Beatles vs. Stones

^ ;-) .

While McCartney is a pretty good multi-instrumentalist, he can barely play drums. Emitt Rhodes---very Beatles influenced---started on drums (during his Freshman and Sophomore years in High School he was in The Palace Guard), moving to guitar and vocals when he formed The Merry-Go-Round in 1966. The group had a national hit single while Emitt was a Junior. On his 1970 debut solo album he wrote every song, played every instrument, and sang every vocal part, as did McCartney on his solo debut that same year. Play those two albums back-to-back, and you will see why I consider the idolization of the music of 1960’s groups over-the-top. Emitt’s album is considerable better than McCartneys. IMO, of course. Emitt’s songwriting, playing, singing, and production are first rate. Billboard Magazine declared Emitt’s album to be "One of the best albums of the decade." Not the year, the decade! I’ll wager far more people own McCartney’s album than Emitt’s, a ridiculous state of affairs, and a real shame.

Another great solo debut in which the artist plays and sings (almost) everything is Dave Edmunds’ 1971 album entitled Rockpile. While not a songwriter, Dave has excellent taste in material, and album is chock full of blistering hot American Rock ’n’ Roll. The album was recorded at Rockfield Studio in Wales (Dave is Welsh), with Dave producing. The album produced one hit single, the absolutely amazing "I Hear You Knocking". Dave went on to make some of my favorite music of the 1970’s and 80’s, far more to my liking than did McCartney, Lennon, Harrison, and The Stones.

@onhwy61 I thought you were joking at first, but the last bit of your post leaves me confused. Are you making these comments sincerely or as satire?

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Initially they were going to be superceded by Gerry and the Pacemakers whose first 4 releases scored a remarkable 4 out of 4 UK number 1s.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

@cd318 Yeah, I have to agree that, at their best, the Beach Boys’ recordings are things of absolute loveliness. As fine as anything ever put to vinyl.

@bdp24 “…I consider the idolization of the music of 1960’s groups over-the-top.” 
Without sounding gushy or “over-the-top,” what is “over-the-top” about folks putting Beatles #1, or putting a band that made “Jumpin’ Jack Flash,” “Satisfaction,” “She’s a Rainbow,” “Mother’s Little Helper,” “Dandelion,” “Paint it, Black,” “Honky Tonk Women,” “Sing This All Together,” Beggar’s Banquet, and Let it Bleed way up in the upper echelon of pop history?  

Velvet Underground? Sly and the Family Stone? Silver Apples? Kinks? Miracles? Stooges? Delfonics? Can? Zombies? Famous Flames? Bee Gees? Os Mutantes? White Noise? Beach Boys? 

That bunch of groups (throw Beatles/Stones in there) composed music that essentially laid the foundation of all popular music of the last 50-odd years.

See, for me it was Big Joe Turner, Hank Williams, Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis, Fats Domino, Buddy Holly, Little Richard, Carl Perkins, Elvis Presley, The Everly Brothers, Gene Vincent, Eddie Cochran, Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, Slim Harpo (about whom Mick Jagger said "What’s the point in listening to us doing ’I’m A King Bee’ when you can listen to Slim Harpo do it?" Finally, something he and I agree on ;-) , and numerous others who created the road map for all who followed. John Lennon idolized Chuck Berry, Paul McCartney Buddy Holly. The early Beatles (and Stones) albums contain lots of covers of their idols songs, and once you hear The Everly Brothers you know from where John & Paul got their 2-part harmonies. But then The Every Brothers got it from The Louvin Brothers; many readers here may not want to follow the bread crumbs that far back in musical history ;-) .

Have you ever heard "Money (That’s What I Want)", the original by Barrett Strong? Compare it with The Beatles version. The superiority of the original is DRASTIC! The original is filled with smoldering musical tension (very sexual), The Beatles version laying their like a limp....uh, fish. Yes, the Fab 4 wrote great songs, especially beginning with those on Rubber Soul (a favorite album of mine). And Revolver imo revolutionized Rock music. But in a good way? Remember what Eric Clapton said in The Last Waltz? "Music had been headed in the wrong direction for a long time, and when I heard Music From Big Pink I thought finally, someone has gone and done it right." No sh*t Sherlock ;-) .

