As we begin this course on The Music of the Beatles here on Coursera, I just wanted to take a minute to talk a little bit about some of the materials that support the course and, and sort of how it's going to be organized according to that. The first thing to start with is, there's a book that I recommend for the course and that is a book called Beatles Songs. You see it on the course webpage. This book is, is really useful in the sense that it goes through the Beatles music we'll be talking about throughout this course really in the same order, that is, the order in which the music was released in the UK. So if you, if you have the CDs or or the files in the album running order, you really can pretty much listen to the music and read the book as you go. You know, read the entry about a particular song, then listen to the song, then read an entry about the song, and listen to the song, like that. That's a great way to learn the music, and to, and to have things to listen for when you're familiarizing yourself with the music. You'd be surprised how many things you thought you knew about these songs that you find out from this Beatles Songs book. One thing that's, I think, really interesting about the way the information is pulled together, of course, I won't even have a change to talk about even a small percentage of all the songs that, that are in the Beatles catalog, is that you get some very specific information about who's playing what instrument that's mostly correct. I mean, historians are going to come along and correct various kinds of things, but it's mostly correct. I think it gives you a pretty good idea. And you get quotations of the Beatles talking about the recording of the song and some of the things that have to do with the influences, and the lyrics, and these kinds of things. And that's very valuable. . So it gives you a kind of perspective on it. Also helps us identify which song writer is primarily responsible for each song as it goes. So I really recommend getting a hold of the Beatles Songs book. It's, it's a relatively inexpensive book, but it's a great source of information. I think it will be a real aid. A lot of this information you can also find on the internet, on Wikipedia or places like that. So you may choose to do that. But The Beatles Songs is a, is a, I think a fantastic little reference book, very easy to read and a lot of fun to use. The other thing I want to talk about just briefly is, we cannot, because of copyright restrictions, I cannot play music as I talk to you about the Beatles music. Now that may seem like, well, why would you even do it if you can't talk about the music? I think we can get a lot of things discussed and a lot of that, I can direct your attention to a lot of things. But you're going to have to get the music yourself. I, I don't like it that it's this way. A lot of people probably won't like it that it's this way. But there just is no way legally we can include music in these videos, without getting sued for it. So, we don't want that to happen. So, I'm leaving it to you to be able to find this music on the internet. Luckily, in most countries, this music is easily accessible via places like YouTube, and other places like that. In the past in these Coursera courses, members have gotten together and created playlists, and posted. That's all up to you. As far as we here at Coursera, in the University of Rochester, are concerned, you're finding this music for yourself. I'm sorry it's that way, but the copyright laws are what they are, and there's nothing really we can do about that. So if you've got the Beatles Songs book, and you're able to get to the music, I think you're going to be in great shape to study this stuff as it goes along. So let's jump right into the course, The Music of the Beatles.
