Restated with gentler language: Would you argue with someone who claimed Seven Nation Army had their favorite bass part? I would let them think that, because Jack White's guitar effects made it sound like a bass guitar, so I wouldn't care if it wasn't that actual instrument. When one has to look it up online or see photos from the recording session to disprove what something sounds like to the ears, then that sounds like a ticky tack argument. In the case of The Yardbirds, they already had the sitar version in the bag. If they released it then they would have gotten some rock sitar credit, and yet the riff wouldn't have sounded as cool. PS: odd to discard the influence of a forgotten rock band (with only 2 top 20 UK hits and nothing charting after 1966) but not actually counter the specifics that have been presented. Did David Bowie not write that? Did Bob Dylan and The Clash not sing that? Did Mick Jagger not do that? Did Pete Townshend not "borrow" that? Did Joey Ramone, David Gilmour, Jimmy Page, Van Morrison, Johnny Rotten, John Lennon (etc) not say that? Apparently not. I'm glad you were able to settle that with one sentence.
No, they might have been able to put together 1 more good album, but they were a mostly spent force creatively. They all had some good solo tracks, but nothing that was really groundbreaking after 1971 - there was no Sticky Fingers, Exile on Main Street, Who's Next, Dark Side of the Moon, The Wall or Some Girls in their future, and their own niche was rapidly filled by similar bands like KISS and ELO that were still hungry and writing catchy tunes.
I guess it depends on whether you can hear a "standard pop number" under a song like Strawberry Fields Forever.
The whole thing with The Beatles was the combination that gave results not just 4 times greater, but a **** ton greater. Lennon's Plastic Ono Band was innovative, but it's a bit stark for the average person. McCartney's McCartney was innovative, but it wasn't "meaningful", a little too undone and ragged and seemingly "lightweight". Harrison's All Things Must Pass was too overwhelming, great gems plus lots of other stuff. Ringo is Ringo. Abbey Road was all that refined to perfection, with Martin and Emerick....taking the same exact stuff and making it into a perfect diamond. Look at a track like I Want You (She's So Heavy)....it's almost a piece of nothing at first...a lick....The Beatles together turned it into a masterpiece.
Ob-bla-di, Ob-bla-da has a Carribean flavour to it, but that's all. It's not reggae. However, I always felt that there were elements of ska in the two 1964 songs, I Call Your Name and She's a Woman. Of course, I'm not about to claim that The Beatles invented ska, that was obviously something that came from Jamaica. I do wonder though, if they were the first white act to incorporate these elements.
In my opinion the band broke up just at the right time with their best album - Abbey Road. Too bad Let It Be was released afterwards.
@Piiijiii - Why do so many think that 1970 was the right time for them to disband when: The break-up came as a shock and the was a lot of demand for a reunion for the rest of John Lennon's lifetime. Plenty of bands, some as successful as the Rolling Stones, U2 and Radiohead, have been together longer. Did of all these become "greatest hits" bands in their first 20 years together? What neither the Beatles nor any other band explored in the 1960s or any earlier has been explored by other bands in the 1970s and even later.
I think Abbey Road is a perfect farewell album with it's golden, dreamy sound and harmonies. Released near the end of the 60s with promises for the next decade they didn't have to fulfil. And (apart from Her Majesty) with the perfect lyrical end ("And in the end...") I'm also a big fan of the first McCartney and Lennon solo albums and don't miss The Beatles in that era. Of course that's no answer to the "breaking ground" topic of that thread. They did a lot of that but it's also often exaggerated ... especially here in this forum.
Let it Be was a bit of a mess but it added some good tunes to the catalogue and some insight into their demise. No real harm done. When we all knew Abbey Road was their true final album, it all made sense.
