re. Beatles/Stones

[Kai Frederik Lorentzen]

Henry:

>
> That said, as much as I've enjoyed the Stones over their many years, when
> people ask "Beatles or Stones," I'm always quick to answer, "Beatles."
>

Really (twice)?! With me it's somehow the other way round: I think that the
last relevant record the Rolling Stones made was "Emotional Rescue" [1980],
but would always shout out "Stones!"if asked that question. Of course there are truly
great songs like "A Day in the Life", "I'm the Walrus" or "Tomorrow never knows", but
if you'd offer me "Rubber Soul"or "Revolver", I'd take -- "Aftermath". And though "St.
Pepper" has a really nice artwork plus this one (final) supersong, I find it hard to believe
that most people back then found it essentially superior to "Their Satanic Majesties Request"
... If we want to compare the later works (we could, of course, also take the former
ones: Though the early Beatles Sound was, Lennon spoke about this in interviews, also
a product of Hamburg's subcultures in St. Pauli, I have to admit that I prefer early
Stones R&B to any kind of 'Beatmusik' including early Beatles songs; for learning to
play the guitar and then later a little piano both types of song-material were useful
to me), I suggest to test the rest of the Beatles' longplayers ("Magical Mystery Tour";
"The Beatles"; "Yellow Submarine"; "Abbey Road"; "Let It Be") in comparison to what The
Stones brought out between 1968 und 1972: "Beggar's Banquet"; "Let it Bleed"; "Sticky Fingers";
"Exile on Main Street" plus the live-recording "Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out"! While there's a nice
Beatles title ("Im so tired") here and another one ("Everybody got spmething to hide except
for me and my monkey") there on the 'White Album', I do  neither like "Abbey Road"
(ok, the staw bubbles in "Octopus' Garden' are really funny) nor "Let It Be" that much,
although I now and then still listen to them. Yet ALL the four named studio albums by
the Rolling Stones are nothing less but PERFECT. From first to last note, imo. (I know,
Keith Richards thinks "Exile on Main Street" should have had an other final cut, but to me
it sounds just fine). Of songs like "No Expectations", "You can't always get what you want",
"Gimme Shelter" or "Wild Horses" I'm as inspired today as I was when they first struck me ...
For me The Stones are clearly the best UK Rock'n Roll Band of the 1960s and 1970s! Also the
later longplayers of that era have great songs ("Fingerprint File", "Fool To Cry", "Beast
of Burden", or --- a li'l GR-playlistAddition --- "Down in the Hole", to name just a few).
A-and when I was 16, playing in bands with my Fender Stratocaster and my Marshall amp, a
certain Keith Richars biography (by Babara Charone) was kinda bible to me ...

So, although this was not exactly a "quick" answer: Stones!

I know it's only Rock'n Roll, b-but ...
Kai

PS: Saw them '82 during the "Tattoo You"-Tour giving a concert in Hannover.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OPCRIFLjfPo