Here we go again...

Definatly influenced a vast amount of early bands without a doubt.

Sorry folk but i happen to think they were the greatest thing to ever happen

marktheshark wrote: Guillermo wrote: I think that The Beatles were very influential, but their producer George Martin too, because he is a very smart person and he had a very open mind, and he also had the knowledge and talent to translate the musical ideas of  The Beatles (who couldn`t write or read music scores) to very good arrangements. He also was the pioneer of some technical innovations in the recording studios. Very true. Georgie was without a doubt the 5th Beatle.

Yep as i mentioned sometime ago the Beatles were not very hot as musicians but Lennon & McCartney were the greatest ever song writers with a wealth of musical ideas...& you can be but without Georgie martin,non of it would have been put to the use that it was.

The Beatles may not have been a true prog rock band, but they are surely one of the most progressive bands of all time.

Ben2112 wrote: lunaticviolist wrote: The Beatles may not have been a true prog rock band, but they are surely one of the most progressive bands of all time. I think that sums it up nicely.

If Only they could play their instruments, and didn't write pop music!!!!!

marktheshark wrote: NetsNJFan wrote: Ben2112 wrote: lunaticviolist wrote: The Beatles may not have been a true prog rock band, but they are surely one of the most progressive bands of all time. I think that sums it up nicely. If Only they could play their instruments, and didn't write pop music!!!!! You trying to tell me Tomorrow Never Knows, She Said, She Said and Strawberry Fields Forever (and these aren't the only examples I can come up with)are pop songs?!

Look at the definition of "Prog Rock" on this site....they don't fit................maybe art rock, but that is barely prog anyway (supertramp, jeez!)

marktheshark wrote: NetsNJFan wrote: Ben2112 wrote: lunaticviolist wrote: The Beatles may not have been a true prog rock band, but they are surely one of the most progressive bands of all time. I think that sums it up nicely. If Only they could play their instruments, and didn't write pop music!!!!! You trying to tell me Tomorrow Never Knows, She Said, She Said and Strawberry Fields Forever (and these aren't the only examples I can come up with)are pop songs?!

Tommorow never knows...well steve hillage did a great cover

marktheshark wrote: Karnevil9 wrote: marktheshark wrote: NetsNJFan wrote: Ben2112 wrote: lunaticviolist wrote: The Beatles may not have been a true prog rock band, but they are surely one of the most progressive bands of all time. I think that sums it up nicely. If Only they could play their instruments, and didn't write pop music!!!!! You trying to tell me Tomorrow Never Knows, She Said, She Said and Strawberry Fields Forever (and these aren't the only examples I can come up with)are pop songs?!   Tommorow never knows...well steve hillage did a great cover Really. The only cover I knew was Phil Collins. I'll have to check it out.

Whoops!Sorry my mistake Hillage covered ''Getting better' & ''All too much''

The band :801 did it though.

While were on it..Pip pyle covered 'Strawberry fields'

NetsNJFan wrote: Ben2112 wrote: lunaticviolist wrote: The Beatles may not have been a true prog rock band, but they are surely one of the most progressive bands of all time. I think that sums it up nicely. If Only they could play their instruments, and didn't write pop music!!!!!

Could play their instruments?! I will admit that Ringo isn't the greatest drummer ever, but as I've read in a different thread, he was the king of "less is more" drumming. Paul McCartney was one of the best bassists ever, in my opinion, and a lot of my defense comes from Abbey Road. Not only that, but he drummed on quite a few songs that were too complex for Ringo such as Back in the USSR, and others. Furthermore he played guitar AND piano on quite a few songs. The acoustic guitar solo at the end of Wild Honey Pie on The White Album was Paul. George is a whole different story. Not only is he one of my favorite guitar players of all time, he can play the sitar, and every brass instrument. His arrangements on Love You To and Within You and Without You are extraordinary. John, too, was a very good guitar and piano player and should be credited as highly as the other two.

Butterfleef wrote: Not only that, but he drummed on quite a few songs that were too complex for Ringo such as Back in the USSR, and others. Furthermore he played guitar AND piano on quite a few songs.

The reason he played drums in Back in the USSR was because at the time it was recorded, Ringo wasn't in the Beatles. Tensions were so high during the White Album sessions that he just got up and left. Fortunately, after a few days, he came to his senses and returned to the Beatles. Paul also played drums on 'The Ballad of John and Yoko'. 

Butterfleef wrote: NetsNJFan wrote: Ben2112 wrote: lunaticviolist wrote: The Beatles may not have been a true prog rock band, but they are surely one of the most progressive bands of all time. I think that sums it up nicely. If Only they could play their instruments, and didn't write pop music!!!!!   Could play their instruments?! I will admit that Ringo isn't the greatest drummer ever, but as I've read in a different thread, he was the king of "less is more" drumming. Paul McCartney was one of the best bassists ever, in my opinion, and a lot of my defense comes from Abbey Road. Not only that, but he drummed on quite a few songs that were too complex for Ringo such as Back in the USSR, and others. Furthermore he played guitar AND piano on quite a few songs. The acoustic guitar solo at the end of Wild Honey Pie on The White Album was Paul. George is a whole different story. Not only is he one of my favorite guitar players of all time, he can play the sitar, and every brass instrument. His arrangements on Love You To and Within You and Without You are extraordinary. John, too, was a very good guitar and piano player and should be credited as highly as the other two.

