Should the Beach Boys be considered Proto? |
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SteveG
Forum Senior Member Joined: April 11 2014 Location: Kyiv In Spirit Status: Offline Points: 20604 |
Posted: September 10 2014 at 14:12 | ||||
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Padraic
Special Collaborator Honorary Collaborator Joined: February 16 2006 Location: Pennsylvania Status: Offline Points: 31169 |
Posted: September 10 2014 at 14:23 | ||||
Your first post asks "Should the Beach Boys be considered Proto Prog?"
The argument in favor needs to demonstrate influence on progressive rock artists. |
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SteveG
Forum Senior Member Joined: April 11 2014 Location: Kyiv In Spirit Status: Offline Points: 20604 |
Posted: September 10 2014 at 14:41 | ||||
Edited by SteveG - September 10 2014 at 14:41 |
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Padraic
Special Collaborator Honorary Collaborator Joined: February 16 2006 Location: Pennsylvania Status: Offline Points: 31169 |
Posted: September 10 2014 at 14:59 | ||||
Stop right there. We don't do "proto-proto-prog". |
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SteveG
Forum Senior Member Joined: April 11 2014 Location: Kyiv In Spirit Status: Offline Points: 20604 |
Posted: September 10 2014 at 15:01 | ||||
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Padraic
Special Collaborator Honorary Collaborator Joined: February 16 2006 Location: Pennsylvania Status: Offline Points: 31169 |
Posted: September 10 2014 at 15:02 | ||||
Yes, it's turtles all the way down. |
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SteveG
Forum Senior Member Joined: April 11 2014 Location: Kyiv In Spirit Status: Offline Points: 20604 |
Posted: September 10 2014 at 15:05 | ||||
^Now if we can just figure out what happened before the Big bang...
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Dean
Special Collaborator Retired Admin and Amateur Layabout Joined: May 13 2007 Location: Europe Status: Offline Points: 37575 |
Posted: September 10 2014 at 18:47 | ||||
To clear the air, this is my philosophy for any post I make on the internet
So if you want to cast aspersions about my lack of response to your argument I will take them on the chin and move on. My one-liner was a tad more than Rubber Soul was released before Pet Sounds - it also contained another generally accepted 'fact', Rubber Soul influenced Pet Sounds. And that is germane when discussing who influenced who and when. The central point of your argument is Wilson's use of the "studio as an instrument", a phrase that we hear often in regard to The Beatles and can be traced back through Joe Meek, Phil Spector and Tom Dowd to Les Paul who pioneered studio overdubbing. And therein lies the problem - this is first attributed to The Beatles on Rubber Soul in 1965 and progressed further during the Revolver sessions, which we have already determined was more-or-less "in the can" by the time Pet Sounds was released. I still maintain (as per my post in the SMiLE thread back in June) that Pet Sounds influenced some of Revolver, but not by any significant degree and probably just on the one accepted track (Here, There and Everywhere) - [no back-tracking from me there]. What also cannot be disputed (because Paul McCartney has acknowledged it), is that Pet Sounds inspired The Beatles to produce Sgt Pepper's. How much of the studio techniques that Wilson employed were aped by The Beatles and the Abbey Road Engineers is a matter of conjecture, I suspect it was more a parallel development and exploration by artistically gifted people given a free-run in a studio. As yourself has stated, none of this "influence" was in music, though there are "Beach-Boys" references in a couple of Beatles songs (starting with Girl from Rubber Soul) - they were incredibly eclectic in the truest sense of the word and pulled musical influences from practically every piece of music they'd ever heard regardless of genre or style and that is a reflection of their background in music and what they grew-up listening to. This practically defines everything about The Beatles and goes a long way to explain why the seemingly simple "Beat" tunes they were writing in the early 60s surprised later musicologists when they tried to meticulously analyse them [ref: Theodor W. Adorno]. This eclecticism extended to the sound of the instruments and playing techniques - they'd hear something they liked the sound of and wanted to replicate it in their own way, McCartney's switch to the Rick bass was an example of that.
We don't have album tagging so an artist is placed in a category that is the best for their entire body of work and not a single album, Zappa cannot be pinned to a single genre or category but we have to pick one and his placement in RIO/Avant-Prog is not for Freak Out! alone. Many "proto" artists reside in other subgenres here. Inspiring is not influencing - this is not a subtle distinction nor is it splitting-hairs over word definitions. For the sake of comparison an album that is influenced by another artist or album will show some sonic or musical evidence of that influence, an album that is inspired by another artist or album will have no such sonic or musical evidence. At their peak The Beatles were without rival, the rivalry and competition with other bands is overstated and exaggerated (more to bolster the careers of their "rivals" than The Beatles themselves), other bands may have seen themselves as serious contenders but in reality there was simply no competition. Even in the field of artistic creation I suspect that the "rivals" put more effort into trying to catch-up with The Beatles (erm Their Satanic Majesties Request) than the Beatles ever did in trying to better what someone else had already done. But that is not to say The Beatles were not inspired by what they heard to push themselves and their own creations. Pet Sounds and Freak Out! didn't goad them back into the studio, that's being over melodramatic and just a little "creative journalism" on the part of Mr Norman.
