Beach Boys vs Beatles in the same years

[TimeToGetAlone]

The Beatles were a far more consistent band and far better marketed.  For the most part, you knew you were going to get a quality product from each album and each song.  The Beach Boys made questionable decisions with nearly every step along the way.  Even using just the Beach Boys' 60s material, my worst between the two bands would be Beach Boys-heavy.

But on the other hand, if I had to list my favourite songs of each artist the Beach Boys would dominate that list as well.  It's for this reason that I gravitate toward them every time over the Beatles.   Their best work provides me with a listening experience very few songs from very few other artists can do.

[MBE]

The Beatles always entertain me, but the Beach Boys speak to a much deeper emotional place for me. Both put out excellent work from 1962-70, and I think any dismissal of either doesn't make a good case for the other being better. I think some amazing music was cut from the early fifties to the early seventies and I'm just glad to hear it all.

[kookadams]

I'd put it like this:
Meet the Beatles vs Shut Down Vol2
Hard Days Night vs All Summer Long
Help vs Today
Rubber Soul vs Summer Days
Revolver vs Pet Sounds
Sgt Peppers vs Smiley Smile
Magical Mystery vs Wild Honey
White Album vs Friends
Abbey Road vs 20/20

Let it Be was posthumous not worth a comparison.

I take the Beach Boys albums over the Beatles ANY DAY. 

[kookadams]

Early 63: Surfin' USA
late 63: Little Deuce Coupe
Early 64: Shut Down vol. II
mid 64: All Summer Long
late 64: Beach Boys Concert
mid 65: Today and SDSN
late 65: Rubber Soul
mid 66: Revolver
mid 67: The Smile Sessions
late 67: WILD HONEY!!
68: White Album
69: Abbey Road
70: Sunflower

Did you seriousley pick Rubber Soul and Revolver over Pet Sounds?!!! That HAS to be a joke/////////////////////////////

[kookadams]

Pitting The Beach Boys against The Beatles? Forget that crap. BEACH BOYS WIN EVERY DAMN TIME.

EXACTLY!!!
And why the hell would anyone even bring up Beatles for Sale, that album is as important as 15 Big Ones, same goes for Please Please Me.

For anyone and everyone in the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA we didn't have the Beatles UK albums to compare. So starting with Meet the Beatles.
And Abbey Road was their last album, Let It Be was posthumous.  

[kookadams]

Am I one of the few Beach Boys fans that prefers Lennon over McCartney? It seems that most BB fans praise McCartney over Lennon.

Lennon was in NO WAY shape or form better composer than McCartney. Lennon was to the Beatles what Mike Love was to the Beach Boys. All the beatles best songs were either McCartney/Lennon or just McCartney.

[kookadams]

The Beach Boys rock songs of the early 60s were closer to punk then classic rock. Songs like Surfin Safari, Shut Down, Custom Machine, I Get Around and Girl from NY City had an edge that didn't need screaming vocals and guitars to make it rock. It is what came natural to them. But Brian was motivated by getting a right feeling as opposed to being the heaviest rock band.

THATS WHAT I BEEN SAYING FOR YEARS!!! I mean for christ sake the beach boys influence on the ramones was more prevalent than any of their other influences; joe strummer got into music thru the beach boys and joe queer is a huge BBs zealot. The beach boys early output was so raw and garage-y, very much in the punk vein. But even tho there were several prototypical bands like the stooges and mc5 the ramones were THE first punk band; punk got its name from punk magazine- legs mcniell and holmstrom. excuse my spelling.

[kookadams]

It's an impossible question really. For numerous reasons.

The Beatles could do more things. They could rock much better
and harder. They got into more styles of music than the Beach Boys
such as Harrison's eastern songs, and more avante gard with backwards
guitars and technology. They Had three great writers, they had George
Martin to help. I could go on.

On the other hand, all things considered, after mulling it over I tend to believe
that Pet Sounds and SMiLE is the best one two punch in the history of pop or
rock or whatever you want to call it.

Pet Sounds and SMiLe are better than Revolver and Sgt Pepper. Thats quite
a statement.

Many people won't agree however, because the Beach Boys  didin't have tough
rock songs like the Beatles. Half of Smile doesn't even have drums on it. But still
the sheer majesty of Hero's and Villans , Surf's Up and Good Vibrations trumps Pepper
period.

Other than those two, the Beatles win easily, Help rubber Soul, the White Album Abbey Road
they win hands down, against the respective Beach Boys albums.

With all due respect that is one of the most asinine ignorant statements I've ever heard. How the hell did the beatles "rock harder"? I'd like a detailed synopsis of that for sure.

[kookadams]

It really boggles my mind how this is a board for the Beach Boys and how so many people talk down on them. I Don't care how many more records the Beatles sold. The Beatles were quantity, the Beach Boys were quality.

