Quote:
Originally Posted by Rainard Jalen
When ever was the Beatles' chord progressions stated as a reason for Dylan (or the Byrds for that matter) going electric? Folk rock was never the Beatles' idea.
And for the last time, the Beatles weren't doing anything particularly unique or groundbreaking with chord progressions in 62-65. It was just more interesting than the useless Merseybeat and other rock'n'roll/r&b acts of the same early 60s era.
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The Beatles started out as a skiffle group. So yeah there is a strong folk influence. Compared to everybody in Rock Music their chord progressions were quirky. No one was using folk chord changes with a power-pop sound like the Beatles in 1963-1964. They are the reason the Byrds went electric. Sorry give credit where it belongs.
Here are some actual quotes.
Roger McGuinn
At about the same time, McGuinn discovered the electric 12-string, also the result of his admiration of the Beatles.
“We saw `A Hard Day’s Night’ and took note of the instruments. And (the Rickenbacker) was one of them. (George Harrison played it on the song `If I Fell.’) I loved the sound of it. I had been playing an acoustic Gibson 12-string that had a pickup on it, but it was too fat-sounding. It didn’t have that jingle-jangle sound. So we went shopping for one in L.A. It wasn’t the exact model George had played, but it was a Rickenbacker 12-string.”
“It was something that kind of evolved from working with Bobby Darin and then hearing the Beatles and the folk music chord changes they were using,” McGuinn says. “I was really inspired by the Beatles, so I started taking old folk songs and putting a Beatle beat on them - rocking them up.”
Bob Dylan on the Beatles
In an interview taken in 1971, Dylan recalls being impressed by their music. "We were driving through Colorado, we had the radio on, and eight of the Top 10 songs were Beatles songs...'I Wanna Hold Your Hand,' all those early ones. They were doing things nobody was doing. Their chords were outrageous, just outrageous, and their harmonies made it all valid...I knew they were pointing the direction of where music had to go."
The Rolling Stones on the Beatles
Keith liked the Beatles because he was quite interested in their chord sequences. He also liked their harmonies, which were always a slight problem to the Rolling Stones. Keith always tried to get the harmonies off the ground but they always seemed messy. What we never really got together were Keith and Brian singing backup vocals. It didn't work, because Keith was a better singer and had to keep going, oooh, ooh ooh (laughs). Brian liked all those oohs, which Keith had to put up with. Keith was always capable of much stronger vocals than ooh ooh ooh.
- Mick Jagger