Friday, December 27, 1963: 'What Songs the Beatles Sang'

     The London newspaper The Times publishes a critical appraisal of The Beatles' music.

     From the book "Rock Criticism from the Beginning: Amusers, Bruisers and Cool-headed Cruisers" (Ulf Lindberg, 2005; link here: @).

The British daily press's coverage of the popular music scene was mainly limited to what might be termed, gossip, news or sensations. William Mann's pioneering 1963 review of the Beatles in the arts pages of The Times was definitely more an exception than a trendsetter. Invoking metaphors like "pandiatonic clusters" and "flat submediant key switches," the message of the article is that Lennon/McCartney in fact are innovative composers even thought "their noisy items are the ones that arouse teenagers' excitement." 
* Image of article: @

* Entry from The Beatles Bible: @

* "Found! The Beatles' elusive Aeolian cadence" (from aeoliancadence.co.uk): @ 
* "Aeolian Cadence" (from Aaron Krerowicz): @

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