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Music · The original rock argument · Take No. 013

Beatles or Stones?

The band that wrote the songbook against the band that's still on tour. Eight years of records versus sixty years of shows. The first rock-and-roll debate, and still the best one.

The case for each side, then the verdict. Then the floor is yours.
The case for

The Beatles

Liverpool · 1960–1970

  • 8Years of recording, in which they went from 'Love Me Do' to 'A Day in the Life.' Nobody has moved that far that fast.
  • 20Number-one singles in the US, still the record.
  • 1Album, Sgt. Pepper, that turned pop into something you listened to all the way through. The modern album starts here.
vs
The case for

The Rolling Stones

London · 1962–

  • 60+Years on the road. They've been a working band longer than the Beatles existed, by a factor of seven.
  • 4Albums in a row, 1968–72, that are each a classic: Beggars Banquet, Let It Bleed, Sticky Fingers, Exile.
  • 1Riff. 'Satisfaction.' The sound of rock guitar as everyone has played it since.

Cast your take

——
The verdict

It's the Beatles. The Stones are the greatest rock band; the Beatles are more than that.

The Stones' case is honest and loud: they're the archetype of a rock and roll band, they made the best run of rock records anyone has, and they never stopped. If the question is 'greatest rock band,' they may be it.

But the Beatles changed what a song could be, what a record could be and what a band could be, and did it in eight years. The Stones are the best at a thing; the Beatles invented several of the things. Beatles, and we'll see you at the Stones show anyway.

Disagree? That's what the buttons are for.

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