I saw both The Beatles and The Stones live; The Beatles were mediocre, The Stones terrible. Anybody can make good music in the studio. Seeing a band (or solo artist) on stage is where you see what they really "got". Seeing and hearing Dave Edmunds live was an unforgettable experience. Rock ’n’ Roll performed as Keith Richards only dreams of! Seeing Big Joe Turner live at Club Lingerie in the mid-80’s (backed by The Blasters) was a night I shall never forget. Mick Jagger? Surely you jest!

@cd318: Hearing Smiley Smile in early-1968 was a life-changing experience. I was for years obsessed with the Smile saga (reading about it in Crawdaddy Magazine, by writer Paul Williams, later compiled in his book Outlaw Blues. Essential reading!), as was a great songwriter I knew. 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 ;-)

In my opinion, Brian Wilson is at the head of the class as far as 1960's and beyond musical artists goes. My first concert was The Beach Boys at The San Jose Civic Auditorium in the Summer of 1964. I met Dennis Wilson in the Summer of 1981. My group was playing at Blackies, a Punk/New Wave bar near where Dennis' houseboat (upon which he live) was moored. He was sitting a table alone, drinking. It was surreal; there I was, face-to-face with the first drummer I had even seen on stage. Rest in peace, brother.

Not even a single record of neither of those, but probably would go with Stones. I only like their Voodoo Lounge album tho

Overall in all my interest is too far away from classic rock and rnr.

I'm more into more sophisticated stuff like prog, kraut, indie, fusion, electronic dub/ambient and funk. There are times that I only want to listen to classical artists as well.

I saw the Stones twice: once mediocre even boring, once riveting and compelling

how about Led Zepellin?  studio AND stage

I can't listen to a full Beatles album.  Let it Bleed?  All the time.

Of course, I can't listen to a complete side of Fleetwood Mac, either.

For those who like the Rock 'n' Roll of The Stones; You ain't heard nothin' yet. Get yourself some Dave Edmunds albums, and see how it's really done!

Same time, totally different music. Stones R&B but I like Stones' Satanic Majestics best. So count me more in the psychedelic crowd, and Stawberry Fields may have won me over, wonder why.

However Stones on stage over the Beatles any day. There you have it.

In the US the music of Dylan and G. Dead will likely outlive either British band. 60's Beatles music will survive a long time but that was a single decade. Stones, Dylan and G. Dead music are still performed live both by the survivors and many others (almost every large town and every city have Dead cover bands). Dylan's recent albums compare well with his early music, so he would take the creative longevity prize (and Nobel). Beatles stopped performing mid-60s but of course they are covered a lot today as well. Desert island for me: Beatles would be 3rd choice, stones not at all. Bob Marley would work just fine instead.

@onhwy61 Thanks for setting it straight for me! 'Preciate it.

All good comments.  I like them both. The Beatles and The Stones are completely different from each other. Why should I have to choose?  And +1 for Sympathy For The Devil.

And that's what I love about this site.  A simple question was asked and @bdp24 decided a short novella was called for, but kind of forget to answer the question. 🤣  I shouted out who killed the Kennedys, well after all, it was you and me.    

the Beatles plus Steve Martin

@bdp24

Both Beatles and Stones, like pretty much every band that ever existed (as you noted, The Everly Brothers didn’t invent sublime two-part vocal harmony and had a wealth of recordings featuring such preceding them) started with covers, and generally mimicked their idols.

Their clearly-inferior-to-the-original-version covers
(although the Beatles’ August ‘63 live BBC performance of ‘Don’t Ever Change’ by Carole King/Gerry Goffin - the duo that wrote ‘Crying in the Rain’ by the Everly Brothers, the group for whom ‘Don’t Ever Change’ was originally written - is outrageously good, identical to the melodically-complex/difficult vocal harmony studio original by the Crickets…only live…)
are a mute point.

Even then, I would still put the earliest Beatles compositions, i.e. “P.S. I Love You,” “Ask Me Why,” “Love of the Loved,” “Please Please Me,” all from ‘62, to say nothing of the dozen-plus knockout originals in ‘63 - yep, that early -
(the likes of which include classics as non-album singles, the best originals on their two ‘63 LPs, and the handful of stone-cold gems written for other artists in ‘63, i.e. ‘Bad to Me,’ ‘I’m in Love,’ ‘I’ll Be On My Way,’ - Paul actually wrote ‘World Without Love’ when he was 16)
up against any pop group of the time in ‘63.

