Was originally thinking of posting this under the ‘Pointless things that can while away the hours’ series but then how could this be considered pointless…..? Ok I guess that could be debated.
Prog was my first music love back in the early 70’s and even back then when I was in thrall to the knife throwing exploits of Emmo and the sheer power and technical prowess of Crimson and Yes etc, I always loved those quieter moments when the acoustic guitars, flutes and pianos came to the fore. The songs were often lyrically quite bland, even ridiculous but it was that emotive tug of the mellotron strings and those often sublime melodies that won me over and still do to this day.
The list is limited to one track per band although I’ve stretched that definition with one or two and the entries are all rooted in the classic Prog era so no room sadly for the likes of Marillion, Steve Wilson etc. Ive also looked to avoid some of the more obvious songs for certain artists and/or used different versions.
One lovely discovery for me was a beautiful version of Book of Saturdays with just Fripp’s almost Joe Pass like guitar under Wetton’s vocal (the number of beautiful Crimso ballads over those early years proving that Robert for all his cold facade is soft old romantic at heart).
This is the alternate vs of Book of Saturdays
That is gorgeous. I’ve seen folks (even on here) accuse Fripp of being a one-trick pony who just blurts out dissonance and angularity, but the guitar part here gives the total lie to that claim. It is delicate, sympathetic and exquisitely played in concord with the vocal melody. Fragile and interesting all the way through, it offers a beguiling accompaniment to the lovely voice right to the last bar.
Where is Stackridge band? Teatime or God Speed The Plough.
Did actually consider ‘Plough’ – agree should be in there
Mutter will box your ears.
No Firth Of Fifth, no sale 😏
Welllll – I went for Carpet Crawlers (only 1 track per band). Could have been Cinema Show or Mad man Moon or Blood on the Rooftops – I could go on. This was a hard job !!
Harlequin, Ripples, More Fool Me….! No shortage of ballads from these Genesis blokes.
Another vote for Ripples here.
You big softy (just like me).
Can I push the Prog envelope by suggesting Roxy Music’s In Every Dream Home A Heartache.
I think it’s Prog, maybe arty prog
The tights and the capes. Prog or what?
Forget your prejudice and just play the four Fish era Marillion albums.
Some of the best music ever made.
No prejudice Wheaty just wanted to keep it to that era. I really like Marillion and was very impressed with their latest
Some of the best music ever made…by a fish.
That playlist looks very promising, Feedback. Several songs I’ve never heard of, among others that I like a lot.
How about a Volume 2 to cover the more recent artists you mentioned?
A nomination: A Certain Kind by Soft Machine.
Class act, KFD…
Thanks @fitterstoke. I have a great fondness for those early Soft Machine albums and Kevin Ayres’s first few solo albums.
I saw him live with The Whole World at the Roundhouse at one of their Sunday afternoon Implosion gigs. Magic! A ridiculously talented combo!
Ah yes, here’s one to add to the list. Languid piano, a degree of listlessness, some treated instruments, and all round loveliness.
What did you post, Chesh? I’m getting the Black Screen of Video Unavailable Doom here…
Girl on a Swing.
Love the Ayers but Ive already got ‘May I’ on the list – but with hindsight maybe should have gone for one of the more obscure ones like GOAS
Not at all. Like so many in your original list, May I? is a great choice. I was like a nodding dog in agreement as I scrolled through: Which Way the Wind Blows, My Friend the Sun, Salty Dog, Entangled. Excellent work, my prog mate.
Suggest “Crossing the line” from “Go live in Paris”. Steve Winwood on vocals and fab guitar solo from Al Di Meola. Also suitably obscure yet accessible.
That’s a great and often overlooked album.
Aussie Band Spectrum worthy of consideration
Drifting – instrumental
Does Jesus Wear Make Up
Fly Without Its Wings.
I know that there are some mixed views on Hillage hereabouts – but if I might suggest:
Another gorgeous SH choon
Oh, yes!
I’ve been trying hard to conform to the “one song per band” album. I’m sure all would agree that Family were a properly progressive band. So…
Like the Stackridge one I did consider this song but it’s didn’t get added – will rectify
Huzzah!
Same album, different song, stunningly sublime guitar solo by ‘Charlie’ Whitney
Pure class! Charlie is at the top of my “Criminally Under-rated Guitarists” list.
