Beatles Browbeat

Today's Beatles Browbeat over at Slate asks the question "what the hell WAS the Merseybeat?":

But what was that sound? If you asked the Beatles and their similarly-coiffed and -clad young friends at the time, they probably wouldn’t have had a good answer. These bands might have shared outfits and haircuts and an early affection for skiffle music, but was their sound really so distinctive? After all, much of their repertoire consisted of covers by rock, R&B, and doo-wop acts (their harmonies were often inspired by the latter). Lennon himself would later say, “We don’t think there is such a thing as the Mersey Sound. … It just so happened we came from Liverpool and they looked for the nearest river and named it.”

Previous Beatles in real-time 50 years ago stuff HERE.