Obviously, mid-‘60s-to-early-‘70s Beatles/Stones is canonical.

Everly Brothers wrote a handful of great songs, but their catalog is non-original dominant (particularly by the Bryants).

The fact that one guy, Clapton, desired late-‘60s pop to be more “roots oriented” is nowhere near some “last word on music,” is by no means an expression of anything resembling “universal truth” on where popular music “should have” been heading.
Maybe there were a ton of music fans/artists in the ‘60s whose minds were blown by “Tomorrow Never Knows” and Revolver, by Pet Sounds, and the innumerable records then that created something entirely new, innovative, and as far from “dudes regurgitating rural Americana” as possible.

In the 1990’s I lived in Sherman Oaks California, as did Billy Swan (and Johnny Ramone and Dave Edmunds ;-) . Billy was a singer-songwriter whose sole big hit was "I Can Help". Billy and I became acquainted, and he recounted to me an experience which recalibrated my frame-of-reference.

Long before meeting Billy I had seen and heard many the 1960’s "greats" live: The Beach Boys in 1964, The Beatles in ’65, Cream and Jimi Hendrix in ’67 and ’68, The Jefferson Airplane and The Grateful Dead in ’67 (the same show), The Jeff Beck Group in ’68, Quicksilver Messenger Service in ’68, Them (with Van Morrison) in ’67, The Kinks in ’70 and ’71---they were SO great!, The Electric Flag (Mike Bloomfield and Buddy Miles) in ’68---awesome!, Procol Harum in 1971---majestic! (even without organist Mathew Fisher), and many, many others (living in the San Francisco Bay area was not without its benefits ;-) .

Yet when Billy told me about seeing Elvis, Bill (Black, upright bass), & Scotty (Moore, guitar---one of Jeff Beck’s idols and role models) performing live on a flatbed truck in 1956, I was overcome with jealousy. It brought 1950’s Rock ’n’ Roll alive to me. I SO wish I had been born ten years earlier!

Speaking of Goffin and King (a favorite songwriting team of McCartney & Lennon. And me ;-), give a listen to Nick Lowe’s (Dave Edmunds’ partner in Rockpile) recording of their song "Halfway To Paradise". OMG, talk about Pure Pop paradise!

Dave & Nick of course included a 7" single containing their recordings of Everly Brthers songs in their Rockpile (the group, not Dave’s debut album) album. Good, but nowhere as good as the brothers themselves.

I absolutely adore "World Without Love", as well as "Bad To Me" (recorded by Billy J. Kramer), both songs given away by John & Paul. For cool versions of Beatles & Stones songs, take a listen to the Sire Records albums of The Flamin’ Groovies. Edmunds produced their Shake Some Action, a favorite album of mine (reissued by Jackpot Records of Portland Oregon---a half hour drive from me---in 2022). The best tribute band of all-time ;-) .

The early Groovies albums were obvious in their love of The Stones, and the much more Beatles sounding SSA came as a surprise to many long-time Groovies fans. Groovies main songwriter, singer, and guitarist Cyril Jordan in interviews stated that the reason SSA was more Beatles than Stones influenced was that prior to the recording of SSA they hadn’t been good enough to emulate The Beatles, but The Stones were within reach ;-) .

@bdp24 I’m a bigtime Carol King nut.  
I’m packed to the gills with knowledge and reverence of her stupefying ‘60s catalog (and Tapestry, of course).  
I’ve only heard the original Tony Orlando version of “Halfway to Paradise.”  
I dig Nick Lowe, so thanks for the suggestion.  
I heard a John Lennon piano demo of “I’m in Love” from an iTunes comp from ‘13 called “The Beatles Bootleg Recordings 1963” that knocked me out.  
Bonkers that they just tossed out excellence so willy-nilly.
 

Vanilla and Rocky Road, I like them both.

1965 called.  It wants its 100 teen magazine covers back.

