Prog Rock

[teamsaint]

I've really struggled with prog rock over the years. I suppose due to my age, (14 in 1976) and not having had an early introduction , other than a mate who tried to share a youthful interest in Rick Wakeman( which may explain quite a lot !) the music has tended to pass me by.

A little bit of Rush, the occasional not unpleasant dabble with King Crimson, that's about it really. .

Anyway, I recently enjoyed a bit of Kansas, who had definite prog leanings, and one or two other bits and pieces. So, why not give us all your list of maybe top 10 albums. Or something.

The really top stuff. Indulge yourselves. And try to stop at 10. Although finishing when you are supposed to isn't really a Prog thing, is it ?

Have fun. ( And provide Youtube links if possible !!)

[MrGongGong]

I like a bit of stick at times

[Serial_Apologist]

"It depends what you mean by..." as Prof. Joad would have said.

Inter-generic demarcation lines are difficult in this area, so I'll just say that the closer the musical idiom is to "jazz" in my, , subjective definition, and the higher the improvisational quotient vs the composed, the more appreciative I am of bands popularly included in this area. So, Yes, Pink Floyd from "Atom Heart Mother" onwards, and most of the German bands operating under the Krautrock rubric, would be out for me. Henry Cow would be probably my favourite, but again, is that band Prog Rock? Some would call it Art Rock. Analogously, Soft Machine has been described as Psychedelic Rock up to 1970, either Progressive or Jazz-Rock between 1970 and 1974, and Fusion from then onwards.

So, having wasted everyone's time, I think I'll pass on this thread.

[teamsaint]

"It depends what you mean by..." as Prof. Joad would have said.

Inter-generic demarcation lines are difficult in this area, so I'll just say that the closer the musical idiom is to "jazz" in my, , subjective definition, and the higher the improvisational quotient vs the composed, the more appreciative I am of bands popularly included in this area. So, Yes, Pink Floyd from "Atom Heart Mother" onwards, and most of the German bands operating under the Krautrock rubric, would be out for me. Henry Cow would be probably my favourite, but again, is that band Prog Rock? Some would call it Art Rock. Analogously, Soft Machine has been described as Psychedelic Rock up to 1970, either Progressive or Jazz-Rock between 1970 and 1974, and Fusion from then onwards.

So, having wasted everyone's time, I think I'll pass on this thread.

All you had to do was list up to 10 good ones

( It's not like I'm going to ask difficult questions !!)

But thanks for your thoughts......

Anyway, currently listening to this, which is my sort of thing, I think.

[Lat-Literal]

I've really struggled with prog rock over the years. I suppose due to my age, (14 in 1976) and not having had an early introduction , other than a mate who tried to share a youthful interest in Rick Wakeman( which may explain quite a lot !) the music has tended to pass me by.

A little bit of Rush, the occasional not unpleasant dabble with King Crimson, that's about it really. .

Anyway, I recently enjoyed a bit of Kansas, who had definite prog leanings, and one or two other bits and pieces. So, why not give us all your list of maybe top 10 albums. Or something.

The really top stuff. Indulge yourselves. And try to stop at 10. Although finishing when you are supposed to isn't really a Prog thing, is it ?

Have fun. ( And provide Youtube links if possible !!)

We are almost the same age. I was 14 very near the end of 1976. First, I will agree with Serial Apologist on "it depends what you mean". Most of my selections are unlikely to be considered prog rock at all. This is quite a difficult area for me in that I was unusually well versed in the singles chart by 1969-70. That meant having a lighter background with depth way before adolescence and also a broader musical palette because there were a lot of genres there at that time. Rock in all its forms was to some extent a part of that mix.

For example, Black Sabbath and Deep Purple had singles in the same top five in 1970. I also have vague memories, I think, of John Peel in his perfume garden phase. Other than that, it was friends' older brothers. Humble Pie. Genesis. Inevitably Pink Floyd. That is, until you wind the clock on to about age 16 and there is a Sixth Form Common Room with turntable. Suddenly - and it was presumably the first music many had discovered and only a couple of years earlier - it was the only thing that was acceptable like some sort of coming of age.

I could never quite sign up to that myself and I saw it as universal or when I didn't I couldn't quite work out how it sat alongside punk ad later two-tone if at all. My early conclusion was that it was all based on social class as in the middle classes versus the rest of us. Later, in Yorkshire, I found out that there had been many a school at which punk hadn't happened.

It was all rock there too though largely of the Motorhead variety rather than dandelions and maths. Of course, when in the eighties, prog especially was seen as old hat that suited me nicely. It felt like evidence that I had been right all along, both in what I preferred and especially in terms of not having wished to narrow down. Yes had, of course, met Trevor Horn.

But actually this stuff had always been there in the collections of same age mates with whom I shared a sense of humour - how ironic - so there were positive associations too. And as with many things of a musical nature, it was at the start of this particular decade when I delved in more via Spotify. What I found in it in a Stuart Maconie sort of way was a greater idiosyncratic connection with punk and indie etc which does appeal. And in that process, sporadic, not well informed, original perspectives about social class became largely irrelevant.

(I still hold out against 1970s era Pink Floyd though)

[Beef Oven!]

Let me say at once that it is fruitless to even try to define progressive rock. In this forum we have composers, conductors, instrumentalists. musicologists, educated fanatics etc, but we can't and won't define 'classical', so we've no chance with prog-rock!

In the 1970s, prog-rock was a natural progression from pop and rock for the interested teenager (well, up until late 1976 when punk kicked in, but that's another story); and the category covered a multitude of bands. Sometimes including Jethro Tull. Wishbone Ash and the like.

Anyway, being around 2 years older than you, my first prog-rock album was Pink Floyd's Dark Side Of The Moon, bought a year after it came out.

