You know that whole thing that goes, are you a Beatles fan or a Stones fan? Well, I've always said Beatles to that, even when I was on a Stones rampage. I grew up with the Beatles, fell in love with George Harrison when I was ten, memorized the lyrics to all their songs and sang them with my mom. The Beatles were part of my childhood. I have vivid memories of my mom singing "All My Loving" to me at night when she tucked me in. I remember watching the music video for "Strawberry Fields Forever" and not recognizing John in his big Amish hat. And I'll never forget the Christmas when I asked for Revolver on CD and spent the entire day listening to "Tomorrow Never Knows" on repeat, not realizing what the song was about. By my early twenties, I knew everything about the Fab Four. I knew Ringo was the oldest; I knew Pete Best was the original drummer; I knew "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" was about Julian; I knew Eric Clapton helped George on "While My Guitar..."; and I knew that there was a difference between a John song and a Paul song, and especially a George song. "I Am the Walrus" was a John song. "Lovely Rita" was a Paul song. "Old Brown Shoe" was a George song. They were all so different to my trained ear (George's songs were always my favorite, obviously). My parents didn't listen to the Rolling Stones, so I wasn't exactly exposed to them during my formative musical taste years. So when people started asking me, Are you a Beatles girl or a Stones girl? My response was quick.

I was a Beatles girl. Right? 

The first time I ever really listened to a Rolling Stones song, like beyond just hearing "Satisfaction" on the radio, was after college. My friends Mekenzie Kay Schneider (brilliant artist/teacher) and Alia Penner (amazing artist/inspirational being) used to do mixes for Dublab in LA, and they put "I'm a King Bee" on their first one. I remember hearing that the Stones were a "covers band," but not understanding really what that meant. This was before the musical renaissance of my twenties kicked in. I went online and spent a good while searching for "I'm a King Bee" and discovered that it was on the Stones eponymous debut album in 1964 (the US release was called England's Newest Hit Makers). This was around the time when I was beefing out my record collection, so I took a trip to Amoeba and found it reissued on ABKCO Records. I listened to "I'm a King Bee" over and over again, not even realizing the song was a cover. Even Mick Jagger said himself, "What's the point in listening to us doing 'I'm a King Bee' when you can hear Slim Harpo do it?" But holy fuck, the Stones version, with Brian's slide guitar at the breakdown, it just kills me. 

Through the course of my record collecting, I've accumulated The Rolling Stones, December's Children, Their Satanic Majesties Request, Beggars Banquet, Let It Bleed, Flowers, Exile on Main Street, Goats Head Soup, and a bootleg copy of their Rock 'n Roll Circus. I've seen Rock 'n Roll Circus, The T.A.M.I. Show, Cocksucker Blues, and the most recent Crossfire Hurricane. I've read Marianne Faithfull's Faithfull, and just recently started reading Life, Keith Richards' autobiography. Although the caliber of my knowledge on the Rolling Stones was evolving, I still don't know that much about them as a band and as individual musicians. Marianne's book is basically an US Weekly tabloid glimpse into the sex, drugs and lifestyle of the band, but nothing deeper than that. Now in Life, Keef eloquently describes all these things, down to the nuances of his process in writing songs. Just like the Beatles, there are Keith songs and there are Mick songs. For the most part, Keith wrote the chords; Mick wrote the lyrics. Sometimes Keith did both. But I still don't know all there is to know about them.

So am I really just a straight up Beatles girl? In Crossfire Hurricane, the 2012 documentary directed by Brett Morgen, Keith says something about them that I found absolutely on point. He said, "The Beatles got the white hat, so what was left? The black hat." 

Are you a Beatles girl or a Stones girl? I like to think I'm somewhere in the gray. 

The end.