There seems to be a common thread to a lot of postings, being the "older" music is better music, citing The Everly Brothers, early Beach boys etc.... as being the real creative stuff.  I would submit that this is pure nonsense and just a bad case of "back in the old days" syndrome.  Not only has most every form of pop/rock music progressed and improved with time, but many, if not all the the greats, produced their best music in the later part of their careers.  Be honest and tell me which sounds better on your current system and you would really rather listen to:

Abbey Road or Revolver

Exile on Main Street or Out of Our Heads

Guitar Shop or Beck-Ola

Come On In This House or any previous Junior Wells LP

Damn Right I Got The Blues or any previous Buddy Guy LP

Freedom or Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere

Hard Again or any previous Muddy Waters LP

Young Lions and Old Tigers or Take Five

Time to accept that while the older music is great, in most every case the advancement in recording technology, experience and skills of the musicians etc,,, means the later stage recording far exceed the early discs.  IMHO 

@bigtwin I'll take Revolver, by far.  I'll take Exile.  I do like both the other alternatives, though.

@curtdr  Of course it's all personal taste when it comes to music, but I never understood why the "critics" continue to list Revolver as the greatest (or in the top 3) pop/rock LPs of all time.  I will admit that Taxman could be the greatest political commentary ever put to rock music.  "My advice to those who die, declare the pennies on your eyes".  That line still kills me.  But.......  listening to the groove laid down in "Come Together", or the brilliant use of two channels, and the vocals in "Because"....  I still use that track to show off my system.  Kills every time.  Revolver is a good record.  A couple uses of new techniques, but...........it's no Abbey Road.  IMHO 😁

White wine vs red wine.

Abbey Road falls further down the list for me, Beatles-album-wise.
“Because” and “You Never Give Me Your Money” are world-beaters, especially “Because.” There are some things about “I Want You (She’s So Heavy)” I really like.

I find the intensity of adulation “Something” receives somewhat mystifying. It’s nice and all, but, IMO, not the composition so many characterize it as. I like “Here Comes the Sun” a bit more, I suppose (I really like when George and Paul Simon did it live/acoustic with harmonies and all on SNL in ‘76), but a certain Pop Culture Mythology Machine has branded these two George songs as something I don’t personally recognize.
If I never heard “Maxwell’s Silver Hammer,” “Octopus’s Garden,” “Oh! Darling,” or “Come Together” ever again, I wouldn’t cry.
The rest of the stuff is…nice.

I’ll take stunning compositions/arrangements (I don’t judge music by whether or not playing it on a fancy system may impress audio nerds) like “Eleanor Rigby,” “Here There, and Everywhere,” and “For No One” with excellent 2nd-tier songs like “And Your Bird Can Sing,” “I’m Only Sleeping,” “Love You To,” “She Said, She Said,” and “Got to Get You Into My Life.”
If the only good track on the album was “Tomorrow Never Knows,” that alone would be well worth the price of admission. Still astonishing.
If all that occurred on the album, studio-innovation-wise was “Tomorrow Never Knows,” Revolver would automatically be a huge milestone in popular music.

For anyone who wants to know the depth of Revolver’s studio innovations, I would suggest reading chief engineer Geoff Emerick’s book, Here, There and Everywhere. It’s safe to say that the recording of that album employed far more than “a couple uses of new techniques,” to say nothing of “Tomorrow Never Knows,” and is pulling out all the stops, engineering-innovation-wise, in ways Abbey Road simply isn’t.

@onhwy61 I’m taking everything you say in the post above as gospel. Thanks for setting me straight! As a matter of fact I did indeed see McCartney on stage alongside Plant, Page and the rest of Led Zep when I saw them at the Rose Palace (or was it the Shrine Exhibition Hall?) in ’69.

Head or Gut.. neither please...

@bigtwin - I never heard of that custom of putting pennies on dead people's eyes until long, long after I heard that song, so for 30 years or so, I had no idea what he was on about; might as well have been from 'I Am The Walrus'! 

Beatles are melodic, Stones are bombastic, for whatever mood you are in.
They are too different. 

@larsman Ha Ha. the British have so many sayings that are not understood this side of the pond.  I'm guessing you would also miss the reference to "spend a penny"?  With Taxman, Harrison also references then Prime Minister Harold Wilson and Conservative Party leader Ted Heath over the tax rate of 95% that was being imposed on high income earners.  Taxman is simply a great song.  

