Your introduction to Prog Rock ...

[Jim Alfredson]

My eldest sister got me into prog. She got into it through liking Phil Collins, then Peter Gabriel, then Genesis, then exploring their back catalog.

 

Little did I know that my dad's vinyl collection had ELP, Floyd, and Yes in it and a few years later I heard Pictures at an Exhibition for the first time. Then dove head-first into ELP's entire output sans Love Beach. From there I got into Yes and Gentle Giant, Jethro Tull, and others.

 

Then I got into jazz and left prog behind for awhile. I got back into it via Steven Wilson. I also got back into making it.

 

I'm really happy to see bands like Opeth, Steven Wilson, Porcupine Tree, and others making new, exciting prog. It's about time it finally came back around.

 

My hero is Tony Banks.

[SteveCoscia]

Strawbs might also be considered prog (similar to Procol Harum) and I liked them. Back in the 1970s, they toured the USA annually playing small and midsize theaters. Saw them at the Calderone and Hofstra Playhouse on Long Island.

 

[MathOfInsects]

I had a period as a kid where I loved King Crimson. I was awake one night listening to the local college radio station, and they played some crazy mixed-meter song--one time signature over another--and I went out the next day and bought the record it was from: "Court of the Crimson King." I quickly filled in the rest of my collection--although I didn't stick with them across personnel changes.

 

I had a very short period where I liked ELP--really, just the Brain Salad Surgery record--but that one didn't last as long. I think that may have been my sister's record, not mine.

 

I liked Yes from their radio play and from listening to them at friends' houses, but can't remember ever buying a record of theirs for my own. (Of course, they were just one more rock band then, the label "prog" didn't mean anything to me until later looking back. They got a lot of airplay on our local rock station.) I'm pretty sure my high school band did "Seen all good people."

 

I never quite got on the Rush train. I liked their stuff well enough on the radio, but have never liked voices like Geddy Lee's. (Man did I hate REO Speedwagon.)

 

By the time Genesis was breaking through to my consciousness, I didn't like (the music we now call) Prog enough to follow them.

 

Now, old prog just sounds like spaghetti boiling to me. I'm sure I'll have a phase where I go back and check in with it, like I do with all music from my past. But to my ears now, all the royal/king/dragon/mystic/voyage/magic nonsense hits my ear as mawkish, and I lose interest in all that horizontal musical space.

 

 

 

[Bosendorphen]

I love jazz fusion, so it's not the musical complexity or virtuosity that turns me off, I think it's more the relentless seriousness / pretentiousness of a lot of it; and what's oftened sounded to me like complexity/virtuosity or sheer harmonic or rhythmic randomness or weirdness for its own sake rather than in support of emotional expression.

 

Interesting perspective and I've heard other people I know who said prog was too serious and pretentious. So I'd play them "Benny the Bouncer" or "Harold the Barrel" or "Battle of Epping Forest" or some witty, funny Tull.

 

Prog didn't always take itself seriously, particularly the Canterbury side of it. And for me, prog is more emotional and less clinical than jazz fusion which often (not always) feels cold to me. I remember crying during "Afterglow" and "Ripples" when I saw Genesis in the 70s. "The Great Gates of Kiev" got my to my heart whenever ELP did it.

 

From my perspective there was a balance between virtuosity and emotion in prog. Yes and UK are two of my old faves as well. "Carrying No Cross" gets to me with all its moods. And so many tunes are well constructed by all the bands I've mentioned with themes, developments, recapitulations, etc.

 

Edward Macan's book "Rocking the Classics" does some excellent analysis of several classic prog tunes from a compositional perspective.

[Synthaholic]

'Roundabout'

[MotiDave]

We did a show Fri night with a bunch of other tributes. One was a Dream Theater trib. I don't really know their catalog, but it was really cool - they were really good and the material was alot heavier than I expected.

 

alas, the crowd was not so enamored - they drove about 2/3 of the crowd out. Its a decided nitch deal imo.

[RudyS]

I am from a bit different generation than most of you guys (i am 32).

 

When I was a kid, I listened to what my brother was listening, which was mostly metal like Metallica and Megadeth. When I wanted to play an instrument I picked keyboards as my brother already played guitar and did not want to play the same instrument. But in the music I was listening, the (almost) never used keyboards. Until de best friend of my brother came by some day giving me 2 CD's of:

 

Dream theater. It was "Awake" and "Images and words" I was literally flabbergasted. These guys were making metal music with keyboards. And there were even keyboard solo's. This was of course a starting point for me. Al the older things followed after this. I don't even listen to Dream Theater anymore for more than 7 years or so. But those 2 albums still have a special meaning for me! (I really love the keyboard work of Kevin Moore btw!)

