"Wait" by The Beatles. The first progressive rock song?

[veteranof1000psychicwars]

This song has been fascinating me lately. Recorded in June 1965 and has a running length of 2:15, yet contains three distinctly different sections, that form a seamless pop track. Lennon himself said this was mostly a Paul song, which would track with McCartney's later ability to string disparate pieces together to create an opus, as with side 2 of Abbey Road, and Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey.
I know there are some musical elements of this that are beyond me as a non-musician, but aside from the weird compositional structure, there are odd, almost dissonant structures in the vocals. Again not being schooled musically l can hear a lot of wacky shit going on in this track to make me wonder...is this the first prog song?

https://youtu.be/qJngWval8Bc?si=CT_dh05KqTP418uI

[Sputnik]

The three distinctly different sections are simply a verse, a chorus, and a bridge, which is played twice. By using space and sparser chordal and rhythmic backing, the verse creates a certain tension that finds release in the chorus where the full beat comes in, while the bridge builds momentum that effectively represents the anticipation the protagonist feels about getting home.

It is a well composed and well-arranged little pop song, but there's nothing especially "Proggy" about it to my ears. Other than repeating the bridge twice, the song follows the exact format as "Please Please Me," and surely countless other early Beatles songs. To me, it just shows what masters John and Paul were at staying musically fresh and interesting while working within that tried-and-true pop format. For "Proggy" rock, I think you have to look at songs that break out of this mold, which The Beatles did later on, but not so much here, IMO.

Bill

[Gizmotron]

“Wait” is a great example of how The Beatles could elevate any idea into amazing pop songs that stand the test of time.

My take on your premise is that there are two ways to see this debate about Who Came First:

(1) They were the first Progressive rock band because before The Beatles, pop songs were mostly very similar in terms of instrumentation. Before them, lyrics were mostly straightforward and dull. Before them, almost no producers felt pop was worth spending any real time on writing the song or the recording because most people felt pop was worthless and not going to last. Most artists did not aim very high. George Martin and The Beatles saw that the state of popular music could be different. They aimed very high. They tried to be different. Once the first two albums which were recorded quickly (but nonetheless with a bit of flair and hard work), they slowed down and aimed even higher. They purposefully tried to exploit the wonderful attributes of different instruments, harmonies, and odd compositional approaches. They changed (dare I say, “progressed”) with each album. They pushed the boundaries of what was thought to be commercial…and eventually, they didn’t even care if the public liked what they did because they wanted to please themselves. They ended up being rather bizarre to most non-fans, but this allowed them to become even more adventuruos.

The majority of that paragraph can be applied to most any “progressive rock” band that has come along since then. So to me, they were the first Progressive Rock band.

Or:

(2) There is no such thing as “Progressive Rock” and we here are unaware of the ridiculous and restricting use of labels and genres. All popular music is simply pop that ranges from mundane to adventurous. All music is simply…music that you either like or dislike.

[Man In The Mountain]

Absolutely. It was at the time of Rubber Soul and Revolver that The Beatles were pushing the boundaries of pop music. Progressive one could say. Paul had completely changed his bass playing style from what was standard lines on previous albums, and he's stretching out writing these little mini epics that are sprinkled throughout his career. "Wait" is a great example of Paul dipping his feet into that compositional style.

[veteranof1000psychicwars]

I can't really disagree with any of your points above. Mountain,s observation is dead-on with my thinking. l am finding that even though this track follows a verse/chorus/bridge structure the construction sounds very unusual for the time...particularly the bridge which seems like a weird turn out of nowhere, something Paul went on to employ with great success later on, numerous times. This song strikes me as perhaps the first time he had done that. Although it has a conventional structure it struck me that the 3 parts sound like they shouldn't connect together, but they do! It's a neat song, and of course like any other, maybe it's only that.
And if it's as Gizmo says, that restricting music to labels and genres is ridiculous, we cracked the code, and PE is no longer necessary.
I'm contradicting my own comment made in a different thread about beating "what is prog" to death so perhaps l don't know why l even participate here any more.

[Gizmotron]

I can't really disagree with any of your points above. Mountain,s observation is dead-on with my thinking. l am finding that even though this track follows a verse/chorus/bridge structure the construction sounds very unusual for the time...particularly the bridge which seems like a weird turn out of nowhere, something Paul went on to employ with great success later on, numerous times. This song strikes me as perhaps the first time he had done that. Although it has a conventional structure it struck me that the 3 parts sound like they shouldn't connect together, but they do! It's a neat song, and of course like any other, maybe it's only that.
And if it's as Gizmo says, that restricting music to labels and genres is ridiculous, we cracked the code, and PE is no longer necessary.
I'm contradicting my own comment made in a different thread about beating "what is prog" to death so perhaps l don't know why l even participate here any more.

Great points! Thanks for the name-check. I just think labels keep people from hearing good music because they “don’t like _____ music.”


In any case, I was thrilled this Thread wasn’t another, “this is what I hate…” thread. My goodness, people…why do we dwell on the negative so much?

[Czyszy]

Isn't Rites of Spring the first progressive rock song? Or something. :P

[Gizmotron]

Isn't Rites of Spring the first progressive rock song? Or something. :P

Nah, Scriabin’s Black Mass.

dziękuję!

[Piskie]

Back to the original post -Rubber Soul was the start of something where the Beatles really began to stretch their musical wings. Amazing how much they could cram into a two and a half minute song. I think I prefer it over Revolver - slightly. If any album set the course for Prog rock in my view it was Pepper however.