Is the Who Better Than the Beatles?

I asked just for fun in Quora once if the Who was better than Led Zeppelin, but this guy went one step further:

By transforming the ordinary (the semi-prescribed rules of harmony, melody, and structure) into the transformative, the Who achieved moments of sonic resonance far beyond anything the Fabs achieved—which is to say I wouldn’t trade the opening chord of “Won’t Get Fooled Again” or the sequence stutter of “Baba O’Riley” for anything in the Fabs’ catalog. And by subverting and ass-fucking the same (i.e., using tradition toward remarkable ends), the Who also achieved album-length achievements, like Quadrophenia or the extended version of Live at Leeds, that dwarf the ambition and execution of any Beatles album. The Who’s formula of power + ambition + the despair of searching for perfection unachievable and beauty unobtainable leads to human achievements, volcanic and amoebic, that humble any effort by the Beatles to perfect the marriage of rock and pop.

via For Your (Re)Consideration: Is the Who Better Than the Beatles?. Tagged under ‘heresies’.