The Beatles Family Tree
Metal Family Tree
This is a project aimed at making it easy to see who inspired the bands you love or even hate. For this I try not to use any influences that the band don’t claim themselves. There will be a focus on predecessors but successors will be added as they site the band. These trees become more and more interactive as new bands are added, allowing you to click any band that has a tree and jump to it.
We want our lists to be better. If you know something that belongs on this list, let us know. When in doubt we will leave it out, so we need reliable sources.
The Beatles are easily one of the most influential bands in music. They were the most important band at a time when rock ‘n’ roll became rock. Despite being extremely un-metal they would be a big influence on many metal bands. Rather it was future metal musicians growing up hearing The Beatles or later metal musicians being exposed to The Beatles through their parents, hearing The Beatles was basically inescapable. By the time The Beatles became a recording band they had settled into the line up of John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Star. The vast majority of music would be written by Lennon and McCartney with occasional songs being written by Harrison.
Big Bill Broonzy
Ravi Shankar
Bill Haley and His Comets
Lloyd Price
Chuck Berry
Fats Domino
Gene Vincent
Carl Perkins
Roy Orbison
Buddy Holly and the Crickets
Ray Charles
Sam Cooke
Larry Williams
Bobby Freeman
Ben E. King
Lee Dorsey
There are influences not listed here that are often named in biographies, but as stated before, I’m not using anything that I haven’t heard the band say themselves.
Paul said when he was growing up country and was very popular in Liverpool, that and Irish folk were also an influence on him.
Paul said he was influenced by American stuff from Phil Spector, Motown, Stax, and Blues. In another interview he talks about liking disco and reggae.
Paul was influenced by his dad’s piano playing. He said he learned how to harmonize from him. He said growing up he didn’t hear much classical music. His dad was a jazz player and would turn off classical music when it came on the radio. He did say he listened to Bach when he was in The Beatles though.
John Lennon did a cover album Rock ‘n’ Roll full of favorite songs from people who influenced him. He said many of the songs were ones he was singing as a teenager.
George says he is strongly influenced by Indian music. He also talks about not wanting to write a ton of meaningless songs which probably has a lot to do with him writing a relatively small amount of songs. Other than that I haven’t found him talking about earlier influences.
Bands influenced by The Beatles!
As this project advances, bands will be added here… there are many!
Sources:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2xjo1eEgeew
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1CQ0XSVIIg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fEbXPnQ435A
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ub_Ndas3Fgw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZzxoTCNnMSs
https://drownedinsound.com/in_depth/4145016-paul-mccartney-discusses-his-inspirations-guitars-and-ram-with-mansuns-paul-draper-part-2
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d9_77OjVmlU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8YQk-5oHcg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2IQ-5l7ERHs
https://daytrippin.com/2018/10/08/john-lennons-lifelong-obsession-with-elvis-presley/
https://www.cheatsheet.com/entertainment/the-early-beatles-hit-john-lennon-said-was-his-crack-at-a-roy-orbison-song.html/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5KDBOxCRT_M
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bA33K0YbGgg