I felt John Lennon hit it on the head:
“(The Rolling Stones) are not in the same class, music-wise…and never were.”
I went so hard on Beatles in my youth that I may be more inclined to listen to the Stones these days (and I indeed enjoy the Stones very much), but still remains true for me.
Beatles’ earliest compositions are much better than Stones’ earliest compositions. Much more memorable, much more harmonically sophisticated (I’m talking about the harmonic structure of the compositions themselves, not the vocals - which are obviously far more harmonically sophisticated as well).
Beatles first Parlophone B-side, “P.S. I Love You,” and other early songs like “From Me to You,” “There’s a Place,” “Please Please Me,” “All My Loving,” “It Won’t Be Long,” “This Boy,” and “All I’ve Got to Do.”
Those are 8 tremendous compositions just within their 13 months at EMI (their 1st sessions with the final lineup - Ringo on drums -were 9/62, the last of the aforementioned lot were 10/63).
“Tell Me,” “Empty Heart,” “Congratulations,” “Off the Hook,” “Heart of Stone,” “The Last Time,” “Play With Fire,” and “(I Can’t No) Satisfaction,” just doesn’t compare to me.
Era 2 Stones:
Aftermath/Between the Buttons/Their Satanic Majesties Request
“Get Off My Cloud,” “19th Nervous Breakdown,” “Sad Day,” “Mother’s Little Helper,” “Paint it Black,” “Ruby Tuesday,” “Let’s Spend the Night Together,” “Dandelion”
Era 2 Beatles:
A Hard Day’s Night/Beatles For Sale/Help/Rubber Soul/Revolver/Sgt. Pepper’s
“Yes it Is,” “Day Tripper,” “Paperback Writer,” “Rain,” “Penny Lane,” “Strawberry Fields Forever,” “It’s All Too Much,” “All You Need is Love,” “Baby, You’re a Rich Man,” “Hello, Goodbye,” “I Am the Walrus”
I’ll go with Beatles.
Era 3 Stones:
Beggar’s Banquet/Let it Bleed/Sticky Fingers/Exile on Main St:
“Jumpin’ Jack Flash,” “Honky Tonk Women.”
Era 3 Beatles:.
White Album/Let it Be/Abbey Road.
“Hey Jude,” “Lady Madonna, “Hey Bulldog,” “Don’t Let Me Down,” “The Ballad of John and Yoko,” “Old Brown Shoe,” “You Know My Name (Look Up the Number”.
This one’s pretty even. Outside of “I Dig a Pony” and, especially great, “Across the Universe, I think Let it Be sucks, but, IMO, The White Album is their best, those other ‘68 songs are simply tremendous, and there are a few all-timers on Abbey Road as well, particularly “Because,” and “You Never Give Me Your Money.”.
Considering how great this Stones era is, and how sucky Let it Be is, I’m going to go with Stones here by a somewhat-slim margin.
Whatever good stuff the Stones do henceforth still can’t cause them to catch the Beatles to my mind.