Through his work as an educator, musician, and author, songwriting teacher John Stevens turns on a new generation to the music of the Beatles.

By Matthew S. Robinson
(October 6, 2000)

	John Stevens

Assistant Professor of Songwriting John Stevens was a 15-year-old high school student when the Beatles first crossed his radar, and years later, he still possesses a teenager's enthusiasm as he teaches a course on the music of one of the group's charismatic leaders. Through "The Music of John Lennon," Stevens tells students why Lennon's music captivated him.

"There was something about how he looked and sang and his attitude that appealed to me," Stevens explains. "John had a distinct voice. His music was so much more dreamy and cerebral. There was nothing else like it. The more I learned, the more fascinated I became with John."

This fascination led Stevens to bridge the artistic gap between the 20th century composers he studied in the late 1960s—the likes of Stockhausen, Boulez, Berg, and Webern—to his new favorite musical visionary. The bridge, however, was not that long.

"It just fit in because it was all weird and open," Stevens says. "When Yoko came on the scene, that was another attraction for me. I liked the fact that he was pushing the pop envelope."

It was Lennon's willingness to explore that led Stevens to follow suit and to dedicate himself as much as possible to learning the words and ways of his favorite Beatle. And though he eschews terms like "fan" (which, he notes, is short for "fanatic") and "completist," Stevens does admit to spending more time with Lennon than with any other artist.

John Stevens and the Blue Meanies rehearse. From left to right, Matt McCluskey, Rick Cohen, and Stevens.

Stevens joined the Berklee faculty in 1976. When John Lennon was assassinated in 1980, Stevens came upon the idea of teaching a course about his musical hero. Today, Stevens' course is one of the most popular in the Berklee curriculum.

"My class is packed every semester with young kids who were born after he died," Stevens says. "I suppose the Beatles themselves have become classics of rock, and John's death made him even more of a legend, in the same vein as Morrison, Hendrix, and Joplin. People want to know who he was."

In addition to teaching the 20th year of his Lennon course, Stevens is writing a book on Lennon's musical development during the Beatles years, scheduled for publication on Berklee Press by next summer.

"I have seen many books about Lennon, and they all seem to talk about his life and his girls and maybe his performances," Stevens observes, "but not one has dealt with Lennon's songs in-depth."

Researching the book gave Stevens an opportunity to further clarify his view of Lennon's work, and to examine the diversity and enigmatic nature of his musical personality. "Lennon was a musical chameleon who could work in any style and he was also a contradiction," Stevens asserts. "And that internal contradiction was what he used to make many of his songs."

By way of example, Stevens points out how "All I've Got to Do" is, at first glance, similar in message to the Rolling Stones' "Under My Thumb." "But in the bridge," Stevens notes, "Lennon sings '. . .And the same goes for me . . .' That's the turn. He had this way of delivering a lyric that seemed to go one way, but he would balance it in some other part of the song."

John Stevens' Top Five Albums • John Lennon - "Plastic Ono Band" • Beatles - "Abbey Road" • R.E.M. - "Green" • Beatles - "Rubber Soul" • Nirvana - "Smells Like Teen Spirit"

Formed from a revolving cavalcade of students, faculty, and friends, the Meanies help Stevens explore and keep alive the life and musical legend that is John Lennon.

"It gives me a chance to explore the music from the inside," he says. And what has the professor learned from his multifaceted explorations?

"As a songwriter," Stevens says, "John's lesson was carpe diem. If you have an idea and believe in it, do it. As a person, his lesson was that, if you want to make your existence extraordinary, all you have to do is imagine."

Links of Interest
•	The John Lennon Songwriting Contest
In His Own Class (Or, John Stevens talks about his John Lennon class)
	It's a two-hour class, once a week, and generally we analyze and listen to songs and interviews during the first hour and watch period videos of Lennon's performances and interviews in the second hour. There are no tests, rather a single final project for the semester. The projects may include: performing and recording a Lennon song writing a research paper on Lennon's songs creating a Lennon-inspired painting or sculpture creating a wild avante-garde style project. (One year, a student held a Bed-in-for-Peace for his final project.)