BEATLES v. STONES
I would like to just list what we did and what the Stones did two months after, on every fuckin’ album and every fuckin’ thing we did, Mick does exactly the same. He imitates us.
– John Lennon, Rolling Stone, 1970
Are you Beatles or are you Stones? Since 1963, the answer to that question is supposed to signify what kind of person you are. It was an effective marketing and publicity ploy at a time when the music industry was reinventing itself to reflect societal shifts, yet the projected narrative of The Beatles as cuddly mop tops versus the Stones as rebel roustabouts is now recognised as overly simplistic. Still, there’s no doubt that both bands’ career choices encouraged each other to both characterise and shift the cultural conversation. Let’s look at how their friendship and rivalry played out . . .
Rivals – It’s October 1962, and Brian Jones turns on the radio in the flat he shares with his bandmates Mick Jagger and Keith Richards. The Rollin’ Stones have been enjoying making a name for themselves in blues clubs around London. ‘Love Me Do’ is playing, the first single from a new band from Liverpool called The Beatles. Brian’s spirits drop, Keith swears out loud, Mick feels sick: the harmonica and bluesy style on the record punctures their sense of their own originality. They feel like they need to keep an eye on this group.
Friends – On 14 April 1963, club owner Giorgio Gomelsky invites The Beatles and their entourage to the Crawdaddy, to see a band who have been causing a stir with his customers: the Rollin’ Stones. The Beatles come along and are impressed, and after the show join the band back at their flat to talk and play music and get to know each other. In The Beatles’ entourage is their publicity assistant, Andrew Loog Oldham, who has an epiphany watching the Rollin’ Stones perform. He is going to be their new manager. He asks Brian Epstein to go into partnership with him, but when Epstein declines, he partners up with Eric Easton, another experienced impresario, instead, and they sign up the fledgling band. Oldham’s PR instincts tell him that the band should adapt their name to the Rolling Stones, that Keith Richards should drop the ‘s’ from his surname and their ages need to be reduced by a few years. More showbiz appeal!
John Lennon and Mick Jagger while filming The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus. Alamy
Friends – George Harrison and Dick Rowe, the man who famously turned down The Beatles, chat at a talent contest. George recommends that Dick go to the Crawdaddy to watch the Rollin’ Stones at their residency. He takes his advice and later signs the band to Decca.
Friends – It’s 10 September 1963, and Andrew Loog Oldham is despondent. The Rolling Stones’ first single, a cover of Chuck Berry’s ‘Come On’, was released in July and its highest chart position was twenty-one. The band are in the studio trying to record a second single and it’s not going well. Oldham takes a walk, and, as luck would have it, bumps into John and Paul. They say they’ve just written a new song. Oldham brings them back to the studio where the Rolling Stones watch them finish off the middle-eight within minutes at a table in the corner. The song is ‘I Wanna Be Your Man’. The Stones’ second single reaches number 12 in the UK charts. Inspired by watching John and Paul work, Oldham persuades Mick and Keith to start writing songs together.
Rivals – When Oldham first signs up the Rolling Stones he copies Brian Epstein’s playbook with The Beatles, putting them in suits and commissioning smart, smiling photographs. However, he quickly realises that marketing the band as the anti-Beatles will be more effective and the headline ‘Would You Let Your Sister Go With A Rolling Stone?’ adorns a feature in Melody Maker. Keith is asked if they want to appeal to parents as well as teenagers. He replies: ‘We don’t particularly care . . . If they like us, good. If they don’t, hard luck. We don’t mind.’ The band listen to ‘Can’t Buy Me Love’, and Mick says of the song, ‘It’s something you can remember, but we won’t remember it in years to come, like some of the other John and Paul things.’ Their rebellious attitude is further enhanced by an appearance on Juke Box Jury where they rubbish every song, and in July 1965 when Jagger, Jones and Wyman are each fined a fiver for ‘insulting behaviour’ – urinating on a garage wall in Forrest Gate. (Charlie Watts sat quietly in the car reading his evening newspaper.)
Friends – As the Rolling Stones’ fame grows, both bands consult each other on their single and album release dates so there is no chance of a clash in vying for the number one spot.
Rivals – 1 May 1966, and for the first time both The Beatles and the Rolling Stones are booked to appear at the annual NME Poll Winners’ Party. Oldham agrees in writing that the Rolling Stones will not appear just before The Beatles, making them look second fiddle. Instead, it’s agreed that after the Stones’ performance, the awards will be handed out, then The Beatles will perform. On the night, The Beatles arrive early as the Stones are playing. John insists that The Beatles go on stage as soon as the Stones come off. The Beatles are told to come back later and John explodes with anger, demanding that The Beatles go on stage right away or not at all. The NME stick to the agreement with Oldham, and The Beatles perform after the ceremony. The Beatles never play for the NME again.
Friends – When Mick is found guilty of possession of four pep pills and Keith of allowing drug taking in his home after the infamous Redlands bust of February 1967, it looks as if both of them will face jail time. Times editor William Rees-Mogg feels the court decision is unduly harsh and writes his famous ‘Who breaks a butterfly on a wheel?’ editorial, resulting in Keith’s verdict being overturned and Mick being given a year’s conditional discharge. To thank the fans for their support, the Stones record ‘We Love You’. John and Paul come to the studio and help the band to arrange the song and provide backing vocals. In turn, Mick, Keith and Brian appear on various Beatles records, including ‘Yellow Submarine’ and ‘All You Need Is Love’.
Friends – In another show of solidarity, The Beatles include a Shirley Temple doll wearing a stripey jumper that says ‘Welcome The Rolling Stones’ on the cover of Sgt. Pepper. The Stones reply on the cover of their 1967 psychedelic album Their Satanic Majesties Request – also designed by Peter Blake and photographed by Michael Cooper – with four Beatle-faced flowers.
Rivals – At the Vesuvio Club in early August 1968, a party is thrown for Mick Jagger’s birthday and the launch of the band’s new album Beggars Banquet. The album is well received. Paul arrives at the party with an acetate of the newly recorded Beatles’ single ‘Hey Jude’. He asks the DJ to play it, and the song goes down so well with the revellers that the DJ plays it over and over again. Mick is unhappy that his thunder has been stolen.
Rivals – In John’s famously angry interview with Jann Wenner in Rolling Stone magazine, given after The Beatles had broken up, he lets loose a tirade against the Stones, saying, ‘I resent the implication that the Stones are like revolutionaries and The Beatles weren’t, you know? . . . They’re not in the same class, music-wise or power-wise. Never were. And Mick always resented it. I never said anything, I always admired them because I like their funky music and I like their style . . . I like rock and roll and the direction they took after they got over trying to imitate us.’