I'll give my top ten, but I'll start off with my top five:



1) King Crimson - Larks Tongues In Aspic (one of my favourite sets of music of any genre).

Amazing footage

2) Yes - Close To The Edge

3) Pink Floyd - Dark Side Of The Moon

4) Tangerine Dream - Phaedra

5) Magma - Mekanik Destruktiw Kommandoh

[Richard Barrett]

the closer the musical idiom is to "jazz" in my, , subjective definition, and the higher the improvisational quotient vs the composed, the more appreciative I am of bands popularly included in this area. So, Yes, Pink Floyd from "Atom Heart Mother" onwards, and most of the German bands operating under the Krautrock rubric, would be out for me.

.. although actually Can wee improvising most of the time in their live shows and never went on stage with a set list or anything like that.

As for progressive rock itself, which is really more of a British speciality, I heard it all in the 1970s, like everyone else of my approximate age, and the only albums I still listen to are the three released by Yes in 1973-74 - Close to the Edge, Tales from Topographic Oceans and Relayer. They all have their faults (as often as not committed by Rick Wakeman) but the combination of intricate instrumental arrangements with vocal harmonies à la Beatles or Simon and Garfunkel is a winner for me. Often the vocals serve to centre the harmony while all the instruments weave freely around them. They never had the perfect lineup, which would have excluded Wakeman but included Bill Bruford, but these three albums stand the test of time for me.

[Conchis]

The great thing about Prog is, you can always find something new. The 'top tier' bands were by no means the last word on the subject. Check out, if you can, Irish prog band Fruup.

I'll put in a word for Jethro Tull's two excursions into Prog: Thick As A Brick and A Passion Play. I'm a particular fan of the latter, which is the most uncommercial music ever to have topped the American pop charts.

[jayne lee wilson]

Yes to - Purple, Led Zep, Yes....
Do Jethro Tull qualify....? Someone played me "Living in the Past" and I loved it....back then.

But back then, thanks to Radio 3 and a newly opened, fantastically well-stocked record library, I discovered something called "classical music" and sold off all those albums....

[Beef Oven!]

All you had to do was list up to 10 good ones

( It's not like I'm going to ask difficult questions !!)

But thanks for your thoughts......

Anyway, currently listening to this, which is my sort of thing, I think.

I like Red, but preferred Starless and Bible Black, which if I'm not wrong, was the album before Red.

Red is spoilt by the vocals. Somehow John Wetton gets away with it on Larks and Bible .......

[Beef Oven!]

Yes to - Purple, Led Zep, Yes....
Do Jethro Tull qualify....? Someone played me "Living in the Past" and I loved it....back then.

But back then, thanks to Radio 3 and a newly opened, fantastically well-stocked record library, I discovered something called "classical music" and sold off all those albums....

Thick As A Brick is deffo prog (and Ian Anderson tries to pretend they didn't mean it seriously claiming it was a spoof of prog). Also Passion Play which is probably my favourite Tull album.

Living In The Past was the first JT music I ever knowingly heard ...... back then.

[teamsaint]

Yes to - Purple, Led Zep, Yes....
Do Jethro Tull qualify....? Someone played me "Living in the Past" and I loved it....back then.

But back then, thanks to Radio 3 and a newly opened, fantastically well-stocked record library, I discovered something called "classical music" and sold off all those albums....

I actually went to see Jethro Tull at the Albert Hall in 1980 , only because my flat mate was going, it was £2, at the RAH, and he promised me they would use the organ, and that sparks would come out of his flute. TBF, everything was as he said. There was me, and 5000 stoned hippies. Memorable one way or another.

This one, probably....

[Beef Oven!]

Focus anyone?

I always loved this - one of the maddest vocal performances EVER!!!

[Conchis]

Yes to - Purple, Led Zep, Yes....
Do Jethro Tull qualify....? Someone played me "Living in the Past" and I loved it....back then.

But back then, thanks to Radio 3 and a newly opened, fantastically well-stocked record library, I discovered something called "classical music" and sold off all those albums....

Jethro Tull are/were a multi-genre band. I'd say only the two albums I mention above could be classified as Prog but their influences are very clear: blues, English/Scottish folk, classical. Ian Anderson was a great frontman and could also write interesting lyrics.

[Lat-Literal]

I have just realised that the question is impossible to answer.

These discs came to my mind before I gave up:

Wishbone Ash - Pilgrimage, Argus, New England
Budgie - Never Turn Your Back On a Friend
Magma - Merci
Man - 2 Ozs of Plastic with a Hole in the Middle, Rhinos, Winos and Lunatics, Slow Motion
Neu! - Neu!, Neu! 2, Neu! 75
Caravan - In The Land of Grey and Pink
Kevin Ayers - Joy of a Toy
Gentle Giant - Gentle Giant, Three Friends
The Doors - LA Woman
Moody Blues - Days of Future Passed
Colossuem - Valentyne Suite, The Grass is Greener
Weather Report - Black Market, Heavy Weather
Jon Anderson - Song of Seven
Yes - Going For The One
The Groundhogs - Who Will Save the World?
Renaissance - A Song For All Seasons, Azure d'Or - and earlier
Tangerine Dream - Phaedra
Amon Duul II - Yeti
Genesis - Wind and Wuthering
Can - Tago Mago, Ege Bamyasi
Mike Oldfield - Tubular Bells
Jethro Tull - Thick As A Brick
Supertramp - Crisis What Crisis, Even in the Quietest Moments, Breakfast in America

Definitely Gong and Daevid Allen.

Barclay James Harvest. Van Der Graf Generator,

Curved Air, Hackett, Hillage. Pearls Before Swine?

XTC in places? The recent Sunderland band?

Oh yes......and Focus!