The Beatles vs. The Beach Boys

Beatles or Beach Boys?


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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oasis_(band)

Held a Guinness world record for the most successful British act, for about a decade.

Their most well known album "What's the Story, Morning Glory", has sold in excess of 22 million copies worldwide...

And, IMHO, without the Beatles, they'd have had very little to base the above album on...

Regards,
Gordon.
That's all fine and good but Oasis judiciously grabbed influences from the best of the Lennon / Revolver phase and ignored the lame stuff that came afterwards. Plus Oasis added to it an edgy Nineties sensibility that was far removed from the hippy dippy schmaltz that the Beatles began to spew.

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That's all fine and good but Oasis judiciously grabbed influences from the best of the Lennon / Revolver phase and ignored the lame stuff that came afterwards. Plus Oasis added to it an edgy Nineties sensibility that was far removed from the hippy dippy schmaltz that the Beatles began to spew.

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You must have lived through a different 1990s than I did. "Hippy dippy schmaltz" was how I described much of Oasis music, IMHO, without what they got from the Beatles, they would have had virtually nothing interesting at all.

.And, IMHO, Oasis was far from anything "edgy". You want edgy from that era, you need to be looking at stuff like Bjork/Sugarcubes, Radiohead, the Flaming Lips, early Beck, Nirvana and many others.

And, I hear PLENTY of Sergeant Pepper's and White Album influences in Oasis' music, too. Many of the rhythm patterns in "What's the Story" songs came right from Ringo, from those albums...

Regards,
Gordon.
 
My backup station is heavily Nineties focused and I listen to it a few times each week when my main station puts on a rap show or this other show run by two giggling potheads who talk too much and don't give themselves enough time to play something that's actually good. Abbey road (second side) was a great farewell. And the White Album has some nice crunchy tracks on it. And that about sums up any exceptions I'm aware of to any sweeping generalities I may have made.
 
I bought their Holland album back when because it had the recording equipment and mics for the recording listed on the back of the album cover... and not expecting much really except a clean recording.. I found it to be a very good album, especially the California Saga/Big Sur cuts.. unlike anything they had done before, or after as far as I know. I wouldn't even try to compare the two bands against each other, entirely different from each other for that... maybe commercially, in terms of sales, or overall volume of output but to me that doesn't come to measure either of them against each other as a favorite.. they were both great in their own right.
And.. by the way... for anyone who was at the drag strip back then with a couple of cars fitting the description... or at a traffic light on a Saturday night... the song Shut Down totally brings the experience to life. What else can one expect from a song, a recording.
 
You must have lived through a different 1990s than I did. "Hippy dippy schmaltz" was how I described much of Oasis music, IMHO, without what they got from the Beatles, they would have had virtually nothing interesting at all.

.And, IMHO, Oasis was far from anything "edgy". You want edgy from that era, you need to be looking at stuff like Bjork/Sugarcubes, Radiohead, the Flaming Lips, early Beck, Nirvana and many others.

And, I hear PLENTY of Sergeant Pepper's and White Album influences in Oasis' music, too. Many of the rhythm patterns in "What's the Story" songs came right from Ringo, from those albums...

Regards,
Gordon.
Well said Gordon:):beatnik::)
 
When I think of Oasis I think of Echo And The Bunnymen. And that's a compliment. I think we're in a situation in which we have one guy who thinks the Beatles ARE cool, and Oasis sounds like the Beatles, but Oasis ISN'T cool. And we got another guy who thinks the Beatles AREN'T cool, and Oasis doesn't sound like the Beatles, and Oasis IS cool. I think the latter view is more internally consistent if not necessarily consistently persuasive.
:boring:
 
Imagine if none of the Beatles had gotten married, they would have kept right on going. Just look at what happened to Eric Clampton after he married George’s wife...

But, I do think that the early Beatles quickened hillbilly blues style of rearranging rifts is a completely different kind of music than that of The Beach Boys. The number two group in the late sixties was Credence which held the No. 2 spot just as consecutively as the Beatles held the No. 1 spot and I’d never compare the two. In fact if it wasn’t for the little girl teeny boppers buying up Tiger Beat magazines and Beatles records screaming at concerts (heck, the Beatles stopped doing concerts because of the screaming).....Credence would have been the top group of the sixties !!!

The Doors, Credence, Jimmy and Janis preformed the best concerts of the sixties.....
 
I was living out in California when the BB hit it big. Also used my sisters skates for a board back then, she has forgave me long ago. But a BB fan over Beatles she would never forgive!

Not the Beatles then or now! Like them both just not the same sorry if offend!


Barney
 
My wife's Aunt Pat was John Lennons' girlfriend in school but I still prefer the Beach Boys. She is in her 80s now & says she found him clever & very self assured as a kid but also intense & sarcastic!
 
