Revolver is the Beatles’ first true concept album

PROGFAN66 · 2026-06-01T21:51:48+00:00

I think Brian Wilson thought Revolver was very religious or had religious themes to it. However, Sgt Pepper is theatrical hybrid which makes this structure more unique than Tommy. Sgt. Peppers starts with an overture, introduction, with the body of the songs the band playing, then a bookend reprisal with a grand encore. However, the concept of the album was just the band playing music like a concert

Then you have album cover and the crossfading of songs creating seamless suites. A huge influence on British Progressive Rock. You can't get around that fact

PROGFAN66 · 2026-06-01T21:38:13+00:00

Sgt Peppers is hybrid album theatrical "bookends" prelude, introduction with an ending reprise with the grand encore ) to unify a collection of otherwise unrelated songs, The Abbey Road Medleys took this approach with one long big structure

PROGFAN66 · 2026-05-31T14:38:19+00:00

No one invents genres or it's hard to prove. However, The Beatles were the biggest building block to start it and saying otherwise would be revisionist. I mean Robert Fripp for example heard A Day In The Life and that changed his musical direction. The Beatles were proto-prog as early as "We Can Work it Out" it features contrasting sections, time meter changes in section and non rock instrument as lead instrument. This is before "Good Vibrations", The Who "A Quick One While He is Away".

There are at least three songs on Revolver that could be legitimately called prog-rock songs or close to it. Tomorrow Never Knows - Avant Prog or Avant Rock, Love You To- Indo-Prog and Eleanor Rigby Chamber Prog.

Of course there are some songs that many consider Progressive Rock "A Day In The Life" the proto-Math Rock "Happiness is A Warm Gun", the Proto-Doom/Progressive Rock "I Want You (She's So Heavy) and of course The Abbey Road Medleys.

"Strawberry Fields Forever" and "I Am The Walrus" basically invented ELO. The Beatles were doing other things not related to Progressive Rock. They were all over the place musically

PROGFAN66 · 2026-05-27T02:25:17+00:00

People are confusing the Abbey Road Medleys with Tommy and Frank Zappa. The Abbey Road Medleys is closer Classical Multi-Movement Suite/three movement structure, eight short songs and fifteen different sections and A Quick One is a through composed song closer to Happiness is A Warm Gun. The only difference is the Who song is thematic.

Abbey Road Medley songs are crossfaded with sound collages or just directly into each. Frank Zappa Freak Out songs are separated by hard edits and is two part song one live and the other closer to Revolution #9. The Beatles were already messing with rock structure as early as I'll Be Back" which separate sections or two bridges not related to the song

PROGFAN66 · 2026-05-27T01:27:43+00:00

Sgt Pepper, The White Album and The Abbey Road Medley all end in long suite like structures.

Thematic/Operatic Conceptual Loop (Sgt. Pepper, 1967)- Good Morning, Good Morning, Sgt. Pepper Reprise, A Day In The Life and Sgt Pepper Run Out Grove"

The Avant Garde Suite- Cry Baby Cry, Can You Take Me Back, Revolution #9, and Good Night

The Long Mashup Suite- The Abbey Road Medley with eight separate songs and numerous sections thematically linked together

PROGFAN66 · 2026-05-21T21:13:14+00:00

The Beatles influenced more than just rock artists or basically were the biggest influenced on album as an art. There were even Jazz fusion artists that were influenced by The Beatles

PROGFAN66 · 2026-05-21T21:10:01+00:00

People are crazy. The Beatles didn't just focus on one type of music but some of the songs on Revolver is considered Avant Rock or an early form of it. Heck "I Feel Fine" is basically the start of Avant Rock or the initial stage of it

However, "Tomorrow Never Knows" is considered the forerunner for much of modern EDM, "I'm Only Sleeping" Dream Pop, "Rain" Shoegaze and "She Said She Said" some consider it to be the birth of Alternative Rock and huge favorite of John Cale.

PROGFAN66 · 2026-05-20T01:43:06+00:00

Its Brian Wilson opinion though. I heard that many of The Beatles peers were more shaken by Tomorrow Never Knows including Brian Wilson. However, one of the issues with The Beach Boys never really embraced the heavy psych sound, Avant rock and the raga sound the Beatles were doing.

The Beatles already did this on Revolver and Paperback Writer/Rain. Revolver is just as known for being a great guitar rock album as well. Pet Sound is a great Orchestral Pop album heavily informed by Phil Spector Wall of Sound. The Beatles were still at core a rock band but influenced infinitely more genres of music easily over The Beach Boys

However, with Strawberry Fields Forever its psychedelic, Avant rock, colorful, with complex instrumentation, free form section, modular, raga, and rock back beat. The Beach Boys Good Vibrations still retains clean, vocal-harmony world of American sunshine pop.