 

[TAdorno]

(first posting to the forum, howdy fellers)

 

My dad was/is a pianist. One of his students gave him a copy of Yes' Relayer one year. I was 11 maybe...circa 1978/79...and only listening to The Beatles. I sat there with headphones on and listened to "The Gates of Delirium" start to finish.

 

A few years later, by the time I was 14 or 15 in the early 80s, I was reading Dad's Contemporary Keyboard magazines and buying up ELP records from the discount bins at the local Woolworth's and then collecting the other Yes records and Genesis Live.

 

But the psycho-musicological damage from listening to Gates of Delirium has been inescapable ever since

[stillearning]

Strawbs might also be considered prog...

Yep. I was a big fan way back when.

[hurricane hugo]

I'd like to cite some ultra-obscure band as my intro to prog...but it was Pink Floyd.

[MorayM]

I'd like to cite some ultra-obscure band as my intro to prog...but it was Pink Floyd.

I'd like to cite some modern prog like Frost*, Porcupine Tree or Big Big Train, but yes, Floyd again!

[Iconoclast]

I'll echo the early Dream Theater albums. They didn't help me discover Prog but they sure helped me re-discover it. The first 4 DT records are fantastic.

 

I'll admit that I've got nothing for some of their latest efforts though, way to formulaic and very little emotion.

[dougb415]

I used to listen to KAAY at night, and they would play ELP, Yes, Tonto's Expanding Headband, Hendrix, Cream, Zep, GFR, all sorts of non-top 40 stuff. We're talking 1969-72 mostly.

[Losendoskeys]

I love jazz fusion, so it's not the musical complexity or virtuosity that turns me off, I think it's more the relentless seriousness / pretentiousness of a lot of it; and what's oftened sounded to me like complexity/virtuosity or sheer harmonic or rhythmic randomness or weirdness for its own sake rather than in support of emotional expression.

 

Interesting perspective and I've heard other people I know who said prog was too serious and pretentious. So I'd play them "Benny the Bouncer" or "Harold the Barrel" or "Battle of Epping Forest" or some witty, funny Tull.

 

Prog didn't always take itself seriously, particularly the Canterbury side of it. And for me, prog is more emotional and less clinical than jazz fusion which often (not always) feels cold to me. I remember crying during "Afterglow" and "Ripples" when I saw Genesis in the 70s. "The Great Gates of Kiev" got my to my heart whenever ELP did it.

 

From my perspective there was a balance between virtuosity and emotion in prog. Yes and UK are two of my old faves as well. "Carrying No Cross" gets to me with all its moods. And so many tunes are well constructed by all the bands I've mentioned with themes, developments, recapitulations, etc.

 

Edward Macan's book "Rocking the Classics" does some excellent analysis of several classic prog tunes from a compositional perspective.

 

Agreed - we have lots of fun playing this

[video:youtube]

 

And this isn't pretentious, it's a beautifully constructed pice of music with meaningful lyrics:

[video:youtube]

 

Funnily enough the pretentious music for me is the "in your face" rock - ok, maybe Keith Emerson made sure you knew how good a keyboard player he was but for me the solos meant something.

You couldn't accuse Tony Banks of being pretentious, thats for sure!

 

[Losendoskeys]

Strawbs might also be considered prog (similar to Procol Harum) and I liked them. Back in the 1970s, they toured the USA annually playing small and midsize theaters. Saw them at the Calderone and Hofstra Playhouse on Long Island.

Strawbs are definitely prog and are still touring - saw them on Cruise to the Edge 2014 and locally a year ago.

 

No mention here of Camel, Soft Machine, Uriah Heep and Refugee, they were brilliant IMHO but maybe they didn't get to the US.

[Losendoskeys]

 

King Crimson I guess would be prog, Robert Fripp definately, but not sure what genre Brian Eno falls into, Pop when in Roxy music, ambient later?

 

King Crimson were early prog masters!

As for Eno, listen to the Roxy Music album - all prog IMHO.

Then check out Lamb Lies Down on Broadway credits -

 

"During the mixing sessions at Island Studios, Brian Eno was working on his album Taking Tiger Mountain (By Strategy) (1974) in the adjacent studio. Gabriel asked Eno to add synthesized effects on his vocals on several tracks including "The Grand Parade of Lifeless Packaging",[44] which he dubbed on the album's credits as "Enossification".[24] As a repayment, Eno asked Collins to play drums on his track "Mother Whale Eyeless"."

