Beatles vs. Stones
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3.0 • 2 Ratings
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- $14.99
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
From the crtically acclaimed author of Smoking Typewriters comes a lively examination of the most legendary (and least understood) rivalry in the annals of rock ’n’ roll: “Beatles vs. Stones is one of the best rock biographies I have seen this year…If you thought you knew everything there was to know about these two groups, think again” (Seattle Post-Intelligencer).
In the 1960s an epic battle was waged between the two biggest bands in the world—the lovable Beatles and the bad-boy Rolling Stones. Both groups liked to maintain that they weren’t really “rivals”—that was just a media myth, they politely said—and yet they plainly competed for commercial success and aesthetic credibility. On both sides of the Atlantic, fans often aligned themselves with one group or the other. In Beatles vs. Stones, John McMillian gets to the truth behind the ultimate rock and roll debate.
Painting an eye-opening portrait of a generation dragged into an ideological battle between Flower Power and New Left militance, McMillian reveals how the Beatles-Stones rivalry was created by music managers intent on engineering a moneymaking empire. He explores how the Beatles were marketed as cute and amiable, when in fact they came from hardscrabble backgrounds in Liverpool. By contrast, the Stones were cast as an edgy, dangerous group, even though they mostly hailed from the chic London suburbs. For many years, writers and historians have associated the Beatles with the gauzy idealism of the “good” sixties, placing the Stones as representatives of the dangerous and nihilistic “bad” sixties. Beatles vs. Stones is “balanced, informed, yet still passionate…Even the most gnarled and intransigent veterans of the debate will emerge enlightened by this book….McMillian negotiates these thickets with insight, care, and a willingness to unsettle clichés” (The New York Times Book Review).
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
An assistant professor of history at Georgia State University, McMillian has created what amounts to an extended compare-and-contrast essay by juxtaposing the careers of the two greatest rock 'n' roll bands of the 20th century. He hopes to uncover whether these two bands were rivals or allies, and whether the Beatles were truly the good boys and the Stones were really the bad boys as each was respectively portrayed. McMillian builds a case for both sides of each argument, using existing interviews, an impressive bibliography, and some little-known sources. While the history of both bands is oft-covered territory, the author turns up some great nuggets, like the true origins of the Beatles' name; police information about one of the Stones' famous drug busts; and how Mick Jagger and Keith Richards wrote their first song together. In the end, McMillian has written an informative look at music's image machine a powerful combination of media, marketing, and celebrity.
Customer Reviews
Nothing more than a glorified Vanity Fair article
Save your money on this one. I was very disappointed at how sparse the content was, content I might add, that is pretty much all out there. (Additionally, about 200 pages are footnotes.)
It also bugged me the way he made definitive statements about what song lyrics meant. For instance, he claimed that the following line from Stupid Girl was unequivocally about the girl being lousy in bed: "I'm talking about the way she grabs and holds." Um, I really think it refers more to being clingy. I don't see sex in that line at all. Fine if that's how he wants to see it, but don't make it, it's undeniably about this or that. He does this numerous times.
Plus, Altamont: he posits it only existed because they wanted to show folks it wasn't all about the money. Fair enough, But it was also so they could create their own west coast Woodstock phenom - and he doesn't even mention that.
Anyhow, there was just so much lacking in this book.