B side to the song above when released on a single. I think that’s called a win-win.
Did any band in that era of innovative sleeve design have more consistently elaborate (and presumably hugely expensive) record covers?
…..The Lurkers?
I vividly remember the state-of-the-art sleeve for Soft Machine 1. It had a rotatable cardboard wheel with holes which offered tantalising glimpses of what lay behind.
https://progrography.com/soft-machine/review-the-soft-machine-1968/
And now, here for the real Softheads, I just discovered the original design for the LP sleeve when it was originally released on the French label, Barclay.
https://designobserver.com/feature/soft-machines-dysfunctional-mechanism/38019/
Hey feedback: I know you have a VdGG song in the list – might you count solo Hammill as a separate entity? If so…
More VDG – from H to He.
Yes, indeed – I was trying to stick with Feedback’s “one tune per band” rule. Having said that, I’d have chosen House… over Refugees – so I’m with you on that one, Junior.
Song Of The Seagull! Oh yes indeed, I’d forgotten all about that. What an album that is, and one of the very best LP covers ever, ever, ever. Brilliant. Thanks for the reminder.
I thought you meant Prelude: Song of the Gulls by King Crimson – now I’m not so sure…
Think you meant Song of the Sea Goat (Sinfield would never go for anything as mundane as a seagull !)
Here’s my nomination: it’s from Mike Hugg, a mainstay of the Manfred Mann bands, including Chapter Three, who were for me one of the pinnacles of classic prog. The song and arrangement are just utterly gorgeous. I’ve lost track of the number of times I’ve listened to this beauty. I have both of his solo albums here in their original vinyl form; they’ve both had CD releases but only in Japan many years back, and are almost impossible to find over here in Europe without entering second-mortgage territory.
This is just lovely.
Oh, and if we are extending our definiton of prog to include artists thought of as the time as being ‘progressive’, then we most certainly need to include this:
Fine choice…also tempted to suggest this…
Have you heard this? David Bedford, who arranged the strings on this (and other Roy Harper songs) was inspired to create a 35 minute choral/orchestral piece of the same name for the Proms in 1974 (I think). I can’t hear any particular musical connection, apart from an overall dreamy mood, but this is gorgeous anyway. One of my favourite pieces in which to drift away to the cosmos.
Yep – aware of this. Superb – David Bedford doesn’t get enough play/exposure as a composer. Star’s End is also a favourite of mine.
12 Hours is definitely my favourite Harper track but sadly that album not on Spotty
No Moody Blues? “Knights?” Come on.
I’ll think about it next Tuesday Afternoon.
Thursday Afternoon would be more appropriate
Justin Hayward surely the king of the prog ballad. “Nights” is the classic but New Horizons, Watching and Waiting, Blue Guitar and even the later Driftwood – all lush, melotron/string saturated and a bit mawkish, as all good prog ballads should be.
Pay attention my boy the Moodies are there -‘Never Comes The Day’ . Quite hard finding a MB track that isn’t a ballad!
Nothing from Traffic yet?
Im probably stretching the definition of “Ballad” a bit. But this is a bit obscure (to me anyway) and proggily lovely.
What a treasure trove of fine tunes you opened up here, Feedback. Several songs that bring back a lot of memories. And many I’ve never heard..
Taking only one track from each artist must have made your task very difficult.
You chose the exquisite May I? for Kevin Ayers.
Here’s another One that Got Away from him, with Soft Machine as the backing band: Song for Insane Times.
Were The Zombies a prog band? I’m going to nominate some Colin Blunstone anyway.
Say you don’t mind (written by Denny Laine, I’ve just noticed)
I don’t believe in miracles
Gorgeous voice and arrangements. IIRC Miracles scraped into the top 20
JLT by T2 is already taken, so I will add Aardvark, “Very Nice of You to Call.”
Mellotron…heavenly choir…flute solo…violin – and strangulated vocalising!
Oh yes excellent call. It’s a must. I love that album.
Almost halfway to a hamper and no mention of the mighty Tull? That sets one’s mind wondering
There’s a Tull one on the list but it’s a pretty lame one. I thought about WA too but Tull didn’t really do ballads. “Nursie” is lovely and delicate but again not really a ballad. “Slow marching band” maybe but wrong era by the Feedback rules.