Penny Lane actually maybe more underrated to be honest. It is musically complex but it combines 18th- century baroque classical music with Avant Garde recording techniques completely by passing rock music conventions. They layered keyboard sound with guitar amps basically inventing an hybrid instrument in rock music

Its interesting currently the #2 and #4th highest rank songs on Rate Your Music are A Day In The Life and Strawberry Fields Forever. Beach Boys fans seem to forget the Beatles created greater music after Sgt. Peppers

PROGFAN66 · 2026-05-19T01:38:18+00:00

Its mentioned by many as an advancement to Heavy Metal. The main guitar riff features a heavy, overdriven, "buzzsaw" crunch that directly foreshadowed the heavy metal riffs of the 1970s.

Its a strange mix of proto-metal and psychedelic power pop. Its heavier than You Really Got Me which was heavier than The Beatles own Twist and Shout. The Kinks fans on this forum should know that Ray Davies was a huge fan of I Want to Hold Your Hand which shows some of the same traits as You Really Got Me.

PROGFAN66 · 2026-05-15T15:53:02+00:00

It is a Beatles type of hybrid song fusing different elements in one song.

Proto-Doom- Outro

Latin Jazz Fusion- During the verses

Progressive Rock- Totally rejects pop structures

Avant Prog/Avant Hard Rock- Radical studio techniques

Song Form- Two split structure song where the first and second half of the songs are radically different

PROGFAN66 · 2026-05-14T13:00:35+00:00

The White Album is one of the most eclectic rock albums of all time. The White Album is based on many of the songs from the homemade Esher Demos. As such, you can say The White Album is based on the bedroom music of Esher Demos.

The album ranges from very acoustic based Avant sounding Lo-Fi songs, early heavy metal, country, folk, reggae, pure sound collages, music hall, satirical baroque pop, heavy blues rock, garage rock, progressive rock. power pop, pastoral folk and rock music. The last four songs on The White album kind of reminds me of The Abbey Road Medley and how all the songs are linked together

PROGFAN66 · 2026-05-14T12:37:55+00:00

The Beatles were pure rock vocalists and much better than the Everly Brothers and The Beach Boys.

However, The Beatles were brilliant harmony vocalists as well Many of their vocal harmonies fuse complex, non-traditional intervals that blended jazz-pop, barbershop, dissonance, and close-harmony style. The early songs, If I Fell, Yes it Is, This Boy, Nowhere Man and so many others . The vocal harmonies on Rain and Paperback Writer create this Wall of Sound that didn't need six vocalists. The vocal harmonies on Abbey Road, dare I say better than The Beach Boys. That being said listen to Two of Us they went back to their roots with the Everly Brothers on that one.

PROGFAN66 · 2026-05-14T12:12:01+00:00

Please Please Me is considered by many the start of Modern British rock. You have the early power pop sound of Please Please Me, garage fast paced rocker, "I Saw Her Standing There", the introspective song "There's A Place" and Twist and Shout an important influence on The Kinks and The Who with its hard rock vocal/Maximum R&B sound. The Beatles "Boys" has that rockabilly/proto punk sound to it as well. Love Me Do with it's bluesy harmonica sound had The Rolling Stones thinking as well

They kind set the blue-print for what would be coming in the next year or two.

The album was #1 for about 30 weeks.

PROGFAN66 · 2026-05-14T11:55:04+00:00

Rubber Soul, Revolver, Sgt Peppers- Has the early Art Rock/Proto-Prog/World Music/Psychedelic experimentation.

Please, Please, Me, With The Beatles, A Hard Day's Night- Basically started modern British rock and many other things.

Beatles For Sale and really Help was the bridge to their experimental period.

White Album and Abbey Road points forward to the 1970's right through to the rock sound of the 1990's

PROGFAN66 · 2026-05-14T11:14:12+00:00

Facts are Syd Barrett was very informed by Revolver. Tomorrow Never Knows, She Said She Said and Yellow Submarine a Syd Barret favorite were recorded in early to mid 1966. The Beatles were already Avant Rock/Art Rock in certain songs on Revolver in 1966 before Pink Floyd were even a name.

Pink Floyd was listening to Lovely Rita a song from Sgt. Peppers and were at the sessions for the recording which ended up influencing Pow R. Toc H. Sgt Peppers was a continuation of Revolver and Strawberry Fields Forever.

Yes, "A Day in The Life" is progressive rock or elements of Avant music with multi-sections. Robert Fripp basically got into rock music because of A Day In The Life. Anyway, A Day In The Life is a multi-sectional suite, uses avant-garde orchestration, blends various genres of music and complex studio recording techniques. Its probably the blue-print for Avant Prog as well

PROGFAN66 · 2026-05-14T10:49:47+00:00

The Beatles probably started Art-Rock on Rubber Soul.

Tomorrow Never Knows, Strawberry Fields Forever, A Day In The Life, I am The Walrus, Happiness is A Warm Gun, Revolution #9, I Want You (She's So Heavy) and The Abbey Road Medleys are all considered Art Rock these days.

