Why Jack White prefers The Beatles to The Rolling Stones
The debate of The Beatles versus the Rolling Stones is usually a difficult one. For music fans everywhere, the choice between the two rock and roll leaders is the ultimate musical dilemma. The impact of both groups is immeasurable; both of their discographies are packed with gold, and both are treated rightly as history-changing acts that forever altered the sound and face of music. But for Jack White, there is only one correct answer: The Beatles.
It’s not even an answer he faults on or doubts for a second. In fact, White doubles down, saying that not only does he prefer the Beatles, but he considers the Stones to be little more than a copycat of them and of anyone else that Jagger thought he could get a hit from or “whatever the hippest thing was”.
“People want The Rolling Stones to be cool, dirty, raucous,” White said.
For a lot of people, that’s their perception of the group. The Stones were the bad boys, the rebels of the scene, while the Beatles were always slightly tamer. But even as the Stones were getting arrested for drugs and writing heavy innuendos into radio-ready rock songs, White saw through it. Instead, he sees Mick Jagger as a kind of mastermind, calling him “smart” above everything else.
“They don’t want to understand that The Rolling Stones were chasing a hit constantly and feeding off whatever the hippest thing was, copying whatever The Beatles did last week,” White said. He sees the Fab Four as always being one step ahead, with the Stones trailing behind.
Whether you agree with the opinion, the facts are there. The Beatles started out in 1960, with their first single released in 1962. That same year was when the Rolling Stones formed, escaping Ealing’s jazz clubs into the world of rock and roll. It would be ignorant to suggest that the Liverpudlian lot weren’t, in some way, an inspiration. They were a sensation, leading the charge of the new musical sound in the UK. While the Stones have always claimed to be more blues-inspired, both bands were looking to the same inspirations from the likes of Chuck Berry and Little Richard.
From then on, it has always been the two bands on two sides of the coin, spinning round and round as to who was the best or who was most popular. In 1964, a UK survey put the Stones in the lead, but John Lennon would have laughed that at.
Seemingly agreeing with Jack White’s reading, Lennon once took credit for the Stones’ songwriting as he said a throwaway track by himself and McCartney spurred Jagger and Richards to finally pick up a pen.
For Jagger though, he’s happy to admit the band’s impact. “They were so big that to be competitive with them was impossible,” he once said.
However, in a statement that perhaps confirms White’s reading of him as a “smart” man keen on creating a hit and bringing in the profit, he added, “I’m talking about in record sales and tours and all this. They were huge…”
