well, no master’s is easy I suppose. But at a time of economic upheaval like the world hasn’t seen since 1929; at a time when people who were trying to cure cancer are being laid off; at a time when MBA’s from prestigious universities can’t get an interview because the MBA before them ran the company into the ditch; people are studying John, Paul, George and Ringo like someone will give them a job with their new sheepskin. Perhaps they will.
As preposterous as it sounds, there is something extremely satisfying in knowing that some are spending their precious educational time doing this. College courses about the Beatles have been offered for years, but a master’s degree?
Why not?
Does the University of Memphis offer a master’s in Elvisology? Does the University of Florida offer a master’s in Lynyrd Skynardism? Why doesn’t Alabama have a Masters in the music of Hank William? The first Hank, not the second coming. They should. Rutgers or Princeton (both in New Jersey) could offer a masters in Springsteenism. A PhD in MC Hammerization? Could happen.
I know; it is the Beatles, the seminal group of the 1960’s counterculture revolution. As cool as that may be, what will you do with your degree? Even the surviving Beatles are a bit befuddled – perhaps less by the master’s program built around their lives, music and cultural impact than by the passing of so many years and other free radicals. Still when I see the ranks of the unemployed swell in this country by 650,000 a month, I have to ask, is this the best use of someone’s time and tuition?
Would the Bo Diddley or Little Richard or the Rolling Stones be a better use of those sleepless nights studying and those thousands of dollars (well, pounds, actually, it is Liverpool)? You can still study the Stones up close and personal since they continue to roam the earth like wrinkled dinosaurs in spandex, flapping their weenuses. Or you can study Led Zepplin. Robert Plant just snagged a pile of awards after hooking up musically with Allison Krauss. With a Master’s in Led Zepplinism, you would finally know exactly what happened that night with the fish described in “Hammer of the Gods.” Then again, maybe not. A Master’s degree doesn’t make you a master. It just gives you a diploma, like the Wizard of Oz bestowed on the Scarecrow. If it would get Jimmy Page to tell you how he played like God while living a bit below heaven, that would be worth the price of admission.
It is important to study the arts, but a Masters in Beatles Studies now? I am torn. I typed it on my resume just to see how Master’s in Beatles Studies would look. Looks nice. And damned if I wouldn’t rather have a job doing something Beatles-ish that than what I do every day, wouldn’t you? Listening to the harmonies and musical structure, grappling with the lives and times, content and influences, the personalities and the studio sessions; delving into the old vinyl recordings and master tapes; George Martin’s engineering and producing genius; John and Paul’s lyrics, all of it deeply enough to warrant a degree and a piece of paper signifying that I am an expert in all things Beatleseze? Sign me up.
It’s all so academic and edifying and makes my scholarly hairs tingle. Right after the tingling hairs, however, I am pained by the clear and present danger of no one being willing to pay a decent living for me to practice my Beatles devotion. Then again, I continue to read articles (and have written about this more than a few times over the years) that business schools (including Harvard) are beginning to retool their MBA programs to accommodate the fact that the people who ran our economy into that loblolly pine were all MBA’s. Seems that some didn’t learn ethics or risk management or the intricacies of a social conscience.
I remember a good friend from high school. He went on to fancy himself an expert in Black Sabbath. He was into it. He knew everything about the group, could play and sing all of their songs from memory, he was a BS freak. He knew why they got into the music biz and who influenced them and read everything he could find about Black Sabbath for years. But his day job was plumbing. And he was an amazing plumber, too. Good enough to have a river house and a bass boat and send his 4 kids to Auburn. He had no master’s degree in Black Sabbath Studies, however. No one offered such a thing. Not even a minor in Ozzie Studies in technical school.
An awesome plumber who knows Ozzie better than he understands his wife makes for an interesting clogged pipe. You call this guy because, while you need to get the pipe unclogged, deep inside, you really want to hear him wax on poetic about the music that in us all. What I am saying is, his musical knowledge makes him a better plumber. Could knowing about the Beatles make you a better lawyer? Could it make you a better CPA or a better mother or a better CEO?
We tend to crush the arts in political circles during budget cutting times, yet often it is the arts that save our corporate asses, time after time, especially when things are tough. One took at a beautiful machine like the iPhone or YouTube’s simple ability to bring the visual world to your screen makes a good case for the arts. Making cooler looking cars would certainly not have hurt GM’s and Ford’s bottom lines (translated Ford Focus). That takes art.
The device that saved your life in the ER was made better by art. The movie that kept you from giving up all hope after that horrible day at work is a work of art. The songs that play in all of our head’s are art. When I hear an angry, Neanderthal talk show bum railing against the arts as frivolous, I wonder if anyone would be listening to his blow-hard show without artists having created the popularity of the very medium he is using to assail them.
No.
Tags: Education, Entertainment, In The News, Music