{"id":4088,"date":"2018-10-16T10:12:48","date_gmt":"2018-10-16T14:12:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/?p=4088"},"modified":"2021-04-23T14:20:21","modified_gmt":"2021-04-23T18:20:21","slug":"bigger-than-themselves","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/bigger-than-themselves\/","title":{"rendered":"Bigger Than Themselves"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Beatlemania will descend on campus in November courtesy of a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/the-white-album\/\">four-day international symposium<\/a> marking the 50th anniversary of the band\u2019s landmark LP <em>The Beatles<\/em> (aka <em>The White Album<\/em>). We asked Monmouth\u2019s own Kenneth Womack, a world-renowned authority on the Beatles, why the Fab Four are still the band everyone aspires to top.<\/p>\n<div class=\"accordion alignright\">\n<hr>\n<div class=\"accordion accordion-section beatleskey\"><button class=\"accordion-section-title\">Can you spot the Beatles references in the illustration? Click here for the answers.<\/button><\/p>\n<div id=\"beatleskey\" class=\"accordion-section-content\">\n<span class=\"imgLink\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2018\/10\/04-Beatles-JULIE-MCGLAUGHLIN.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">View the full image<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><em>Abbey Road<\/em> (the stripes under the fireman with an hourglass)<\/li>\n<li>Apples (sprinkled throughout, in reference to the band\u2019s record label)<\/li>\n<li>\u201cBack in the U.S.S.R.\u201d (multiple references: the flag and the snow-peaked mountains)<\/li>\n<li>\u201cBirthday\u201d (cake with candle)<\/li>\n<li>\u201cBlackbird\u201d (wearing a tie and carrying John)<\/li>\n<li>\u201cCry Baby Cry\u201d (next to the cake)<\/li>\n<li>\u201cDig a Pony\u201d (the small horse alongside the river)<\/li>\n<li>\u201cEverybody\u2019s Got Something to Hide Except Me and My Monkey\u201d (the monkey hanging from the tree)<\/li>\n<li>\u201cGlass Onion\u201d (next to the cake)<\/li>\n<li>\u201cHello, Goodbye\u201d (multiple references: the song title is the headline on the newspaper taxi, and the hula dancer is a nod to the promotional videos the band made for the song)<\/li>\n<li>\u201cHere Comes the Sun\u201d (rising behind the mountains; we\u2019ll also take \u201cSun King\u201d)<\/li>\n<li>\u201cI Am the Walrus\u201d (underneath Paul)<\/li>\n<li>\u201cLucy in the Sky with Diamonds\u201d (multiple references: the boat on a river, cellophane flowers of yellow and green, flowers growing incredibly high, a rocking horse with a marshmallow pie, a newspaper taxi, and diamonds in the sky)<\/li>\n<li>\u201cMaxwell\u2019s Silver Hammer\u201d (above the picture frame on the right)<\/li>\n<li>\u201cMoney\u201d (a pile of it underneath the picture frame)<\/li>\n<li>\u201cOctopus\u2019s Garden\u201d (that top hat\u2013wearing purple cephalopod)<\/li>\n<li>\u201cPenny Lane\u201d (multiple references: the bus\u2019s destination sign, the barber pole, the fireman with an hourglass with a portrait of the Queen in his pocket, and a pretty nurse selling poppies from a tray; plus, Ringo\u2019s table setting is a nod to the song\u2019s video)<\/li>\n<li>\u201cPiggies\u201d (just as George described, in a starched white shirt clutching a fork and knife and eating bacon)<\/li>\n<li>\u201cRevolution 1\u201d (Chairman Mao photo)<\/li>\n<li>\u201cStrawberry Fields Forever\u201d (underneath the walrus)<\/li>\n<li>\u201cTicket to Ride\u201d (next to the cake)<\/li>\n<li>\u201cWhile My Guitar Gently Weeps\u201d (above the pony)<\/li>\n<li>\u201cYellow Submarine\u201d (multiple references: the sub; much of the background imagery is reminiscent of the song\u2019s video; and the blackbird\u2019s hat is a nod to Old Fred, the captain in the film <em>Yellow Submarine<\/em>)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<hr>\n<\/div>\n<p><strong class=\"question\">How and when did you become a Beatles fan?<\/strong><br \/>\nIt was 1977, and my favorite morning television program<a class=\"tooltip\" title=\"KW: \u201cNew Zoo Revue, which, looking back, was kind of a goofy show but I can\u2019t speak to 11-year-old me about it.