PICK ONLY ONE: The Beatles vs. The Rolling Stones vs. Talking Heads

Not the Stones. Leaning towards the Heads.

I like some Beatles and Stones songs fine, but from the moment I heard "Uh-Oh Love Comes to Town" I thought Talking Heads were a band tailor-made for me.

One of these things is not like the others

I love the Beatles unequivocally. Stones were never my band. But Talking Heads it has to be

Talking Heads is an odd one for me. I loved them in the early 80s, then went off them at the time of Little Creatures and almost completely forgot about them… Until I watched the Stop Making Sense film recently, remembered how good they are, and am back on board with them.

voting beatles and telling everyone i voted talking heads

omigod has Byrne gotten even more awkward as he's aged

talking heads pretty easily for me.

Talking Heads. I haven't willingly listened to the other 2 in the last 20 years.

I choose darkness (voted for Beatles)

stones > beatles > heads

The Beatles and the Stones are ok and all but it’s like children’s music next to Talking Heads.

the Beatles and the Heads
sucked the leaven out of breads
put the 'L' in ILM
the Beatles and the Heads
made it good to go to bed

--Guy Chadwick iirc

Stones

ahh c'mon moka, don't talk so bad about children's music.

lol whoops -- maybe one for the controp thread?

poll: beatles v stones v schoolhouse rock

There is the Beatles, and there is everyone else.

Beatles and Rolling Stones up to 1970/72, pretty close. I'm tempted to get cute and say I'd take the Starland Vocal Band over the Talking Heads, but the Starland Vocal Band were pretty terrible and that's not true.

I love Talking Heads, but normie as it may be to say this the Beatles are the fucking BEATLES -- they have three dozen songs I can sing beginning to end by heart, I can't say that about TH.

beatles and stones inspired actual murder and talking heads only pretended to be murderers so....the helter skelter people. i flipped a coin. hey, i'm a metal fan, sue me.

Gotta wait for Magical Mystery Tour and Gimme Shelter to be re-released in IMAX to really judge.

(or, heck, even that weird Sgt. Pepper movie and Freejack)

amazing that we're getting new Beatles and Stones music within a month of each other while Talking Heads basically haven't spoken to each other in 30 years

absence makes the heart, etc. etc.

I'm Backing Beatles

Famously these are the only three bands doing anything at the moment

Talking Heads - 10 albums, 11 years
Beatles - 20 albums, 7 years
Rolling Stones- 37 albums, 59 years and still going

Beatles, no doubt

yeah, it's boring but true. i don't believe in magic but they conjured something bigger than themselves. i mean all three bands did. but with beatles it was like alchemy or some other black majik weirdness. there is no logical reason for the four of them to have made the sounds that they did. they were friggin' everly brothers fans. even before the space drugs they were on another planet.

They’re all good, can’t we just all kiss each other and not fight about it?

tbf the everly brothers are out of this world

they truly are.

Stones

I like Talking Heads best in theory. But, in practice, The Beatles.

Although it's always hard to rep the band who created Maxwell's Silver Hammer, I voted Beatles due to the ridiculous amount of invention and sheer songwriting prowess they packed into a relatively short career.

Talking Heads a close second.

If the Stones had only ever released Let it Bleed --> Exile, then the choice would have been much harder. But they've put out a lot more mediocre material than either of the other two.

I don't think a band should be downranked for putting out a lot of add'l material... you can still just listen to the "good" stuff!

I dunno, I'm one of those weirdos for whom subpar material trends to colour my opinion of the other great material. It's stupid I know but my brain can't help it.

No, I agree. The Stones' great work is now decades in the past, and they've put out a lot of crap and, imho, overstayed their welcome. That almost inevitably colors their older work, but otoh that work is still smashing.

I don't think a band should be downranked for putting out a lot of add'l material... you can still just listen to the "good" stuff!

― Girl (1956) (morrisp)

This thread makes a convincing case to the contrary:
Imagine if John Lydon had died in 1980 and Ian Curtis was making adverts for Country Life butter

I don't think a band should be downranked for putting out a lot of add'l material... you can still just listen to the "good" stuff!

In sports, the "peak" vs. "career" argument.

fwiw, I feel the Stones are kind of a red herring there anyway (...or whatever kind of fish Mick Jagger eats); as you could pull together a batch of awesome tracks from the latter decades of their career. The world would be worse off without "Start Me Up"!

I mean, there's "awesome" and then there's "awesome." They haven't managed to reach the heights since 1981, at the very latest.

Not the Beatles.

I don't remember Talking Heads being mentioned in Metric's Gimme Sympathy.