@bigtwin - That was then (I don’t think I’d even heard of anyplace in England besides London and Liverpool), this is now - I’ve since become a Britophile over the past 4 or 5 decades with mates scattered about through England and Scotland, and quite in tune with British English and expressions, and rhyming slang. I’ve also been over for visits many a time, and like to take trains to different places. In for a penny, out for a pound! 😁 But where was the reference to 'spend a penny'? That's not coming to mind....

61,

You have some kind of citation for that? I'm not buying it. I am a passably good blues harp player and there is no way the same player is heard on the early Beatles "Please Please Me" or "Love Me Do" (John Lennon) and on "Honest I Do" or "King Bee" (Brian Jones). Totally different technique and sound. Likewise Keith’s biting leads on "Time Is On My Side" vs. George’s Carl Perkins C&W twang. Rereading your post, I guess I fell for the sarcasm trap...I hope!

Two observations:  (1) the Beatles wrote the Stones' first big hit, I Wanna Be Your Man; (2) Mick Jagger was a complete phony.  He was raised in London,, attended the London School of Economics, and both of his parents were teachers.  He totally faked a Scouse accent.  There is no comparison:  the Beatles wrote better songs, sang better, played their instruments better, and sold more records: 

Beatles: 183 mil  McCartney solo: 45 mil. Lennon solo: 29 mil.  Harrison solo: 10 mil. 

Total Beatles plus solo: 263 mil. 

Stones:  240 mil. 

@larsman Spend a penny means to go to the toilet, especially a public toilet. One usually is said to be going to spend a penny. The expression is derived from the fact that public toilets were installed in the United Kingdom in the mid-1800s that required a penny to be unlocked.

On Bob Dylan's Tempest LP, song Roll On John, he sings the line "Another bottle's empty, another penny spent".  A little tip of the hat to Lennon's home country.  😁

I’m not so much into provenance, originality or other scholarly aspects of art & music as I am with the sheer emotional involvement a goodly piece of art or music can send my way. Yeah, it’s always nice to have your cerebral cortex tickled, but baser instincts have always ruled the day for me.

Then again, how many repetitions of  the One-Four-Five chord progression can a fella’ take?

@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.

@larsman The way I see it, I can't be sure the Stones were inspired enough by Sgt. Pepper to do Satanic Majesties, were doing it as a friendly tit-for-tat, or were given just a tiny bit of pressure from their record company. In any case, the Stones were pretty obviously out of their element with Satanic Majesties. It had its stretches of fun and a few moments of good music but it is certainly one of their less successful efforts.

@edcyn - I'd guess that it was more a friendly tit-for-tat. There were some wonderful songs on there, though - 'Citadel', '2000 Man', '2000 Light Years From Home', 'She's A Rainbow', 'Sing This All Together', even Bill Wyman's 'In Another Land'....

Yes to both.

Depending what days of the week it is... Both are great and I love both.

@crustycoot I'm a critical thinker and I have access to the internet.  Enough said.

Jazz guys rarely play stones ...just sayin'

Guess that's why I listen to the Stones and not jazz....

@bigtwin: Two matters:

1- The lyric is actually "when (not "well") after after all it was you and me."

2- I did answer the question: I choose neither. Yesterday I went into my local record store to pick up an album they ordered for me: Lonely Soul by GA-20, a Blues band out of Boston. I walked into the store a coupla weeks ago, and while perusing the LP racks heard music playing on the store’s sound system to which I was immediately drawn. Song after song was fantastic: raw, primal Blues, sort of like early Fabulous Thunderbirds meets a Garage Band, including their version of "Got Love If You Want It"---a Slim Harpo song I had first heard on the Kinks debut album, a fabulous version, far better than what The Stones were (and are) capable of. By the way, I hold The Kinks in higher esteem than both The Beatles and The Stones.

I went over to the counter and checked out the front cover, on which I saw a coupla youngish (compared to me ;-) guys with beards. The back cover had a picture of the two guys holding cool vintage guitars, and album credits. When I saw the names Charlie Musselwhite (harmonica) and Luther Dickinson (slide guitar), I was sold. I rarely do impulse buys, but this one was a no-brainer. My favorite new band!.

