How Prog were The Beatles?

Now British 80’s music is irrelevant and the Beatles aren’t. Nice turnaround.

 

You just did explain why it could be considered Prog. However, the lines always get blurred don't they.

-meter shifts.....usually associated with prog but not absolute....they occur in pop as well
-long instrumental sections....usually associated with Prog but depends on what happens harmonically during the section
-thematic development….associated with Prog but shows up in Pop as well
-modulations....associated with Prog but depends on how they are used in the harmonic structure

There is more going on in TAAB though that gets it into the Prog soup. Some have called it a suite but if you think about it, the song has some traits of sonata format IIRC. I need to listen to it and try to sus it out. I did that with Close to The Edge in the Yes Album by Album thread but it was a task to say the least. I tried to do it with The revealing Science of God and that was even harder.
The Yes Album by Album Thread

 

Irrelevant to you, perhaps. '80s pop music has been a primary influence on pop music in general for the last decade.

 

The Beatles are so special, they should have their own forum here. Easy pizy.

Are the Beatles Prog?

So the Beatles get credit for the Byrds sound? Credit for landing on the moon. Credit for inventing just about every musical genre know to man. Yes, they did everything first and didn't get any help from Chuck Berry or any other American band for their development musically.

I'm sure everything Beatles has been discussed and covered from every angle and yet we get repetitive threads all the time without that smug "its been posted before, do a search" like for so many other non Beatles threads.

That's one reason I hardly ever post in the Beatles lovefeast. I liked them but listen to more solo material when I do dig something Beatles related out. I am so over them and don't even like hearing their overplayed songs anymore.
OK, carry on. I just had to vent. Don't take it personal.

 

Well that's just silly. Being turned off a band because of social media conversations? Show some backbone, lad!

 

Agreed; also I don't see Beatle fanboying here; posting quotes that answer the O.P question regarding The Beatles influence on Prog is hardly blind admiration, it is simply recounting of comments from the Prog acts themselves.

 

Oh, I've seen plenty of Beatles fanboying in this thread. That's certainly one thing I can't dispute.

 

I hear you on this. The Beatles back catalogue is one I burned out on years ago. These days, I'm most likely to listen to McCartney's solo work than any Beatles album!

 

Yes, I'm a Beatles fan. Or at least I was in my teens. I'm not an actual fanatic anymore, just someone who enjoys the music, the stories, and recognises their influence on pop and rock music.

I'm not nor ever have been a fan of Prog Rock, so I've got nothing to gain in linking the Beatles to it, however, I would be lying if I said that they weren't a major influence upon the genre.

 

For a radical detractor, that's enough to make you a fanboy.

 

Well, by fanboying I assume you mean the quotes from McGuinn, Anderson, Fripp, Gabriel, Wyatt, etc, praising the group.

 

Robert Fripp on hearing "A Day In The Life" for the first time on the radio:

"It was terrifying; I had no idea what it was … Then it kept going. Then, there was this enormous whine note of strings. Then there was this a colossal piano chord. I discovered later that I’d come in half-way through Sgt. Pepper’s… My life was never the same again.”

Now that's a real fanboy. As much as I love The Beatles, I'd never say that they changed my life. It's only music.

 

Were they playing some kind of special version of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band where "A Day in the Life" closed side one?

 

Maybe he played side two first so that he could hear A Day In The Life sooner.

 

Maybe they played side 2 first, or maybe Fripp remembered it wrong.
Even Paul McCartney himself mixes things up like that.
He mentioned "Here, There And Everywhere" as a track from Help in a recent interview.
So why can't Bob Fripp?

 

Or maybe Fripp is part of some huge conspiracy involving many other famous acts to praise the Beatles for influencing them just to annoy people on music forums decades later ?

 

Yeah, word has it that it was Elvis and George Formby that they took all their inspiration from, but that doesn't sound so cool.

 

Backbone? It took backbone for me to post what I did-----lad. Social media conversations had nothing to do with that. I am so over the Beatles. Simple as that. Most anything remotely close to prog in the Beatles was George Martin's contribution.

 

I'd sooner listen to the album in your avatar than any Beatles record these days. Such an underrated record.

 

Here's an example of a typical detractor. Trying his best to diminish the merits of the band. They owed it all to the producer.

Reminds me of a thread on which the guy claimed he grew up because he quit listening to the Beatles.

Needless to say, Steve deleted it.

 

I would like to hear of one prog musician who didn't do it because of the beatles. (Snark and positioning don't count.) It's just a question of birth order.

 

Most of them did, actually.

 

So you are just jumping to the conclusion that a true prog artist got his prog influence from 1 Beatles song? Basically a ridiculous statement. So what King Crimson or Fripp songs do you hear this Beatles influence?

 

So which Beatles tracks do you think are the most Proggy?

 

Is praising the Beatles the same thing as influencing? Obviously the Beatles were a favorite of many people but does that mean that The Beatles influenced the music that the artists made? Fripp isn't saying that the Beatles influenced his music, he is saying that he heard it and thought that it was awesome. So did we all, even those of us who don't play music.

I don't hear much Beatles copycatting on the album In the Court of the Crimson King.

Scott