The White Album vs Exile on Main Street

I saw this debate in a book about the The Beatles vs The Stones so which double album do you think is better. Mine is The White Album full of great songs

Exile is a nice album, but I hate the murky production, though I suppose that's what they were going for.  White Album is a nice album as well.  If I had to pick one over the other, I'd go for the White Album.  There are many many excellent songs on that one, though I wouldn't want to be without Tumbling Dice.  Somewhere down in the basement, I still have the post cards.  Still have that White Album poster as well.  Man those were the days.

White album. Wasn't a difficult decision for me to make. There are hardly three songs on all of Exile I enjoy, but White album has Happiness is a Warm Gun, Gently Weeps, Ob La Da, Back in the USSR, Revolution, etc. 

Double white by far

I would pick The White Album over Exile on Main Street; however, I would pick Exile over Sgt. Pepper.

Guldbamsen wrote: Hhmmm - those are by no means some of their best albums - at least for my tastes. I think Mick Taylor really brought something new to the Stones - for sure, but he worked much better on Sticky Fingers and Goat´s Head Soup (GHS is somewhat overlooked by many). The Beatles made two albums that really puts a poker up my trousers, and that´s Revolver and Abbey Road - The White Album contains a lot of classics, but it also holds a lot of Johnny Funboy songs - let´s all say Ab-lidabba bado, and everybody knows that Beefheart is the only guy who can pull such a thing off,  - and I don´t hear that many meandering songs on Exiles. That´s just taste I guess - in fact I´ll bet my entire ostrich ranch, that there´s bound to be somebody out there who feels the exact opposite....

As far as having uninvited metallic rods invade your slacks goes, that's one for your counsellor to tackle
Once again we are not comparing like with like re the Beatles and the Stones (apart from maybe the sixties competition when both were vying to top the singles charts) One is probably the greatest pop group of all time and the other is probably the greatest rock and roll band of all time. The Stones had completely abandoned any attempts at classic pop song writing by Let It Bleed (yep, that's a sly dig at another album they probably felt had the poker surgically removed from its pants...who knows?)

The White Album is a very affectionate and skilful homage to all manner of familiar popular music styles (plus a few of their own coinage) while Exile On Main Street is an unabashed rock album that acknowledges the formative influence of Robert Johnson, John Lee Hooker, Blues, R'n'B, country and black American soul.

I love both albums but there are a few tracks on the White Album that leave me completely unmoved e.g. Don't Pass Me By (the Stones never let Charlie sing did they?) Birthday, Helter Skelter, Revolution 9 and Savoy Truffle (another instalment of Harrison's consuming porcine fetish) Have to agree with Guldbamsen that Exile seems considerably more 'even' than the White Album (there are no skippable tracks for me) but they are about as similar in design and execution as ostriches and feather dusters.