My wife's Aunt Pat was John Lennons' girlfriend in school but I still prefer the Beach Boys. She is in her 80s now & says she found him clever & very self assured as a kid but also intense & sarcastic!
Just a mask Drewen,something we all adopt in the face of a confusing and threatening world.....but his music tells that story,does it not.
 
At the risk of starting a flame war, The Beatles were the greatest of all those bands. Period. The Beach Boys, Stones, etc. all did great things, but The Beatles were in a class by themselves.

Just my opinion, of course...
Mine too. I got a copy of Pet Sounds last year after hearing how experimental etc. 50 year anniversary or something. A couple good songs, but the rest...rivaling the Beatles uh, no. Even saw some Beatles v Monkees crap, really? I'm 64 and she doesn't, bitch.
 
Mine too. I got a copy of Pet Sounds last year after hearing how experimental etc. 50 year anniversary or something. A couple good songs, but the rest...rivaling the Beatles uh, no. Even saw some Beatles v Monkees crap, really? I'm 64 and she doesn't, bitch.

Well, I'm not sure what your last sentence means, but I guess it's a corroboration of what you wrote before that. Yeah, IMO The Beatles are in a class by themselves and set the bar for everyone else. Other bands did great things, and everyone is entitled to their opinion, but for me, The Beatles were the greatest.
 
I like music from both bands. I think the Beach Boys had one creative genius - Brian, and the Beatles had four (McCartney, Lennon, Harrison, and George Martin).

I think the Beach Boys had more beautiful harmonies, but the Beatles had more ground-breaking pop ideas for moving the musical goal posts. Much of that, thanks to Martin.
 
I like music from both bands. I think the Beach Boys had one creative genius - Brian, and the Beatles had four (McCartney, Lennon, Harrison, and George Martin).

I think the Beach Boys had more beautiful harmonies, but the Beatles had more ground-breaking pop ideas for moving the musical goal posts. Much of that, thanks to Martin.

A lot of people try to knock The Beatles over their collaboration with Martin. The Beatles only did what musicians do, which was to be open to, heed, and absorb great musical ideas from whatever source. Martin was there, and he had something to say - and The Beatles were wise to collaborate with him. The Beatles also used string sections, horns, and choruses. They weren't going to refuse outside advice, help, or expertise from entities outside their group of four. Another thing to think about is that people don't think any less of The Count Basie Orchestra for having great arrangers like Neal Hefti and Quincy Jones. Is The Count Basie Orchestra "diminshed" because they "didn't do it all on their own?" Engineer, and later performer, Norman "Hurricane" Smith also had a lot to do with how The Beatles' early recordings sounded, as he tried to give them a live and immediate sound, as though they were performing in front of an audience. Rudy Van Gelder produced a certain sound in the recording studio for the musicians he recorded also. These engineers weren't playing the music, but their input did have a role in how the musicians they recorded, sounded. Musicians aren't supposed to be their own engineers, although they of course, can have an input on how they want to be recorded.

IMO, you do The Beatles a disservice by attributing much of their what they did to Martin. The Beatles were great composers and they could play their music.

I'll also take their harmonies over The Beach Boys, which doesn't mean I don't like what The Beach Boys did. But that's just my opinion.
 
Some of Brian Wilson's ballads rival pretty much anything ( Don't Worry Baby, In My Room, Surfer Girl, God Only Knows) written by anyone else... Until you mention the Beatles. I'm old enough to remember a time before the Beatles. The first time I dropped a needle on Introducing the Beatles... and heard the wonderful magic of Please Please Me.. Life has never been the same since.
 
Popularity is a funny thing as there were many bands that out did both the Beatles and The Beach Boys. For those of you that remember Classics IV, Jan & Dean then Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons.....The Beach Boys couldn’t keep up with their own competition let alone be compared to the accomplishments of the Beatles. Not saying that the Beatles were the best group during the sixties cause they weren’t. In fact, John Lennon worshipped Muddy Waters, Bob Dylan and Janis Joplin. When the media interviewed the Fab Four they always pointed out other groups that they thought were doing better than they were. The Beatles often mentioned Eric Clapton as the best musician of the time and the person responsible for the British music invasion during the late sixties. But as far as the Beatles go they were smart enough to resource the help of others and then make a song about it all in....”I get by with a little help from my friends”and gave credit where credit was due. Their popularity was orchestrated by way of creating a huge PR scheme that made every little girl in North America fall in love with them. Then that PR scheme has never stopped with every re-release of every Beatles album since the band broke up. Fact is, it is what influences our choices based upon availability and exposure at the time, is what creates the mystique of popularity. Then look at the bands that came after them to use the same business model of public exposure to make them seem bigger than life during the seventies and eighties.
 
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