\u201d\" href=\"#notes\">[1]<\/a> was replaced with <em>The Beatles Cartoons<\/em> <a class=\"tooltip\" title=\"The animated television show originally ran on ABC in the 1960s.\" href=\"#notes\">[2]<\/a>. It\u2019s kind of a lame discovery story because the cartoons weren\u2019t voiced by the Beatles. They were just these little sing-alongs, and each featured a nonsensical plot with fake Beatle voices where they would act cool in that fashion, and do a couple of songs. But I\u2019d never heard songs like that before. When you hear the Beatles, there is something instantly different about them. They don\u2019t sound like the \u201960s. They sound like really well-crafted songs.<\/p>\n<p>So my father went to the Houston Public Library and picked up all the Beatles books they had. Most of them were silly art books with paintings that depicted the lyrics. But he brought them home and I went from there.<\/p>\n<p><strong class=\"question\">So an obsession was born?<\/strong><br \/>\nI suppose, though you used the word <em>fan<\/em> before. I\u2019ve never really been a fan in the sense that I don\u2019t collect [Beatles memorabilia]. It\u2019s always been about the music.<\/p>\n<p><strong class=\"question\">What interests you about them as a researcher and an academic?<\/strong><br \/>\nTheir story is fascinating. How does this band in seven years <a class=\"tooltip\" title=\"KW: \u201cTheir first session with George is June 1962, and the last session with all four Beatles present was August 1969.\u201d \" href=\"#notes\">[3]<\/a> move so quickly through all of these different musical, generic changes, and then disappear and leave the stage forever, and leave it on such a high note, having achieved a swan song like the <em>Abbey Road<\/em> LP? It\u2019s remarkable. James Joyce and Picasso didn\u2019t have careers like that, with such an intense period of ever-increasing quality and artistic growth. Pink Floyd and the Rolling Stones didn\u2019t. It\u2019s unique in music and art.<\/p>\n<p><strong class=\"question\">Why do you think the Beatles were able to do it?<\/strong><br \/>\nI think it has very much to do with their lives. They were working-class kids when they started this project in Liverpool, and may not have had many of the privileges\u2014but they knew how to work hard. These are guys who had everything in the world by the time they were roughly 22 to 24 years old, and yet they still persisted. They still wanted to take their music and their ideas places. That\u2019s exciting to me, and it\u2019s a great story for our students <a class=\"tooltip\" title=\"Womack is teaching \u201cThe Evolving Artistry of the Beatles\u201d this semester. Among other things, students explore how the band \u201cbegins with songs like \u2018Love Me Do\u2019 \u2026 and ends with the powerful symphonic suite that is the Abbey Road medley. That\u2019s a long road to go in such a short period,\u201d says Womack. \" href=\"#notes\">[4]<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>That self-consciousness is why the Beatles are no different from Picasso or Joyce. They aren\u2019t just trying to, as Paul once said, \u201cwrite a song and get a swimming pool.\u201d They\u2019re thinking, \u201cThis is for all time.\u201d There\u2019s a certain point where they begin to think, \u201cWhat we\u2019re doing here is bigger than us.\u201d That\u2019s probably why they\u2019re still in the studio trying to make the <em>Abbey Road<\/em> record in the summer of 1969 <a class=\"tooltip\" title=\"KW: \u201cThere are debates on how certain [the Beatles] were that it was over, but nothing changes the fact that they had to foist themselves back together for one last stab at greatness.\u201d\" href=\"#notes\">[5]<\/a>. They know it\u2019s bigger than they are.<\/p>\n<p><strong class=\"question\">You mention they didn\u2019t record together for long. How and why were they able to have such an impact in their time?<\/strong><br \/>\nOne important factor was they very smartly got off the road <a class=\"tooltip\" title=\"KW: \u201cThey could only do that because they were the most privileged creative act in the world and they didn\u2019t need to go on the road to make money.\u201d\" href=\"#notes\">[6]<\/a> in August 1966. That was easily the most important move they made after hooking up with Brian Epstein and George Martin.