Rush vs The Beatles

Where do people get these misinformed opinions? The Beatles were one of the most progressive bands ever IMO. They weren’t progressive in the sense of King Crimson but I do find it ironic that they basically formed after hearing “A Day in the Life” and basically paid homage to “Tomorrow Never Knows” in one of latter albums. I think most of the early proggers were influenced by the Beatles by the way.

There is something to be said in much of the Beatles music there is such a classical sense of arrangement and their harmonies—what the Beatles did vocally is amazing. The Beatles realized they could do more in the studio, they didn’t compromise the quality of the music that was being written, but they went into the songs and created them inside themselves: double- tracking, multitracking, playing things backward, using orchestras in ways they’d never been used before.

 Wait a minute its matter of opinion if you think Rubber Soul has two good songs. I think you need to know Brian Wilson and many others thought otherwise. The Beatles not an albums band? I mean the Beatles were a huge influence in making the album an art form in rock music.

Whether the Beatles were better than the Kinks or Rush is a matter of opinion. I highly doubt both of those groups recorded albums like Rubber Soul or Sgt Pepper that influenced as many musicians as the Beatles.

Get back to me when you can find evidence of the Kinks or the Yardbirds, but, perhaps even more notably, using multitrack recording to produce something like "Tomorrow Never Knows" and then using their platform as the Most Popular Band in the world to expose millions of listeners to those new sounds. Songs like “A Day in the Life” or “Happiness Is A Warm Gun” is as progressive as anything the Kinks did.

Also calling George Harrison use of classical Indian as dabbling is pretty dismissive and also false. Nothing against Coltrane but it's not the same thing especially in the classical sense maybe read this book it explains it well. Lavezzoli, Peter (2010). The Dawn Of Indian Music In The West

The Beatles didn’t conform to the rules of playing R&B and Rock and Roll. You know the Rolling Stones “As Tears Go By” well Stones version was based on the Beatles “Yesterday” with its lone acoustic guitar and strings is a cop of the Beatles song.

The Beatles could have gone psychedelic as early as "Ticket To Ride”. Not so much the riff, but the prominent 'lop-sided' drums and the unusually (in 1965) long bars of droning really do sound like an anemic cousin of Tomorrow Never Knows in retrospect.

The songs are beautifully crafted and complex. There’s a lot of nuance there. Paul [McCartney] was one of the greatest bass players of all time. He would put the bass on after everything else was finished, and it shows. The bass lines are so melodic, and they bounce off the other stuff.