[SuchFriendsAreDangerous]

Influence is when bands have similarly distinctive sounds, inspiration is when bands were directly inspired but not necessarily have the same sound. Many bands were inspired by the Beatles to start bands, to play shows, and as Rob in particular mentioned, to focus on original song writing and crafting. However, in the 1960s so many bands had a unique sound of their own that its hard for me to hear a Beatles influence, while never denying the impact of Beatles on the scene and bands in general. Sure, Jimi Hendrix covered Beatles songs, but honestly, who really hears early Beatles in that raunchy, bluesy, psyched out Hendrix tunes? Shit, even when he covered Beatles songs they didn't sound like Beatles songs, they sounded like fucking Hendrix songs. The Grateful Dead quite literally covered two dozen Beatles songs, and yet dude, who the fuck honestly hears the Beatles in the Dead during 1968? Pigpen had them sounding like a damned Otis Redding cover band, not some "I wanna hold your hand" wanna-bes. Again, both Hendrix AND Jerry Garcia were very fond of the Beatles and spoke often of how much they were inspired by what the Beatles were doing which inspired them to go out and do their own thing. I know I sound like a broken record, and its not like I'm right and y'all are wrong, these are strictly matters of taste and opinion. Further, I'm used to have unpopular musical opinions so its all good..