Beatles musicology

[calimac]

Before I return to more classical topics, as well as a lot of other overdue material (hi, scribblerworks! You're not forgotten, just postponed, and the big honking project that had to come first is finally done), I must pay note to a book I couldn't resist checking out from the library: The Beatles' Abbey Road Medley: Extended Forms in Popular Music by Thomas MacFarlane (Scarecrow Press, 2008). Counting "Because" as a "prelude" (so what's "Here Comes the Sun", then? chopped liver?) and "Her Majesty" as a "postlude" (*pfut*), we have here a full-length close-up technical study of just 20 minutes of the Beatles: form and structural analysis, harmonic analysis, literary analysis of the lyrics, all at a variety of levels of detail. Pretty impressive technically, though I don't see the large-scale structure as he does, and the parts discussing historical and musicological context are rather light-weight.

The best line in the book is on p. 40 and doesn't concern Abbey Road at all:

Sgt. Pepper isn't quite the album that it claims to be. Despite the reappearance of the title track near the end of side two, there is little evidence of thematic or harmonic relationship between any of the tracks. Here, rather than attempting to create a bona fide concept album, the Beatles seem to be saying, "Look everyone! Concept albums are possible! This album isn't it, but it proves that it's possible!"

Comments

[lisa-marli.livejournal.com]

Thanks I think I'll avoid the book.

[voidampersand.livejournal.com]

I thought the original (rock & roll*) concept album was Freak Out!. An amazing album, especially considering it was Zappa's first.
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*For some reason, Vivaldi and Mahler and many others don't count. I guess they were too early.

[scribblerworks.livejournal.com]

Huh. Concept album or not.... I liked it!

:-)

[antonne77.livejournal.com]

Yeah...hahah