Quote:
Originally Posted by kriswright
Beatles.
But if Brian had had another Smile or two in him, it'd have been a lot more close.
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I think that's key. I dearly love and grew up with both bands, but the sad fact is, the Beach Boys 'Golden' period didn't really last that long. Their early albums really weren't very good - a few singles and a lot of crap, as was typical of the day. With the exception of the 'Surfin USA' album, which wasn't a good album so much as it was just a lucky collection of more good songs than usual, you can get nearly everything worthwhile from this period on the 'Endless Summer' comp.
It wasn't till 'All Summer Long' and especially 'Summer Days' that the boys really started making interesting albums and then, after Smile, they started getting very inconsistent again, thanks to Brian going nuts and Mike just being an *******.
I don't know that either band was more influential than the other, but I do think the Beatles created the bigger and more diverse body of work.
And yeah, I know the Beatles had their fare share of dross on their early albums too, but they weren't nearly as bad as the Beach Boys early lp's.