Beatles vs. Stones

The Beatles obviously.

The Stones, for me, without Brian Jones became rather monochromatic after their extraordinary run between 1965 -1967.

I can't think of a single great Stones album, and trust me I've given the highly regarded Exile on Main Street plenty of plays.

 

However the Stones did have plenty of great individual songs though.

With Brian Jones on board -

Play with Fire 

Mother's Little Helper

She Said Yeah

I'm Free 

Under MyThumb

Out of Time

19th Nervous Breakdown

Satisfaction

Yesterday's Papers

Ruby Tuesday 

Paint it Black 

What to Do

Let's Spend the Night Together

We Love You

Dandelion

She's a Rainbow 

Jumping Jack Flash

 

After Brian Jones -

Happy 

Angie

Miss You

Start Me Up

 

...and that's about it.

Unlike the Rolling Stones who barely stopped touring we hardly got to hear the Beatles play anything after 1965’s Rubber Soul.

Thankfully, some very enterprising folks decided to do something about that.

Here are The Analogues re-creations of some the later albums using carefully selected ’period’ instruments.

 

 

 

The Beatles were always compared to rival bands and people were already writing them off by 1965.

Initially they were going to be superceded by Gerry and the Pacemakers whose first 4 releases scored a remarkable 4 out of 4 UK number 1s.

Then it was the Dave Clark Five who made a great initial splash, whilst over in America they were compared to the Four Seasons.

Later it was the UKs Herman's Hermits and after that it was the Monkees.

 

In reality though, it was never the Stones or any of those bands that the Beatles were comparing themselves to.

Instead it was America's foremost 1960s group the Beach Boys, headed by the enormously creative Brian Wilson.

That particular rivalry spurred both bands to ever increasing heights.

Whereas you could say that the Beatles knew where to place the full stop (period) on their magnum opus Sgt Pepper, poor Brian got lost in the enormity of his soaring ambitions during his 1967 Smile follow up to the already brilliant Pet Sounds from the year before.

For me, had Brian safely found his way out this would have been the real 1960s rivalry for the best band in the world.

Instead, the Beatles went on for 2 further years of creative exploration whilst the Beach Boys had to mainly make do with the Smile leftovers.

Nevertheless they did manage at least one more classic during this difficult time.

 

@bdp24

He and I made a pilgrimage to Brian’s Bel-Air mansion in the summer of 1975, demo in hand (engineered by yours truly), to ask if he would produce us in a pro studio. It didn’t work out ;-)

 

Gee, that’s bad luck, or bad timing.

By most accounts Brian was not in a good place by the mid 1970s. 1975 was also the year he began his involvement with the controversial celebrity psychologist Eugene Landy.

 

@jrosemd

By most accounts the Beatles have outsold the Stones by a factor of more than 10 to 1.

Not too bad for a band that only recorded for 7 years.

@tylermunns

Agreed, the Beatles White Album is a fantastic collection of songs.

Hearing The Analogues relive it brought back many happy memories of hearing it for the first time in 1981.

Nowadays I’m even getting to like my least favourite track on there - Savoy Truffle.
 

 

@bigtwin 

Fascinating to watch in real time as some of the most iconic songs are created out of thin air.

 

Essential viewing for any Beatles fan.

The Beatles incredible output in just 7 years is partially revealed in Get Back as you can clearly see that they never stopped creating new songs.

Even as they are making  what eventually came to be known as Let It Be they are already preparing songs that would appear on Abbey Road.

Perhaps that's the real secret to their success?

Don't ever stop!

@bigtwin

Thanks for reminding me.

I can hardly believe that it’s well over 30 years since I last saw it on Channel 4 during their Goddard season here in the UK.

I think it was called 1 + 1 over here and Sympathy for the Devil in the US.

No idea why.

I wouldn’t mind watching it again because it made little sense back then. It was more like an oddly interesting jigsaw puzzle back then.

Nowadays, I’m a lot more familiar with the pieces.

It might also be one of the rare occasions when the Stones inspired the Beatles.

 

@phil59 

If you prefer pop, you choose the Beatles. If rock and roll is your thing, it's the Stones.

 

That sounds about right.

I always preferred the Beatles whilst my heavy rock/metal fan younger brother always preferred the Stones.

I still remember buying him a copy of the Stones Rolled Gold double LP for his birthday whilst he was still at school.

@dz13 

You dedicated follower of fashion, you.

Nowadays it's a little too easy to forget that the UK had so many great bands back then.

The Beatles, the Stones, the Animals, the Who, the Hollies, the Kinks, the Yardbirds, Herman's Hermits, the Incredible String Band, the Moody Blues, Pink Floyd, Cream etc.

 

At the very least they must have all been giving each other plenty to think about.

The British Invasion was probably the only good thing that came out of the JFK assassination.