"Beatleogy"

My eldest daughter Carmel Jamaica was going through the pages of a newspaper when she saw an article she knew would make me drop whatever it was I was doing. "Hey, pa, would you believe they now have an academic course on The Beatles?," she shouted from where she was.

She was correct in gauging my love for The Beatles. I stood up from my late supper (I take my supper at home, not at the newspaper office where I work late) and grabbed the paper from her hand.

Sure enough, a British university, the Liverpool Hope University, is offering what it calls the first Master of Arts degree on The Beatles, which is essentially a study on the Fab Four's impact on popular music and society.

Those who will take the postgraduate course will take four 12-week modules and write a dissertation afterward. "So?," my daughter asked. Nah, I said. England is too far away. And I am sure I cannot afford the expense.

What I did not tell my daughter was that even if I had the time and the means to do it, I still wouldn't. Not that I am not that big a fan of The Beatles because I am. It is just that I felt their music -- all music in fact -- ought to be a matter of feeling, not of study.

Of course I agree with Mike Brocken, the course leader, when he said "The Beatles influenced so much of society, not just with their music, but also with their fashion, from their collarless jackets to their psychedelic clothes."

But I am more of a lover of music for the sake of the music. I must admit though that I am very biased in my taste. My rather extensive collection encompasses only the music of my generation, which is to say I have an explosion of Sixties music.

And except for a few choice early Eighties pieces, I would say my collection came to an abrupt halt with mid-Seventies music. It was during this era that the music inspired by The Beatles made a drastic left turn and fell head-long head first onto the disco dancefloor.

That was when "the music died," as singer songwriter Don Maclean so succinctly put it, although I would not go into an argument over that, it simply being my own interpretation of the line. Music to me is a feeling, remember? It is not something to spend time debating over.

I remember some intellectually pretentious kids of my generation almost going into fistfights over the very same Don Maclean song from which that line was taken -- American Pie. They would debate all day long about what the lyrics meant they completely forgot the song.

And that is a great pity. It reinforces my conviction that if I can only have my way, I would prefer to have the house to myself and play my music as loud or as soft as the music requires and leave all studies to truly "studyable" subjects as Math or Science or Literature.

Brocken may have a point that "there have been over 8,000 books about The Beatles but there has never been any serious academic study and that is what we are going to address." But then again, I wonder if earning a degree is as enjoyable as simply listening with eyes closed.

All my three daughters grew up on Beatles music. No, that is not correct. They grew up on Sixties music. But do not get me wrong. There is no musical dictatorship in the house. My daughters play their own music everytime they feel like it.

What I mean by growing up on Beatles or Sixties music is that they have heard the music so often, and have come to truly appreciate it, that they can sing along with the songs even if they do not care to know about the titles or who sang them.

I agree with Brocken that the influence of the Beatles had been so pervasive. Proof is that my daughters think all Sixties music is Beatles music. They can sing Herman's Hermits or Gary Lewis or The Lettermen without knowing they are no longer singing The Beatles.

But do I care about their ignorance? Do I feel it necessary to educate them about the difference? Absolutely not. When my daughters sing my music at the top of their voices, that is the greatest gift in the world. Not even the loftiest degree can make me feel so blessed.