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Beatles or the Stones


Odine
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The early Beatles are sometimes interesting to look at, especially the albums. They were so popular that the record company obviously wanted to just keep pushing content out. They were releasing 2 albums and 4 singles a year. Their first 4 albums have tons of covers on them to fill them out, other than A Hard Days Night, which is really the pinnacle of the early Beatles "Merseybeat" kinda sound. The album is near perfection for the style. Just look at the track listing:

 

A Hard Days Night, I Should Have Known Better, If I Fell, I'm Happy Just to Dance With You, And I Love Her, Tell Me Why, Can't Buy Me Love, Any Time At All, I'll Cry Instead, Things We Said Today, When I Get Home, You Can't Do That, I'll Be Back.

 

It's just perfection.

 

Their next album, Beatles For Sale, is nowhere near this good. Whereas "A Hard Day's Night" was all Beatles originals Beatles for Sale had 6 of the 14 songs were covers. The only really good songs are "Eight Days a Week" and "I'll Follow the Sun."

 

I think they knew they couldn't just keep releasing Merseybeat kinda stuff or they'd just fade away. They had perfected it with "A Hard Days Night" and any more would just be diminishing returns. The next album after Beatles for Sale was Help! which featured great songs like "Yesterday", "Ticket to Ride", "You've Got to Hide Your Love Away".

 

Then the next album was "Rubber Soul", one of the greatest albums ever. In addition to that they released as singles around that same time: "We Can Work It Out"/"Day Tripper", "Paperback Writer"/"Rain".

I can appreciate most of the early Beatles catalog, too, particularly the songs you cite there. Just don't give me I Wanna Hold Your hand. That is one song I really don't like. When I say I prefer Rubber Soul era onward, doesn't mean I don't like the earlier stuff. It just means I am not as much into it as some people are. Honestly, early or late Beatles, Early Stones, hell most of the rock, folk, hard rock, metal of the 1960s on through the 1990s, even in some cases the 2000s and 2010s I like in varying degrees. I am a classic rock guy first, though, but I like a lot of genres. The one thing I will say though about the Stones and Beatles in particular is that they are examples of self-made bands. Sure, recording studios "made" them famous, but they had to have exceptional talent to make it to the heights they were at.

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So really, I'm comparing them to the Beatles in the same era and not considering anything post 71/72.

For me, that becomes a tougher call because I think the Stones in their prime, which I think that era was their prime, give the Beatles a run for their money. For a long time, before I became to appreciate the Beatles, I would have rated Stones above the Beatles. But when one ages, their tastes change. I mean when I was a young adult, there were no other bands besides Megadeth, Metallica, Misfits, and NIN. Now, I can barely listen to most of that (save Master of Puppets and Black Album). I hated the Beatles. I only liked the Doors because of the movie. I liked the Stones because of Raw Deal and Tour of Duty. LOL!

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The early Beatles are sometimes interesting to look at, especially the albums. They were so popular that the record company obviously wanted to just keep pushing content out. They were releasing 2 albums and 4 singles a year. Their first 4 albums have tons of covers on them to fill them out, other than A Hard Days Night, which is really the pinnacle of the early Beatles "Merseybeat" kinda sound. The album is near perfection for the style. Just look at the track listing:

 

Things We Said Today, I'll Be Back.

 

 

 

 

For me, they were the standouts of A Hard Day's Night.

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The song in general or the Beatles version? I love While My Guitar Gently Weeps, but I think others have dinner the song better. Clapton is the first that comes to mind. It's kind of like Dylan and All Along The Watchtower. The Hendrix version is a lot more powerful to me.

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The song in general or the Beatles version? I love While My Guitar Gently Weeps, but I think others have dinner the song better. Clapton is the first that comes to mind. It's kind of like Dylan and All Along The Watchtower. The Hendrix version is a lot more powerful to me.

Clapton was one of the main contributors to it anyway wasn't he? I recall some story about Lennon and McCartney not taking it seriously until they found out he had been writing it with Harrison.

 

Though my favourite version of it isn't the original, there is an acoustic/orchestra version they did that is hands down the better version. And then there is the time Tom Petty, Prince, Jeff Lynne (I think) and George Harrison's son played it for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame - that was an amazing performance.

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Damn, pretty hard to pick one song above them all when every other song is a hit.

 

Depending on my mood my fav Beatles songs are:

 

Norwegian Wood, In My Life, While My Guitar Gently Weeps and I Want You (She's so heavy). For different reasons I can't say which would take the top spot on any given day.

 

Favourite Stones song(s): Can't You Hear Me Knocking and Wild Horses

 

I know I was meant to pick only one each but that's an impossible ask.

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