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the Beatles

the Rolling Stones

undecided

[side_show]

So our favorite Beatle poll made me think of the question posed by Metric in their song Gimme Sympathy. 

I can honestly say it's a question I've been pondering since I first heard this song several months ago. 

When you think about the lives of each band, the adventures, the differing impacts on culture and music, the creative process itself, the quality of the work (in the short and long term), the fact that one band is still playing, while the other is irreparably broken up and no longer ever able to play together again... it's a hard question to answer. 

What kind of band would you want to be?  What kind of artist would you want to be?  On the surface it seems like a question of the type of music you want to create, but on further examination, it turns into more profound question about the life you want to live, and the type of legacy and impact you want to make.

Even though I'm putting up the poll, I remain undecided.  I'm in a space right now where I'm grappling very deeply with redefining my artistic practice, and in the end, these questions are the most important ones I'm examining.  Maybe I'll eventually come to some decisions about my own work that will allow me to make a choice.

I could wax poetic on the virtues of either band, but I thought I'd start the conversation and go from there. 

[Doc]

I, uh.
Hurm.

That's a hard one actually. I think it might have to be the Stones, but maybe that's just because I'm more aware of the Beatle's history? I'm sure the Stones had their equivalent of an embarasing Maharishi/Yoko ono phase but I don't know about it. Also the still being alive and playing. I might sleep on it though.

[wombat]

In my mind, I have what is probably an extremely simplified view of what this question amounts to, compared to what Smells is thinking. It's A, do you want to be the good boys or the bad boys? And B, do you want to burn brightly and burn out young, or hang in there for the long haul? But of course some combinations of answers to those two questions don't add up to being able to click a box on that poll.

[CortJstr]

My first thought was "I wonder if whoever started this thread knows that Metric song."

Anyway. Stones because I like their music better and they're still around. This also reminds me of Cracked's origin story of Satisfaction which sounds too awesome to be true. http://www.cracked.com/article_17268_5-massive-hit-songs-that-almost-didnt-get-released.html

[miles]

The Rolling Stones have the widest chasm in rock between their best and their worst songs. It's probably partially a function of growing older in a genre like rock and roll (and not knowing how to handle it gracefully like Tom Waits) but it's also because they quit being musicians and became businessmen. Good for them, bad for us. I chose the Rolling Stones because still, Keith Richards kicks fuck*ng ass.

Are you Elvis people or Beatles people?

[theinevitable]

as I think I have said before on this board, I have never liked or listened to very much Rolling Stones.

And there is something to be said for knowing when to call it quits.

[linnea]

Are you Elvis people or Beatles people?

I still wonder why Quentin cut that scene. I guess he didn't want to play into the cliche of the attractive female lead with the video camera that was used in other movies of the day.

[pmcd9]

I'd have to go with Rolling Stones even though the Beatles made better music on the whole.  Who wouldn't want to do monstrous amounts of drugs and fuck thousands of women AND live to tell the tale.

And there is something to be said for knowing when to call it quits.

That's a young man's conceit.  You'll feel differently when you are older.  I say more power to the Stones, I hope they keep rocking right into the grave.  They're not making great music these days, but God bless 'em for continuing to do what they love.

But I'd rather be Neil Young.  He never stopped making great music, he lived a wild youth, but then settled down and became a family man, but didn't let family life soften his music.  And he's always been loyal to those around him.

[AugustWest]

The Stones, because you're less likely to be dead.

[theinevitable]

I keep wanting to take this question really literally, and be like, I would be the rolling stones, but I would be less bluesy, and then in the mid 70s I would quit the band and start a side project, etc.

or have really in-depth knowledge and talk about specific events which I would have handled differently.

[Ben-San]

So am I supposed to be everyone in the band at once, or some kind of amalgamation of all band members, or a kind of incarnate spirit of the band's tone?

[KeithHernandez]

please don't yell at me, but lets again remember the best stone is dead.  I would rather be the beatles.  If the stones had all died in a van crash right after Beggars Banquet came out I would be them.

[littlefallsmets]

The good ones use their early greatness as an excuse to do the same thing again and again.

The great ones use their early greatness as an excuse to take the mainstream to all kinds of crazy new places.

Point: Beatles.

[Choop]

finally something i can agree with mike on

[greenkoolayd]

That said, I'm still gonna be trying to outlive ever one of you and be following whatever passion I got hooked in me the whole way.

you were born before i was, so you already did that thing...