Yes in the slow lane

[mate stubb]

Examples:

 

[video:youtube]

 

[video:youtube]

 

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[video:youtube]

[marczellm]

Most of the sense of compositional structure from ELP came because they were playing barely disguised classical works, and the structure came from the original composition.

I disagree. Tell me how Tarkus, Karn Evil 9, Trilogy, The Endless Enigma are not original Emerson compositions. I know they reworked many classical pieces such as the above, but IMO Fanfare, Romeo & Juliet, The Barbarian are not their strongest tracks.

[Joe Muscara]

Moe is not ragging on ELP. He's just saying where their compositional sense came from. IOW, it's not 20th century pop music.

[jimkost2002]

Exactly, Joe

[Losendoskeys]

Saying those prog bands (in particular no less) suffered from weak songwriting is like saying modern pop suffers from over arranging.

 

Those bands used forms closer to classical forms than Verse/Chorus/Verse/Bridge/End.

Being an ELP fan, I almost always feel a very strong sense of compositional structure and "arc" in ELP works while I perceive much of what I heard from Yes and Genesis as good instrumental themes basically slapped together. But I'd appreciate pointers to prove the contrary.

 

Good instrumental themes slapped together?

I think you totally missed the point in that case.

 

Genesis were very structured in both lyrics and music.

Tony Banks was behind most of the music and you can hear clearly the totally structured way he approached his writing, developed no doubt from his classical roots at a very conservative public school.

Go back to Nursery Cryme and Foxtrot for their best works IMHO

[Markay]

This thread makes me realise how simplistic and intellectually shallow my approach to enjoying music is, stick the album on when the mood takes me and enjoy it for what it is.

[jimkost2002]

Hahahaha......markay, best response ever

[marczellm]

Go back to Nursery Cryme and Foxtrot for their best works IMHO

I will definitely check those out.

 

This thread makes me realise how simplistic and intellectually shallow my approach to enjoying music is, stick the album on when the mood takes me and enjoy it for what it is.

That's how I enjoy most of pop/rock. Prog on the other hand is something for me to sit down, concentrate, and try to grasp what the composer/writer was trying to convey.

[WillNeverPost]

Prog didn't exist till the 90's. It was label that was invented to describe old long stuff you could dance to that the DJs at KSHE played on the air when they had to go to the crapper or wanted to go get high. It was just called Rock or FM Rock or Album Rock.

Maybe they didn't use it where you are from, but they most definitely used it in other places, the UK (and Canada) in particular. Here's some proof. I got these references from the Prog Archives forum, originally posted by Fitzcarraldo (I would just use a link to his post but I couldn't see a way to do that).

 

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New Musical Express, March 28 1970

 

Reviews of Yes concerts nearly always include phrases like "vastly improving" and "great potential" but they haven't yet achieved the heights of Blodwyn Pig and King Crimson who emerged around the same time and have gone on to establish themselves as top names. Perhaps the reason is because Yes haven't landed definitely in the so called progressive bag with all the attendant hype that can bring. Lead singer Jon Anderson says "We're not a blues group, not a jazz group, just a pop group. We do popular numbers that we hope people will like. "We can play underground, blues and pop venues and be accepted. We have been classed as a progressive group, but this isn't how we see ourselves. We just like to arrange things to reach a climax in the music.

 

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Yes: Queen Elizabeth Hall, London

Mark Williams, International Times, 9 April 1970

 

IT HAS BEEN many months since I've seen YES and the consequent starvation of tight British progressive rock music par excellence left me eagerly awaiting the start of their first solo concert.

 

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New Musical Express, April 25, 1970

TYA PLAN 33 SPEED ON 7 MIN SINGLE

says Richard Green

 

Heated arguments are constantly revolving around and developing out of my contention and, indeed argument, that Ten Years After are one of the country's biggest progressive groups. "Yeah? What about Jethro and Fleetwood?" That's all I hear. But then, I try to reason that those groups issue singles all the time, TYA don't.

 

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New Musical Express, January 1, 1972

UFO: 1972 SHOULD BE YEAR THEY BREAK BRITISH MARKET

 

Why then the lack of acceptance at home "I don't know. Perhaps it's because the public has become a little tired of progressive rock groups and we're a progressive rock group. But we do avoid the usual cliches and try to give the public something more than just freaky sounds." said vocalist Phil Mogg, who works himself to a frazzle on-stage in true Arthur Brown/Lord Sutch/Screamin' Jay Hawkins manner.

 

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Emerson Lake And Palmer: Super-Group Of The Seventies!

Keith Altham, Petticoat, 4 November 1972

 

EMERSON LAKE and Palmer may not be three names which are immediately known to you but to millions of progressive rock music fans across the World they are the only group. Better musicians than the Beatles, more exciting than the Rolling Stones and with a super-keyboard player able to leap tall organs at a single bound!

 

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Greenslade: Greenslade Warming Up

Chris Welch, Melody Maker, 16November 1974

 

THERE'S DEVIL'S work afoot in the world of rock (and indeed roll). Wot wiv the price of petrol and motorway chips it's a wonder there are any progressive rock bands left on the road who can't live off their record royalties. On top of that musicians have to put up with jibes (and in many cases, gibes) of the "techno-flash" variety from supporters of the popular antimusic front.

 

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Page 47 New York Times August 7, 1977

Yes, rock Band, Affirms Fusion

 

Yes, the British rock quintet that gave the first of three sold-out performances Friday night at Madison Square Garden, deals in a kind of rock toward which this listener is normally indifferent or even antipathetic. That is the fantasy-laden, over-busy, semi-jazzish sort of artsy progressive rock that was especially popular in Britain in the early 1970's, when Yes first became massively successful.

 

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[AnotherScott]

Go back to Nursery Cryme and Foxtrot for their best works IMHO

I will definitely check those out.

Personally, I'd go with Selling England by the Pound.

 

Maybe they didn't use it where you are from, but they most definitely used it in other places, the UK (and Canada) in particular. Here's some proof.

It was used in the U.S. as well.