Feb. 7, 2014 marked the 50th anniversary of the first visit by the Beatles to the USA.
A musician, musicologist, professor, and chair of Skidmore’s Music Department, Gordon Thompson has been studying British popular music in general and The Beatles in particular for almost 20 years.
His book Please Please Me: Sixties British Pop, Inside Out, brought a fresh take on a well-known subject through interviews with artist-and-repertoire managers, music directors, recording engineers, songwriters, and session musicians active in London in that decade.
He has also published articles on the evolution of the song “Strawberry Fields Forever,” the censorship of the song “A Day in the Life,” and the role of memory in relationship to the recording “While My Guitar Gently Weeps.” In addition he has lectured on the rise of Beatlemania and the role of New York in the Beatles’ American success, which he will he will be doing in our region in the days and weeks to come.
Gordon Thompson will be giving his “She Loves You: The Beatles and New York” lecture tonight at the Crandall Library in Glens Falls and tomorrow night at the Bethlehem Library. He will discuss The Rise of Beatlemania at Union College on February 24th.