<\/p>\n<p>Another factor was that in 1964 alone there were three different television specials devoted to the \u201cgenius of Lennon and McCartney.\u201d I would argue that raised the stakes of authorship in art very high inside the band, and it told them, \u201cYou\u2019re doing something important.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>And as my friend and fellow Beatles author Steve Turner says, there was an arms race that developed. As the \u201960s wore on a lot of good bands were suddenly in vogue. You\u2019ve got the Stones finding their feet in 1965. You\u2019ve got The Who. You\u2019ve got The Kinks. You have great American acts like the Beach Boys. And suddenly\u2014it\u2019s not that the Beatles felt challenged, but they wanted to stay ahead of the pack, and that has a lot to do with them moving forward too. They didn\u2019t want to produce the same sound with every album. They were very conscious about that.<\/p>\n<p><strong class=\"question\">And why has that influence endured?<\/strong><br \/>\nTwo reasons. One is George Martin <a class=\"tooltip\" title=\"Womack is the author of Maximum Volume: The Life of Beatles Producer George Martin (The Early Years, 1926\u20131966) and Sound Pictures: The Life of Beatles Producer George Martin (The Later Years, 1966\u20132016).\" href=\"#notes\">[7]<\/a>. He was absolutely impeccable about ensuring their music was recorded with the highest possible quality, so when you hear the Beatles, there are very few songs you hear today and think, \u201cWow, that sounds like a record recorded in 1963.\u201d Most of their records have good punch and freshness to them; there\u2019s a certain live sound to them. George worked painstakingly to ensure their recordings had that kind of lasting power.<\/p>\n<p>Part two is really part one in the sense that they\u2019re great songs. It\u2019s good composition, great songwriting. That\u2019s why in that moment in 1977 [when I first heard them] I heard something different. I believe the song was \u201cHelp!\u201d and when you think about it, that song is rife with little fascinating touches. It has descending bass lines. It has a very difficult arpeggiated guitar part. It has that driving drum sound. Great lyrics. There\u2019s even a part where the instruments drop away and it\u2019s just the acoustic guitar and Lennon singing. All of this and the song is, what\u2014two minutes? That\u2019s what makes them great, right there.<\/p>\n<p><strong class=\"question\">But there are a lot of great bands. Why are people still <em>studying<\/em> the Beatles and their music? Why, for example, are people coming from around the world for a conference <a class=\"tooltip\" title=\"The Beatles\u2019 The White Album: An International Symposium will be held Nov. 8\u201311 at Monmouth University. Info at monmouth.edu\/the-white-album.\" href=\"#notes\">[8]<\/a> on <em>The White Album<\/em> 50 years after it was released?<\/strong><br \/>\nThere are many factors, but again it comes down to creating great material and being able to sustain it at a certain level.<\/p>\n<p>And there\u2019s a high versus low culture argument at a certain point. Think of James Joyce. He is undeniably high culture: a high-minded writer whose books\u2014<em>A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man<\/em>, <em>Ulysses<\/em>\u2014are challenging works that force us to learn a new language, or a new way of reading at least, but are not easily consumable. Then you\u2019ve got Robert Ludlum, who can mesmerize you with a spy tale and draw you in with a page-turner. We teach courses on James Joyce. We\u2019re not teaching Robert Ludlum.<\/p>\n<p>The Beatles were the high culture of their genre. They eclipsed their genre. And <em>The White Album<\/em>\u2014it\u2019s not a perfect record. It\u2019s a sort of warts-and-all kind of thing, but they were trying to do something big with it <a class=\"tooltip\" title=\"KW: \u201cI like how Paul McCartney speaks about it as \u2018The Beatles\u2019 White Album.\u2019 It\u2019s as if the LP has eclipsed the bandmates. His famous line is \u2018It\u2019s great. It sold. It\u2019s the bloody Beatles\u2019 White Album. Shut up!