10 Reasons the Stones are better than the Beatles
1) The Stones rock. The Beatles were pop artists. The Beatles made great music but it's not rock. Other than the cover to Twist and Shout, do they have a single good rock song? Can you dance to anything of theirs? When Don McLean ranted about music dying he shouldn't have brought the Stones against the firing squad. The Beatles and Dylan were the problem. Strawberry Fields is pretty cool but it doesn't get my ass out of the seats. Brown Sugar and Jumpin Jack Flash sure as hell do. The Stones tapped into the power of rock and went places that the Beatles never ventured.
2) Song writing. Yeah, I said it. The Stones were better song writers. Lennon, like Springsteen was a lyricist. The Stones, like the protégé of sorts John Mellencamp wrote songs where words and music come together. Is Come Together even a song? What about A Day in the Life? Gimmie Shelter sure is. Sympathy for the Devil. You Can't Always Get What You Want. These are songs. When you aren't sure what you love more the words or music, then you have a song. When just reciting the words is good enough, it ain't a song. And there's more wisdom in Stones songs. Can't always get what you want but if you try sometimes... You know the rest. Much more useful in life than All you need is love, love.
3) Instrumental ability. I keep seeing Harrison's name on lists of great guitarists, but I get the feeling he'd be the first to admit that's bogus. And he was the best instrumentalist in the band. Ringo was sloppy early on and became somebody who could keep a beat eventually. But really, the Beatles were all about singing. There's very few memorable licks. How about the gradual raising of volume on the guitar strum to Eight Days A Week. Wow man. But the Stones, they kick ass. I mean Gimme Shelter is as good as anything anywhere. How about the licks in Satisfaction? Classic, like You Really Got Me. According to Rolling Stone mag. Keith Richards produced more great riffs than anybody in the history of rock. I'm not into rankings but they rank him fourth, behind who? Hendrix, Clapton, and Page. No Beatle touches that.
4) Longevity. The Beatles due to McCartney being annoying and Lennon being an a-hole burned out in 6 years. The Stones, despite whatever their feuding, kept the family intact. It's been 60 years and they have been with us the whole way. They never abandoned us.
5) Live shows. I'm not entertained by screaming girls. And the Beatle live show, if you can call it that, ceased to be in 66. The Stones are one of the great live bands. They put on a show, props and all. Jagger is the second most charismatic front man in rock history, second only to Freddie Mercury, and a close second. Lennon mocked the gay routine as Lennon mocks everyone. More on that in a minute. I'd rather see Jagger's rooster dance than Lennon taking a crap on stage any day. And I don't think Jagger's moves were gay. Campy maybe but not gay. He was strutting too much for gay.
6) Ian Stewart and Pete Best. When it was decided Ian Stewart didn't have the right image, they made him road manager and sometime contributor. They didn't totally torch him as the lowlife Beatles did to Pete Best. The Stones had the bad boy image but they are nicer guys.
7) Rock Hall Speech - I don't care much for rock halls of fame but as long as you are up there, thank your manger, thank your dead mates. The Stones did. The Beatles didn't even mention George Martin. Now nobody thanked the fans, amazingly. So f all of you.
8) Love songs. The Stones had few thank God. Love songs are stupid. They set us up for pain. As Jagger once said, love songs talk about something that never really happens. The only Stones love song that I can even think of is Angie, which really isn't a love song, it's a lament and a tale of ache. Not a crush, not a fantasy, but real life. It blows away Michelle Ma Belle.
9) The look. Stones cool. Beatles, either stiff or pretentious.
10) Mental health. Lennon was a lunatic and he was a nasty egomaniac. Jagger and Richards are very smart, much funnier, and much more diplomatic. Lennon's psychosis really wears on a person.
I give the Beatles the nod only on vocal ability. Lennon had the strongest voice of any of them. But Jagger is the best singer with the best phrasing and emphasis.
Verdict -- Stones all the way
Let's do it this way, let's take the RS mag top 500 songs. Beatles have 23, Stones 14. Look at the list:
| Hey Jude by The Beatles |
| Yesterday by The Beatles |
| I Want To Hold Your Hand by The Beatles |
| Let It Be by The Beatles |
| In My Life by The Beatles |
| A Day In The Life by The Beatles |
| Help! by The Beatles |
| She Loves You by The Beatles |
| Strawberry Fields Forever by The Beatles |
| Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown) by The Beatles |
| While My Guitar Gently Weeps by The Beatles |
| Eleanor Rigby by The Beatles |
| I Saw Her Standing There by The Beatles |
| A Hard Day's Night by The Beatles |
| Please Please Me by The Beatles |
| Come Together by The Beatles |
| Something by The Beatles |
| Can't Buy Me Love by The Beatles |
| With A Little Help From My Friends by The Beatles |
| All You Need Is Love by The Beatles |
| Ticket To Ride by The Beatles |
| Penny Lane by The Beatles |
| Rain by The Beatles |
| (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction by The Rolling Stones |
| Sympathy For The Devil by The Rolling Stones |
| Gimme Shelter by The Rolling Stones |
| You Can't Always Get What You Want by The Rolling Stones |
| Honky Tonk Women by The Rolling Stones |
| Jumpin' Jack Flash by The Rolling Stones |
| Paint It, Black by The Rolling Stones |
| Street Fighting Man by The Rolling Stones |
| Ruby Tuesday by The Rolling Stones |
| Wild Horses by The Rolling Stones |
| Tumbling Dice by The Rolling Stones |
| Beast Of Burden by The Rolling Stones |
| Brown Sugar by The Rolling Stones |
| Miss You by The Rolling Stones |
Is there a single rocker on the Beatles list? Maybe I Saw Her Standing. Many of the songs are sing a long but not powerful. All You Need Is Love is pablum. Compare to Can't Always Get... reality, wise. When you put them side by side, the Beatles look weak. They have nothing as powerful as Gimmie Shelter or Street Fighting Man.
Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll [edit]
Hall of Fame museum curator James Henke, along with "the museum's curatorial staff and numerous rock critics and music experts", created an unordered list of "500 Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll".
[27][28] The list is part of a permanent exhibit at the museum, and was envisioned as part of the museum from its opening in 1995.
[29] It contains songs recorded from the
1920s through the 1990s.
The Beatles with seven songs was the most represented on the 500–song list. The oldest song on the list is "
Wabash Cannonball", written circa 1882 and credited to J. A. Roff. Since then, however, an additional 155 songs have been added, and the list is now simply referred to as "The Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll." The most recent songs on the list are
Gnarls Barkley's "
Crazy" and
My Chemical Romance's "
Welcome to the Black Parade," both released in 2006.
[30] The Beatles and the Rolling Stones are the most represented on the 655–song list, with eight songs each.
Artists with four or more songs[edit]