Life’s A Long Song perhaps.
Kingdom Come were certainly prog. And weird, with the never more lugubrious Arthur Brown cavorting in the front.
With Ace Bentley on ‘drums’
I’ ve been racking my brains for other bands of this era. Surely those Paragons of Prog, Olle Halsall and Mike Patto, must have produced one gentle, tuneful, moving ballad?
Well, they did, but it’s not quite what we are looking for.
And while we are totally off-piste, let’s enjoy this tuneful celebration of carefree young love.
Well. If we’re going to go Bonzo-silly…
.
Not so silly at all, if you ignore the costume.
A singer-songwriter who really belongs to this period of Prog in its Pomp: David Ackles.
Peel played American Gothic a lot.
A magnificent album – ambitious and very moving but not ‘Prog’. I’ll say it now and await the backlash but the North American continent (IMHO!!!) did not do Prog. Here come the Rush fans !!
How about a bluesy ballad from Blodwyn Pig?
Prog?
Manfred Mann’s Earth Band – Joybringer
Love it but a bit too upbeat for ballad territory??
What a pleasure this thread is!
I’ve been trying establish some kind of timeline for the classic prog era ad this magnificently detailed timeline for the Soft Machine is invaluable. And very enjoyable.
http://www.calyx-canterbury.fr/softmachine/chrono.html
They played a whole pile of gigs supporting Hendrix, for example. And “Machine Moule” were always rather popular in France.
Continuing my visit to the Soft Machine’s back pages….
Here’s what they did in the summer of 1967. Being in a band in those days was a lot more laidback. You met a guy at a party in Saint Tropez and next thing you knew you were playing as warm up music for a play by Picasso!!
La vie en rose!
July 1967
[early] Saint-Aygulf (France), Discothèque Interplay
Kevin Ayers: “We’d been hired to do a gig in a discotheque at a German beer festival on the beaches of the Cote d’Azur. It didn’t pay. There weren’t enough young people around to go to it, they were all heavy beer drinkers and they weren’t in the least bit interested in the music we were playing. And so we got fired. We were sort of abandoned in the South of France with no money, we had all the gear and stuff with us though”.
[14] St.Tropez (France), Café des Arts
This impromptu performance on the main square of St.Tropez is attended by, among others, American journalist Mike Zwerin and producer Eddie Barclay, who invites the band to play at his big summer party the following month, while Zwerin writes a feature on SM for Down Beat.
Kevin Ayers: “The promoter of this play by Picasso thought it would be a good idea to have us as a first part to the show to make more of an evening of it, and it worked very well. So we were hired, sort of for nothing, peanuts, but we had a great time, it was very good”.
[24-] Gassin [nr Saint-Tropez] (France), Carrefour de la Foux (Festival de la Libre Expression) [music for Picasso play ‘Le Désir Attrapé Par La Queue’ + pre- and/or after-show performances]
August
[early] Gassin [nr Saint-Tropez] (France), Carrefour de la Foux (Festival de la Libre Expression) [music for Picasso play ‘Le Désir Attrapé Par La Queue’]
[08] Gassin [nr Saint-Tropez] (France), Ricky Cooper’s house – Jean-Jacques Lebel’s “Sunlove” happening (Soft Machine perform in the nude around a swimming pool!)
[13] St.Tropez (France), L’Epi-Plage (Eddie Barclay’s ‘Psychedelic Night’)
At the above, Soft Machine perform “We Did It Again” (for an hour!!), as reported in the French newspaper “Le Figaro”.
[–] St.Tropez (France), Voom Voom Club (SM perform at the opening of the club)
[24] Soft Machine take the ferry back to England; at Dover, Daevid Allen is refused reentry into the UK on the grounds of out-of-date visa, and sent back to Boulogne-sur-Mer the following day on the Maid of Kent; he will not come back to the UK until 1971
[26] Ryde [Isle of Wight], 69 Club at Ryde Castle Hotel
[27] London, Middle Earth
Here they are on French TV in 1967: a groovy show called Le Bouton Rouge.
And moving on from the Softs…
Feedback is one step ahead of us, Retro.!That gem is already on his playlist.
But there are no solo songs from Robert Wyatt, so I’m proposing this gem from 1974: Sea Song. I saw him performing solo at the ICA in London when Rock Bottom was released. Magic!
