Millennials need to learn, you don't mess with the tunes

I've got no problem with people who don't like baby boomers.

Even though I am one (matriculated in 1949), I'm not really a big fan of my g-g-generation. Davy Crockett, Howdy Doody and Eddie Haskell were cool and we certainly got off to a good start, but we pooped out in the mid '70s and never really got it back.

I mean Good Lord, we had John F. Kennedy and we ultimately settled for Gee Dubya Bush.

We had great music, especially from about 1962 to 1974, but instead of just playing our albums, eight tracks, cassettes or compact discs, we were the generation that created the horrific thing known as an "oldies" station.

So depending when you turn on your radio, you're just as likely to hear the Beatles singing "Day Tripper" than hearing anything by Brit Brit or The Bieb. We're going to have to do a term in purgatory for that.

Bieber

But a young editorial writer at the Washington Post, eager to write something cool for a change (Hey, been there and done that), says it's time for boomers to let our music pass gracefully into oblivion along with "Don't Sit Under the Apple Tree," "Mairzy Doats" and the entire Al Jolson catalog.

Young Rachel Manteuffel ...

Hey, Ich spreche ein bischen Deutsch, Rachel. Cool name.

... attacks our music by chasing a sacred cow known as "Yesterday." She goes through the entire song and points out the foolishness in the lyrics, and ends basically by asking us if we want our wheelchairs turned toward the windows or away from the windows.

1966

Yes, John Lennon once said the Beatles were more popular than Jesus, but at least he never called his fans "beliebers."

Anyway, judging the value of the Beatles by their early stuff is like the right wingers who said President Obama's only pre-White House gig was as a community organizer. Sort of unfair.

If you want to judge the value of the Beatles, look from about 1967 on -- "Sgt. Pepper's, the White Album, or maybe the best of all, "Abbey Road."

There's no way Bieber even comes close.

Anyway, there was so much wonderful stuff that had nothing to do with the Beatles. Look at "Beggar's Banquet," "Let it Bleed" and "Exile on Main Street from the Stones, or "Tommy" or "Who's Next" from Roger, Pete and the boys.

We get it, Rachel. You don't like Paul. You think he wrote sappy songs. A lot of us would agree with you. I mean, look at "Silly Love Songs" or "My Love." That's stuff even Britney could have done.

But Paul still had some great stuff in him. "Live and Let Die" won an Oscar, and "Band on the Run" was a helluva song and album.

You might be surprised to see that a lot of boomers thought "Something" was a much better song than "Yesterday." A decidedly non-boomer guy named Sinatra said it was the greatest love song ever written. Even better than "Oops, I Did It Again."

But don't forget people like Elton John, Jackson Browne, the Eagles and that kid from Asbury Park, N.J. He was not only "Born to Run," he was born a baby boomer.

Yes, for every Bruce Springsteen there were probably three Tommy Roes. For every Beatles, there were too many 1910 Fruit Gum Companies.

But as I understand it, Biebs and Brit Brit are the big stars now.

Seems to me you millennials have a long way to go even to get to "Yesterday."