There does appear to be a number of misconceptions about Proto Prog as we use it here at the Prog Archives (as opposed to how other people use it elsewhere). For the purposes of the PA Proto Prog is a category that collates the embryonic beginnings of Progressive Rock and not its influences (neither direct nor indirect) nor what inspired it. Proto Prog is not a list of bands that influenced the early Prog bands (that would be a somewhat daft and meaningless category).
Edited by Dean - September 10 2014 at 18:55 |
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SteveG
Forum Senior Member Joined: April 11 2014 Location: Kyiv In Spirit Status: Offline Points: 20604 |
Posted: September 10 2014 at 19:18 | ||||
^Not an attack, just an observation. Printed words that yeild no
response. But it is my subjective opinion and you have the right to
resent it or view it as false. The only one that knows the truth is you,
so you are correct in your criticism.
As for Rubber Soul being some sort of vanguard of studio recording, that to me is laughable. As I stated, the album was praised for it's Dylan like song developments and overall song quality, not it's sonic quality which was still very much in line with previous Beatles recordings in regards to Microphone placement and types, recording volume, EQ ing and the like. There is nothing sonically remarkable about Rubber Soul compared to Help or A Hard Day's Night. My quandry with the Proto Prog catagory is if the Proto Prog groups did not influence any future Prog groups, why have the catagory and if the criteria is that they influenced future Progressive Rock groups then how does one prove it? The only substantial way to prove one musical artist's influence over another is through vocal and musical mimicry, not by the instruments they used or how many guitar players they had. In other words, if the Beatles are Proto Prog then who sounds like them? Who did Lucy In The Sky part 2. or I AM the Walrus (Again). Hendrix is listed as Proto Prog but who the hell sounds like him and exactly why is he Proto Prog? Again, I've never heard Yes do something that sounds like Purple Haze or Are You Experienced. Thank God. Which brings us back to Pet Sounds. Who sounds like the Beach Boys doing Sloop John B. or Wouldn't It be Nice? The same answer as the rest. Nobody. So how come the're not Proto Prog. They seem to fit the same criteria.Which is still as vague when I started out this comparison. Perhaps it because Proto has had it's day Edited by SteveG - September 10 2014 at 19:29 |
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ProgFather
Forum Newbie Joined: September 06 2014 Status: Offline Points: 2 |
Posted: September 10 2014 at 20:05 | ||||
No, at least not until "Love You" ....where Brian plays the farty synths and sings "Solar System"
I reserve the right to add humor to my second post, BTW. |
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Dean
Special Collaborator Retired Admin and Amateur Layabout Joined: May 13 2007 Location: Europe Status: Offline Points: 37575 |
Posted: September 10 2014 at 20:05 | ||||
Eh? There are more polite ways of requesting a response from me (or anyone).
No one ever claimed it was a vanguard of studio recording. Unfortunately the appropriate Wikipedia link will not embed into a post, go to Wikipedia and search "The Beatles' recording technology" - failing that, the cited reference is Lewisohn - The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions p. 54
That isn't a written criteria. The word "influence" does not appear in our genre definition of Proto Prog. As I said: "There does appear to be a number of misconceptions about Proto Prog as we use it here at the Prog Archives"
The influence of The Beatles is evident in many of the early Prog albums, but doing Lucy In The Sky part 2 would be a pastiche not an influence. But as I said: "For the purposes of the PA Proto Prog is a category that collates the embryonic beginnings of Progressive Rock and not its influences (neither direct nor indirect) nor what inspired it. Proto Prog is not a list of bands that influenced the early Prog bands (that would be a somewhat daft and meaningless category). "
I think the Proto Prog category had its day about ten years ago. Adding bands now is superfluous. |
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earlyprog
Collaborator Neo / PSIKE / Heavy Teams Joined: March 05 2006 Location: . Status: Offline Points: 2133 |
Posted: September 11 2014 at 05:09 | ||||
Influence on the progressive rock movement - including its earliest form, proto prog - does not render the music proto prog. Beatles and Hendrix are proto prog because they actually played long sections of music that was prog rock but not yet fully developed to song long or even album long prog rock. For instance, Beatles could be labelled proto crossover prog, proto raga prog etc. Hendrix played space rock (7th Stone), as did the Beatles (Flying), a prog rock genre. I cannot think of any Beach Boys song that represents proto 'insert prog rock genre'. Well perhaps something on Smiley Smile.
