It's always funny that way with the Beatles, Lemmy said it right that in that documentary that people always think of the Beatles as being the softies and the Stones as being the more ballsy rockers. But the Beatles were the working class scousers and it was the Stones who came from Surrey which is probably one of the most middle class counties in Britain.
That's not to say they didn't change into something else. Paul McCartney has just released Kisses on the Bottom and seems to be considered "national icon" status in Britain which is as rock n roll as the Queen.
Rock À La Casbah said:
I think that what pisses off people about the beatles most of the time is that 'middle class' pretention into which they evolved with psychedelic experimentations and stuff. It's not about the music in itself. They kind of turned the primitive and spontaneous aspect of rock'n'roll into something more pretentious. Like Lenon staying in bed with Yoko for a week in order to protest for peace. I mean what the fuck. rock'n'roll has always been ambiguous about what it meant by 'revolution and rebellion' but I don't think it was made to stake that kind of stupid claim.