Prog-Watch 528 - A Celebration of the Music of The Beatles

The Beatles were kind of my “gateway” band. Before I discovered them, I liked music probably about as much as your average teenager. After I discovered them, I became what I suppose you would call a “music fanatic”. Their music resonated with me on many different levels and I was amazed at the transformational musical journey they had made in less than a decade. Once I had absorbed just about everything they had done I moved on to explore the musical catalogs of Badfinger, The Who, Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin, and countless other classic rock bands. Eventually my explorations led me to Yes, The Moody Blues, Genesis, ELP, and the entire world of Progressive Rock. But I really owe it all to the Beatles...for me they were the spark. If you listen to interviews with many of the people who went on to found some of the greatest Golden Age Prog bands, you will also find that many of them were directly influenced in some way by the Beatles.

So I always knew that I would do some kind of Beatles show at some point. The impetus to finally do it came a few weeks ago when I was presented with an opportunity to interview Tom Murray, an author and photographer who actually spent a whole day taking some beautiful, classic, color photos of the Beatles back in 1968, on the eve of the release of The White Album. Tom has since published a book called “Mad Day Out” with not only his Beatles photos from that day, but also lots of other great pictures from the heady days of the 1960s. Speaking to Tom was a link to the legend of the Beatles.

So I offer you Prog-Watch 528 – A Celebration of the Music of the Beatles! The program features a few of the Beatles “proggier” tracks, a few cool tribute tunes, and lots of great covers of Beatles songs by some Prog and Prog-related artists. Plus a bit of my chat with Mr. Tom Murray. I hope you will join me!