It’s been one of music’s longstanding dichotomies: the Beatles were formalistically experimental pop musicians disguised as zeitgeist-teasing idealist, while the Stones were barroom bluesman who fetishized apocalypse and Malboros. Never the twain shall meet, or so the narrative went. Which means that a certain type music critic -- the ones tilting towards counter-narratives -- have spent the past six decades explaining that, yeah, they’re not really that different -- it’s a narcissism of small differences, or a talisman against the idea of monoculture, take your pick. Consequence of Sound, as part of their video series that highlights the five best things of a given subject, weighs in on this with their five best Beatles tracks that sound like Rolling Stones songs. It’s not a great list. They stick to the hits -- “Helter Skelter,” “Come Together,” “Hey Jude,” etc -- it’s fun to imagine “Come Together” as a Stones song (though it’s hard to imagine Jagger singing “Hey Jude”), but that’s about it.