Apples & oranges, to each is own, bla bla bla....  . . .

Just because a band sells more records doesnt mean they made better music, it just means they had better marketing and promotion. The Beatles were classic, but the Beach Boys were classic and TIMELESS! Their music transcended thru several decades, the beatles didn't.

[hypehat]

Their music transcended thru several decades, the beatles didn't.

Are you insane?

What you mean is 'The Beach Boys made increasingly sh*t albums throughout the rest of the 20th and 21st Century because they couldn't or wouldn't split up, whilst The Beatles have an arguable perfect track record, a totemic body of work, leaving the eventual (inevitable?) decline into mediocrity and irrelevance that befell every sixties pop star after that decade for their solo careers.'

That's what you mean. If anything, The Beach Boys music hasn't 'transcended through the decades' because people go 'f*** yeah Barbara Ann is amazing' rather than the masterworks of Smile or Holland or All Summer Long. The entirety of The Beatles' career has musical legitimacy. The Beach Boys made Summer In Paradise, the worst album I ever heard.

[SMiLE-addict]

On another forum there was a long Beatles-vs-BB discussion going on, so I signed up and started "contests" starting at the top of this page:
http://www.musicbanter.com/pop/49280-beatles-vs-beach-boys-62.html

[pixletwin]

Am I one of the few Beach Boys fans that prefers Lennon over McCartney? It seems that most BB fans praise McCartney over Lennon.

....Lennon was to the Beatles what Mike Love was to the Beach Boys. 

With all due respect that is one of the most asinine ignorant statements I've ever heard.

[kookadams]

Their music transcended thru several decades, the beatles didn't.

Are you insane?

What you mean is 'The Beach Boys made increasingly sh*t albums throughout the rest of the 20th and 21st Century because they couldn't or wouldn't split up, whilst The Beatles have an arguable perfect track record, a totemic body of work, leaving the eventual (inevitable?) decline into mediocrity and irrelevance that befell every sixties pop star after that decade for their solo careers.'

That's what you mean. If anything, The Beach Boys music hasn't 'transcended through the decades' because people go 'f*** yeah Barbara Ann is amazing' rather than the masterworks of Smile or Holland or All Summer Long. The entirety of The Beatles' career has musical legitimacy. The Beach Boys made Summer In Paradise, the worst album I ever heard.

Yeah I know Summer In Paradise was a waste. But to say that the Beatles output was flawless or whatever is insane and this is a BEACH BOYS message board so why would anyone criticize them???

[hypehat]

Because we're people with basic critical faculties. The Beach Boys have made some of the worst music ever made.

[SMiLE Brian]

Because we're people with basic critical faculties. The Beach Boys have made some of the worst music ever made.

I wish the BBs broke up after "love you" to save the world from the horrors of the later recorded output.

[kookadams]

Because we're people with basic critical faculties. The Beach Boys have made some of the worst music ever made.

I wish the BBs broke up after "love you" to save the world from the horrors of the later recorded output.

Or at least stop making new albums.

To say the Beach Boys made some of the worst music makes no sense to me. Id like to know what the criteria is.

[drbeachboy]

Because we're people with basic critical faculties. The Beach Boys have made some of the worst music ever made.

Not even close to the worst. There is some terrible sh*t out there that passes for music. It is all a matter of taste or lack thereof. I'll include myself has having fit in both categories.

[kookadams]

First of all from 62 to 67 the Beach Boys had already put out just as many albums as the Beatles had put out in their entire existence!!
,
And all those albums were PERFECT! Sure there was filler here and there with cassius love/sonny wilson, bugged at my ol man, fav' recording sessions etc. but that doesnt mean sh*t, the rest of the songs on those albums are killer!

I mean you can break it down and look at those ten albums individually or look at the whole enchilada,
Beach Boys, 62-67: Surfin Safari, Surfin USA, Surfer Girl, Deuce Coupe, Shut Down Vol2, All Summer Long, Today, Summer Days, Pet Sounds, Smiley Smile.
Beatles: Meet the Beatles, Hard Days Night, Beatles 65, Help, Rubber Soul, Revolver, Sgt Peppers, Magical Mystery Tour, White Album, Abbey Rd.

And yeah I'm comparing the Beatles american releases and using the BBs up to 67 because they had the same amount of albums out at that time as the Beatles did altogether.

You could even compare the other BBs albums.... Wild Honey, Friends, 20/20, Sunflower, Surfs Up and Holland - ALL great!

[EgoHanger1966]

kookadams, while you're high enthusiasm for The Beach Boys is great....I think you're confusing the lack of public awareness of The Beach Boys' material (beyond the hits) as a fault of The Beatles' huge success. The Beatles deserve every bit of acclaim they have, this band DEFINES timeless. There is a lot of emotion in your posts and it seems to me you are just taking it out on the Beatles because you want them to have the level of artistic awareness that The Beach Boys may not have.

