From: Mike Cooper <>
Subject: Re: The Beatles
You could argue that all the Beatles lps post "Pepper" were prog in a way not
keyboard based, but development of ideas both lyrical and chordal and themes
etc culminating with their swansong -cycle (side 2) Of Abbey Road. Perhaps if
they continued into the 70's they would have become a totally prog band (christ
M'cartney's even written classical "things") so prog collection could be most
of two entire lps, White Album and Abbey Road.
From: David Levkovitz <> Subject: Re: The Beatles
I know I am going to get a lot of heat for this, but here goes. First let me
say that I am a huge Beatles fan, especially their more "progressive" LPs.
They were extremely creative and if it weren't for their experimentation we
would not have Prog. From my understanding it was George Martin that pushed
them to experiment and he was responsible for most of the orchestrations on
their later material. As far as becoming a totally prog band, they just
weren't good enough musicians, technically, to pull off some of the things we
like most about prog.
From: "julius j saroka" <>
> (christ M'cartney's even written classical "things")
according to sources who should know, what he has _actually_ done is paid
other people to write them and put his name on them.
From: "Jeff Marx" <>
As regards anyone doing a proggy tribute to The Beatles, the only one I'm
aware of is Rick Wakeman's "Tribute" album from about 5 years ago. Mostly
nice proglite pieces, with a couple of smokers such as Rick's oft-preformed
live version of Eleanor Rigby.
From: "tonydd56" <> Subject: Re: The Beatles
Hey Steve, if I were compiling the 'BeatlesProg' album I guess it would look
something like this...
Tomorrow Never Knows Strawberry Fields Forever Fool On The Hill I Am The
Walrus Being For The Benefit of Mr. Kite Blue Jay Way Come Together If I
Needed Someone Carry That Weight A Day In The Life Hey Jude She Said She Said
Norwegian Wood Sun King She Came In Through The Bathroom Window Hey Bulldog
The End (how fitting) And just for all you SAP lovers.....Eight Days a Week
as a bonus track. No doubt I'll be castigated for leaving something off the
list.
From: Errol Allahverdi <> Subject: Re: The Beatles
Even for a Beatle-lover like me, that's kind of a tough question. It brings
back the whole "what makes something progressive" question.
For me, almost everything the Beatles did after their Help album (all the way
up to Let it Be) can in some respect be considered progressive. It was after
Help that they began really experimenting with their music without sticking
to current pop trends. They delved into the psychedelic, mystical/world
(Harrison's sitar-based stuff), and even the concept album (Sgt. Pepper) that
included all of that. They borrowed from pop styles of decades past. In fact,
they hit upon so many different genres. They were the first popular artists
to really exploit the abilities of the recording studio. They were doing
stuff that probably no one else would take a chance doing.
I really don't know what to recommend, as it seems that perhaps you just
don't like the Beatles sound. I would recommend Sgt. Pepper's but I gotta
assume you've heard that, and it doesn't do it for you. If you don't like
their most popular stuff, it's doubtful you would like their more obscure
stuff. I mean, did they really have any??
From: Bluepus <> Subject: Re: The Beatles
I recommend Abbey Road. Half of the album is brilliant and really
progressive, the other half is just brilliant.