I have a theory: The Rolling Stones invented "Rock" music. Please bear with me a moment.

Yes, The Beatles attempted to take pop music beyond the three-minute mark, adding orchestras and weird effrects and all kinds of other cool shit. Certainly, a case can be made for The Beatles inventing rock music. But Paul McCartney keeps them firmly planted in the Music Hall (with Ray Davies and the Small Faces), while the Stones were souping up the blues into something monolithic.

The Beatles were cute. They were never dangerous, sleazy, creepy, or scary. C'mon, does anybody really find "Helter Skelter" to be scary? "Yer Blues" and "Dig a Pony" are the only Beatles songs I can think of that match the darkest of the Stones catalogue. The Stones set the template for all big, mean rock bands that would follow, including punk rock--The Dolls, The Pistols, The Heartbreakers, The Patti Smith Group all owe the Stones an obvious debt. Sure, Jerry Lee Lewis is meaner and scarier (so's Skip James)--but he was still playing rock & roll music. As someone already stated, the Stones are a rock & roll band, but songs like "Gimme Shelter," "Sympathy for the Devil," "Sway" (as good as any song Neil Young has done with Crazy Horse), "Monkey Man," even "Under My Thumb" introduced a sense of darkness, of creepiness, of bombast and quasi-messianic pretension (though never as pretentious as The Who) that signaled a new era: Rock music. Without the Stones, no Doors--but also no Stooges. Surely it's clear to everyone that Iggy is simply Mick Jagger as seen through a lens muddied by speedballs and Midwestern idiocy. Am I the only one who sees "Gimme Danger" as an answer song?

Don't get me wrong; I realize Mick Jagger is a loathsome human being and that his stage persona is almost unforgivably absurd. But's he's, at best, the third most important Stone--fourth if it's the Mick Taylor era. And you know what: in a perverse way I admire Mick Jagger because he is utterly shameless, willing to do whatever it takes to sell the song, whether it's singing in falsetto, adopting a cod-country accent, or jumping around like a buffoon in an attempt to embody a human form as exaggerated as the riffs blowing up all around him. And if you don't think he can sing, put on "Moonlight Mile."

For me, The Rolling Stones are behind only The Stooges and The Birthday Party in my rock pantheon. They're ahead of the Velvets, Sabbath, and Neil Young. Even (gasp!) Devo.

Brett Eugene Ralph wrote:Brett Eugene Ralph wrote:

I have a theory: The Rolling Stones invented "Rock" music. Please bear with me a moment.

Yes, The Beatles attempted to take pop music beyond the three-minute mark, adding orchestras and weird effrects and all kinds of other cool shit. Certainly, a case can be made for The Beatles inventing rock music. But Paul McCartney keeps them firmly planted in the Music Hall (with Ray Davies and the Small Faces), while the Stones were souping up the blues into something monolithic.

The Beatles were cute. They were never dangerous, sleazy, creepy, or scary. C'mon, does anybody really find "Helter Skelter" to be scary? "Yer Blues" and "Dig a Pony" are the only Beatles songs I can think of that match the darkest of the Stones catalogue. The Stones set the template for all big, mean rock bands that would follow, including punk rock--The Dolls, The Pistols, The Heartbreakers, The Patti Smith Group all owe the Stones an obvious debt. Sure, Jerry Lee Lewis is meaner and scarier (so's Skip James)--but he was still playing rock & roll music. As someone already stated, the Stones are a rock & roll band, but songs like "Gimme Shelter," "Sympathy for the Devil," "Sway" (as good as any song Neil Young has done with Crazy Horse), "Monkey Man," even "Under My Thumb" introduced a sense of darkness, of creepiness, of bombast and quasi-messianic pretension (though never as pretentious as The Who) that signaled a new era: Rock music. Without the Stones, no Doors--but also no Stooges. Surely it's clear to everyone that Iggy is simply Mick Jagger as seen through a lens muddied by speedballs and Midwestern idiocy. Am I the only one who sees "Gimme Danger" as an answer song?

Don't get me wrong; I realize Mick Jagger is a loathsome human being and that his stage persona is almost unforgivably absurd. But's he's, at best, the third most important Stone--fourth if it's the Mick Taylor era. And you know what: in a perverse way I admire Mick Jagger because he is utterly shameless, willing to do whatever it takes to sell the song, whether it's singing in falsetto, adopting a cod-country accent, or jumping around like a buffoon in an attempt to embody a human form as exaggerated as the riffs blowing up all around him. And if you don't think he can sing, put on "Moonlight Mile."

For me, The Rolling Stones are behind only The Stooges and The Birthday Party in my rock pantheon. They're ahead of the Velvets, Sabbath, and Neil Young. Even (gasp!) Devo.

...I vote Stones.

El Protoolio wrote:Beatles. Better songs, better perfomers, more creative.