Listening Guides I, II, III
A companion to What Goes On: Beatles Textbook
These SILENT timelines sync directly to the music, mapping the five categories outlined in the What Goes On: performance, material, arrangement, production, and concept. Watch the first video in each playlist for detailed instructions.
Several teaching goals coalesce in an easy-to-use format, students can do detailed listening at their own speed to develop paper ideas; a count-down clock at the start synchronizes with a CD or streaming player; and comprehensive production notes alert listeners to the technical matters concerning production. For copyright purposes, these videos contain NO audio. Use Apple Music, Spotify, or another streaming platform to sync tracks with videos.
Start with the user demonstration video below, which also leads off all three longer track sequences in I, II, and III.
Listening Guide I
1963-1965
Access on youtube, watch demo videos here and here
Click on video to start playlist:
- She Loves You (1963)
- There’s a Place (1963)
- Not A Second Time (1963)
- All I’ve Got To Do (1963)
- I Saw Her Standing There (1963)
- I Should Have Known Better (1964)
- If I Fell (1964)
Listening Guide II
1965-1967
Access on youtube, watch demo videos here and here
Click on video to start playlist:
- Ticket to Ride (1965)
- Doctor Robert (1966)
- Paperback Writer (1966)
- Strawberry Fields Forever / Penny Lane (1967)
- A Day in the Life (1967)
Listening Guide III
1968-1969
Access on youtube, watch demo videos here and here
Click on video to start playlist:
- Dear Prudence (1968)
- Everybody’s Got Something to Hide Except Me and My Monkey (1968)
- Don’t Let Me Down (1970)
- Two of Us (1970)
- I’ve Got a Feeling (1970)
- I Want You (She’s So Heavy) (1969)
Source: production details from Mark Lewisohn’s The Beatles: Recording Sessions (New York: Harmony, 1988).
Software workflow: Raleigh Green
Transcribe! for track timing, Adobe Illustrator for vector files, Tumult Hype for html5 time-sync rendering.