As your friendly neighborhood Salon music critic, I enjoy the opportunity to share my takes on the cultural achievements of our time. But by day, I teach a course entitled "Introducing the Beatles" at Monmouth University on the beautiful Jersey Shore. It's a privilege to share the band's timeless music with our students, who can't wait to take a deep dive into the nature of the Beatles' unparalleled achievements.
But each fall, as the new semester begins, I caution my students that for all the Beatles' accomplishments, theirs is an indelibly human story. Indeed, it's not all magic and fairy dust as we waltz through their cascade of increasingly complex masterworks from "Rubber Soul" and "Revolver" through "Sgt. Pepper," "The White Album" and "Abbey Road." The Beatles' narrative is a true story, mottled by moments of greatness and pure genius, to be sure, but also by sadness of the highest order. One member is murdered, I remind them, while another died all too perilously young.
