DeCurtis talks The Beatles

The Beatles changed his life.
 
Anthony DeCurtis, longtime contributing editor at Rolling Stone and IU alumnus, will give a public lecture titled “50 Years On: Meeting The Beatles, What They Mean and Why They Matter” 7 p.m. today in Ballantine Hall 013.

A lecturer at the University of Pennsylvania in the English department, DeCurtis’ lecture celebrates the popular Beatles course taught by Glenn Gass at the Jacobs School of Music.

IDS: Looking through your Rolling Stone archives, you’ve written a lot about big names such as Whitney Houston, Prince and, of course, The Beatles. When and with whom was the first interview that you were extremely excited for?

DeCurtis: Probably when I interviewed George Harrison for the first time in 1987. You know, you have a different response to people who had an impact on you when you were a kid. It was one thing to write about bands like U2 or R.E.M., bands I really like a lot.

But on the other hand, I was a grown-up by the time they were working, and so while I really like them and think they’re great, bands like The Beatles and The Rolling Stones made me who I am, really. They’re the reason I do the work I do and kind of became the person I became, and so it was very ... it was kind of stunning.

There’s a level of excitement to it, certainly. I interviewed Paul McCartney the day before, so it was kind of a double whammy. This was all happening in England. But, you know, McCartney was very organized, and we met in his office. Whereas with Harrison, I was talking to his wife for a week, and I went to England not really knowing he would even talk to me.

When we did do the interview, it was in Friar Park where he was living. It was staggering. Harrison was a much more reclusive figure.

IDS: Recently you’ve collaborated with Clive Davis for his upcoming autobiography. What was the process of working with him like?

DeCurtis: In a lot of ways he was a dream subject. Clive has a long career, but also he went to Harvard Law (School). He’s an organized guy.

So a lot of people who do these kind of collaborations, particularly ones that they’re doing with artists, just getting the artist to show up for the interview is part of the trick, whereas that was not the problem with Clive. We have a very regular schedule of interviews.

We talked for more than 100 hours, and he was very focused. So all of that made the process run very smoothly. Also Clive is a very good writer, so his input was invaluable, and when we did edit, we really had something to contribute. It wasn’t a question of somebody writing a book for someone who can’t write.

He read everything very carefully, we went over it together, he made plenty of additions and suggestions. It’s very much in his voice. So from those standpoints, it was kind of practical. It worked very well.

And then there of course were all the stories about signing Bruce Springsteen and signing Janice Joplin, signing Whitney Houston and signing Alicia Keys. There’s Carlos Santana. There was a tremendous amount to talk about. I sort of feel like I haven’t run out of things I want to know from Clive.

Naturally, we want to get the book done, and there’s plenty in it. It’s a big book. But I sort of feel like I miss talking to him all the time.

IDS: You lecture at the University of Pennsylvania in the English department. What are some of the skills you wish you would have had or some of the things you wish you would’ve known early on as a music journalist?

DeCurtis: Like a lot of journalism, you learn it through experience. My own class is very experiential. I make them go out and do stuff. I know a lot more about doing interviews than I did when I first started out. And I don’t know any other way I could have learned it without making all the mistakes I made.

You gain confidence just because you’re used to being in these situations, and I don’t know that anybody can really teach you that. You can learn how to prepare, and you can learn how to put a story together, you know all of that stuff, and I learned how to do that.

I guess the one thing I probably came to understand, and it certainly would be the one tip I would give to anybody to do an interview, is ... to just listen. I think it’s really to just pay attention to the person. You have your list of questions and can sort of use them as a crutch and just kind of miss whatever is going on with that individual. So that’s the main thing, I guess, but it’s an ongoing process. I still feel like I’m learning how to do it.

IDS: What are three of your favorite albums that are not by The Beatles?

DeCurtis: “Exile on Main Street” by The Rolling Stones, “Blonde on Blonde” by Bob Dylan. There are so many others, and any number of Beatles albums, as well. There is a live album by Townes Van Zandt called “Live at the Old Quarter” that I listen to a great deal and always with a tremendous amount of pleasure. So why don’t we say that one.

IDS: Last question. What is it about the about the songs The Beatles – or whether it’s their image or them as a band – that has sustained their longevity?

DeCurtis: Well, I think the one thing that is often overlooked about them is just how good they are. You know, I think that the songs sound so simple in a lot of ways, certainly the early stuff. But if you ever talk to musicians who try to play them or sing them, they’re not.

But all that complexity is in the service of a kind of simplicity, a directness. They’re also, their career kind of had a perfect arc, as painful as the ending was. There was a very clear development, and a beginning, a middle and an end that I think is compressible to most people.

So then if you get into The Beatles, it’s not a huge body of work. I mean, there are a million of their solo records that they made and all this other stuff subsequent to The Beatles breaking up. But for The Beatles as The Beatles, it’s a good story, and people can engage it pretty easily.

My daughter is 6 years old. She likes The Beatles, and I like The Beatles. It runs a big gamut, and I wasn’t somebody who sat her down and gave her lectures on what The Beatles are about. I just put them on, and as I was listening to them, she responded.

I personally find myself really fascinated by the early stuff. Lately, I think it’s easy to get caught up what “Sgt. Pepper” was and even “Revolver” and then later “Abbey Road,” of course, but the early stuff I just find so interesting now for some reason.

When they really were a band and they also were just trying to write so many different kind of songs ... The idea we would be talking about them for 50 years later, I think, it just would have been unthinkable to them at that point. They were just working as musicians and songwriters, and they were working pretty hard.

Again, you can hear what would develop and just hear it for what it is. It’s a very kind of distinct aspect.