Hi Mike, while the Beatles & Stones sort've go hand-in-hand with me, I can see other people having a preference for one more so than the other, for example, my father (84 years old now) has always liked The Stones music more than The Beatles which were a bit too sweet-sounding for him, in his German accent he told me that he likes that rebellious "raw sound" more
, well ok then what can I say?
A good friend of mine who is a bit more of a Stones fan, his father preferred The Beatle sound, so there you have it, I guess each individual just likes what they like. The Stones, well, their roots are more blues-influenced (Muddy Waters etc.) and they play their music with a looser-rhythmic feel, whereas The Fab Four- their recordings with producer George Martin at the helm have always had a polished-perfect sound, so much so, that its near-impossible for anyone else to do a cover version of their music without it falling far short of the original, after all, how can you top perfection? I become reminded of that when I go to the BeatleFest Convention in New Jersey every year and I see the Battle of the Bands event that they have there- I'll hear certain things played, and it'll strike me just how much I can appreciate the originality of what The Fab Four did when I hear others try and duplicate their songs. Usually- they can get the music parts over ok, but the singing- very few can sing anywhere near as well as John or Paul did when they wrote those classic songs. There is a substantial depth to the music of The Beatles which made them what they are, as opposed to say, The Monkees.
Unfortunately, later generations of kids who grew up in the mid 70's were under the misguided impression that for a song to "rock" it had to have loud, blaring guitars and so forth, they just cant comprehend that a song like "I Want To Hold Your Hand" actually does Rock hard but the Fab Four being so polished sounding, makes it deceiving on the ears.
By the way, let it be noted for the heavy metal dudes, and hair band music people out there, etc... that Gene Simmons of Kiss and Ozzy Osbourne are huge Beatles fans- mention The Beatles to them and they are :ntwrhty: As for Morrissey, well he actually happens to be one who is not much of a Beatles person. I think his ex partner, Johnny Marr was more of a big fan. Morrissey did actually recently release a cd of his fave tunes, I picked it up, didnt really do much for me. Apparently Morrissey idolized Marc Bolan, NY Dolls, the whole glam rock thing, I like some of it but I dont see Morrissey's fascination for it. By the way, Mike- have you picked up this book that came out recently, its excellent:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/A...2306494/sr=2-1/ref=sr_2_1/102-4068701-7368906
As for Dylan, well he really stands on his own as an individual songwriter as opposed to being in a band like The Beatles & Stones, so perhaps its hard to assign him in a List of Greatest Bands. I'm sure no member of either group though would ever have any trouble acknowledging Dylan's greatness.
Regards,
B/F ("Open your mind, let the pictures come")