Quote:
Originally posted by Donut:
quote:
Originally posted by Epona:
They may not have been the most innovative group of the time, either musically or lyrically, .
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Arrgh!
"I don't really want to stop the show
But I thought you'd all like to know"
Do you take the hint young whippersnapper!!! The first ever concept album. The use of the sitar, huge numbers of unusual instruments, inclusion of classical music, psychedelia, multi tracking! The first ever album to have the words on the sleeve.
"The impact of the Beatles - not only on rock & roll but on Western culture - is simply incalculable. As musicians, they proved that rock & roll could embrace a limitless variety of harmonies, structures and sounds; virtually every rock experiment has some precedent on Beatle records."
"Although many of their sales and attendance records have since been surpassed, no group has so radically transformed the sound and meaning of rock & roll."
- Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock and Roll
I'm going to have my afternoon nap now! 
[/QUOTE]Which is why I said they were the greatest band - that is an undisputed matter of fact.
The rest of it is down to opinion and taste. There was a gap of a fair few years between the Beatle's inception (arguably in 1960 if you discount the Quarrymen) and the release of Sgt Pepper in 1967. Yes Sgt Pepper may have been the first concept album (narrowly pipping Ogden's Nut Gone Flake at the post), but the Beatles by that time already had a long history and had already become the most influential band of all time - it was not Sgt Pepper that did that, but initially rock n roll covers, followed by several years of fairly unremarkable (although unarguably popular) pop songs - without the use of Sitars, concept albums, whacky costumes etc.
It was songs like 'Please Please Me', 'Love Me Do', 'She Loves You' etc. from the early and mid '60s that ensured the Beatles' success - fairly catchy but pretty uninspired pop songs - that made them more famous than any group either before or since, and that influenced pop music from that moment onward.
I would argue that The Kink's early singles were far more musically and lyrically innovative!
From late 1964 for example, we have the Beatles 'I Feel Fine' - nice catchy tune, and don't get me wrong, it's a nice song which I like, but is less innovative and interesting in my opinion than The Kinks' 'Tired Of Waiting' released a couple of months later or 'Everybody's Gonna Be Happy' (March '65) - and 'You Really Got Me' from late '64 with its driving beat and heavy guitar riff (and which incidentally is one of the most frequently covered pop songs of that era).
And yes, the door may not have been open for the Kinks if the Beatles had not burst onto the scene when they did - which is what makes the Beatles the more important band in terms of the history of rock/pop music. But Sgt Pepper came much later than the work that
made them the most important band - they were already there when Sgt Pepper was released!