
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, November 25, 1995                   TAG: 9511270024
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A11   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

BRIEFLY PUT . . .

IT WAS a treat, as always, to hear the Beatles. Their music predictably transcended the tedious documentary on the Fab Four playing on TV this week amid network fanfare and in coordination with the release of a new anthology album, or rather, CDs.

Yet, because it could never rival the original Beatlemania, the hoopla was a reminder - as if we needed another - that past is irretrievably past. When rebel rocker John Lennon, pop craftsman Paul McCartney, mystic George Harrison and clown Ringo Star were together, it was a different time. Separately, and after assassination, the Beatles lost their personality.

Still with us are some of the bad features of the times the Beatles more than anyone else represented, including the infection of popular culture by drugs and self-indulgence. Some of the better features - the exhuberant experimentation, the social activism - seem less vibrant today. Yet the music remains vibrant, on recordings, giving testimony to the revolutionary power of culture.

SAY WHAT you want about Virginia Republicans, they're an audacious lot. After Sen. Virgil Goode, D-Rocky Mount, resisted entreaties to switch parties, GOP legislators started wooing Sen. Richard Holland, D-Windsor - hoping he might give them the Senate majority status that eluded them with the 20-20 tie. They have to be a little uncomfortable making big eyes at Holland. Not so long ago, he was among Democratic senators targeted by the GOP to be knocked off in the legislative elections. So was his brother, Sen. Clarence Holland of Virginia Beach, who was, indeed, defeated.

by CNB