Out Of Our Heads vs. Beatles For Sale

For the first time I'd say the Stones have the better album here. Out Of Our Heads wins this round.

The Beatles win again with monumental original tunes like Eight Days a Week, I'm a Loser, No Reply, I'll Follow the Sun, and Baby's in Black (among others), and the cover tunes they tackle are done tastefully and skillfully.
- Rock and Roll Music perhaps one of their greatest covers ever with Lennon's raging vocals, along with other great covers such as Kansas City, Words of Love, Honey Don't, and Everybody's Trying to Be My Baby.

As for the Stones; Heart of Stone and I'm Free are amongst their greatest originals ever, but alas the album is lopsided/uneven with mostly covers - some are indeed great covers, but others are average at best.

So far Beatles blazing trails - Beatles 4 to the Stones 0.

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Rip this joint, gonna save your soul, round and round and round we go......

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Hairball
The Beatles win again with monumental original tunes like Eight Days a Week, I'm a Loser, No Reply, I'll Follow the Sun, and Baby's in Black (among others), and the cover tunes they tackle are done tastefully and skillfully.
- Rock and Roll Music perhaps one of their greatest covers ever with Lennon's raging vocals, along with other great covers such as Kansas City, Words of Love, Honey Don't, and Everybody's Trying to Be My Baby.

As for the Stones; Heart of Stone and I'm Free are amongst their greatest originals ever, but alas the album is lopsided/uneven with mostly covers - some are indeed great covers, but others are average at best.

So far Beatles blazing trails - Beatles 4 to the Stones 0.

Seems like you're using the UK version for the comparison. Don't disagree with your analysis, though,

However, there are some other self-penned classics on the US version.

The US versions of Heads is (one of?) the best Stones albums!

C

The US version of Out of Our Heads would make it a closer competition with Satisfaction, Last Time, and Play With Fire, but then Heart of Stone and I'm Free from the UK version would have to be taken out of consideration.
The UK versions of the Beatles and Stones albums tend to seem more legit (vs. the US versions) to me for whatever reasons and they're what I usually look at first, but either way, Beatles for the win again.

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Rip this joint, gonna save your soul, round and round and round we go......

My goodness. This brings me back to 1965. I remember discussing both albums with one of my best highschool friends (in fact a ... Beatles fan). Believe it or not, but we agreed. On what? Well, you can't compare the two albums because the approach of music is totally different. Yes, the Beatles were still ahead with writing their own songs, but that's not what it is about. The Beatles wrote songs that fitted their approach of music. Melodic and mostly soft with dominating voices and mediocre instrumental support. The Rolling Stones were a solid, heavily oiled instrumental band with Jagger's voice as an additional "instrument". It's comparing apples with pears once again. It's the individual ear that decides what it prefers. My friend and I exchanged our albums from time to time, meaning that I was as much a Beatles expert as he was a Stones expert. We both knew where we were talking about. Yes, we had very different tastes. Who cares? As long as we enjoyed our personal tastes.
In all honesty, I couldn't hide my pride when "Satisfaction" blew "Help" of the charts in NL that year. But Ah, it was only temporary fun, no big deal.



I'm a GHOST living in a ghost town

That is a clear winner. Best of the Stones first 4 albums vs. the worst album the Beatles put out.

So far I have The Beatles winning 3-0.
Out Of Our Heads is the 4th USA Stones LP, Beatles For Sale was the 4th UK LP for the loveable mop heads.
After a gruelling schedule going back more than 2 years, the fabulous foursome can be forgiven for running out of a bit of creative steam which they certainly did at the end of 1964. Beatles For Sale reverts to the 8 originals, 6 covers formula of their first two lps. The album has a much more almost C & W / folk rock flavour - John’s acoustic is prominent and George offers up some twang-tastic Gretsch licks on Baby’s In Black, I’m A Loser, I Don’t Want To Spoil The Party, Everybody’s Trying To Be My Baby. If the first 3 LP’s were the “girl group with knobs on” trilogy then is lp the first of their “folk-rock” trilogy ??

The “girl group” sound has largely fallen away and if anything, this LP offers Paul and John doing their finest Phil and Don on, for example, the dazzling middle 8 of Baby’s In Black and harmonising beautifully elsewhere.
Rock and Roll Music pumps along but several of the covers just don’t have quite the same fizz they likely would have done at the Star Club or Cavern. None of the covers are bad, they just don’t jump out which is largely true of their 8 originals which include I’ll Follow The Sun, written at least as early as 1960 but re-tooled for this LP.
While there’s not a note out of place, there are few original “gems”. Every Little Thing is a good one as is the Fab-tastic Eight Days A Week but they were clearly short of the kind of quality material they had on previous albums, relying instead on their craftsmanship to get them through. Good job they were already master craftsmen.
The LP contains no singles.

