A long and winding road
Before this semester, Boston College senior Ellie Badger’s knowledge of The Beatles had come largely through a rhythm-action video game (“The Beatles: Rock Band”) her grandparents gave her for Christmas during her childhood.
Another senior, Mack Kepner, had a vague idea of who the band was when he was a kid, but his primary Beatles exposure was via his father’s renditions of “Yellow Submarine” to Kepner and his sisters.
“I thought of them as making a lot of popular wacky songs,” said Kepner, a psychology major with a minor in economics from Wilton, Ct., “and because of that, I never really understood the hype about them.”
But now—to paraphrase a familiar lyric—their lives have changed in, oh, so many ways.
Badger and Kepner are among the students this semester who took the course The Beatles: From Yesterday to Tomorrow Never Knows, taught by Jason McCool, a part-time faculty member in the Music Department. Far from being an exercise in Beatles trivia or hagiography, the class required students “to listen critically to, and think deeply about” the band’s impact not only on popular music, but also society, culture, and politics. In addition to various readings, students listened to audio recordings and watched Beatles-related films and documentaries; they also made multiple presentations during the semester on some facet of the band and its music.
Beatles-related undergraduate courses are not unique to BC, but McCool takes a less conventional route in teaching his class, drawing on his background as a stage actor, performing musician, and composer to give students what he hopes will be a rewarding, meaningful experience: Rather than simply lecture, he might sit down at the classroom piano to demonstrate some facet related to Beatles’ music, or even lead the class through some Beatles’ songs.
“Before this class, I didn’t even know which Beatles songs came from which album,” said Badger, a San Antonio native majoring in International Studies with a journalism minor. “Now, I can talk about their influences, their childhood stories, and the specific music theory behind a lot of their songs. Learning about their early days in Hamburg and Liverpool made me especially appreciative of their sound.
“I never thought about how they got big. It just seemed that they were always huge. Seeing their early days, however, really puts their trajectory in perspective, and how different it was from prior bands.”
Ironically, according to McCool, Badger and Kepner and their fellow classmates had a considerable head start compared to him: “Growing up, I was more of a jazz musician, and I didn’t listen to rock-n-roll until well after college. I certainly knew who The Beatles were, was familiar with their songs, and I admired and respected their musical achievements. But my students actually know more about The Beatles than I did when I was their age.”
Nonetheless, McCool has been teaching the class for the past few years—although his first stint was while he was teaching at Boston University—and in the process has deepened his own appreciation for The Fab Four, on musical terms but also in a larger context.
“It’s been fascinating to explore The Beatles with my students,” he said. “I’m very interested in the 1960s, because I think it was the pivotal decade of the 20th century; so many of the debates we have about politics and culture now are, I feel, unresolved detritus of the ’60s. The Beatles were, of course, a key element of that era in ways that went beyond music.
“But why has their music had such a lasting impact, and why do we remember it more than any other band of that period? The songs, of course, and the craftsmanship that went into them, which is fascinating to explore. The fact that this music was produced by four people with such different psychological profiles adds to the fascination.”
McCool cites an array of influences from American music that contributed to the group’s appeal: the standard 32-bar song form that characterized American popular music for much of the first half of the 20th century; rhythm-and-blues, a byproduct of the great African American south-to-north migration; and country music, specifically its close-harmony singing, which among others can be heard in the Everly Brothers’ recordings.
“Through their music, The Beatles essentially told the story of America while repackaging American history and culture,” said McCool, who early in the semester took the class to the John F. Kennedy Library in Dorchester so they could get a sense of early 1960s America. “Being English, they were slightly ‘foreign’ and at the same time also familiar—that’s how anything advances, by reminding people of something they know about. And for the United States, they came at the right moment: in 1964, when America was dealing with the JFK assassination aftermath and a new generation of young Americans was coming of age.”
There are complexities to The Beatles’ story that make for thoughtful discussion, he added, such as racial inequity in the music business: The group profited far more from their covers of songs composed by Black musicians than the original authors did. And for all their commercial success, The Beatles found their popularity burdensome and had sharp disagreements as to what direction their music should take—or if they should simply break up.
“It’s so important to consider how hard they worked, such as early on when they played clubs in Hamburg and Liverpool for long hours every night,” said McCool. “In class, we talked about the ethical considerations in supporting working musicians, especially at a time when they earn such a pittance from streaming services that play their recordings. How do you make it in the music business, and how are you able to keep going?”
During one class, students gave presentations on the connections between The Beatles and Latin America. Although the band never toured that part of the world, they reported, The Beatles did incorporate elements of Latin American music, such as the bossa nova and samba, into their repertoire. In some Latin American countries, notably Uruguay, bands whose members sported Beatles haircuts (or wigs) and wardrobe covered some of their material or composed original songs that were clearly styled after the group.
“This is a great example of The Beatles as an international sensation,” McCool told the class at the end of the presentations, which he had clearly enjoyed. “I love it when you show me something I didn’t know.”
McCool spent the rest of the period deconstructing the first Beatles album, “Please Please Me,” pointing out the group’s innovative chord changes and other granular details, such as Paul McCartney’s boogie-woogie-style bass riff on “I Saw Her Standing There.” Not all of the album deserved praise, he said, pointing to the band’s take on the Luther Dixon/Wes Farrell composition “Boys,” with Ringo Starr taking lead vocals (“Ringo gets the worst song on every album,” quipped McCool).
The class was further enriched by the presence of Christopher (Kip) Doran ’68 and his wife Maureen ’69, both of whom were alive when The Beatles were still together; Kip is a member of Boston College Companions: Fellows for Leadership and Service, through which older adults come to BC for a yearlong fellowship program that combines academic study with elements of Ignatian spirituality. The couple sat in regularly on the class and, along with a few other BC Companions, went on the trip to the Kennedy Library.
While he wasn’t “gaga” over the band in the same way others were, said Kip, The Beatles remain a cherished keepsake of youth for him: “Their songs are just so memorable. The words and music are deep within me.”
He and Maureen—who laughingly recalls receiving The Beatles “White Album” as a 16th birthday present, only to have it confiscated by her parents—also had enjoyable conversations with students, sharing Beatles memories and hearing about their young friends’ musical tastes.
Given The Beatles’ enduring popularity, said Kip, “one thing I like to ask them is: Whose music today is still going to be that big when they’re our age? U2? Beyonce? Taylor Swift? Will they be the same sensation The Beatles were?”
“It’s been such a pleasure to have Kip and Maureen be part of our class,” said McCool. “They bring a different, and valuable, perspective to our discussions—and it helps all of us learn.”