Debate pitches are tricky things. Get your message right and you can catch a wave and be sitting on top of the world. Get it wrong, and as the Surfaris might warn, you risk a "Wipe Out." With that in mind, let's take a classic-hits look at the messages the Boston mayoral candidates tried to send on Wednesday night last — and what actually came through. Acting Mayor Kim Janey obviously wanted to nick — Mick? — a line from the early Rolling Stones: "She's well-respected, cool, calm, collected." Convey that convincingly and voters might conclude: No need to change mayors in mid-stream. Alas for Janey, as often as not the accidental incumbent has not always seemed ready for political prime time. The latest Boston Public Schools woes — the late-breaking confusion over buses and routes — only underscored the often-off-balance nature of her tenure. If Janey's assurance that all will work out fine proves true, she may redeem herself. But after the miscues of her acting mayoralty, her self-awarded A-minus in pandemic leadership sent a different message. Like, say, this one from Paul Simon: "(We) believe we're gliding down the highway, when in fact we're slip-sliding away." Viewers could be forgiven for thinking the political jukebox had gone haywire when it came to Annissa Essaibi George. That confusion, gentle readers, comes because she sometimes speaks in a pitch that only city union members can hear. Her message to them, underscored by her staunch defense of the Boston Police Department against any budget reallocation and her regular reminder that she's a former BPS teacher (and her status as the endorsed candidate of the firefighters union) was a repurposed line from the Hues Corporation: "Don't rock the boat . . . don't tip the boat over." Or better yet, Carole King: "Winter, spring, summer or fall, all you have to do is call, and I'll be there, yes, I will." Front-runner Michelle Wu tried to project an aura of smart, forward-looking, visionary leadership ready to lead Boston into a shimmering future. As a candidate, Wu has focused on large matters like a green new deal for Boston and policy sugar plums such as free public transit and rent control, an approach that wins her plaudits from progressives while letting her float above the city nitty-gritty. Well ahead in the polls, her debate strategy seemed to be to keep herself in the conversation without getting pulled into any rhetorical rhubarbs.