The Beatles and the Stones are ok and all but it’s like children’s music next to Talking Heads.

one of these bands did Revolution #9 and one of them did a song about keeping a baby awake all night

I mean, there's "awesome" and then there's "awesome." They haven't managed to reach the heights since 1981, at the very latest.

and Start Me up is largely a 1977 track

Ok well I think the original stated parameters for their greatness ended with Exile!

Shit, there are some rockin' cuts on the album that came out last week... what did the Heads do? Sit on a couch!

(...I'm typing this with a good-natured wink, of course)

lol. hey, they got my vote (the Stones)

All three bands are special but only one of them are the Beatles.

Ed Zachary :)

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

There is the Beatles, and there is everyone else.

True in the mirror-image sense that I would listen to any band on Earth before I would listen to the Beatles.

As far as actually voting:

Stop Making Sense is one of the greatest live albums of all time, while every Stones live album I've ever heard has sucked dead dog balls.

Talking Heads really only have two studio albums that I full-on love (Remain in Light and Speaking in Tongues), while the Rolling Stones have four (Sticky Fingers, Exile on Main St., Some Girls and Tattoo You) and four others that I...enjoy (Beggars Banquet, Goats Head Soup, It's Only Rock 'n' Roll, and Blue and Lonesome). Plus, Alfred's defenses of Dirty Work always make me laugh. So, Stones in a walk.

Split the difference:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mzHCsyNM4OQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PaRWOSWg_oU

as much as I hate to admit it, I gotta go with Beatles here even though I never want to hear them again atm

Otm

I’m glad the stones didn’t break up before recording & releasing “too much blood.” It makes the lost decade prior worth it all.

Regardless of what Chris Frantz says, neither The Beatles nor the Stones recorded at Sigma Sound. Several zillion other amazing folks recorded there though
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Albums_recorded_at_Sigma_Sound_Studios

In terms of what I listen to now: it's a toss up between The Rolling Stones In Mono vs. Fear Of Music, Remain In Light, The Name Of This Band Is Talking Heads vs. tedious Beatles albums I'll never listen to

Yeah this is Rolling Stones vs Talking Heads to me. Giving the edge to TH. While any given day I think i’d be more on the mood to play the Stones, whenever I am in the mood for TH they sound like the best band ever. With RS I don’t get that same feeling.

I don’t think I have been in the mood for Beatles in 20+ years.

https://i.imgur.com/DsTyGiW.gif

i saw talking heads as a three-piece at cbgb, saw them again at cbs on what i think was one of their first shows with jerry harrison, saw them at the bottom line, saw them at the toronto show that introduced their expanded band, saw them at the renowned forest hills show, radio city music hall, central park.

all you people voting for TH over the beatles and stones are crazeeee.

this is the Rolling Stones for me because no we're-still-doing-it records can really undo the greatness of what they were in the Brian Jones years or the incredible ascendant phase that gets us to "Exile." The Rolling Stones from '66-'22 make more music that floors me than the Beatles do in the same period. Talking Heads made five albums I like a lot from '77-'83, from which two seem completely vital to me ("Fear of Music" and "Remain in Light"); the Stones from '66-'72 made, among others but these ones rate choice for me, "Aftermath," "Satanic Majesties' Request," "Beggars' Banquet," "Let It Bleed," and "Exile." I don't have any use for TH after "Speak in Tongues" but I rate several Stones record after what I rank as their peak. The Beatles are more consistent from "Rubber Soul" onward but I don't like their work as much as I do the other two bands in this poll.

the new stones record is a really nice piece of work; a sweet guitar record -- ron wood comes into his own. i think the jann wenner incident is preventing people from say that more full-throatedly.

I haven't given it a shot. I have to admit that Mick Jagger's failure to find a way to be an older singer keeps me away, he was so canny through "Some Girls" around around the time of "Undercover" he seemed to really forget what he'd been good at

i think the jann wenner incident is preventing people from say that more full-throatedly.

You think so? To my mind the hype around every album since Steel Wheels sounds more plausible.

this is the Rolling Stones for me because no we're-still-doing-it records can really undo the greatness of what they were in the Brian Jones years or the incredible ascendant phase that gets us to "Exile." The Rolling Stones from '66-'22 make more music that floors me than the Beatles do in the same period.

This is how I feel as well. The Rolling Stones at their peak just mean more to me; with the other two, I recognize their greatness and go through phases of listening or not listening to them, but the Stones at their best tap into something essential for me about, like, being a person and living in the world, in a way that feels like it will always be with me. And that's something I get from some other artists - Dylan in particular - but not as much from the Beatles or the Talking Heads, though I get other things from them that I value greatly.

The Stones for the Beggars to Exile with a scattering before and (very shortly) after.