\u2019\u201d\" href=\"#notes\">[9]<\/a>. It was designed to be the kind of art object that says, \u201cStudy me,\u201d in the same way that you open up <em>Ulysses<\/em> and it says, \u201cStudy me.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong class=\"question\">How so?<\/strong><br \/>\nThey <em>crafted<\/em> those songs. They wrote them in India where they went to become enlightened, and they were living in huts and going to lectures\u2014who does that at the height of their fame, when they can be doing anything else that they want?<\/p>\n<p>Then they come back, make these demos <a class=\"tooltip\" title=\"The so-called Esher tapes were \u201cblueprints\u201d for what would become The White Album, says Womack. Award-winning Beatles author Robert Rodriguez will lead a panel discussion of the tapes during Monmouth\u2019s symposium.\" href=\"#notes\">[10]<\/a>, and begin spending more time on these songs than they did making <em>Sgt. Pepper<\/em>. And the coup de gr\u00e2ce is at the end. They have a 24-hour mixing and sequencing session with George Martin, where they sequence every song and they make choices about how it goes from \u201cBack in the USSR\u201d to a song called \u201cGood Night.\u201d They very carefully made artistic choices all the way through, often so that you experience a kind of whiplash as it goes from one style to a completely different one.<\/p>\n<p><strong class=\"question\">With all of that going on, what will the symposium focus on?<\/strong><br \/>\nThere\u2019s something for everybody. There\u2019ll be academic paper presentations, sure, but we\u2019ll also have musical performances. We\u2019ll have a music demonstration room with guitars, pianos, and drums where people will show you how the Beatles did what they did, and how sounds were discovered accidentally. We\u2019re going to have a recording demonstration room where you can mix a track yourself and take the MP3 home. We\u2019ll have a lot of important Beatles authors, including Mark Lewisohn and Rob Sheffield. Chris Thomas, who stepped in for George during <em>The White Album<\/em> sessions, will be here. People will have a chance to meet and talk with them. That\u2019s pretty rare.<\/p>\n<p><strong class=\"question\">Last question. Do you think any band can ever again have the decades-spanning influence the Beatles have enjoyed? <\/strong><br \/>\nI want it to happen, very badly. I want to hear a band that is working at that kind of innovative, world-breaking level. I\u2019m ready for the next pop explosion. I want to hear it. I want to be blown away by it, to be transfixed. Don\u2019t you?<\/p>\n<div id=\"notes\">\n<h4>Liner Notes<\/h4>\n<ol>\n<li>KW: \u201c<em>New Zoo Revue<\/em>, which, looking back, was kind of a goofy show but I can\u2019t speak to 11-year-old me about it.\u201d<\/li>\n<li>The animated television show originally ran on ABC in the 1960s.<\/li>\n<li>KW: \u201cTheir first session with George is June 1962, and the last session with all four Beatles present was August 1969.\u201d<\/li>\n<li>Womack is teaching \u201cThe Evolving Artistry of the Beatles\u201d this semester. Among other things, students explore how the band \u201cbegins with songs like \u2018Love Me Do\u2019 \u2026 and ends with the powerful symphonic suite that is the <em>Abbey Road<\/em> medley. That\u2019s a long road to go in such a short period,\u201d says Womack.<\/li>\n<li>KW: \u201cThere are debates on how certain [the Beatles] were that it was over, but nothing changes the fact that they had to foist themselves back together for one last stab at greatness.\u201d<\/li>\n<li>KW: \u201cThey could only do that because they were the most privileged creative act in the world and they didn\u2019t need to go on the road to make money.\u201d<\/li>\n<li>Womack is the author of <em>Maximum Volume: The Life of Beatles Producer George Martin (The Early Years, 1926\u20131966)<\/em> and <em>Sound Pictures: The Life of Beatles Producer George Martin (The Later Years, 1966\u20132016)<\/em>.<\/li>\n<li>The Beatles\u2019 The White Album: An International Symposium will be held Nov. 8\u201311 at Monmouth University. Info at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/the-white-album\">monmouth.edu\/the-white-album<\/a><\/li>\n<li>KW: \u201cI like how Paul McCartney speaks about it as \u2018The Beatles\u2019 <em>White Album<\/em>.