Meet the Beatles
From Titan Magazine (Summer 2003)
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Dennis Anderson |
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Almost everyone in the theater was born after
1966, some even after 1976, but the students in lecturer Dennis
Anderson’s “Music of the Beatles” class were busy
taking notes and mouthing the words to Rubber Soul. Anderson explained,
one track a time, why this particular mid-’60s album was a
turning point in the musicology of the Fab Four.
“This was the
most original work they did before Sgt. Pepper, and was just the
tip of the iceberg in a period where they started exploring introspective
lyrics,” says Anderson. “Listen to ‘Girl’—John’s
answer to Paul’s ‘Michelle’—the lyrics are
so dark, but it’s a happy-sounding song.” The students
take more notes as he stops and restarts songs to explain different
chords, innovative recording tricks and other unique JPG&R trademarks.
“Each song on the album boasts something unique and unexpected
… The norm was Simon and Garfunkel, Beach Boys and Bob Dylan.”
Anderson, who graduated from CSUF in
1974 with a degree in music with a specialization in composition,
went on to earn a master’s degree in composition at the University
of Michigan in Ann Arbor and was awarded two Fulbright scholarships
to the Music Academy in Krakow, Poland. A songwriter, musician and
journalist, he worked in Nashville in the ’80s, returned to
California in ’92, and has taught at CSUF for 11 years.
Anderson also teaches the “History
of Rock” class as a general education course most of his time
at Fullerton, “but with just a semester-long course, I couldn’t
cover one-tenth of what I wanted to teach about the Beatles.”
His message isn’t lost on the
fans who are too young to remember the day John Lennon died. “I
thought I knew a lot before I came to this class,” says 20-year-old
Jonathan Martinez ’05. “I think I might go into sound
engineering. Studying the Beatles’ recording techniques in
this class helps me out—since they were just brilliant.”
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