Wednesday, December 12, 2001 |
Boylan needs rock'n'roll education In my opinion Michael Boylan is an ignoramus and a poor writer, and you should strive to keep him as far away as possible from a word processor, typewriter or pencil. First of all, no quality piece of newspaper writing should ever have any sentence that ends with "the other day," much less the first sentence. This type of writing lapse alone should relegate Mr. Boylan to publish only in obscure, never-read corporate two-page newsletters; and that would still be the waste of a perfectly good tree. Whatever has happened to "clarity" in writing? Regarding his knowledge and opinion of the Beatles, I am still shaking my head in utter disbelief and incredulity at his shallow understanding of rock history. "Rock n' Roll" has been evolving for many years. From the very beginning (I was there and I remember!) the Beatles always credited performers such as Chuck Berry, Bo Didley, Muddy Waters and countless others for their original sound and inspiration. Elvis, The Beatles, the Rolling Stones all stood on the backs of black artists who weren't even known in the U.S. in the late '50s and early '60s simply because they were black. All the groups that have come since have stood on the backs of the Beatles, the Stones, the Beach Boys, etc. While the Beatles are my all-time personal favorite group, I would never be so stupid as to think that any one group could be seriously chosen as THE BEST group or performer of all time. I can easily make a list of 25 acts (solo and group), and my bet is that anyone my age (51) would have at least 10 of the names in common. And, by the way, I am not ignorant of relatively current music as one of my all-time favorite albums is The Wallflowers "Bringing Down The Horse"; not to mention a current song by Uncle Cracker called "Follow Me." Michael, in the future, please stick to writing about subjects you really know and understand. Unfortunately, this may prevent you from ever writing again. John May motyam@mindspring.com
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