Rock stars aren’t afraid to bash one another. It fits their unique attitude in the music world. You could fill books with the myriad opinions our favorite bands have about our other favorite bands. But let’s focus on one in particular. Jeff Beck and Paul McCartney once dismissed a legendary outfit, The Rolling Stones, as a blues cover band who knew only three chords.
The Legendary Rockers Paul McCartney and Jeff Beck Dismissed as “Three-Chord Wonders”
While country music has built an empire around just three chords, rock music has always rewarded the virtuosos. The best rockers need to know their way around the fretboard.
The Rolling Stones have always favored blues riffs, simple melodies, and powerful vocals. That simple recipe has kept them at the top of the rock heap for decades, outlasting most of their peers. Though this combo is a big part of why fans love the band, it has drawn criticism over the years. McCartney and Beck have been among the naysayers.
“The Rolling Stones are finished, as far as I’m concerned, and they admit it as well,” Beck once said. “If only someone would play on their records and show them how to play some more chords, that’s all. It was great when they first started, but ten years later they’re still doing the same thing.”
That harsh sentiment was moot, given the times they performed together before Beck’s death. But Beck wasn’t alone in criticizing the Stones’ sound; their Beatles counterpart, McCartney, also had harsh words for the band at times.
“I’m not sure I should say it, but they’re a blues cover band, that’s sort of what the Stones are,” Paul McCartney once said. “I think our net [The Beatles’] was cast a bit wider than theirs.”
“They are rooted in the blues,” McCartney added elsewhere. “When they are writing stuff, it has to do with the blues. We had a little more influences. There’s a lot of differences, and I love the Stones, but I’m with you. The Beatles were better.”
No matter McCartney or Beck’s opinion of The Stones, they endured as one of the most beloved rock bands of all time, no matter how many chords they used. Revisit one of the Stones’ simplest but most stunning tracks ever, “Wild Horses”, above. It’s a testament to the appeal of their approach.
(Photo by Blandford/Mirrorpix/Getty Images)
The post Paul McCartney and Jeff Beck Once Dismissed These Legendary Rockers as a “Blues Cover Band” appeared first on American Songwriter.