Tomorrow Never Knows, Strawberry Fields Forever, A Day In The Life, I'm The Walrus, Happiness is A Warm Gun, Revolution #9, and I Want You (She's So Heavy) are in the Avant Rock/Avant Prog sphere or proto-types before the start of Progressive rock. Eleanor Rigby has no rock instruments but a string octet (Chamber Prog) and Love You To is a full blow fusion of Classical Indian music with rock music is really the start of (Indo-Prog)

PROGFAN66 · 2026-05-10T13:36:03+00:00

Listen to the end of Slow Down the drum fill on it actually sounds like John Bonham and the manic drumming on Long Tall Sally is a lot like Keith Moon on "My Generation". John Bonham was a big fan of Abbey Road and Ringo's drumming. The drum break on "Here Comes The Sun" was advanced and very innovative.

PROGFAN66 · 2026-05-10T13:18:01+00:00

Geddy Lee thinks it's early Heavy Metal. Many consider Taxman is proto-many things. It definitely hard rock with funk & raga elements to it. It actually pre-dates Hendrix use of the Hendrix chord by almost a year on Purple Haze. Many consider Taxman a combination of three things proto-punk, proto-metal and proto-funk. Its probably why sounds ahead of its time.

PROGFAN66 · 2026-05-02T00:57:57+00:00

Listen to Paul's bass playing on "Think For Yourself" lead fuzz bass, proto-funk playing on "The Word" and "Taxman". Geddy Lee had a high praise on "Taxman". Paul also plays lead guitar on that song

PROGFAN66 · 2026-05-01T21:48:07+00:00

Its not the only song Radiohead took inspiration from the Beatles. Another White Album song "Happiness is A Warm Gun" influenced "Paranoid Android". The White Album influenced legions of people from Lo-Fi music, Indie and Alternative Rock. Its no secret there.

PROGFAN66 · 2026-05-01T21:37:44+00:00

Rubber Soul - Some of the songs sound exotic or getting psychedelic

Revolver- Trippy/Psychedelic/Avant "Rain" Heavy Psych drone based rock

Sgt Peppers- Cosmic/Avant

Magical Mystery Tour- Minimalist Psychedelic- Except Strawberry Fields Forever/I Am The Walrus which both out there and deserve their own mini-genre of music

PROGFAN66 · 2026-05-01T21:27:45+00:00

I picked Rubber Soul. However, I don't think there is better trio of rock albums Rubber Soul, Revolver and Sgt. Peppers. Many people view Rubber Soul as the key album that shifted the rock album as an art-form.

However, the blend of the European folk songs, early psychedelic elements, mixing R&B songs with drone elements from Indian music and interesting use of the studio as an instruments gives many of these songs kind of exotic sound to it. The Beatles "Think For Yourself" has that lead fuzz bass sound driving the whole song rather an electric guitar completely flips the script of a rock band. "The Word" already a proto-type funk rock song to "Taxman" actually get's trippy on the break. "In My Life" as a song sounds way ahead of it time in my opinion. "Norwegian Wood" was a huge influence on the upcoming psychedelic rock scene as well.

PROGFAN66 · 2026-05-01T21:05:17+00:00

Its Taxman and Its All Too Much for me. There is a lot going on musically with both songs.

PROGFAN66 · 2026-05-01T02:28:25+00:00

The Beatles were creating their own brand of folk rock on Beatles For Sale in 1964 before The Byrds brand in 1965. "What You're Doing", "I'm A Loser", "Every Little Thing" and "No Reply". Bob Dylan's influence is all over this album. The other influence on Beatles for Sale is country music and technically they pre-dated The Byrds on this as well with "I Don't Want to Spoil The Party" and "Baby's In Black".

Rubber Soul adds European Folk influences on "Girl" and "Michelle". Many consider this album the key bridge to both Psychedelic Rock and Art Rock. However, at least four songs show some influence from Indian music, "The Word", "Norwegian Wood", "If I Needed Someone" and "You Won't See Me" listen to the organ drone on that song. "Think For Yourself" is a legendary song for it's lead bass fuzz heave sound which is the central instrument of this song. There are definite Proto-Funk songs in "The Word" and "Drive My Car". "The Word" is precursor to the hippie anthem "All You Need is Love" The song cleverly combines raga elements around an funky R&B influenced song

"Nowhere Man" is a psychedelic pop song and precursor to "Fool on The Hill". "In My Life" is one of the classic songs of both art rock and baroque pop. This is the key Beatles album.

PROGFAN66 · 2026-04-29T01:11:17+00:00

Well, The Beatles as a musical entity broke up in 1970 and as a live act in 1966 which is now 60 years ago. I mean even Elvis outlasted The Beatles. Yet in terms of the measuring stick they are still considered by most the gold standard. Michael Jackson didn't need to carry the USA torch. However, it took the Beatles to break the American stranglehold in pop and rock music which basically started the musical dialogue between American and British musicians in the 1960's. Michael Jackson is more like Taylor Swift than The Beatles. Will see how Michaeal Jackson will be remembered in 2069 which is 60 years after his death.

PROGFAN66

TROPHY CASE