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Musicologist Wilfrid Mellers on the Beatles and the Stones (1980): “If you compare the Beatles with the Rolling Stones, who were their contemporaries, the Beatles remained innocent but the Rolling Stones didn’t. The Stones used dark elements in a very savage way. The rhythms were much more ferocious and their vocal techniques were much more violent. Of course, it all had the might of decibels behind it. Partly, I suppose it’s a matter of industrial exploitation. The thing is put over in vast arenas for vast numbers of people. But also I think the sheer decibel content is part of the ‘blowing of the mind’ effect. One no longer listens to variations of tone or timbre. They are not really relevant. One is simply engulfed by it.”