Oops, there I go again, penning a short novella ;-) . Back to the topic:

So I entered the store yesterday to pick up the GA-20 (yet another terrible band name ;-) album, and what did I hear playing? That horrid, droning bore of a "song" "Within You Without You" (the damned sitar RUINED George Harrison!). Oh no, I thought to myself; it’s that pos Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band. I had other titles I was looking for, and as I started flipping through LP’s I was subjected to "Lovely Rita" (oh for God’s sake, are you kidding me? Who actually likes this sh*t?). That was all I could take. See ya guys, I’ll be back.

If I heard Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band today, as a new release, would I like it? Would you? It strikes me as incredibly corny, especially McCartney’s British Music Hall/nostagia bullsh*t. At least it wasn’t side one; "A Little Help From My Friends"? "Fixing A Hole"? "She’s Leaving Home"? Please, kill me now.

For all you septics that have got it a$$ about face, the Beatles were Scousers, means from Liverpool.

Mick and Keef are from Dartford in Kent and had Souf London accents, Mick later adopted a US southern drawl.

Brian was the brains of the operation until Mick and Keef outed him. He probably wrote a lot of the early stuff and was a musician, way ahead of the other Stones and the Beatles.

Gram Parsons, Ry Cooder and Mick Taylor gave the Stones massive inputs after Brian died and basically created a completely different Rolling Stones.

After listening to the Stones almost everyday for over 50 years I can say that my favourite album is Goat's Head Soup, my favourite track is Down Home Girl or maybe Backstreet Girl.

If you ever get a chance to buy the Stones bootleg Black Album, it's fantastic.

I think Sgt Pepper was great when it came out, and it still is; love every song on there. Can't say the same for every Beatles album. 

Rubber Soul and Revolver are my go-to Beatles albums. I haven’t played SPLHCB in over fifty years. Same for Abbey Road. Way over half of the white album is unlistenible.

Mick Jagger is a terrible singer, Keith Richards a mediocre guitarist (for verification, watch Chuck Berry trying to teach Richards how to play "Oh Carol" in Hail! Hail! Rock 'n' Roll. Keith can’t do it.). And they made a disco album. End of story.

You know why so many have covered Beatles songs, and so few those of The Stones? I do, but you are of course free to consider Jagger & Richards good songwriters if you wish. When was the last Jagger/Richards song you like written? Does fifty years ago seem about right?

@bdp24 Love The Kinks. Generally go for them over Stones, can’t say necessarily the same w/Beatles. Beatles are just…too good. I could certainly, however, produce a “short novella” on my love of The Kinks.  
I consider Sgt. Pepper’s long-held status as #1-all-time-worthy incommensurate with the actual songs. The studio innovation, sure. Songs, not so much. I consider “She’s Leaving Home” gorgeous, brilliant, haunting, indelible and impervious to overplayedness. “A Day in the Life” is just…incredible (I also enjoy the early takes on Anthology 2…Jesus…). 
Obviously this is all subjective but, “Way over half of the White Album is unlistenable”…boy… 
“Dear Prudence,” “Glass Onion,” “Bungalow Bill,” “While My Guitar Gently Weeps,” “Happiness is a Warm Gun,” “Martha My Dear,” “I’m So Tired,” “Blackbird,” “Piggies,” “I Will,” “Julia,” “Mother Nature’s Son,” “Everybody’s Got Something to Hide Except Me and My Monkey,” “Sexy Sadie,” “Helter Skelter,” “Long, Long, Long,” “Honey Pie,” “Savoy Truffle,” “Cry Baby Cry,” “Goodnight.”  
20 of the 30 tracks that are as sublime as pop music gets.
Legit avant-garde songs like “Wild Honey Pie,” “Revolution 9.” Super ballsy to put stuff like that on an LP by the biggest band in the world. Irrespective of artistic courage, I still consider those tracks sonically and artistically remarkable.

Rod Temperton (author of Heatwave, Brothers Johnson, Michael Jackson, Quincy Jones classics), Kenny Gamble and Leon Huff (authors of and producers of too many glorious records by way too many incredible artists to begin to mention), the brothers Gibb, Björn Ulvaeus and Benny Anderson, Giorgio Moroder, and Niles Rodgers (author of Chic, Sister Sledge, Diana Ross, David Bowie) may have something to say about someone using the word “disco” as merely a pejorative.

The primes of Michelangelo, Shakespeare, and Bach ended a lot more than fifty years ago. This has no bearing on whether their art was good.