I had to laugh at Ian Bell's rant at the Jubilee Concert (The greatest rock and roll swindle, Comment, June 10).
Mr Bell still clings on to the notion that music somehow represents "rebellion". How quaint. The Beatles, The Stones and Dylan all produced fantastic music in the 1960s. But that's it. The ideological stance these artists took at the time has long since been exposed as a sham or a passing fad. About as relevant as cassettes.
During the so-called "punk explosion", that music was being outsold 10 to one by disco and Abba, because ordinary people liked that music. Mr Bell also reveals himself to be as conservative as those he berates. Why should Cliff Richard or Paul McCartney conform to what Mr Bell thinks an old person should be? Why can't they break the mould and keep working?
The likes of Bob Dylan left the barricades many years ago. Maybe Mr Bell should grow up and join him.
K Melville
Rutherglen
To be pedantic, it is generally agreed that rock'n'roll can be largely dated to Rock Around The Clock by Bill Haley and his Comets, which topped the charts in the US and the UK in 1955 and not, as Ian Bell suggests, Elvis Presley's 1956 offering of Heartbreak Hotel.
Many of us back in the middle of the last century considered Elvis Presley to be the greatest rock'n'roll sell-out and swindler as, after three great rock'n'roll hits (Heartbreak Hotel, Hound Dog and Blue Suede Shoes), his output became opportunistic, false and pretty dire. Rock-A-Hula Baby – I ask you! As far as we're concerned, Bill Haley, Buddy Holly, Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis and Little Richard were and remain rock'n'roll.
Dave McEwan Hill
Sandbank, Argyll
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