Did the Beatles help influence Heavy Metal?

I guess you can say they influenced it in certain parts, but The Beatles had such complexity in the last days of their Beatle lives, they had not thought of influencing a musical genre, more than influencing a musical generation.

Another round for the Beatles. Thanks, the Heavy-Metal doesn't have anything to do with the Blues. 

Little known fact: The Beatles actually influenced themselves. Paul has a time machine, I read it in the National Enquirer.

The Who,Cream,Jimi Hendrix and The Kinks, especially the riff to 'You really Got Me' were an influence on The Beatles so you could say that The Who and The Kinks were an influence on heavy metal before The Beatles. McCartney has said that when he wrote 'Helter Skelter', he wanted it to sound as hard as and as loud as The Who as upto then The Beatles has not done anything nearly as 'heavy' as The Who.
Black Sabbath were as much influenced by Cream (Sitting on Top of the World,White Room,Tales of Brave Ulysses etc.) as The Beatles

The Beatles were keen observers of the music scenes developements that were happening in various genres (e.g. Avant Garde,Late 1960s Blues Boom,Musique Concrete,Classical etc.) at this time (1966-68) and would integrate anything that took their fancy.The Beatles were just as much influenced by as an influence upon other artists.

Edited by Man Erg - September 11 2009 at 04:59

Man Erg wrote: The Who,Cream,Jimi Hendrix and The Kinks, especially the riff to 'You really Got Me' were an influence on The Beatles so you could say that The Who and The Kinks were an influence on heavy metal before The Beatles. McCartney has said that when he wrote 'Helter Skelter', he wanted it to sound as hard as and as loud as The Who as upto then The Beatles has not done anything nearly as 'heavy' as The Who. Black Sabbath were as much influenced by Cream (Sitting on Top of the World,White Room,Tales of Brave Ulysses etc.) as The Beatles The Beatles were keen observers of the music scenes developements that were happening in various genres (e.g. Avant Garde,Late 1960s Blues Boom,Musique Concrete,Classical etc.) at this time (1966-68) and would integrate anything that took their fancy.The Beatles were just as much influenced by as an influence upon other artists.

Great post.  Certainly the influence of the Beatles on early "metal" pioneers probably wasn't zero, but I would think it was pretty minimal compared to the other artists Lee cited above.

If you are employed within the popular music industry, no matter in how tenuous a capacity, and are NOT influenced by the Beatles, it really is time for a career change doncha think ?

Yes. While Revolver is not heavy metal, for 1965 it can be regarded as one of the first "proto-metal" albums.

I would say they influenced almost every genre of rock music. Prog, metal, pop rock, everything. I can't think of any rock band (to a respectable level) that would say something bad about the Beatles. They are a huge influence on music in general, including heavy metal.

Slightly off topic

If you are looking for a band that has influenced many artists look no further than The Velvet Underground and their first album.
For an album that intially sold around a thousand copies,it's influence is phenomonal.Lennon was a big fan of the album and it is the bedrock of Bowie's career.If it had not been for that album and a smattering of Anthony Newley I don't think the 'The Dame' would have taken the musical path that he chose.

Edited by Man Erg - September 12 2009 at 06:47

TODDLER wrote: June wrote: Hehe... a thread about the Beatles that led to discussing the Kinks, awesome Someone should post a thread on the Kinks. Would like to read people's opinions on Kinks material from 1966 to 1979. It would be an experience to check out people's impressions of Ray Davies' lyricism.

if the Beatles influenced anything it was defiantly the prog rock movement with Abbey road. I see what you're saying but they seemed to have influenced more psychedelic prog than heavy metal.