Winter 2010: March 11 - 20, 2010
London and Liverpool, England
Beatles’ culture spread like wild-fire all across the global community in the early 1960s. From early single releases that included “Please Please Me” and “Love Me Do”, on through album releases like “Rubber Soul,” “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” and “Abbey Road,” each was a successive building block that addressed and defined the historical significance of the 1960s. Each recording drew from and reflected the social and political turmoil so characteristic of the era. Whether it was psychadelic culture, the war in Vietnam, the civil rights movement or the Manson Family, The Beatles’ music contributed to the soundtrack as the world watched, and listened.
This class is designed to study all aspects of The Beatles (their songs, films, album concepts, fiction, poetry, theater, essays, cartoons and more) and try to discover:
• What their impact has been on our culture and the world?
• Why this phenomenon even happened?
• How did it happen?
• What value does it have in our lives today?
• Why were they so much more important than other rock groups in the 60s or since?
• How did they help shape the sixties and an entire generation?
• Why are they just as popular in the 21st century as best selling artists as they were in the last century?
We will continue to read, listen, view and discuss The Beatles in their entirety: the history, the myths, the legends, the secrets, the lies and the reality and make believe of it all. I will supply you with many rare essays and writings and show you some previously unseen video footage.
