I'm not sure it seems quite believable today. When I was in 7th grade in 1965 this was still an issue. There were trading cards of both and people weighed in on their favorites. It seems from this reminiscence that this was something of a manufactured competition.
I hated the Beatles when they first came out, and I still don't care for their music. The term "bubblegum music" hadn't been invented yet, but if it had been, that's what I would have called them. And they went downhill from there. Strawberry Fields, really? The Dave Clark Five were just simple, hard drivin' rock 'n' roll. I still have a couple of their songs on my playlist that I use to get pumped up at the gym. But the all-time best are the Stones. Heart of Stone really opened my eyes to what rock could be. So, there.
ReplyDeleteUncle Bill - Like you, I wasn't a Beatles fan at first (that was my younger SISTER's music, for Pete's Sake!) but was an early Stones adopter. I still think their first four or five LPs are the best they ever did - "Surprise, Surprise," "Mona," etc. But Keith & Mick acknowledge that is was the challenge of the Lennon-McCartney song writing that got the Stones off of just recording covers and writing recordable stuff themselves.(In time I also came to appreciate the Beatles' music I admit - DC5, not so much).
ReplyDeleteI liked them both, if I recall correctly, it being so lonnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnng ago...
ReplyDeleteIf I were stranded on a desert island and had a magical music player that would play an hour of music, neither the Beatles nor the Dave Clark Five would be on it.
ReplyDeleteI recall the Dave Clark 5-Beatles "controversy" during my teeny-bopper days. That "controversy" didn't last very long. Like several commenters here, I initially disliked the Beatles. Before their initial appearance on Ed Sullivan, I made the remark that the Beatles were not as good musicians as the Kingston Trio. By no later than the release of "Help!" I finally conceded that the Beatles were good musicians and better songwriters. Maybe it was before, but I recall really liking a number of the songs on "Help!"
ReplyDelete"Glad All Over" was pretty catchy. I don't think I remember any other DCF numbers. I still listen to the Beatles with pleasure, having liked them since I first began to hear their music on a Saturday cartoon show, must have been in the mid-'60s.
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