Ian Anderson and the Beatles

That's interesting,  since....I have read that Fripp thought Pepper was groundbreaking and that the Beatles influenced many musicians and also I have read that Anderson said certain albums like Pepper influenced him and other musicians.

The Beatles are not the be all and end all of what happened with music then but they certainly were influential when they started adding orchestration and studio effects and expanding the possibilities of music.

I'm not sure that this is quite right, although I like the joke and the laugh it gave me!

RF, more than likely will have appreciated a lot of the compositional side of things in some of the Beatles material, however, RF's musical design and abilities tend to come a lot more from experimentation and development of themes, than they would from a rock music context. In this sense, a lot of KC is quite "classical" in its music design. RF is more into the textures in the music itself and their ability to interplay, which as a music design, is very progressive, and not the same as setting up a riff and then making a 5minute song out of it, and call it progressive! Not to mention that the song design is the same most of the time!

The strange side of it, is that RF has stated that KC is not progressive, and I tend to agree with him some and also to disagree on the same sentence. It is "progressive" when compared to most "popular" music, that is less designed as a composition, and more into something else that has a lot less "music" (in the academic context) in it, than simply a following of a riff with a solo over it. Most classical music did that in the days of MOZART, and got bored with it since. Thus, seeing this revival in popular music is kinda interesting, but also scary, and then calling it "progressive" because of a different looking bass guitar, and a classical handset playing of notes, done on a synthesizer so it is not recognizable as an orchestral instrument ... this is where it gets really scary.

I'm not sure that the SOUND, should be defined as MUSIC, but in the 20th century this separation has been blurred badly!

I like to say, here ... UNPLUG IT ... and you and I know that KC will stand out, as will most of ELP (witness Rachel Flowers) ... but a lot of bands, would not stand up at all in this area, and in fact might sound/look really bad!

The piano on Martha My Dear is my all time favorite Beatle keyboard part.  I've learned it, forgotten it, and relearned it too many times to count   While only George Martin could have played the harpsichord break on "In My Life", only Paul could have written Martha's bouncy piano section 

I believe this would be incorrect. RF would, and does, appreciate a lot of the composition side of the Beatles material, and while that is not enough to influence what RF/KC did, in the end, even RF has stated that KC is not progressive, and it is very clear why ... they are ... let's say, the best classical music folks around, in that they rehearse and study their work so that it can be developed and worked to a very well thought out and designed piece of music ... most bands, are not that well versed and studied musically to appreciate that and stop at a simple/single riff to get a "song" going. 

KC, breaks the rock music mold, of the "simple" and repeated concept in design of each and every piece. And this places, RF and KC far and above a lot of bands when it comes to the music design.

The Beatles helped define that rock music was not just done by street folks that did not even know A from B or C, or how to count. KC, went much further than that, by working the compositions to a very well developed piece of music ... which we remember so well and vividly today!

It will only have to do with the Beatles if we give them some credit for elevating "popular music" above and beyond a simple ditty and song. But even this is something that most folks here do not accept and wish to discuss, as they consider almost everything just another pop song. Not all folks, and musicians, in rock music are, or consider themselves ... "pop musicians".

I believe that Ian is bitter and has run out of things to say in his old age. Not to mention that he has ignored a lot of music from the rest of the world!