Excellent subject taught excellently. I would go to sleep at night listening to the lectures as if they were the perfect bedtime story. But then Id have to flip back a few lectures in the morning for a close-listening because I didnt want to miss a single nugget of information.Prof. Covach does what a lot of books and courses on the Beatles fail to do. He looks straight at the music and brings in biography and history where necessary. But its the music that provides the beat to this course. Prof. Covach digs deep into songs to provide insight on song form/shape, lyrics, theme, etc. and then ties those observations together with songs that come later in the course. So you get a sense of the Beatles growth as songwriters. What were they influenced by? What did they repeat? How did they alter that repeated form? What conventions did they fall back on when they needed to write a hit single.Though the course does delve into some music theory, its accessible to the layperson, eg, talking about a flatted seventh used in a John song. Hocus pocus talk for non-musicians but the professor explains it in such a way that it makes sense and becomes the thing you listen for when you go to the song on your iTunes.Could there be a better gift for a music lover than this course? Well, the professor has a couple other offers on Coursera. Maybe Ill check them out and compare. Ill get back to ya.
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