THE BEATLES?

Yes. Beatles Rocks and Proggs!

 

 

 

I think what the Beatles did as well as some San Francisco bands, Cream, The Moody Blues, etc. did was to pay the dues and set the table for what happed in the early 70's.  The main thing was to get greater artist control of what went on each LP, the introduction of organ and other keyboards in the sound mix and the more complex compositions. I also think that by their popularity that the muisic of the early 70's was much more accepted than it is today.

Certif1ed wrote: Progressive = YES, absolutely! Prog Rock = Possibly "Being For the Benefit of Mr Kite!" or even "Day in the Life", but nothing else - including "Tomorrow Never Knows" or "Revolution #9".   (IMHO)

Take one late '60s newbie hippy, give him far too many hallucinogenic drugs whilst telling him he's a very, very, very clever man indeed, lock him in a recording studio overnight with a retarded simian, who just happens to be similarly drug enhanced, throw away anything good that happens to be recorded, then play the remainder backwards and allow retarded simian 2 to mix the remainder (with a great deal of its bodily effluvia), and voila: Revolution #9!

Erm - not my favorite track on 'The White Album'

And as for 'Oh Bla Di Oh Bla Da' or whatever they called it.......

***door slams, and from within the sound of insane ranting can be heard with the muffled crashing of breaking furniture***

The Beatles were progressive in their later years, but not Prog in my opinion. The same could be said about Jimi Hendrix. I believe that Prog grew out of the foundations set by bands such as Procol Harum and The Moodies!

That's like asking if God's a Democrat or a Republican. He's above all that and so are they. Not saying that they are God Almighty, but they are certainly gods of all rock and roll. Remember, rock was dark and without substance, then came Elvis who took it from dark to light. Then came the Beatles who expanded the genre and saw that it was good. Where the Beatles went, rock followed. Everybody and I mean everybody at the time waited to see what direction the Beatles would take music next. Hendrix, Zappa, Beach Boys, Jagger, LZ, Tull, Yes, Dylan, Doors, Paul Simon, Elton John, not to mention the country western, jazz and pop stars, they all took their cues from the Beatles. Make no mistake: no Beatles, no Prog. They taught the world how far rock 'n roll could go. Ask the giants of prog what they thought of the Beatles. Ask Jon Anderson, Ian Anderson, Robert Fripp, Frank Zappa (if he were alive). They will tell you the same thing I've already said. They were gods. True, there were embryonic awakenings of prog with other bands at the time in remote places under obscure names, but nobody with the name power of the Beatles who had the ability to pioneer and experiment with every type of music and have it commercially successful. And thats how the Beatles (unbiet known to themselves) started prog: by borrowing sounds from everything and every type of music and experimenting and having commercial success. It must be remembered that without commercial success most music by the modern era would die a premature death. So when you're taking about the Beatles take your shoes off proggers your on holy ground.

Sgt Pepper's could be a little prog.