Beggars to Exile run

The Beatles ran so that the Talking Heads could walk. Which is to say, just about every album and aspect of the Beatles changed the world in remarkable ways. That said, Talking Heads still rule, and I listen to them far more than I listen to the Beatles.

The Stones ... that's a tough one. They feel more monolithic to me, especially when, like the Who, they hit that late-'60s streak. Though I was just thinking of how many early Stones songs I could imagine the Talking Heads covering. "Paint It Black," "Get Off of My Cloud," "Satisfaction" (Devo proved it), obv. later stuff like "Shattered" or "Miss You" (when for sure the Stones, or at least Mick, were listening to the Talking Heads). Not sure I can imagine the Talking Heads covering much Beatles. Maybe? Maybe too cool, not enough nervous energy to the Beatles. Though the Feelies sure found and mined some of that nervous energy when they covered "Monkey."

points assigned 5-3-1

peak value: TH > RS > B
career value: B > RS > TH
emotional attachment: TH > B > RS

Heads win, 11 to 9 to 7

Would love to hear a '69 Stones cover of "Psycho Killer" just to find out which vocal affectations Mick runs with.

Could totally imagine the Stones covering that song

Which is to say, just about every album and aspect of the Beatles changed the world in remarkable ways.

Bollocks.

When did ILM start turning into the Steve Hoffman Forum?

Would love to hear a '69 Stones cover of "Psycho Killer" just to find out which vocal affectations Mick runs with.

― papal hotwife (milo z)

done in the style of "Too Much Blood."

Bollocks.

lol I didn't grow up listening to the Beatles, and still very rarely listen to the Beatles, but like 'em or not, I'm pretty sure their impact on the world is ... incontrovertible? I don't know, maybe there's a book or something on the subject.

Their impact on the US seems incontrovertible.

can I change my vote to charlatans UK?

Charlatans UK, like the London Suede and English Beat, were only big in the US.

Didn't work for Gary US Bonds in the UK.

I grew up listening to both the Beatles and the Stones. For a long time in my tween/early teen years, the Beatles movies were comfort movies that I returned to again and again. The Rolling Stones were something I liked but not an obsession; I have memories of being fourteen and having a copy of Let it Bleed in my Discman constantly, but I got my Rolling Stones knowledge from my parents and it stopped around 1969, so there was a lot I discovered slightly later.

Maybe because of that, I do remember having a surprised realization around my late teens/early twenties that there were very few Beatles songs I actually needed to listen to, while the Rolling Stones had grown on me more and more. It meant a whole realignment of who I thought of myself as a fan of.

The Talking Heads were a band I came to much later, and in a less complete form; there's still a lot I haven't heard. I like them, but having them in this poll feels a bit like having to choose between two Victorian writers and Thomas Pynchon.

The mythos of the beatles marking a before and after in music is so overblown. They didn’t change anything they just accelerated its inception. rock n roll covers by white people, neutered blues and psychedelic pop rock was already a thing before them and would have still existed without them.

What about long hair and beards? They invented those things.

You got me there.

John Lennon invented the Amish look.

No Beatles, no Granny music, no Granny specs, in fact, no Grannies.

It’s great that The Beatles invented blues scales so the Rolling Stones could exist.

I'm not a dad, I just accelerated my kids' inception.

Lol sorry inception was not the word I needed to use. I guess adoption was the word I was going for.

I'm going with the Beatles because that was entry point into music in general - and by that I mean after many years of worthless piano lessons I gave up on, playing in school bands/orchestras, and a whole lot more that didn't make music anything more than a peripheral concern to me. Even decades after they ceased to be a band (and with John gone for that matter), they were life-changing to me. (Which is why they're still pretty much my favorite band.)

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Really expected ILM to be more contrarian than that. Or maybe it IS contrarian here to rank the Beatles above Talking Heads

It is not.

Then again the Beatles invented music so they probably deserve the top spot.

ILM contrarianism only goes so far

Actually feels cool for the Stones to be underdogs. I’ll take it!

what's the average turnout for this type of poll? seems like there should be more votes. or perhaps not and we are all there is.

(oh yeah - funny results. really wanted th to win by like a single vote. or a three-way tie would've been funny. maybe i should've troll voted and thrown it away on the stones?)