\u2019 It\u2019s as if the LP has eclipsed the bandmates. His famous line is<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=p9xDBTpLz-8&amp;feature=youtu.be\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> \u2018It\u2019s great. It sold. It\u2019s the bloody Beatles\u2019 <em>White Album<\/em>. Shut up!\u2019\u201d<\/a><\/li>\n<li>The so-called Esher tapes were \u201cblueprints\u201d for what would become The White Album, says Womack. Award-winning Beatles author Robert Rodriguez will lead a panel discussion of the tapes during Monmouth\u2019s symposium.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/div>\n<p><em>Kenneth Womack is dean of the Wayne D. McMurray School of Humanities and Social Sciences at Monmouth University. <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Beatles expert Kenneth Womack explains why the Fab Four still fascinate us. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":4085,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"image_focus":"{\"x\":34,\"y\":56}","hide_title":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4088","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-currents"],"thumbnail":"<img width=\"223\" height=\"300\" src=\"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2018\/10\/04-Beatles-JULIE-MCGLAUGHLIN-223x300.jpg\" class=\"lazyload wp-image-4085 wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" role=\"presentation\" style=\"object-position:34% 56%\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2018\/10\/04-Beatles-JULIE-MCGLAUGHLIN-223x300.jpg 223w, https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2018\/10\/04-Beatles-JULIE-MCGLAUGHLIN-768x1033.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2018\/10\/04-Beatles-JULIE-MCGLAUGHLIN-762x1024.jpg 762w, https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2018\/10\/04-Beatles-JULIE-MCGLAUGHLIN-1120x1506.jpg 1120w, https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2018\/10\/04-Beatles-JULIE-MCGLAUGHLIN-560x753.jpg 560w, https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2018\/10\/04-Beatles-JULIE-MCGLAUGHLIN-280x377.jpg 280w, https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2018\/10\/04-Beatles-JULIE-MCGLAUGHLIN-320x430.jpg 320w, https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2018\/10\/04-Beatles-JULIE-MCGLAUGHLIN-640x861.jpg 640w, https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2018\/10\/04-Beatles-JULIE-MCGLAUGHLIN-2800x3765.jpg 2800w, https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2018\/10\/04-Beatles-JULIE-MCGLAUGHLIN-2048x2754.jpg 2048w, https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2018\/10\/04-Beatles-JULIE-MCGLAUGHLIN-1536x2065.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2018\/10\/04-Beatles-JULIE-MCGLAUGHLIN-1400x1883.jpg 1400w, https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2018\/10\/04-Beatles-JULIE-MCGLAUGHLIN-1024x1377.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2018\/10\/04-Beatles-JULIE-MCGLAUGHLIN-828x1113.jpg 828w, https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2018\/10\/04-Beatles-JULIE-MCGLAUGHLIN-360x484.jpg 360w, https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2018\/10\/04-Beatles-JULIE-MCGLAUGHLIN-9x12.jpg 9w, https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2018\/10\/04-Beatles-JULIE-MCGLAUGHLIN.jpg 3000w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 223px) 100vw, 223px\" \/>","catString":"Currents","issue":"Fall 2018","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4088","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4088"}],"version-history":[{"count":33,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4088\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12944,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4088\/revisions\/12944"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4085"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4088"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4088"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.monmouth.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4088"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}