However, the Beach Boys I think did contribute to the earliedst stage of the development of progressive rock, namely the Ideation phase and perhaps even the conceptualization stage. But they never entered the development stage as the bands listed as proto prog on PA. Pet Sounds and Sgt. Pepper freed the minds of the musicians (ideation stage) including Robert Fripp and the rest is history. Technology in its broadest sense (studio technique, song writing skills, instruments, management) surely was the input to the development of prog rock, but if the output - the music - does not sound like prog it cannot even be labelled proto prog.
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SteveG
Forum Senior Member Joined: April 11 2014 Location: Kyiv In Spirit Status: Offline Points: 20604 |
Posted: September 11 2014 at 08:47 | ||||
Good Vibrations was recorded at 17 different sessions and four different recording studios. It ws edited together to form a multi part song suite with an intro, verse, chorus, repeat of verse and chorus, and (for the time) a lenthy instrumental break and final chorus while sporting lyrics that today are dated but were quite hip in 1966 with the added psychedelic embelishment of an Electro-Theremin. (see Revolver: How the Beatles Reimagined Rock 'n' Roll by Robert Rodridguez) This song is psychedelic enough for me and is as proto as anything else stated and warrants the band's placement in that catogory. Edited by SteveG - September 11 2014 at 09:06 |
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SteveG
Forum Senior Member Joined: April 11 2014 Location: Kyiv In Spirit Status: Offline Points: 20604 |
Posted: September 11 2014 at 09:18 | ||||
[Originally quoted by Dean]
Proto Prog is not about influence. I think the Proto Prog category had its day about ten years ago. Adding bands now is superfluous. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Proto
Proto Prog not being about influence is fine, you stated that twice as this will help many members that believed that it was based on influence as you can see from the posts in this thread. Adding the Beach Boys then for their work on Good Vibrations, based on it's heavy nod to psychedelia and suite like song construction, would not be superfluous then but simply correct. Refer to post above to EarlyProg. Edited by SteveG - September 11 2014 at 09:21 |
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Tapfret
Special Collaborator Honorary Collaborator / Retired Admin Joined: August 12 2007 Location: Bryant, Wa Status: Offline Points: 8581 |
Posted: September 11 2014 at 11:47 | ||||
Are you this guy?
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Padraic
Special Collaborator Honorary Collaborator Joined: February 16 2006 Location: Pennsylvania Status: Offline Points: 31169 |
Posted: September 11 2014 at 11:57 | ||||
Edited by Padraic - September 11 2014 at 11:58 |
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SteveG
Forum Senior Member Joined: April 11 2014 Location: Kyiv In Spirit Status: Offline Points: 20604 |
Posted: September 11 2014 at 17:02 | ||||
I'm actually this guy Tapfret. Why don't you Private Pessage me so I can have you over for dinner. Then you could meet my friends and jam. The're a lot of fun too.
"Doing the right thing is never superfluous." Edited by SteveG - September 13 2014 at 10:09 |
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King Crimson776
Forum Senior Member Joined: October 12 2007 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 2779 |
Posted: September 12 2014 at 02:40 | ||||
If the Beatles are, then yes. Whatever the reasoning was for them, go with that. 'Smile' is certainly more progressive than any Beatles album.
The counter would be that the Beatles have a greater amount of proto prog music. I think it's inane to deny the place of Pet Sounds, Smile, Surf's Up and various other BB moments in the development of prog just because it would mean adding all those fluffy early BB albums. The Beatles had those too.
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Atavachron
Special Collaborator Honorary Collaborator Joined: September 30 2006 Location: Pearland Status: Online Points: 65241 |
Posted: September 12 2014 at 03:32 | ||||
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"Too often we enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought." -- John F. Kennedy
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Svetonio
Forum Senior Member Joined: September 20 2010 Location: Serbia Status: Offline Points: 10213 |
Posted: September 12 2014 at 03:46 | ||||
LOL, if you're not their fan, then you should start this thread with The Steve Miller Band in the title of the thread. Because they were a Progressive rock band in the late sixties; I mean, when our beloved genre already existed as such. But somehow The Steve Miller Band are not in Proto Prog / Prog-Related section yet although they were released two full prog albums (the two of the milestones of the prog genre, actually) in 1968. Even Pink Floyd stolen from them some very interesting riffs.. Edited by Svetonio - September 12 2014 at 06:27 |
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