WAY-OT: Happy 50th birthday to Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band!
The first (?) "concept album," even though the concept really only encompassed three tracks on the album (George had said as much). Not a filler track on the record. It also contains what has to be considered a top-3 Beatles song in "A Day In the Life"!
That said, for my money, it's still not even a top-5 Beatles album! That honor would go to these records (in no particular order):
The White Album
Abbey Road
Rubber Soul
Let It Be
A Hard Day's Night
Revolver has to be in the top 5...
A lot of lists in music publications put "Revolver" at or close to the top. I'm not in that group. While there's not a filler track on that record, there's only one song that is a contender for even a top-20 Beatles track, and that's "Eleanor Rigby." The other 13 are somewhere between solid and good, but not spectacular.
This take is a really, really bad take.
Cousin Larry, come on.
-1 Trolling
Cannot be real.
You seriously don't think it's possible for a rational Beatles fan to make a top-20 list of Beatles songs, heck even Beatles album tracks, and only have one song on Revolver on that list?
Let's also celebrate the artists that The Beatles ripped off.
...it's otherwise known as evolution. We all stand on the shoulders of those who came before us.
Curious to know.
All he did was evolve the genre. But dont be mistaken. Blues is the Father of Rock N Roll.
Muddy Waters
Nat King Cole
Fats Domino
Louis Jordan
Charles Brown
T-Bone Walker
Carl Hogan
Howlin' Wolf
We can do this all night!
Williamson. Check out his rendition of Early In The Morning. His is the original.
Marty McFly
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The Stones' roots were in the blues. Most of their early records were pretty much blues cover records with a few originals thrown in.
The Beatles' roots were in skiffle, Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Buddy Holly, instrumental groups like the Shadows, and American R&B. They didn't really cover anything you would conventionally call the blues.
Straight blues - 1964 - cover of the Jerry Lee Lewis classic, and the title of the EP released exclusively in Canada.
Yeah, no, that song is not the blues. We're talking Chicago-style blues--not Jerry Lee Lewis rockabilly/R&B/early rock. There's a reason the Stones went straight to Chicago and recorded at Chess when they came to America.
That song is simple 12-bar blues, nothing more. I'm a musician, and am performing Long Tall Sally this weekend at a casino in San Diego. I see your marching band photo...you can quibble about style (Chicago, etc.) but the underlying chord structure is simple 12-bar blues.
We're not talking structure--we're talking genre.
The Beatles were the most original, innovative & creative rock/pop band of their time at the very least. The idea of singling them out amongst all others is absurd and insane.
Most of the shit in that link doesn't meet the standard of rip off and they totally admit to their influences and celebrate and laud them, and they admitted if and how much each of those instances were the same, partially the same or similar to the other shit. They were probably the first such big and famous group to publicly promote, praise, worship and give credit to their blues and rock forefathers and they covered several of those artists directly and helped popularize or rejuvenate some of them, and of course they covered Chuck too!
Introducing Berry at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones said, "It's very difficult for me to talk about Chuck Berry 'cause I've lifted every lick he ever played. This is the man that started it all!" Did the Beatles lift every lick?
Lennon said “If you tried to give rock-and-roll another name, you might call it ‘Chuck Berry,'”
They grew up on, were inspired by, loved, heroized and emulated those guys.
All of rock n roll, including the biggest bands of the 60's and too many to count since took from Chuck Berry, copied licks, style, moves, lyrics and songs.
Everybody used the Bo Diddley Beat, and everybody took from and built upon lots of different staples from various places that form the basis of the music.
Jazz copied, expanded, and built on jazz and evolved, changed and progressed.
Folk music was built on borrowing, sharing, changing and adding to melodies, lyrics, characters, songs and ideas.
Country the same.
Blues the same, and of course Hip Hop more than anything.
Woody Guthrie and Dylan and many others took melodies from the Carter Family, and from countless other country, folk, and other sources. Dylan took from, emulated, covered and honored Woody directly as well.
Rock n roll was a mash up of Jazz, jelly roll Jazz, Blues, Jump Blues, R&B, Country, Honky Tonk and gospel. Took licks, styles, ideas, lyrics, beats, and tunes from all of them!
Chuck was the one that took from, used, used directly or modified, and synthesized, everything he heard and learned from all of those things and gave or helped give us Rock n Roll, and others followed him directly doing the same from him and from his same and similar sources.
He sang in the choir at age 6 and studied guitar with jazz man Ira Harris as well as hearing all those influences and he built something.
But all of those genres and others have also shared, borrowed, stolen and built on each other or aspects of each other, including before Chuck.
That's the history and evolution of music
Wilson
Upvoted for "A Day in the Life" comment -- best Beatles song by far.
Also my favorite Beatles tune, but I wouldn't say by far. "Eleanor Rigby" is another great tune, "Happiness is a Warm Gun," a bunch of stuff off of the White Album, and I've always dug "Hey Jude."
Of course, I also listen to some pretty cheesy stuff sometimes (like The Bangles, Furious Five, and Carly Simon) so maybe I just have unusual tastes.
I'd throw that claim out to Pet Sounds by The Beach Boys. SPLHCB is a great album and worthy of celebration, but IIRC Pet Sounds came out first and is an amazing album in its own right.
I heard an interview with Lennon years ago, and he said him and Paul were at some big socialite party in London where the host played Pet Sounds in its entirety. After the album ended John and Paul locked eyes from across the room, and headed for the exit.
They grabbed a ride back to the studio and pretty much wrote the entire album that night.
So Pet Sounds produced Seargant Peppers.
In fairness, I've also heard that Brian Wilson heard Rubber Soul, and was absolutely obsessed with it - ultimately resulting in Pet Sounds.
So Rubber Soul inspired Pet Sounds, which in turn inspired Sgt. Pepper's. It's a shame that Wilson never really returned serve. (I know ... something, something SmiLE something. But I've never put that album in the same league.)
Here's an AV Club interview with Wilson.
AVC: You've said that just as Sgt. Pepper was The Beatles' response to Pet Sounds, Pet Sounds was your response to Rubber Soul.
BW: It really was. I heard Rubber Soul one night in my house here in L.A., and I was so blown out that I said, "I have to record an album as good or better than Rubber Soul. If I ever do anything in my life, I'm going to make that good an album." And so we did.
begat Purple Rain
By the Mothers of Invention (with Frank Zappa) could also claim to be the first concept album. It was also one of the first double albums.
Blonde on Blonde by Dylan was the first double album, followed by Zappa's Freak Out.
Freak Out! came out shortly before Blonde on Blonde (the release was delayed), but yes. The idea of a double album was crazy for a lot of folks--why that much music? Turns out Dylan and Zappa were right.
Zappa is a hard sell for a lot of people, but those early Mothers records are so, so, so great.
The first rock double album was Bob Dylan's Blonde on Blonde released on May 16, 1966.[2] It was soon followed by Frank Zappa & the Mothers Of Invention's debut record, Freak Out!, released on June 27, 1966.
Benny Goodman actually had the first double album in any genre. I got to meet him when the MMB hosted him for a game and played Let's Dance.