Rock and roll | Beatles-Freak's Reviews

Category Archives: Rock and roll

April 28, 2019 · 7:00 am

FREE Beatles college course & Upcoming Beatles Symposium

So…you think you know the Beatles? Or, you want to learn more about the Beatles? Well, there is an online course called, “The Music of The Beatles” and it’s FREE! The course is offered through the website Coursera where you can take all types of free college courses. In fact, I encourage you to do a search on any topic in their search engine! The Music of The Beatles is offered on the site by the University of Rochester and the instructor is Dr. John Covach. It’s a seven week course, but if you can spare 2 hours a day, you can actually get through an entire week in just one day. I’ll be finishing up this course as you’re reading this on Sunday morning when I publish it. In the meantime, head on over to the site and check it out. If you’d like more than just a warm fuzzy feeling for finishing the course, you can pay the $49 to get a certificate for having completed it..but you’ll have to download and print it out at home.

John Covach University of Rochester Beatles Symposium

Professor John Covach

Speaking of John Covach, he’s also the Program Chair for the upcoming Beatles symposium to be held September 27-29, 2019 at the University of Rochester. This three day event is titled, Come Together: Fifty Years of Abbey Road, and obviously will have presentations, interviews, etc. based on the Beatles’ album Abbey Road that was released in 1969. According to the website, the featured speakers include John Kurlander (engineer on Abbey Road), Andy Babiuk, Walter Everett, and Kenneth Womack …just to name a few. Currently, the symposium is still in the Call For Papers stage of being set up, so there are not many details on the website, but I would advice you keep up to date on it and check back often: Come Together: Fifty Years of Abbey Road

In the meantime, why not pick up a copy of Covach’s book, What’s That Sound?: An Introductory to Rock and It’s History

Book Review: “Turning Points in Rock and Roll” by Hank Bordowitz

It’s been quite a while since I posted a review and Turning Points In Rock And Roll by Hank Bordowitz is to blame. I don’t remember where, when or why I bought this book, but I found it on my bookshelf and figured I’d give it a read. Some people can read more than one book at a time, but I’m not one of them. So, while the ‘need to read’ pile grew, I slowly made my way through this book.

It may sound like I’ve already dissed this book, but it’s not true. The good thing about this book is that you can take your time reading it and with my busy schedule the last month or so, this book fit right in. Written in 2004 and with 227 pages divided into 20 chapters, it’s easy to digest a chapter at a time and set it down for awhile. The book starts with “1877-1977 – Edison Invents the Phonograph: Recorded Music goes from Science Fiction to Big Business” and ends with “1995 – MP3, Napster, and the End of the World as We Know It”. In between, it covers Les Paul, Elvis, American Bandstand, Chuck Berry, Beatlemania, Monterey Pop Festival and so much more.

This book is for every rock and roll fan. And though some of the chapters sound very specific, the author leads you through how each turning point affected others and the future of rock and roll. Alan Freed, Blackboard Jungle, Transistor radios where all a part of the growth of rock and roll and Hank Bordowitz does a great job of leading the reader from the early beginnings to what we hope isn’t the end of rock and roll. And for that reason…

I rate this book, 4 out of 4 Beetles!