Just a quick mention:Ringo owns Carl Palmers old Stainless steel drum kit.

Ringo had a fantastic feel for what he was doing in the context of the incredible song-writing masterclasses that John and Paul gave the rest of the world.

Sure it's "less is more" - but many if not most of the greatest drummers could learn a thing or two from Ringo. Over-busy drumming in music can kill songs for all but the most ardent drum fans, and drum solos are often the times that the bar is busiest at most gigs I've been to.

Prog rock is not virtuoso music, otherwise the Satrianis and Malmsteens would be in the archives.

The Beatles were the greatest influence that pop/rock music has ever had, enormously creative and experimental - but prog rock owes its creation to other sources as well;

The Byrds, who practically invented psychedelia, and the psychedelia/garage scene.

John Mayall/Alexis Korner and the British Blues movement of the early 1960s.

Folk music generally and the folk-rock that sprang up around the same time as psychedelia - especially Woody Guthrie and Bob Dylan - later including bands like Love, who melded the two genres.

In all the above, the Beatles were probably catalysts for major changes in the genres, but there are also sources of prog rock inspiration in which the Beatles' influence is far, far lower;

Jazz - and later fusion, notably Miles Davis,

"Classical" music - Rakhmaninov particularly, but few eras left unplundered.

...so I don't think the Beatles started the whole thing, but they were, of course, incredibly influential.

Well, what can I add...?

Maybe only the fact that (ommitting some obvious examples) it's not really a good idea to base one's opinion of someone's instrumental prowess on how spectacular his/her music sounds. IMO more often than not one may be disappointed (or pleasantly surprised, depending on the situation) by the reality behind the sounds.

Yes, I do want to defend the likes of Ringo Starr, Nick Pointer and Paul Cook here, even though I'm one of these drum fanatics who loves his drumming to be (creatively) all over the place and drools at the prospect of a 10+ minute drum solo.

What about 'The Nice' 'Moody Blues' 'Procul Harum' 'Tomorrow' 'Traffic' 'Small Faces' ect?

These are the bands that started the prog movement!

Progger wrote: I always associate prog with long complex pieces of music. What was the longest song the Beatles ever recorded?

Have a stab at ''Revolution 9''

Karnevil9 wrote: Progger wrote: I always associate prog with long complex pieces of music. What was the longest song the Beatles ever recorded?   Have a stab at ''Revolution 9''

How about the two medlies on "Abbey Road" - don't they count?

I guess the whole progrock thing was just waiting to happen. The Beatles were very influential, but other bands like The Nice, The Moodies, Procol Harum and Pink Floyd were also hinting in that direction.

Read Ed Macan's book "Rocking The Classics; English Progressive Rock And The Counterculture", and you see that the time was ripe: drugs that expanded the minds of the counterculture, the search for other than material values, people with some musical knowledge who became interested in rock.

On a certain level I think that the following statement is true: without Sgt. Pepper, no progrock. But on the other hand: if the fab four hadn't been there, others would have led the development which lead to progrock. It was "in the air", waiting to be born.

I have Mark Lewisohn`s  book "The Beatles: Recording Sessions-The Official Abbey Road Studio Sessions Notes 1962-1970".(published in 1988). In this book:

-George Martin says that Ringo was their "metronome" and that he rarely did mistakes in the studio.

-Ringo returned to the studio during the "White Album" recording sessions mainly because he was called by the band because they had to appear on TV the next day to promote the "Hey Jude" single (they played the song live on TV; there are some scenes of this clip on the "Anthology" video).

-Ringo left the band for two weeks. He was tired of waiting for the rest of the members of the band to arrive to the studio. He also was criticized by Paul. During 1968 the Egos of some members of The Beatles were bigger than before. That`s why the "White Album" was a double album: The Beatles wanted to record all the songs they have composed then. George Martin suggested to them to only record the best songs for a single album. He lost. Recording Engineer Geoff Emerick left the recording sessions of this album because he was tired of seeing The Beatles fighting in the studio. George Martin also went to holidays for the same reason, and he was replaced by Chris Thomas. After Martin returned to the studio, he and Thomas worked together with The Beatles . During Ringo`s absence they only recorded two songs as a trio: "Back in the USSR" and "Dear Prudence", with Paul playing the drums. The rest of the booked recording sessions were used to record songs alone (Paul and John in different studios in Abbey Road;John began his "Revolution 9" song then) and some of them were canceled until Ringo`s return.

easy livin wrote: What do you consider to be the second medley Cert? The whole of side 2 is one of them (presumably), but I've always thought of side one as separate tracks.

I hear side 2 as "Here Comes the Sun", then two distinct medlies; "Because" -> "She Came in Through the Bathroom Window", then "Golden Slumbers" -> "End", with "Her Majesty" as a kind of cheeky finale.

If you'll look at the influences of Robert Fripp, who for the most part created prog, the Beatles are the largest influence.

The Beatles basically formed two roads, the pop road which now consists of all the comerical artists, and the experimental road which influened King Crimson and Yes and The Nice and Genesis and led to musical progression. Of course prog, the road less taken, has made all the difference.