[StartRun]

...I don't care for labels/names like "Prog" to define music styles or influences, but-that's the world we live and communicate in.

 

Procol Harum

Zappa (Hot Rats)

Colosseum

Sgt. Pepper /Magical Mystery Tour

Traffic

The Zombies

 

Aside from these mid-late '60's bands or

albums, the usual suspects such as The Nice

would have to be credited (or blamed)...

 

[Markay]

If Sgt. Pepper is prog then its twin, The Mothers of Invention 'We're Only In It For The Money' must be prog too.

[RABid]

Judging by the lists of artists in this thread I'm not sure what Prog is. I know I don't like Gentle Giant. Hits from Yes are okay but I don't like their albums. ELP is more listenable. Rush 2112 good. Rush Moving Pictures bad. I think I am very mixed on prog, and maybe very mixed up.

[Dave Bryce]

My 16 year old (female!) cousin turned me on to Tarkus and Pictures at an Exhibition when I was in 6th grade. That was all it took, really...

 

She was cool (and still is. She took me to see Rick Wakeman do Journey live as well.

 

dB

[Iconoclast]

Judging by the lists of artists in this thread I'm not sure what Prog is. I know I don't like Gentle Giant. Hits from Yes are okay but I don't like their albums. ELP is more listenable. Rush 2112 good. Rush Moving Pictures bad. I think I am very mixed on prog, and maybe very mixed up.

I'm afraid we will never be friends. One of my faves of all time.

 

There's a lot of room for interpretation/opinion but I find it one of the best produced records of all time. Rarely will you find such huge sounding instruments mixed in a way that somehow left space and breathed. It's one of my favorite records to sound check on the PA at setup.

 

It inspired an ENTIRE GENERATION of drummers. It was almost impossible to get away from them when I first started playing.

[timwat]

No mention here of Camel, Soft Machine, Uriah Heep and Refugee, they were brilliant IMHO but maybe they didn't get to the US.

 

Camel made it to the US, even did a brief stint on popular rock radio (tracks from Moodmadness in particular got recurring airplay, Rain Dances a little, Echoes from Breathless). I caught them on tour after Peter Bardens had sadly left to join Van Morrison. Many US prog fans only discovered Refugee after Moraz's stint in Yes.

 

Big names like Crimso, Yes, Genesis, ELP and other big names were all around me during junior high and high school. But PFM was also known during my high school prog days (around the Chocolate Kings and Photos of Ghosts era), Area, Banco and some of the other Italian prog bands, and Clearlight Symphony introduced us to the French prog scene during the same period. Gong (and later Steve Hillage solo), Greenslade, Michael Oldfield's extended works (T. Bells, Hergest Ridge, Ommadawn) were all circling around with my friends.

 

Looking back and listening to my old vinyl, what strikes me often are 1) wide freedom to experiment (instruments, timbre, form, length, concept...everything!), 2) lack of focus sometimes a proxy for purpose (let's just tack on another section), 3) in every genre, real musicality and something to say trumps technical prowess, novel sounds, or mere length.

 

I think I was at times distracted or focused on #1 so much that I minimized or ignored #2. And #3, I was kind of numb to, and not really understanding why some tunes / pieces / albums hit me so much harder and more lasting than others.

 

There are still a short list of tunes that move me, which I'm finally learning was the point of the entire exercise to begin with. And I have a LOT of records with just a lot of twiddling, for 20 minutes each side. Yawn.

 

Here's one that still moves me.

 

[video:youtube]

[synthizen2]

No mention here of Camel, Soft Machine, Uriah Heep and Refugee, they were brilliant IMHO but maybe they didn't get to the US.

 

I am a huge fan of Soft Machine, Camel, Caravan, Hatfield & The North, National Health, Matching Mole, Gong, Henry Cow, and all those "Canterbury" bands... since about '81 or '82 when I started buying up all their albums in used vinyl bins (at a Princeton record shop, just across the street from the University) for about $3 a pop. Everybody I knew was into the new synth-pop and new-wave scenes, while I was almost exclusively listening to this stuff... which I considered much of it to be wonderful progressive rock that I missed out on in my earlier years, so a lot of catching up to do...