This should be the outcome but Talking Heads beating the Rolling Stones is laughable. I even ran the Heads artist poll and your talking RS here. Vote spiting here has to be the case.

criminal results. stones > beatles >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> talking heads

i was lol mulling over the beatles vs stones question on a long drive today. beatles are obviously great with a lot of magic going on, but i think the stones had more range and more to say, and i just like their harder rock steez more generally speaking. talking heads were very sharp for a few years it's true but david byrne is very one-dimensional imo. i can't imagine hearing more there, it must be a generational thing.

the beatles are responsible for billy joel. i think bands inspired by the stones are generally cooler and more interesting than bands inspired by the beatles. but now i'm just spouting. but i mean it's a beatles vs stones vs talking heads thread so why not do a little.

stones>>>Beatles>>>>>>>>>>heads

All great but imo the stones have the most albums I love and their post-exile era has so much great material that if that was all they ever released, they'd still be a classic band.

Godard Stones movie >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Peter Jackson Beatles

On one hand, bands trying to sound like the Beatles gave us a lot of lousy Britpop. On the other hand, bands trying to sound like The Stones gave us this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bihoNRc8GDQ

Is the first line of that song "Place your hands on my hole"?

xps A Hard Day's Night is my favorite film produced by these three, but none of the Beatles' other films come close. (The Maysles did make an excellent film of their first appearance in NY. George went on to a pretty amazing if uneven career as a film producer. The less said about Paul's post-Beatles films, the better.)

Stop Making Sense is a very close second, one of the great concert films obviously. The Talking Heads did make really good videos - IIRC Byrne directed or co-directed most of them, though I'm not really a fan of his feature, True Stories.

The Stones have the most impressive filmography - MoMA played them all as part of a 50th anniversary celebration for the Stones, and it was fun going to all the screenings. Charlie Is My Darling, Gimme Shelter, Ladies and Gentlemen...the Rolling Stones, the Godard film, etc. Cocksucker Blues is worth seeing once...I don't think it's a great film, but it's an interesting bit of anthropology. Roeg's Performance is great. The later years were dominated by concert films, usually by interesting directors like Hal Ashby, Julien Temple and of course Scorsese and yet kind of paint by numbers - worth seeing once for those who aren't averse to their later years, but I doubt I'll see them again.

Agh, no "the" in Talking Heads.

if no Stones, we never get this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJ8tT_G_ddQ

On one hand, bands trying to sound like the Beatles gave us a lot of lousy Britpop. On the other hand, bands trying to sound like The Stones gave us this:
― MarkoP, Monday, 6 November 2023 04:09 (two hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

Give Out But Don't Give Up vs. Be Here Now is the Britpop-bluster downsize of the Stones v Beatles.

xp

if not Stones, we never get this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nC7PYSnRoQU

bands trying to sound like the Beatles gave us a lot of lousy Britpop

but it also gave us the olivia tremor control!

Really expected ILM to be more contrarian than that. Or maybe it IS contrarian here to rank the Beatles above Talking Heads

ILM has grown more and more contentedly middle aged as time has gone on.

I thought the poll was about which band you liked most but it seemed to turn into which band was most important and "influential", which has no bearing on whether I like something or not, personally.

Stones.

That's who I like the most though. Don't care who was most influential.

whiney boosted the beatles vote with sock accounts owing to his severe Beatles fetish

i pulled out my mono copy of the beatles' 2nd album that was gifted me by my parents when it was contemporary and i was 5. you've never seen a record more thoroughly enjoyed-looking, i.e. completely trashed. records were built like beasts back then though -- it totally played through and totally rocked. that's how i knew this was the beatles. my stones records, also thoroughly enjoyed, don't look like that.

the chutzpah in making "she loves you" the last track!

I think I've mentioned before, but my parents owned one Beatles record, and it was the "Yellow Submarine" soundtrack, and one Stones record, which was "Goats Head Soup," and it was missing the actual LP. It took me decades before I finally heard "Goats Head Soup," and to this day, I think "Hey Bulldog" is my favorite Beatles record.

"Yellow Submarine" and some weird album of Beatles rarities are the only two Beatles albums I've ever bought - and that was only because they were £1 each. Don't even know why I bought the latter, one quid or not.

The obvious right answer to "Beatles vs. Stones?" has always been "James Brown" tbh

True in the mirror-image sense that I would listen to any band on Earth before I would listen to the Beatles.

That's . . . a lot of bands.

I'm not saying I would like all of them, I'm just saying I would listen to them first. I cannot think of a single reason why I should listen to a Beatles song in the year 2023.

For me, they are a source of joy and the sound of a lifetime, but your mileage may vary.

was a fanatical beatles kid and a fanatical talking heads college student, voted stones in an eyeblink

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NYDhjuq08Fg

george is the talking heads of the beatles (john is the stones and paul is the beatles)

jk paul is the talking heads and the beatles of the beatles, george is the lead guitarist of the beatles

George is the Alex Weir of the Beatles.

George is the Anne Bronte of the Beatles

Lol

xp otmfm

and Living in the Material World is his Tenant of Wildfell Hall.