Well-known bands that started out as "Me Too" Beatles bands?

In that case we're just going to wind up with a list of bands that came out after The Beatles for the most part.

 

I'm not "confusing" anything. I am pointing out, with facts, how Oldham for a time poised the Stones as a "Me Too" band following the Beatles strategy.

Case closed.

 

Exactly.

As a Beatles fan, this is the kind of Beatles-related thread I most hate, because it makes Beatles fans look like grasping idiots, reaching for any detail on which to hang a misbegotten assertion of the Beatles' superiority.

 

What I said about the source of the strategy and its failure are correct. If you think it "closes the case" that the Stones were a "me too" band, you are confused.

 

thanks for posting that!

 

Yes, and while you were making your first reply to me, before I even saw it, I was reading that article and editing my post to tell the full story, including the fact that the image strategy was changed.

But, the historical fact remains that the Beatles set the template for how the Stones would dress for their first-ever TV appearance. That is from Bill Wyman's own recollection. That is clearly a "Me Too" action by the Stones.

So, please do not refer to me as "confused." I am confusing nothing.

 

without a doubt no confusion there...

 

The subject of the thread is bands that started as "me too" bands of the Beatles. The Stones did not START as a "ME, TOO" band of the Beatles. Imitating the Beatles was not the reason the Stones started. Oldham tried briefly to make them kinda/sorta like the Beatles by putting them in matching outfits. It didn't work and the strategy was abandoned. This is relevant context which you wish us to ignore so you can play, "gotcha."

So you're either confused or you're blinkered. I call them as I see them.

 

Well, then: if a short-lived marketing strategy employed early on by a pre-existing band makes them a "Beatles Me Too!" band, then pretty much every band who took any inspiration from the Beatles are "Beatles Me Too!" bands, which is nuts.

 

The problem is the term "me too Beatles band" means nothing...so it could basically mean anything.

 

I'll leave you to argue with Lennon's ghost:

In October 1963, John Lennon fulminated in Melody Maker magazine about groups that appeared to be "copying" the Beatles. He seemed particularly aggrieved at a newer, London-based rhythm & blues group, which was made up at least partly of students, whose members refused to attribute their hairstyles to the Beatles' influence. Instead, they disingenuously maintained that they "just happen to have long hair." Only one group fit the bill exactly: The Rolling Stones.

 

Lennon often accused the Stones of ripping off the Beatles and he was wrong. Just because he was John Lennon doesn't mean he always knew what he was talking about.

 

I always thought that whole "sound of Liverpool" was a just a marketing ploy to cash in on the Beatles' sound (especially since Brian or his associates managed a bunch of those bands).

 

OK, dk, I'm gonna have more fun with this:

Me Too Point The First
Look at the album covers of With The Beatles (released in 1963), and The Rolling Stones (released in 1964). The Stones at least arguably copied having half their faces cast in shadow in the photograph, and then the do it again, and even more so, on the cover of Aftermath (released in 1964).

Me Too Point The Second:
And don't you think the sound of Paint It Black, released on May 13, 1966 takes an instrumental cue from Norwegian Wood, released in 1965? I do.

Me Too Point The Third:
Look at the covers of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band and Their Satanic Majesties Request, and listen to the music. You don't think the latter was an answer or response to the former? I do.

I'm sure there are many more examples of the Stones' "Me Too-ism" of the Beatles. Sure, the music and image of the two bands can be very different, but I think in the early days it was near impossible for the Stones to exist in the Beatles' shadow and not somehow end up emulating them.

 

Well, you're not going to have much fun with this, because it's all a quite different issue than whether the Stones STARTED as a "ME, TOO" band of the Beatles or not. There was some commerce between the Beatles and many bands of that era, and vice versa. But what the OP implies is misleading at best. And no, I certainly don't think that Their Satanic Majesties Request answers Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band and have posted several detailed arguments against this claim. They're easy to find if you really care to know.

 

The early Guess Who were very english invasion oriented in their style and choice of songs

 

The Stones, in the early days, were certainly more of a "Me Too" band of the Beatles than in their latter days, in my opinion.

We agree to disagree, I guess. I think the OP makes an interesting point which can be backed up by the history of the two bands.

 

Then IMO you need to revisit the Stones' early albums, which are very much at variance with the Beatles' style. If you listen to Please Please Me and The Rolling Stones (or England's Newest Hitmakers) back to back, I'm sure you will see the contrast. Subsequent albums are also at variance. They don't really start to converge musically until about '66, and any similarity is largely gone by '68.

 

I think the Stones were only a "me-too" band in the sense that they wanted to emulate the Beatles' success, not their sound.

 

The Bee Gees started around 1959-60.



They did do some Beatle covers,around '63-'64,check out their "Please Please Me" on YouTube,but by '67 when they broke out internationally,they were no more Beatle copycats than The Hollies,to name one.

 

That's nice.

It has absolutely nothing to do with the title of this thread, but it's nice.

 

They didn't cover it. It was written for them and became their second single before The Beatles version appeared on With The Beatles.

 

This thread is about whatever "validates" the thread starter's premise. Stones management selected some matching suits for them to wear on a TV appearance, which must mean that they started off only as Beatles copycats.

 

"Satanic Majesties" most certainly was a "me too" Sgt. Pepper album.

Which only further drives the point home.

 

Look, the Rolling Stones lived in the Beatles shadow for a mighty long time.

Until after the Beatles had broken up, in fact, and Mick Taylor joined the band.

I will go on further to say that it was Mick Taylor that brought the Stones out of that shell and into superstardom on their own terms at last.