 

Certainly Soft Machine made it to the States several times (including 2 tours opening up for Jimi Hendrix in 1968), and again later on in 1974/75 during the "Bundles" era with Allan Holdsworth on guitar. But a lot of these bands never did, choosing (or forced) to play the European Continent instead. In fact many of these bands were more much more popular in continental Europe than in their home country Great Britain, and were able to make a modest living doing music that way.

[The Real MC]

Rush Moving Pictures bad.

I'm afraid we will never be friends. One of my faves of all time.

 

Rush had changed so much over their career that there is no one single agreement on their favorite era. For the non-musicians, 2112 and Moving Pictures are the two most favored albums. Guitar players generally favor the albums without keyboards, keyboardists favor the albums with keyboards. Drummers favor the earlier stuff, especially when Neil wore the coolest handlebar mustache.

[Losendoskeys]

Judging by the lists of artists in this thread I'm not sure what Prog is. I know I don't like Gentle Giant. Hits from Yes are okay but I don't like their albums. ELP is more listenable. Rush 2112 good. Rush Moving Pictures bad. I think I am very mixed on prog, and maybe very mixed up.

I thought I didn't like Gentle Giant until I saw Three Friends on cruise to the edge - blew me and everybody else away.

They were the most popular non-headliner.

That album is terrific though I'm not a fan of the folkbased albums.

Musically they are spectacular.

[synthizen2]

I thought I didn't like Gentle Giant until I saw Three Friends on cruise to the edge - blew me and everybody else away.

They were the most popular non-headliner.

That album is terrific though I'm not a fan of the folkbased albums.

Musically they are spectacular.

 

For sheer musical virtuosity, weirdness, and diversity of ideas, no prog band can beat Gentle Giant. They are the "proggiest" of the proggers. They used to open up for Tull in the States back in the 70s, and on many an occasion, they completely stole the show from good ol' Ian.

[Shamanczarek]

The Schulman brothers had a band before Gentle Giant. Check out their British Top 10 hit from 1967:

 

[video:youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D0svzLY-u7E

 

 

[mate stubb]

I thought I didn't like Gentle Giant until I saw Three Friends on cruise to the edge - blew me and everybody else away.

 

Loved these guys!

 

[video:youtube]

[WillNeverPost]

I'm sure I heard some prog rock before my high-school days but it wasn't until midway through high-school in the mid 70's that I got a really good taste of it. Not all the bands I was listening to back then necessarily qualify as "prog" (e.g., do Queen or Supertramp qualify?) but prog rock started for me with Rush, Yes, Pink Floyd, ELP, Kansas, early FM (the Canadian band not the British one) and Saga, the latter still my favorite of all of those. I segued from that, somehow, into post-punk, new-wave, synth-pop and other 80's derivatives but never lost my appreciation for prog rock.

[Mills Dude]

In high school in the early '80s, when I started getting good enough, made friends with a crew of musicians. They were into Kansas and Genesis. One of my friends father was a keyboardist and I discovered ELP from him.

 

In '84, I was driving around an old van with an 8-track player. The local music store was selling old 8-tracks for a dollar a piece. In the bin was Yes - Drama, Isao Tomita - Firebird Suite and Planets, Genesis - Trick of the Tail. So we drove around in my van and listened to those endlessly. The love of Yes dovetailed back through the catalog along with Kansas, ELP and Genesis.

 

Then I found UK and discovered Bruford and Holdsworth, which also brought to King Crimson. But UK was the gateway to fusion - Return To Forever, Mahavishnu, Bruford, Early Pat Metheny Group, etc.

 

My head wasn't tuned into Jazz yet. In '87, I went to see John McLaughlin/Shakti opening for Miles Davis in NYC on the pier. I went for Shakti, but when Miles Davis hit the stage, I was floored. Yes, it was late '80s Miles, but I could still feel the genius. That was the gateway for exploring the '60s post-bop/avant-garde era, then '50's bop era and all the artists associated with those eras.

 

Kind of a journey back in time.

 

But I still love the prog. Actually, Kansas is my favorite prog band. Just the mix of tremendous songwriting, great vocals, and really great playing. Kansas doesn't have any virtuosos, like Emerson or Wakeman. The sum is greater than the parts. That stretch in the Mid-70's from Song For America - Audio Visions is some stunning output. Kerry Livgren in his prime.

 

Favorite prog album for me though is still the first UK album. Jobson is simply amazing on that record. The textures and the playing. Bruford hits it right and Holdsworth is stunning. Yeah, the songwriting isn't that great and the record lacks continuity, but for me, it just hits that sweet spot of english fusion meets prog.