Reply #374 on: September 10, 2013, 07:24:50 PM
Wow, thanks so much for all of this information, Gia! And sorry for the delayed response...
I'm greatly eliding your OP, since it's right above.
2) I absolutely agree with your sixth point and I said so here almost EXACTLY four years ago!
Well, that's likely not a coincidence. I know about 1/10 of what you know about the Beatles. And, since I think I've read every post in this thread, a lot of what I've said here I absorbed from what you wrote here earlier. In other words, I'm unconsciously repeating your words back to you.
3) I do, however, disagree with your sighting 'Why Don't We Do It In The Road' as "proto-heavy metal" - It is a basic I-IV-V-VII blues progression with no distortion, so I could hardly consider that "heavy metal" (Yes, I fucking love metal, and I dated a lot of musicians back in the day).
You're probably right. Then again, Led Zeppelin is arguably the ur-heavy metal band, and many of their songs featured the basic blues progression. And several of their songs were covers of blues standards and strictly follow that progression: "You Shook Me," "I Can't Quit You Baby," "Bring It On Home" (all of which were written by Willie Dixon), and my favorite Led Zeppelin song, "Traveling Riverside Blues," which is almost a note-for-note cover of a Robert Johnson song (and I love the little Robert Johnson homage at the beginning, where Jimmy Page plays acoustic slide guitar).
In other words, just because a song follows the standard blues progressions, it doesn't mean it isn't heavy metal. Or, in the case of "Why Don't We Do It In The Road," proto-heavy metal.
When you mentioned "You Know My Name (Look Up The Number)" you did not attach a style to it... I would venture to consider it 'Cabaret' or 'Musical Comedy' - its core is similar to tapes made by Ringo and John that were recorded in Lennon's home studio (out of boredom, or for fun). These are (Know My Name included), in many respects, Beatles musical versions of 'The Goon Show'...
Well, I didn't attach a style to it because it's a hodge-podge of styles. "Cabaret" or "Musical Comedy" certainly fits, and it's a twisted Gilbert & Sullivan parody as well.
The second segment is like a lounge lizard cover of a bossa nova song.
The third segment, well, I've no idea what to call that. I don't know if you watch "Boardwalk Empire," but the singer Eddie Cantor is a character in the show, and the songs he sings there sound a lot like this. Perhaps with a dash of Spike Jones added in.
As for the "proto heavy metal" segment, well, I just listened to the extended 6-minute version in its entirety, and it's simply not there. I'm obviously mis-remembering, or confusing it with something else. And that's a little embarrassing...
Next, you equated 'Helter Skelter' to punk rock - I again disagree, and would sight both 'Helter Skelter' and the single version of 'Revolution' (also a blues progression) as more of a metal prototype...
Perhaps you're right. It clearly wasn't an influence on punk performers, but I was referring to the musical style, especially the screaming and anarchic guitar playing, something it shares with punk, especially early punk.
Ad I just listened to it again, and I think the best way to describe it is "psychedelic heavy metal." Does that work for you? 
And to your last point, the rolling Stones blues sound, I once again concur 100% and refer again to my Sept. 2009 post:
I agree with everything you say there. I'm a huge blues fan, I own about 250 blues CDs (or more, I've never counted them), and I'm very familiar with both the genre and the artists. About a year ago I "discovered" that most Rolling Stones songs begin with a blues-like riff, and the entire song is based on that riff. Think about their more famous songs: "Satisfaction," "Brown Sugar," "Get Off My Cloud," "19th Nervous Breakdown," "Heartbreaker," "Shattered," and even "Start Me Up." They all begin with a riff (well, two riffs, in the case of "Brown Sugar"), do a verse and the chorus, and then repeat the riff, moving on to the second verse. And "Shattered" is a classic blues boogie. Except for the brief bridge (with the guitar solo), almost the entire song is two chords, I and V.
Okay, sorry for messing up this Beatles thread with tangents on Led Zeppelin and the Rolling Stones.
But here's one more point to add to your list of reasons why the Beatles kick the Rolling Stones' butts: The Beatles, neither as a group nor individually, ever did a disco song...
"Sometimes the best things in life are a hot girl and a cold beer."