.jpeg)
At one point in time, saying you were a fan of both The Beatles and the Rolling Stones would be tantamount to treason. No, in the '60s, you had to choose one. There was the squeaky-clean appeal of Beatlemania vs the bad-boy danger of the Stones. The reality is that everyone probably secretly liked both, but you wore your allegiance like a coat of arms. And it wasn't just a fan construct, a baseless microcosm of rock music cliques, in the OG battle of the bands, the groups themselves even had some not-so-subtle beef from time to time.
There was the time John Lennon literally called Mick Jagger “a joke” in an infamous interview with Rolling Stone in 1970, and when Jagger said he thought The Beatle's break-up was a “good idea” and that he “couldn't give a shit” in 1987. But there have also been some moments of mutual appreciation, like when Jagger inducted The Beatles into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1998. So while, through almost five decades, the groups and their remaining members have ebbed and flowed through cordiality, hatred and somewhere in between, it looks like they're finally hard launching their friendship the best way they know how – with music.
According to Variety, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, the last remaining members of The Beatles, are involved in an upcoming Rolling Stones album. McCartney has apparently laid down some bass parts while Starr's involvement is unknown. Peace in the kingdom at last.
It's not the first time they've contributed to each other's music, but it is the first proper collaboration since the late '60s. If the tracks they've supposedly worked on do make the cut, and frankly it would be hilarious if they didn't, it would be a pretty momentous occasion for multiple reasons. First, it's the final proof that music rivalries are only ever really as serious as the occasion calls for, and secondly, it will be the first album of new material from the Rolling Stones since 2005. They haven't been resting, however, as it seems Jagger has been accumulating songs for a record for some time, saying in 2021 that there were “a lot of tracks done” for something new.
This likely means that songs that end up making it on this as-yet-formally-announced album will also include contributions from Charlie Watts, the founding drummer of the Rolling Stones who died in 2021. The album is being produced by Andrew Watt, who recently picked up Grammys for his work with Dua Lipa and Justin Bieber, and previously worked on a few songs with McCartney in 2021.
So there we have it, definitive proof that the lifespan for a good rock 'n' roll rivalry probably taps out at about the 50-year mark. Anyone who secretly blasted the Stones while rocking a bowl cut, or fancied themselves a lover of bad boys but had a soft spot for Lennon, feel safe in the knowledge that you can wear your split fandom with pride now. All good things come to an end or, in the case of the Rolling Stones vs The Beatles, all bad things that were sometimes good every so often.
