Talk:I Dig Rock and Roll Music

Subtext

In their 1991 book "The Worst Rock-And-Roll Records of All Time: A Fan's Guide to the Stuff You Love to Hate", Jimmy Guterman and Owen O'Donnell argue that Peter, Paul and Mary did NOT in fact "dig" rock-and-roll music at all, and that this song was a cynical potshot at the genre that was fast eclipsing folk music and rendering it commercially invalid. The lyrics at face value depict rock-and-roll as vapid-yet-enjoyable, but if the singer is caricaturing the mentality of rock fans instead of speaking for himself, it is plainly condescending. (Inclusion in that volume has been noted for several other albums in this wiki.) Asat (talk) 09:37, 19 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Well, Paul Stookey is, in part, the writer of the song and allmusic.com says of his solo album, Paul and:

"...Paul And (which was titled to slot in between the concurrent solo releases Peter and Mary) is an energetic and exciting meld of solid electric rock, gospel, folk, satire, and even some rock & roll sounds, sung and played with a lot of heart and spirit and even some flashiness; he also manages to work in some PPM folk-style material..."

So it appears he liked rock and roll, and I thought the entry here for this song once said the other two hated this song. M.mk (talk) 15:47, 10 September 2023 (UTC)[reply]