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Beatles or Stones?

Beatles or Rolling Stones

  • Beatles

    Votes: 242 70.8%

  • Rolling Stones

    Votes: 62 18.1%

  • Carrots

    Votes: 38 11.1%
  • Total voters
    342
  • Poll closed .
#23
Call me crazy, but I never got caught up in the whole hype of The Beatles. But of course The Stones have their own marketing departments too. I like and respect both bands, but my personal vote goes more to Rolling Stones. And all jokes aside it's pure awesome that they are still jamming after all this time. It's sad about John and George, but still great seeing Paul and Ringo making music.
 
#24
Sometimes I think the best thing that happened to the Beatles is that they broke up at essentially the height of their creative powers after releasing Abbey Road. They never had to "adjust" to punk or New Wave or disco. They never released a bad album. Their entire catalog is near perfect.
 
#25
mellowinman said:
Actually, if your poll had been the Beatles vs ANY band, or any TEN bands, or possibly ALL the other bands, I might've STILL picked the Beatles.

Every time someone says the Beatles were "overrated," a tiny piece of our collective souls die.
Click to expand...

Well I must have killed us all then.

Don't get me wrong I enjoy the Beatles but I do not think they are the greatest band to grace the planet and I think they are greatly overrated. Their first 8 albums are ALL about love, any song writer can tell you that love is the absolute biggest cop out for lyrical content because everybody can relate to it and has gone through it.

Commence flaming.
 
#27
mjac28 said:
I obviously love my Beatles but I'm so glad for the Stones for being the anti-Beatles band and really pushing the Beatles and pushing Rock & Roll to hard edge glory in my opinion the two best bands of that era.
Click to expand...

Historians (and the Beatles) will tell you it was the Beach Boys who pushed the Beatles and vice versa. The whole Revolver, Pet Sounds, Sgt. Peppers, and the implosion of Smile.

Yeah I know it's simplified, but it's a well known story.
 
#33
While I love lots of the Stones songs it the Beatles all the way for me. The songs, the arrangments and of course, those bass lines!

Loved thier collective wit and Lennon on his own was hilarious.

Reporter: If you're as bad in math as you say you are then how do you keep track of your money?"

Lennon: "I just weigh it."
 
#34
Ancientrocker weighting in,

I like them both with a slight edge to the Stones for their R&B roots and a slight tug back in favor of the Beatles for their influence. So, one of my favorite bands is the Flamin' Groovies because they sound like a cross between the Stones and the Beatles. They pull it off very well. And a shout out to George Alexander who played, what else, the bass.
 
#36
DiabolusInMusic said:
Well Their first 8 albums are ALL about love, any song writer can tell you that love is the absolute biggest cop out for lyrical content because everybody can relate to it and has gone through it.
Click to expand...

Being that I (ahem,) am a songwriter, I do not need any songwriter to tell me anything.

It's hard to know what you mean by "their first eight albums," because that could be their first eight UK albums, or US albums, or combinations of those and other countries, but let's pretend you mean their original UK Catalogue:

Please Please me
With the Beatles
A Hard Day's Night
Beatles for Sale
Help!
Rubber Soul
Revolver
Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band

There are a lot of GREAT songs about love on those eight albums, but those last two had plenty of other subject matter. Let's not forget on those first few, we're talking about early sixties pop, and it's not like there were other bands writing more sophisticated stuff.

Anyway, the Beatles Love Songs weren't all mindless fluff about wanting to hold somebody's hand. They touched upon themes of loneliness, alienation, jealousy, even violence. I don't see what makes them all that different from a lot of blues and rock and roll, them-wise, and their melodies, harmonies and hooks were far superior!
 
#37
In my opinion, The Beatles were the best band ever. Their influences are still being heard today even if people do not realize it. Just about every major rock artist lists them as an influence. It's amazing how much they did in a relatively short time. I like a few early Stones songs but in all honesty, I have never liked Jagger's voice and I have never understood why he and the Stones are held in such high regard. The Beatles had great creativity, musicianship, writing, structure, lead vocals and harmonies. They are still the number one selling recording artist of all time despite only being active from 1960 through 1970 and have sold 111 million more albums than the Stones in the U.S. alone. The Stones rank number 14 even though they have been around since 1962. In fact, according to The Recording Industry Association of America , George Strait, Michael Jackson, Elton John, AC/DC, Barbra Streisand, Pink Floyd, Bill Joel, The Eagles, Led Zeppelin, Elvis Presley and Garth Brooks have all sold more albums than The Rolling Stones.
 
#38
I was in 7th grade when the Beatles first played on Ed Sullivan. Their impact was HUGE. I've never seen anything close since. I had sort of an epiphany when I a few years later I realized it was OK not to really like them, although I still appreciate what they did for rock music, which was basically, change it forever. Their impact included the recording world and bringing the bass into real prominence. They really changed rock AND pop music. It was the end of the line for the Steve and Edies of the music world.

I do prefer listening to the Stones though.
 
#40
Never really understood this (very often used) compairing. I believe similarities are very superficial (as with a kids cart and new Ferari - both have four wheels).
Never liked the Stones, and after watching videos of some of their concerts, I actualy started resenting them. Mildly put, they seem incompetent performers. Also, unlike with Beatles, I doubt modern music would be much different if they never existed.
OTOH, The Beatles deserve their picture in encyclopedias next to "modern music" definition. They changed so much, it took other musicians a decade to catch up.
In short - The Beatles forever.
 

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