Live performances were seemingly never a field The Beatles cared about too extensively. Instead, they placed more of their focus on creating nuanced and novel music in the confines of a recording studio, as this allowed for musical exploration that was not achievable during a live show. While this is not the formidable reason as to why they stopped touring in 1966, their lack of urgency to return to the stage might have just shed light on the fact that it really wasn’t all that important to them. Well, be that as it may, Mick Jagger of The Rolling Stones just thought they were a lousy live band.
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The Rolling Stones and The Beatles juxtaposed each other in numerous ways. The Beatles were a band you took home to your parents. The Rolling Stones, not so much. That being said, The Beatles were inventive and controversial in their music, and The Rolling Stones were too, but what made them so polarizing was their taboo on-stage persona and behavior. Something The Beatles weren’t known for, nor did they try to be. Consequently, Mick Jagger has never held their live performances in very high regard.
Mick Jagger Seemingly Didn’t Think They Were All That Entertaining…
In an extensive interview with Rolling Stone in 1995, Mick Jagger divulged why The Beatles never impressed him as a live performing band. He told the publication, “They certainly were not a great live band.” “Maybe they were in the days of The Cavern, when they were coming up as a club band,” continued Jagger.
Adding to his answer, the animated frontman stated, “As far as the modern-day world, they were not a great performing band.” To an extent, Mick Jagger isn’t all that wrong. After all, if you watch clips of The Beatles performing live, they get on stage and merely do their business. So, sure, they didn’t fill the song breaks with colorful anecdotes, and didn’t sensually shake their hips. In short, they just let the music do the talking.
Clearing up any confusion inherently embedded in his comments, Jagger added, “But do they deserve the fantastic reputation? They were The Beatles. They were this forerunning, breakthrough item, and that’s hard to overestimate.” Different strokes for different folks, and that is seemingly the underlying message in this story. The Rolling Stones were and still are true showmen. The Beatles, while they were entertaining, primarily aimed to rattle listeners with their groundbreaking music recorded in a studio.
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