Dick Brucinson
Dave Sustaine
The better band? Beatles all the way for me.
Sorry for bumping an old thread, but I was thinking about this very thing just today and I came across this thread, so I feel like I should contribute ... 12 years later, heh heh.
Anyway, while I appreciate and proclaim the Beatles as the No. 1 band ever (and objectively speaking, they and Dylan made the music since what it is), on a personal level of enjoyment I actually realised I prefer the Stones. It was not immediately obvious and it's still very close... but I realised that all those overplayed songs (and both bands have those) make all the difference to me. You see, even the overplayed songs by the Stones are much more palatable to me, even after a hundred of listens or so. Might be 'cause the RS are more about the goove, "base" principle and therefore their songs invite you to jam, to dance, to improvise. At least they're much more welcoming in that regard than the respective Beatles songs. Those are like the ultimate ivory tower - they are immaculate, awesome, thrilling... but you can't quite... "use" them.
Also the Stones are much more of a "band" to me than Beatles. Maybe it has something to do with the aforementioned sentiment regarding their songs and approach, but I find them much more personally enjoyable and they're also much more of a live band to me. I loved seeing them in concert, whereas with the Beatles it would be mostly about the fact it's "the Beatles" not about their performance being particularly enjoyable, if you know what I mean.
Anyway, once again, sorry for the bump, but I just had to.
4 is the right call. Ringo had a more limited range than the other three, but he knew how to use it and to great affect. He had a corner that he executed very well, somewhere between the down-on-his-luck straight man and the friendly uncle who always has time for the kids. If he did anything, it was endearing the listener to him. The others were obviously masterclass musicians, but Ringo added to the group a down to earth bit of soul.They had 3,arguably 4 guys that could sing.