What was more influential to progressive rock? I remember reading Robert Fripp that he actually got into rock music after hearing "A Day in The Life"
What was more influential to progressive rock? I remember reading Robert Fripp that he actually got into rock music after hearing "A Day in The Life"
Why must it be just limited to those two? There are a lot of Beatles' songs that would be just as influential ("She's So Heavy" and "I Am The Walrus" just to name two)Originally Posted by NYSPORTSFAN
Indeed.
"The White Zone is for loading and unloading only. If you got to load or unload go to the White Zone!"
TNK from Revolver was even earlier
Yeah, TNK would be my choice......but there are so many!
A Day in the Life first, followed by (in no particular order) Norwegian Wood, I Am the Walrus, Daytripper, Strawberry Fields, Lucy in the Sky and others.
Member since Wednesday 09.09.09
Day in the Life made a bigger impression on the public and critics. Whether I think it's more progressive or not is unimportant.
The Fool on the Hill
Blue Jay Way
Eleanor Rigby
"Why must it be just limited to those two? There are a lot of Beatles' songs that would be just as influential ("She's So Heavy" and "I Am The Walrus" just to name two)"
Mainly because they both came earlier than She's So heavy and I Am The Walrus. It could easily be argued that both A Day In The Life and Strawberry Fields Forever were musical stepping stones to She's So Heavy and I Am The Walrus.
I think we can safely say that John had a greater influence in terms of general sound, as all four of those tracks are primarily John's songs. Paul's contribution was arranging/seguing tracks together (or was that George Martin's doing?).
A Day In The Life
Martha My Dear
Fool On The Hill
Flying
She's So Heavy
Golden Slumbers
I'm Only Sleeping
Just a few fairly groundbreaking songs imo.
"I Feel Fine", with that crazy feedback intro. It busted that fucker wide open. The bridge between surf and psychedelia. I doubt that we'd even be having this conversation without it.
^ totally agree.
which still doesn't negate the fact that any Beatles' song could have served as an influence to any artist within the entire Progressive Rock movement
Oh, "It's All Too Much"
Love that, and I feel like I hear a lot of it in a lot of psych an Krautrock, if not flat out prog.
It obviously influenced Steve Hillage for him to cover it
I agree with you and you can have a whole discussion on this topic alone. The one thing I do find interesting is how different The Beatles so-called (psychedelic sound) differs from The Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, Hendrix etc.
A song like "Tomorrow Never Knows" with all those loops, samples and based on a single chord really goes away from the folk, blues based form of rock music at the time. Its more closer to music of the 1990's than the 1960's
I just started listening to these songs like "A Day in The Life" and they just seem so different from what American psych bands were doing at the time. I can see why progressive rock bands were influenced by these tracks now.
Last edited by NYSPORTSFAN; 01-19-2014 at 02:21 PM.
Penny Lane! Way more lighthearted than each of the mentioned songs, but a pure wonder, and what a happy melody.
I wouldn't choose between the two songs in the thread title. They both have great lyrics, which I really show off John's ability with word play. Call it "word salad" if you like, but there's bits in both songs that just make me think, "How did he think to put those words together".
(Googling the lyrics now...how is it that I can remember the words to Strutter, Hotter Than Hell and Ladies And Waiting, but can't remember the words to A Day In The Life or Strawberry Fields?)
OK, here's a couple examples of what I'm talking about. First, Strawberry Fields:
"That is you can't you know tune in but it's all right
That is I think it's not too bad"
and
"Always, no sometimes, think it's me
But you know I know when it's a dream
I think I know I mean a "Yes" but it's all wrong
That is I think I disagree"
and then A Day In The Life:
"I read the news today oh boy
Four thousand holes in Blackburn, Lancashire
And though the holes were rather small
They had to count them all
Now they know how many holes it takes to fill the Albert Hall"
Some people argue the point, but I think John was definitely reaching into the English "nonsense literature" tradition of Lewis Carol and Dr. Seuss on some of those songs. I wish I could write words like that.
Having said that, if I was gonna pick a favorite Beatles song, it'd probably be either Rain, the B-side version of Revolution, Let It Be, or something off Revolver.
One of Paul's best!!
All one has to do is read the words to "I am the Walrus" to totally agree with you.............I think Bruce Springstein was going for something similar when he penned "Blinded by The Light", even though the song is about drag racing
Awhile back, someone posted some internet piece about how much of a twat John Lennon was. I can't comment on most of the things on the list, but the thing that bothered me was the guy who wrote the piece argued that Lennon was "useless" during the last few years of The Beatles. In particular, he seemed to feel that the lyrics that we're talking about were gibberish. I'm going to go out on a limb and assume the author of the piece probably flunked English Literature and presumably probably never saw Alice In Wonderland or any of the Dr. Seuss TV specials.
Not only, that, but to dismiss all the gems John wrote in "plain English" during those last few years reeks of willful ignorance.
"The White Zone is for loading and unloading only. If you got to load or unload go to the White Zone!"
If I had to choose between the two tunes, I'd take Strawberry Fields. The part that Paul wrote for A Day in the Life (woke up, fell out of bed) sort of breaks the mood for me a bit.
I know Tomorrow Never Knows is popular around here, but I never cared for it much and I consider it to be one of the lesser Beatles tunes. Take away the backwards stuff, loops and other psychedelic effects and you're left with a two chord (over one bass note) song with an 8 bar phrase that repeats over and over.
I Am the Walrus, now that was a progressive tune! So was Blue Jay Way (an underrated Beatles song imo), Girl, Good Day Sunshine and several others, though I don't rate Beatles tunes in terms of their "prog factor" or lack thereof.
And yes, Penny Lane is a great, ultra melodic song and that piccolo trumpet solo is a great addition to it!
There is a huge difference between "talking gibberish" and "listener lack of comprehension".
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote
Bookmarks