Yes but we can listen to their records and interpret the art on its own terms. IN FACT, often this is better, because many times folks are biased by their inclussion in the events themselves. Sometimes we remember things that weren't there. Black Sabbath is a great fucking example. Just about EVERY dumbass 50 something man tells me how "evil, dark, black, Satanic" Black Sabbath was in the early 1970s, and yet the records speak for themselves that the opposite was true.

Ozzy is Anglican/Episcopalian.

Dave Clark Five
Badfinger
The Merry-Go-Round
The Bee Gees
Nazz (Todd Rundgren's early band)
The Turtles
The Move
Harry Nilsson
The Hollies
The Swinging Blue Jeans

Zombies (It's just that I get a boner when you say "No." C'mon, you can do it for me one more time.)

Now we're getting somewhere. Can we take this a step further? How successful were these bands? Were they big enough in the "mainstream"? Did they have an impact of their own? Thank you for actually posting some substance by the way, I appreciate it (sincerely)

The Pretty Things
Herman's Hermits
Gerry & The Pacemakers
The Beach Boys
The Beau Brummels
The Searchers

Yes, these were all successful, in their own right or members went on to success.

For example the Hollies were very big and Graham Nash went on to even bigger things.

As for my first list, all are valid. Listen to the Who's first album for example. Obviously they clearly had other influences but there are a few VERY Beatlesque tracks.

Manfred Mann
Freddie and the Dreamers
The Troggs
Wayne Fontana and the Mindbenders
The McCoys

well for one, the rolling stones were very influenced by the beatles. the beatles wrote one of their first hits "i wanna be your man" and although they were known for their harder r&b sound, the beatles mined that field in their hamburg days.

and most obviously; their satanic majestries request=sargent peppers

franz zappa was doing a parody of the beatles with we're only in it for the money but he obviously had great respect for them musically

it could be argued that bob dylan's switch to electric guitars was influenced by the beatles and byrds (just like you could argue that he influenced the beatles more sophisticated lyrics)

jimi hendrix was known to cover day tripper and sargent peppers live

like someone said the kinks (although suchfriends, you said the kinks took after the who when its the opposite way around, townsend admits as much)

the lovin' spoonful-although the beatles were influenced by them as well

donovan-again donovan also influenced them by teaching them a picking style in india that yielded many songs\

buffalo springfield

the list could go on. even bands that don't sound like the beatles were very much influenced by them. you can say the same thing about sonic youth.

Agreed, but I would say that these were more so inspired than influenced, in my opinion, musical influence means to directly impact the sound of band or artist.

By the way, I'm not trying to be the definitive voice on this issue, rather just chat and share opinions. If I disagree with some opinions here, I will say such, and folks are of course always free to disagree with my own.

Clearly the Beatles were very inspiring, that could never be denied, I just still don't hear the Beatles in a lot of the bands mentioned on this thread, possibly just me. I would also like to remind y'all I got no beef with the Beatles, this is not intended to diss them, rather just a clarification..

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bea...opular_culture

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...ed_the_Beatles

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Invasion

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beatlemania

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4XWQCLqab4o
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YFp1bqhW9Lk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-D9xcZgKX4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zXeRB-3nDR8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y7wrwctQS3s

ad infinitum

You'd be hard pressed to find a more influential band that's for sure.

Here's a list of bands who've covered The Beatles. Says it all really...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...ed_The_Beatles

I hear influences from the Beatles in almost every bands of sixties (even for example in Velvets & Pink Floyd, I don´t believe Hendrix would have come so great songwriter without Beatles). And I think many new bands would have sounded really different (much more bore) without Beatles (in my opinion Oasis is just a boring copy of Beatles). Nirvana has never been that important at all comparing to Beatles (it´s possible nobody remembers Nirvana after hundred years but I believe Beatles music is still alive).

Suchfriends, you don´t seem to understand nothing about the popular music. This is last time I am going to put anything into your threads.

There is a recording around of Lou Reed riffing to ''Paperback Writer' when he was in VU.

Yes, but you did realize this thread isn't about Nirvana yes?

That is great, how ever could I aspire to be as polite and genuinely nice as you, thank you for that.

I will reiterate ONE FINAL TIME. I DON'T DENY THE IMPACT OF THE BEATLES, NOR INTENDED TO SCOFF OR DISS THEM. RATHER TO DIFFERENTIATE BETWEEN THE CONCEPT OF INSPIRATION AND INFLUENCE, BUT FUCK IT.

How do you distinguish inspiration and influence?

Influence is when bands have similarly distinctive sounds, inspiration is when bands were directly inspired but not necessarily have the same sound. Many bands were inspired by the Beatles to start bands, to play shows, and as Rob in particular mentioned, to focus on original song writing and crafting. However, in the 1960s so many bands had a unique sound of their own that its hard for me to hear a Beatles influence, while never denying the impact of Beatles on the scene and bands in general. Sure, Jimi Hendrix covered Beatles songs, but honestly, who really hears early Beatles in that raunchy, bluesy, psyched out Hendrix tunes? Shit, even when he covered Beatles songs they didn't sound like Beatles songs, they sounded like fucking Hendrix songs. The Grateful Dead quite literally covered two dozen Beatles songs, and yet dude, who the fuck honestly hears the Beatles in the Dead during 1968? Pigpen had them sounding like a damned Otis Redding cover band, not some "I wanna hold your hand" wanna-bes. Again, both Hendrix AND Jerry Garcia were very fond of the Beatles and spoke often of how much they were inspired by what the Beatles were doing which inspired them to go out and do their own thing. I know I sound like a broken record, and its not like I'm right and y'all are wrong, these are strictly matters of taste and opinion. Further, I'm used to have unpopular musical opinions so its all good..

That's all valid but according to your definition, which groups have been particularly influential?