George has the best haircut ever on the front cover which shows 4 rather tired, world weary Beatles or possibly more likely, four Beatles having recently sampled what their friend Bob Dylan had introduced them to in August 1964. Pot quickly took the place of speed as the band’s drug of choice.
Could that be another reason why this LP and the next two are comparatively laid back ??

In this thread it’s up against the US Out Of Our Heads and Surprise Surprise, I’m giving this one to the Stones even though I do like Beatles For Sale a lot.
This is despite some major reservations - Good Times is swear wordingly awful ! The Stones should have realised this kind of thing didn’t suit them and they couldn’t do it. It’s just not them. It's like Ringo trying to sing something like Ebb Tide. They’d have been better off knocking out another 12 bar like Spider and Fly or The Under Assistant West Coast Fannie Mae.
I’m Alright - WTF is this live track doing on a studio LP. I’m Moving On I would have forgiven on account of it’s brilliance, but I’m All Right ?
One More Try is pretty feeble. Spider and Under Assistant are slight but very enjoyable. They are still a little way away from consistent quality song writing.
OK, that’s some moaning, oh and that dreadful falsetto on Mercy, sort out your backing vocals ffs.

BUT, all moans aside…this LP has The Last Time, Satisfaction, Play With Fire, Hitch Hike, That’s How Strong, Cry To Me, peaks that Beatles For Sale just doesn’t have as often. Despite having effectively only one sides worth of excellent to outstanding stuff, The Stones win it.
This LP has 3 true classic Jagger / Richards compositions and Satisfaction is arguably the peak - their future bests (such as JJF) would merely equal that brilliance - perfection is perfection.

Beatles For Sale has always been one of my fave Fab LP’s for the harmonies and twangy Gretsch but I’m not immune to it’s weaknesses in terms of material. I still prefer it to Out Of Our Heads but the latter clearly has better highs (Satisfaction alone would be enough).
At that time (December 64 re Beatles For Sale), even a sub par Beatles LP was still better than what most pop bands were putting out, LP’s being of lesser importance than singles.
My score card now shows 3 - 1 Beatles winning.
The next Beatles LP features arguably the worst side in their UK catalogue barring side 4 of the White Album.
Will the Stones have learned how to write consistent original songs and arrange and sing backing vocals ? They seem to have mastered dubbing a tambourine on in time. Or will the London label compilation approach scupper any chance they have of topping the fabbermost of the poppermost ?

Depends on which version I go with.

The US version is the one Ive listened to most and this puts this album closer in the race for me.
The last time, satisfaction, play with fire, the spider and the fly & the under assistant west coast promotion man are all great originals and there’s some great covers on out of our heads also.

But I think the Beatles take this round, Hairball has said it all for me, it’s mostly what I would say.

The Stones close the gap on this one but I'd probably give it to the Beatles by a small margin.

Easy Stones victory! Too many so-so songs on Beatles For Sale (Mr. Moonlight, Kansas City lame cover, Every Little Thing, and 2 or 3 others).

Whereas the Stones have another great one! To start with, there are some great covers! Mercy Mercy, That's How Strong My Love, Good Times, Cry To Me. And then top it off w/ Satisfaction, Play w/ Fire, Under Assistant, Spider & Fly, Last Time ... WOW!

Stones 4, Beatles 0.

Beatles For Sale is generally considered to be the weakest of the Beatles’ early releases: they’re back to the cover-versions, the self-penned numbers are downbeat, and they even look weary on the cover. I suspect they were just exhausted. For me, despite being weaker than it’s predecessor, Beatles For Sale is still a fabulous release; and I look the downcast, autumnal feel of the cover photo. Eight Day’s A Week is single-worthy, and No Reply and I’m A Looser show a genuine growth in song-writing.

Despite having a fondness for both the U.K. and U.S. versions of Out of our Heads, the Stones were, for me, still trailing at this point; album-wise, anyway. The self-penned Jagger-Richards singles of ’65, however, are now beginning to rival that of Lennon-McCartney’s.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2021-12-29 14:56 by Big Al.

OUT OF OUR HEADS.

She Said Yeah, Mercy, Hitch Hike, Gotta Get Away, Heart Of Stone, the insanely awesome Cry To Me, TUAWCPM.

I'm Free sucks - the only dud on the LP.

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GasLightStreet
OUT OF OUR HEADS.

She Said Yeah, Mercy, Hitch Hike, Gotta Get Away, Heart Of Stone, the insanely awesome Cry To Me, TUAWCPM.

I'm Free sucks - the only dud on the LP.

I do agree that the Stones were getting closer at this point. Then again: a mere three months after Out of Our Heads' U.K. release, The Beatles dropped Rubber Soul!