Motorhead’s Lemmy Kilmister revealed that the “Beatles or Rolling Stones” issue was simple: Fab Four over the Stones.
Originating from England, Lemmy had been front and center when both groups ruled the ‘60s. Although the members of the two bands were colleagues, there was continually someone attempting to fire the edge of conflict. Lemmy’s viewpoint was built not of the made-up battles of critics, but in physical aggression on the streets.
“[T]he Beatles were hard men,” he wrote in his 2004 memoir White Line Fever. “[Manager] Brian Epstein cleaned them up for mass consumption, but they were anything but sissies. They were from Liverpool, which is like Hamburg or Norfolk, Virginia – a hard, sea-farin’ town, all these dockers and sailors around all the time who would beat the piss out of you if you so much as winked at them. Ringo’s from the Dingle, which is like the fucking Bronx.”
He continued: “The Rolling Stones were the mummy’s boys – they were all college students from the outskirts of London. They went to starve in London, but it was by choice, to give themselves some sort of aura of disrespectability. I did like the Stones, but they were never anywhere near the Beatles – not for humor, not for originality, not for songs, not for presentation. All they had was Mick Jagger dancing about. Fair enough, the Stones made great records, but they were always shit on stage, whereas the Beatles were the gear.”
Lemmy indicated a remarkable night at the renowned Cavern Club in Liverpool, quickly after Epstein had been hired as the Fab Four’s manager. “Everyone in Liverpool knew that Epstein was gay, and some kid in the audience screamed, ‘John Lennon’s a fucking queer!’ And John – who never wore his glasses on stage –put his guitar down and went into the crowd, shouting, ‘Who said that?’ So this kid says, ‘I fucking did.’ John went after him and BAM! gave him the Liverpool kiss, sticking the nut on him – twice! And the kid went down in a mass of blood, snot and teeth. Then John got back on the stage. ‘Anybody else?’ he asked. Silence. ‘All right then. ‘Some Other Guy.’’”
Motorhead covered the Fab Four’s ’ “Back in the U.S.S.R.” and the Stones’ “Jumpin’ Jack Flash” and “Sympathy for the Devil.” Expressing in 2015, shortly after the release of their version of “Sympathy,” Lemmy stated: “I thought we beat them. I thought we beat it to death. I mean, I like the Stones’ version, but I like ours better.”