I guess innovation is something that isn’t entirely original but I think it’s something that introduces a new concept.
The Beatles’ Revolver has been cited as the opening call of psychedelic music but even then in America The Byrds had released 5D (which features “Eight Miles High” and other attempts at psychedelia) and the 13th Floor Elevators had put out their first album which can be spoken of as psychedelic too.
Revolver is influenced by the Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds, those two mentioned above, Bob Dylan’s Highway 61 Revisited (and Blonde On Blonde) [all of those innovative] and George Martin brings his classical training to the table. Not to mention the experiments with tapes which probably come from Stockhausen, etc.
Yet the album is still innovative because it takes things previously unheard of in rock music and puts them into that context. It was influenced by the stuff that preceded it, yes, but it also influenced stuff that came after it.
Sgt. Pepper also, that album influenced several English bands and even though not everyone did a carbon copy of it (and I don’t think even Satanic Majesties’ is one), some did. Of course the most important thing it introduced was a particular attitude or form, a song cycle; that an album could tell a story through its songs.
And I wouldn’t say that the White Album is innovative, other than for its sheer scope. It’s the one I reach for the most anyway. Putting “Revolution 9” and “Good Night” next to each other was just sheer genius.
No one has really spoken of Lindsey as innovative or even very influential and while that tells us of his under-appreciation, it also tells us of the state of rock music today (so he probably entered the scene too late to make any big impression in that area). It may have seemed to have limitless possibilities once but now it doesn’t. I’m not gonna join Lenny Kravitz and say it’s dead
but you probably get my meaning somehow.