SZ BOTB Round 2.. The Beatles v The Clash

[Firestorm]

The greatest band to ever grace the planet against a ropey old punk band who barely made a decent single, never mind a whole album. Strummer & Jones vs Lennon & McCartney = no contest, The Beatles all the way.

Ringo as a drummer compared to Topper Headon, No Contest Ringo was barely competant

Macca as a bassist passable but not in Simenons league.

name me any decent Beatles bit of guitar play ? or a Beatles song that invokes real passion or makes any meaningful working class social comment ?

They even stopped playing live because they weren't any good at it

Bland processed pop by the 60's version of Busted

 

[Mr. Benedict]

Ringo as a drummer compared to Topper Headon, No Contest Ringo was barely competant

Macca as a bassist passable but not in Simenons league.

name me any decent Beatles bit of guitar play ? or a Beatles song that invokes real passion or makes any meaningful working class social comment ?

They even stopped playing live because they weren't any good at it

Bland processed pop by the 60's version of Busted

You may be fighting a lost cause, but you're fighting it very well FS...! ;)

 

[GrimmRobes]

Ringo as a drummer compared to Topper Headon, No Contest Ringo was barely competant

Macca as a bassist passable but not in Simenons league.

name me any decent Beatles bit of guitar play ? or a Beatles song that invokes real passion or makes any meaningful working class social comment ?

They even stopped playing live because they weren't any good at it

Bland processed pop by the 60's version of Busted

Possibly the most ill-informed post I've ever read on SZ.

Ringo was a phenomenal drummer - he really came into his own once they moved away from the "beat sound". I don't know any drummers that don't rate his post-"Rubber Soul" work as anything less than great.

As for your comment about McCartney - you clearly know nothing about the instrument. I don't even know where to begin, Macca is quite simply a God as far as bass guitar goes.

No decent guitar work in Beatles records? Now you really are having a laugh. Much like Ringo, George Harrison is a musicians musician - as a guitar player, he's rated highly by many of the greats. I'd say it's more difficult to find a George Harrison guitar part that's isn't superb.

Songs with real passion and social comment - well, that wasn't really their style was it? They excelled in genuine human emotion rather than the facile rhetoric of The Clash. The universal appeal of classics like "In my Life", "For No One", "She's Leaving Home", "Golden Slumbers", "Let it Be" is too often forgotten.

And as for the reasons for not playing live after '66 - I'd imagine a lot of things influenced that decision, but I doubt very much it was because they "weren't any good at it".

 

[Firestorm]

Ill Informed..... I don't need to be informed, I have lived through them both...
As a youngster liking the Beatles, looking for greatness in average songs, was forced upon you by peers and media, if you said you did not like them or criticised them you were litterally an outcast (I had kids not talk to me at school because I said the Beatles were overrated)
As for not playing live since '66 sort of shows the respect they had for their fans doesn't it.

 

[Firestorm]

To quote GR from the Radiohead / Stones thread
>>I find it hard to be objective about the Stones - they're just part of the rock furniture that we've all grown so used to, it's almost like we've been conditioned to thinking they're "the greatest rock 'n' roll band ever", when the fact is, they haven't even released a half decent single since '81 (Start Me Up), and that was the first half-decent single since '74 (It's Only Rock n' Roll). They're living on their reputation. <<

Yet the beatles gets undying support ???

 

[Firestorm]

Songs with real passion and social comment - well, that wasn't really their style was it? They excelled in genuine human emotion rather than the facile rhetoric of The Clash. forgotten.

.

John Lennon stayed in bed in London as a political protest against the war in Vietnam , Joe Strummer went to out to Nicaragua to raise support for the rebels, facile rhetoric indeed.......