Rock 'n' Roll: The Sound of the Sixties

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What they saw was four young chaps having a jolly good bash. In the avalanche of publicity that followed, the Beatles emerged as refreshingly relaxed, if not downright lovable, personalities. Their disarming humor (Reporter: "Why do you wear so many rings on your fingers?" Ringo: "Because I can't get them all through my nose") melted adult resistance.

Back to Fun. There are dozens of rock 'n' roll groups in the U.S., most of them Negro, who can sing better and play better than the Beatles. But somewhere between the "ya da da da da da da" of Sh-Boom and the whine of Hound Dog, U.S. rock 'n' roll groups became mired in lamenting lost love and other ailments of the heart. By refusing to take themselves seriously, the Beatles made rock 'n' roll fun again.

The Beatles also made it all right to be white. As French Critic Frank Tenot notes: "Since the downfall of the Viennese waltz, nothing in popular music, and particularly dance, has known any success unless associated with one or another of the rhythmic discoveries of the Negro." Beatle music (known as "the Mersey sound") and even Beatle accents are actually Anglicized imitations of Negro rhythm and blues once removed. Says Beatle John Lennon: "We can sing more colored than the Africans."

The Brown Sound. Among the many white rock 'n' roll singers attempting a pure "brown sound" today, the most successful are the Righteous Brothers and the Rolling Stones. The Righteous Brothers, a Mutt-and-Jeff pair of 24-year-old Californians, are referred to by Negro disk jockeys as "our blue-eyed soul brothers" for the spiraling gospel wail and hoarse growl they inject into songs like their bestselling Just Once in My Life. Their name, in fact, is derived from the Sunday-go-to-meetin' phrase: "Man, that was really righteous, brothers."

To distinguish themselves from the Beatles, Britain's Rolling Stones have attempted to assume the image of Angry Young Men. "The Stones," their manager proudly explains, "are the group that parents love to hate." They sing Mersey-Mississippi rhythm and blues, backed by a quavering guitar and a chugging harmonica that smacks of cotton-pickin' time down South. With a kind of goggle-eyed conviction. Lead

Singer Mick Jagger intones such earthy lyrics as:

Well, I'm a king bee, buzzing 'round your hive . . .

Yeah, I can make honey, baby, let me come inside.

Yeah, I can buzz better, baby, when

your man is gone.

At concerts, the Stones' fans greet their heroes by suggestively wiggling two fingers in the air. Their appeal, one 16-year-old girl frankly admits, "is sex—but don't print that; my mother would hit me."

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