-=***> Mike Hudson on the Beatles Rule! <***=-
 MH> The Beatles basically invented ProgRock...no matter how you look at
 MH> it... And Pink Floyd is every bit as progressive as Yes in my book, and
 MH> I'm a huge fan of both bands.
Pink Floyd WAS every bit as progressive as Yes, but is now a repetition and 
solo guitar band.
The Beatles DID NOT invent PROG ROCK, in any way shape or form. All you
need do is talk to the likes of Allan Holdsworth, Daevid Allen, Gary Green,
Brian Eno, Godley/Creme ( go as far back as the 50's they do ), and the
Canterbury family, all of whom were creating expressive and experimental 
music at the same time and before, the Beatles. The Beatles, happened to
be the first popular group to break through and bring the new stuff into
the air waves. Heck, the Kinks deserve some credit as do the Pirate Radio
stations that flourished in the early 60's in England ( like micro-radio
nowadays ), which kept so many of these musicians alive and still hoping
to make a career out of it all.  The Beatles helped put all the stuff on
the air, and the new permissiveness helped install the new business of
music with rock'n'roll, which prior to that, was considered crap and
not money earning stuff. All of a sudden it becomes a top industry.
Basically, and the thing that most proggy intelectuals refuse to accept, is
that what created the prog scene was a desire to "expand" the music so one
could get into the "vibes" and "feeling", something that Ravi Shankhar and
two other teachers were discussing in various Germany schools of music
during those days. IN those days, the thing was to MIX cultures, not to
create "progressive" music. 
With the expansion of the songs into "compositions" came the advent of
experimentation, or what Ravi has called "floating" which is now well
defined in rock as the "solo". And all of a sudden, everyone is trying 
different things.
I just find it unfair, that the Beatles are given credit for us discovering
that the rest of the world HAD MUSIC, which John used to say is just such
bullshit. They just added elements from those musics to create new things.
But we wouldn't expect Americans to know about this.... they rarely hear
anything beyond the top ten, so the rationale, of course, is always that
the Beatles started prog..... THEY DID NOT.
... truffaut___it's an event extraordianire, my friend...
--- Blue Wave/DOS v2.20
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