I wrote: >>... barring a few superb, mostly early forays (Money, Twist & Shout, >>Dizzy Missy Lizzy), the Beatles were central to pop music but _very_ >>peripheral to rock n'roll, which went near dormant during their reign. >>For that, in the 60s, we must look to others. Deryk Barker replied: >I tend to agree with you, although I think you understate the case to be made >for them as rockers. Revolution? And Happy Birthday, bien sur ...plus 2 or 3 others, maybe. >>Mind you, you did smell the rat of a put-down from a confirmed rock 'n >>roller, and I wouldn't take issue. That said, it's neither here nor there >>if Townshend did cast a slur, as his distinction stands: "Love me Do," >>"Michelle," and "The Long & Winding Road" -- and most of what happened in >>between -- are _not_ rock 'n roll. While far better, I agree, than "Mrs. >>Brown you've got an Ugly Daughter," and "Leaning on a Lamppost," they're of >>the same ilk. > >Now here I can't agree. (And BTW it's "Mrs. Brown you've got a *lovely* >daughter" Sorry: Nice song; just can't take it seriously. >) MCartney did veer perislously close to music-hall IMHO with When I'm 64 >and dived in with both feet with Maxwell's Silver Hammer and Honey Pie, but >much of the rest of their output is wonderfully rich music, worth listening >to 3 1/2 decades after it was written. I don't mind even the pub-singalong jingles ("'Enery the Aitff," etc.) I too enjoy most of it, with remarkably few exceptions (Ticket to Ride is one 4 me) Great music indeed - good, fun, melodious, often exquisitely harmonic stuff. Even those hits by Herman's Hermints are all right. It just isn't rocknroll! But again: will McCartney's extraordinary talents lend themselves to CM? (etc.) Bert Baitley