The Music of the Beatles will track the musical development of the band, starting from the earliest days in Liverpool and Hamburg, moving through the excitement of Beatlemania, the rush of psychedelia, and the maturity of Abbey Road. While the focus will be on the music, we will also consider how recording techniques, the music business, the music of other artists, and the culture of the 1960s affected John, Paul, George, and Ringo as they created the Beatles repertory. There is probably no band or artist that has had more written about their music than the Beatles. There are many good books on the band's biography, several insider accounts offering glimpses behind the scenes, books that interpret the meaning of the songs, and even books that catalog dates and people regarding the band. This course will try to synthesize much of that information into an account of the Beatles' development as musicians and songwriters.
Andy Babiuk Interview
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En provenance du cours de University of Rochester
The Music of the Beatles
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Introduction and Special Features
Rencontrer les enseignants
John CovachProfessor of Music and Director
Institute for Popular Music
I'm with Andy Babiuk who has written what has to be one of the top, well, a
couple of the top books on the history of
musical instruments, especially on the music of the Beatles.
A most recent book on the instruments of The Rolling
Stones and also a book, a book on guitar builder and
designer Paul Bigsby, so Andy, thanks for joining us [CROSSTALK],
my course students I think would be interested in knowing how
it is that you got involved in writing this kind of
a book, a book about exactly the guitars that The Beatles used.
>> Well you know, my personal passion was, you
know, I'm musician myself and, and I, I've been
in a band called The Chesterfield Kings for, you
know, I don't know, 20 some, 30 years or whatever.
20 years.
Anyhow. It was our, our thing
to try to sound like those records. You know, we grew up listening to them.
But we wanted to emulate it.
And we figured you could buy a
Rickenbacker, you could buy this kind of amp.
And so, then there was more to it.
Well, then there was like the recording process.
There was a lot to it, like, I would just study it for my own head.
And, and it wasn't just with The Beatles.
It was with the Stones and I would trying to emulate stuff.
And different things so, it became a passion.
And then I, I have been in the music industry
for a long time. The retail, you know.
My forte is vintage guitars in general.
Just vintage instruments, so it kind of all mutated into this thing and I was
working and these people would come in and ask for, like, a Beatles amp.
I want a Vox amp like The Beatles had, a Super Beatle.
They, that's what they used in the studio.
And I, I'd say, well, actually they didn't.
They only used them li, no, no.
And then you'd get arguments from people. And I was, like,
I had done a lot of research.
And I go, well, no, they didn't use Super Beatles.
And they used AC30s, and, you know, AC100s.
No, no, no, I have pictures, and I was, like.
And these guys I was, I was working with, they'd always laugh at me.
And they'd go, another Beatle knucklehead, huh?
And I'd go, no, they.
And one my buddies said, he'd go, Andy, you know what you should do?
Get a case of beer.
And lock yourself in a house for the
weekend, drink the beer, and just write down everything
you know about The Beatles equipment, and you probably have
a book and I go, oh, I never thought of that.
That would be kind of cool.
Six years later, we, we have the first book.
So, that was kind of the, the, the spark of it.
You know, and then I got really into it and the more I
got into it, it's detective work and I really like that, you know?
>> Now and throughout, throughout your book I think
there are probably two main arguments that you advance.
One of them is that the instruments, the actual instruments that are used and the
amps and the drums and all that make a difference in the way the music is.
>> Sure.
>> And the second is that ironically, or paradoxically, The
Beatles seemed not to have cared much about those instruments.
Except as creative, you know, ways to creative expression.
>> Yeah, you know it's really true. That's the thing, you know.
When you're right in the middle or working on
the research and then writing the book it, it wasn't,
you don't really come to that moment of clarity, like, oh that's all it was.
They were just, it was a lot of happenstance.
They got those instruments, it wasn't contrived, it wasn't
like planning, it wasn't It was just, like, there.
And they just happen to be in the right place at the right time making music
with those particular instruments and, as I showed
on my presentation, what if they didn't use that?
What if they used, like, different instruments to record
those same songs.
We have examples from outtakes in the
studio, like, wow, that sounds totally different.
It gives you a different mood, different feel.
So, the tools of the trade I find to be really important.
As with studying any, any, anything, really.
I mean, but that was, that was their tools, you know.
>> Well, the book is just fantastic,
and so for Beatles' fans who really want to
get into the tale of some of these sounds, I, I can't more highly recommend Andy
Babiuk's The Beatles Gear. It's a fantastic piece of work.
And Andy, thanks for talking for with us [CROSSTALK].
>> Thank you so much, thank you. >> Alright.
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