Pardon the slight (?) hijack, but Who fans might be interested in checking out Roger Daltrey and Wilko Johnson’s new album, Going Back Home.
This was tough, because I love all four bands.
The Beatles, because, come on, they’re the Beatles!
The Rollings Stones I have been getting more and more into lately. Didn’t care as much for them before, but they have certainly grown on me.
But it really comes down to The Who and Led Zeppelin. They are almost tied for number one as far as I’m concerned (along with Boston, but they’re not an option). The Who songs that I like I really like, but the same for Zeppelin, and they have more songs that I listen to, so that gave them the edge for my vote.
I love The Who, and Zep and The Stones are both great, but listening to nothing else but any one of those bands all the time would soon get very dull indeed. The Beatles covered a much wider musical range, were much more varied in their output.
I didn’t even have to think about it - The Beatles. No contest. Which isn’t to say I don’t like the others, but in terms of the percent of each band’s songs I like, The Beatles is around 99.99% (coughcoughRevolution9coughcough), while the rest are much, much lower. To put it another way, if I had all The Beatles songs ever written in a single playlist on shuffle, no matter what came up, I’d be happy. The Who, Led Zep, The Stones - I like a handful of songs from each of them, but the majority is . . . blah. Or worse than blah. Of course, looking back from a historical viewpoint, you don’t remember the bad songs - only the legendary hits.
Plus, come on. It’s The Beatles.
Count me as another Kinks fan but I still gotta vote The Beatles for their diversity, songwriting and massive about of material for the comparatively short time they were together.
Revolution 9 is brilliant. Revisit it for the textures, rhythms and changes. Compare it to other avant garde efforts of the same vein from the era. It wears much better than Zappa or Capt Beefheart because they were just so damn earnest in trying to actually say something important. Rev 9 might be a lark and a joke, but it was so much better than its now forgotten contemporaries that it still says “John Lennon farts more interesting things than the wannabes.”
That said, I’ve come to hate a lot of early Beatles stuff. Run For Your Life? Really guys? There are a dozen really misogynistic Beatles songs that I find far more revolting than anything the Stones did except Under My Thumb, which still has a great riff despite it’s vicious lyrics. And Yesterday? Shit, I hear that now and it sounds like some dumped loser in a fetal position dribbling into a cup and sobbing. That said, I have no problems skipping over songs I don’t like. (Never did like Michelle. My belle. Go to hell. Gee you smell.)
Threads like this always serve to remind me how different my music preferences are. Not only are the Beatles not my first choice, I would choose to NOT have music on my island if all I could have is The Beatles. Can’t say why, but nothing in their catalog does anything for me.
My order: Led Zeppelin, the Stones, the Who, nothing, then the Beatles.
The Stones.
…they’d just take credit for all the other bands’ songs.
In my more affluent working days we bought the whole catalogs of Rolling Stones, Who, Led Zep, Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix [and Rammstein and around 100 albums of Smithsonian Folkways ranging from Woodie Guthrie to Pete Seeger] I would normally not consider picking a single 60s/70s act, I really do lean towards Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin. Who are good, but I can only take so many arm waving power cords.
I tend to confuse people when they ride in the car with me - my ipod can shuffle from anything from Wolgemut, Mozart, Rammstein, the Fibonnacis, Grasu XXL, Woodie Guthrie, Laibach, Pete Seeger, Cab Calloway, Black [Sabbath](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/planet caravan black sabbath) and Huun Huur Tu. I think that about the only stuff you will not find is bubble gum boy band pop and the really whiney country-western shit.
Ha! Quoted for truth. I love Zep – always have, always will – but some of their uncredited thefts have been, well, ballsy – check out Bert Jansch’s Black Water Side.
Holy smokes, here’s Sonny Boy Williamson doing Willie Dixon…this time, I actually thought I was hearing “Bring it On Home” from Zep II! Plant’s mimicking of every nuance of the voice, and Page of the guitar, is uncanny…that does take real skill! Credits would have been a nice touch. 
You make the point, there’s no attempt to even pretend it’s not someone else’s work.
And, referring to the link, of course it was settled out of court - why would it not. It’s not like they were denying it.
I guess the issue of crediting the source material would have been a legal/management decision. It’s a shame but Peter Grant wasn’t exactly known for his generous nature.
There’s a story of a mathematics professor who was doing a word problem in class and said, “Now, x will represent the number of sheep.” A student asked him, “But what if x isn’t the number of sheep?” The professor said, “That’s either the stupidest or the most profound question I’ve ever heard, but I can’t tell which.” With Rev 9, I kind of feel the same way - either there’s something incredible there that I’m just not deep enough to get, or it’s just a load of random noise. I’ll go back to it soon and give it another listen . . .
And yeah, Run For Your Life is a terrible song. Although I do like Yesterday and Michelle, though the latter may not be their . . . strongest effort lyrically. 
Led Zep, The Stones, The Beatles, or The Who?
Well I like harmony’s so, The Beatles, but
I like to Rock and no one screams better than Daltry so, The Who, but
I like music that has some soul to it so, The Stones, but
If I had to choose one, I’d rather have the power of Led Zep cranking Kashmir on the speakers in the end.* (Even though they stole a bunch of their stuff)
*
Cant decide b/t Stones or Zep.
Beatles are just so much commercialized pap to me. Never ever did like them.
Gotta go with The Beatles. The others, while I like some songs, I just could never really get into that much. I didn’t get into them until 1980 or so, but it was The Beatles who taught me how to rock & roll.
The Who’s not in first?
No, they moved I Don’t Care over there.
A very tough choice, but I went with the Stones simply because I’m not as familiar with their catalog as I am with the other three groups. I’ve owned every single Beatles and Zeppelin album. The Who didn’t have a deep catalog of studio releases.