


Even "Yellow Submarine" features an overlaid brass band. The songwriting was more varied, incorporated more styles than ever before and the instrumentation was deeply experimental, from the string octet that accompanies "Eleanor Rigby", to the backwards guitar and vocal effects on "I'm only Sleeping", to the deeply Indian feel of "Love You To" with the prominent Sitar and Indian Tabla drums, to the hi-tech sample and overdub techniques used in "Tomorrow Never Knows". The lyrics were no longer the boy/girl relationship stuff of previous albums, but more focussed on deeper and more universal themes, an aspect that could be again credited to Dylan. "The Word" particularly seems to herald the off-beat musical and rhythmic style that would be prevalent in psychedelia, and the wider-ranging folk-like feeling and more introspective lyrics in many songs reflects the impact of their meeting with Bob Dylan and the Folk scene in general.įrom the simple beat band "The Quarrymen" through the Buddy Holly tribute "The Silver Beetles" to the final incarnation marketed so effectively by Brian Epstein and produced and orchestrated by George Martin, The Beatles were almost forced to focus on creativity by the confinement induced by the combination of the pressures of Beatlemania, intense touring and John Lennon's unfortunate comment "We're more popular than Jesus now" in 1966 comparing the sales of Beatles records with the sales of Bibles.ġ966 saw the release of "Revolver", and the single "Paperback Writer/Rain" both of which which were a quantuum leap from "Rubber Soul" in terms of lyrics, songwriting and experimentation both in the studio and with new sounds. Harrison also adapted the riff from The Byrds' "Bells of Rhymney" to write the song "If I Needed Someone", dedicating the song to Roger McGuinn who wrote it, and used the sitar in "Norwegian Wood", both songs appearing on the "Rubber Soul" album, an album that contains so many song writing styles that it can be difficult to believe that it's all the same band. Founded in Liverpool, UK in 1958 (initially as a trio) - Starr joined in 1962 - Disbanded in 1970 "The Word" particularly seems to herald the off-beat musical and rhythmic style that would be prevalent in psychedelia, and. It was Roger McGuinn of the Byrds who turned George Harrison onto the sound of the sitar and led George to have lessons from Ravi Shankar. The influences were mutual The Beatles and the Byrds particularly not only exchanged a number of ideas, but also met several times - including one notable occasion which included Bob Dylan and Peter Fonda that resulted in the song "She said, she said" ("Revolver"). In fact, many other factors led to the rise of those cultures, but the importance of the Beatles' music should not be overlooked. Their hunger for experimentation in style and sound was to last and expand right up to their swansong album, "Abbey Road".Ī frequent speculation is that it was the Beatles who finally swayed Bob Dylan in 1964/5 to use electric instruments, and in so doing brought about the fusion of folk and rock that would lead to the development of psychedelia, via the Byrd's "Eight Miles High" and the San Francisco music scene, "Swinging London" and other movements. The other aspect of the Beatles music that remained a constant throughout their carreer as a band is the wide range of influences and styles that they assimilated into their own. On their earliest albums, it was the quality of the Lennon/McCartney songs that stands out from the covers that were also included. The music of the Beatles was notable mainly for the songwriting partnership of Lennon/McCartney, which bucked the trend of bands going to songwriting houses for their material and helped to convince other bands to write their own songs.
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There are many places on the Internet where a full biography may be found, and their history has been covered so many times that here we consider only their place as a progressive band. It goes without saying that the Beatles were one of the most important, influential and progressive bands in the history of rock and pop music.