[EgoHanger1966]

!

I mean you can break it down and look at those ten albums individually or look at the whole enchilada,
Beach Boys, 62-67: Surfin Safari, Surfin USA, Surfer Girl, Deuce Coupe, Shut Down Vol2, All Summer Long, Today, Summer Days, Pet Sounds, Smiley Smile.
Beatles: Meet the Beatles, Hard Days Night, Beatles 65, Help, Rubber Soul, Revolver, Sgt Peppers, Magical Mystery Tour, White Album, Abbey Rd.

Even if you're choosing The Beatles' USA albums instead of the UK ones (which is batshit crazy, but whatever), you're missing a bunch. Introducing (or The Early Beatles - similar in tracklisting but not identical), Second Album, Something New, VI, Yesterday & Today, Yellow Sub, you should def. be counting Let It Be, Hey Jude aka The Beatles Again.

[hypehat]

Because we're people with basic critical faculties. The Beach Boys have made some of the worst music ever made.

I wish the BBs broke up after "love you" to save the world from the horrors of the later recorded output.

Or at least stop making new albums.

To say the Beach Boys made some of the worst music makes no sense to me. Id like to know what the criteria is.

The Beach Boys worst music (MIU, Still Cruisin, KTSA, SIP, BB85, Kokomo, The Battle Hymn Of The Republic, Sweet Insanity, Country Love, etc) makes me laugh, weep, or just shut off the stereo. I find no merit, besides the fact it's being played by one of my favourite bands. The writing is almost uniformly lazy at best, and outwardly offensive at worst, the production is limp and foul, and they just sound bad to me, and to vast swathes of the human race.

I know a bunch of people here like those records, and that's cool. But the only merit to those records for me is that a member, or all, of one of my favourite bands is responsible. Of course, the fact that they made such weird, bad records is kind of appealing, but not that appealing.

[hypehat]

!

I mean you can break it down and look at those ten albums individually or look at the whole enchilada,
Beach Boys, 62-67: Surfin Safari, Surfin USA, Surfer Girl, Deuce Coupe, Shut Down Vol2, All Summer Long, Today, Summer Days, Pet Sounds, Smiley Smile.
Beatles: Meet the Beatles, Hard Days Night, Beatles 65, Help, Rubber Soul, Revolver, Sgt Peppers, Magical Mystery Tour, White Album, Abbey Rd.

Even if you're choosing The Beatles' USA albums instead of the UK ones (which is batshit crazy, but whatever), you're missing a bunch. Introducing (or The Early Beatles - similar in tracklisting but not identical), Second Album, Something New, VI, Yesterday & Today, Yellow Sub, you should def. be counting Let It Be, Hey Jude aka The Beatles Again.

OTM. And yeah, why not judge The Beatles on the albums as they intended them. Stacking the deck, much?

[kookadams]

!

I mean you can break it down and look at those ten albums individually or look at the whole enchilada,
Beach Boys, 62-67: Surfin Safari, Surfin USA, Surfer Girl, Deuce Coupe, Shut Down Vol2, All Summer Long, Today, Summer Days, Pet Sounds, Smiley Smile.
Beatles: Meet the Beatles, Hard Days Night, Beatles 65, Help, Rubber Soul, Revolver, Sgt Peppers, Magical Mystery Tour, White Album, Abbey Rd.

Even if you're choosing The Beatles' USA albums instead of the UK ones (which is batshit crazy, but whatever), you're missing a bunch. Introducing (or The Early Beatles - similar in tracklisting but not identical), Second Album, Something New, VI, Yesterday & Today, Yellow Sub, you should def. be counting Let It Be, Hey Jude aka The Beatles Again.

Yeah but I'm not including the un-important BBs albums like the Christmas Album, Concert, Stack-o-Tracks, etc. So I don't need to include the compilation albums that Capitol made/the ones you just listed. I know the Beatles UK discography is what they actually recorded but there were certain albums like Meet the Beatles that are integral.  Second album, Yesterday/Today are comps and Let It Be is posthumous; I'm saying the legit studio albums, and it the US the Beatles UK catalog was non-existent. And in response to the later Beach Boys albums yeah I'm aware that after Love You their albums were a waste. I never said otherwise.

[hypehat]

Integral how? They didn't have the singles on them, or what?

[kookadams]

Integral how? They didn't have the singles on them, or what?

Well Meet the Beatles is a better album that With the Beatles, it excludes the covers and includes the important US debut single. Hard Days Night and Help were different versions in the UK and US but the 7 songs that were in the film is all that mattered on the albums anyway.