Critics: we can’t live with them, we can’t live without them. The Rolling Stones‘ Mick Jagger felt journalists were more interested in dissecting The Beatles than Elvis Presley. Here’s why he was right.
The Rolling Stones’ Mick Jagger contrasted The Beatles with William Shakespeare
During a 1994 interview with Hot Press, Jagger discussed how critics reacted to the Fab Four. “The first time was when there was serious music analysis of The Beatles,” he said.” It had never happened before.
No one had ever done it to Elvis. Then, when The Beatles come along, people — journalists and serious newspapers especially in England — started it all off. They started analyzing.”
Jagger said The Beatles initiated a sea change. “From then, it became analysis of popular culture; analysis of popular art and fashion,” he said. “And from then on, it’s never stopped. It’s very immediate now too. Shakespeare didn’t live long enough to hear all the criticism of his work. But you’ll find out within two months what everybody thinks about your new record.
“I’m sure they told Shakespeare that they thought it was a deep play pretty quickly,” Jagger added. “And I’m sure he knew if it was a hit or a miss pretty quickly. What he couldn’t know is the longevity of it. And as far as I see, popular culture is not long-lived, almost by definition.”
John Lennon felt 1 song made critics take The Beatles seriously
The book All We Are Saying: The Last Major Interview with John Lennon and Yoko Ono features an interview from 1980. In it, John remembered the critical response to his band. He said people started seeing the group as intellectuals when the London Times published an article discussing the Aeolian cadences in The Beatles’ “It Won’t Be Long.” An Aeolian cadence is a type of chord structure.
John didn’t know what Aeolian cadences were when he penned “It Won’t Be Long.” He felt they sounded like exotic birds. John said the appeal of The Beatles was their music, not their brains. He did concede that The Beatles were smarter than the defining band of the 1970s: the Bee Gees. Andy Gibb might have had something to say about that!
Why Elvis Presley isn’t as respected as the Fab Four
Jagger is certainly wrong to claim no one ever analyzed music seriously before The Beatles came along. On the other hand, he is correct that critics generally take The Beatles more seriously than Elvis. There are several reasons why this is the case.
Firstly, The Beatles generally wrote their own songs while the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll rarely wrote anything. Secondly, the Fab Four were more hip in rock’s most important period, the late 1960s, when they delved into psychedelic rock and the avant-garde, while Elvis was more of a traditionalist. On top of that, fans tend to agree that The Beatles had a much better cinematic output than the “I Want You, I Need You, I Love You” singer.
Regardless of what critics say, Elvis and The Beatles are both legends.