I love the Unthanks’ version too.
.
Does anyone know if we’re allowed any Rush?
Suggest a ballad and let’s find out…
How about The Power of Love?
I didn’t notice at the time, but Jen’s actually rather dishy. No wonder Ian married her.
“Ah, yes…” said the Devil: “…it’s certainly a ballad – but is it Prog?”
Ooops! I missed that bit. Soz.
How about “Losing it” off Signals? Not an actual ballad but it does have an electric violin on it.
Any suggestions for a track from that classic Canterbury band, Hatfield and the North?
This one perhaps?
Or should we go for Fitter Stoke?
Mike has posted some US bands, which I am all in favour of myself.
. To my ears, for example, Spirit belong here.
And this lot too. One album wonders from the Rock Machine Turns You On.
This one from Spirit. Nature’s Way.
..and then there’s this.
What a sublime track. Both Beefheart and his band are in top form. Not a troutmask in sight!
Slightly Tom Waitsy? His career could have gone in a completely different direction.
Nature’s Way is also a thing of great beauty. I wonder if people still listen to that album in 2022: their 1970 masterpiece, Twelve Dreams of Dr Sardonicus.
Thanks all for the interest and suggestions on this thread. Have reviewed all of those and have added and changed a few choices. Its of course a very personal list so whilst Reasons for Waiting for example is probably not the greatest Tull song it holds a special place in my heart.
Rediscovered this odd little number from Wigwam which Ive added at the last minute
I’ve got a soft spot for this one. It ticks all the prog boxes I think: mellotrons, twelve string, lyrics about something or the other, nice guitar solo and so on. I still swear to this day that I saw them live at a small town Saturday night dance at the secondary school. It was near Monmouth and at the same time they must have been recording at Rockfield. I remember white keyboard instruments on stage, a wonderful sound… and not a lot of people dancing. Maybe I’m wrong though. Whatever, try this one from Spring.
Caravan – Love Song With Flute
Much as I have enjoyed this thread, your definition of ‘ballad’ wouldn’t get past the folk police at Sidmouth. Few of these, if any, are written in the third person, of unknown authorship, nor yet have they been passed down orally from generation to generation. Who knows? In time, some 22nd century folk collector may chance upon and wonder at the hard maritime life portrayed in A Plagie of Lighthouse Keepers.
Had I suggested “Plague…” as a ballad further up, I suspect that Feedback would have laughed that cruel laugh and cast me from the thread…
…but I rather like the idea of it being a “found” seafaring romp in centuries to come…existentialist folk?
Folk the Folk Police. Give ’em a few quid and point them to the real ale bar.
Let’s have a bazouki and bagpipes cover of something by Radiohead or The KLF.
Folk the police comin’ straight from the underground….
The Folk Police linger in the molten wax that is my head…
There’s a actually a bagpipes -only track on the CD of America: What Time Is Love. Help ma boab.
I agree the definition of ‘ballad’ as pertaining to this content of this thread doesn’t really hold water (or anything else). But I think we all would subjectively broadly agree whether a song is a ballad or not but I would have not the faintest idea of how to describe it M’Lud.
In the strict folk sense, a ballad is a song or poem narrating a story about a person or persons, or an event of significance. In popular music it’s just a slow, sentimental or romantic song.
Congratulations! 100 comments. Nice work, Feedback.
Well, we all know what that means. It’s Hamper Time and your (Corsair Chicken) Supper’s ready.
To celebrate, here is the Jaume Vilaseca Trio with their jazz re-imagining of the Genesis classic.
Not a ballad but this is special occasion. I think he’s done a marvelous job.
Jaume is a Catalan and from Barcelona.
https://ca.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jaume_Vilaseca
Here he is doing his day job: accompanying Violetta Curry.
But what would be in a prog hamper?
Octopus? Are we permitted a side of Ege Bamyasi?
A tin of Hurry Curry (plus some cat food, of course).
A Prog hamper – I trust it will be excessive and should last for the entirety of Topographic Oceans.
It’s strange how any mention of the Prog word in a thread title generates so much interest on this site – we are such a bunch of daft old hippies and that makes me very happy ✌️
The mention of the P-word always generates interest – but it’s not always as positive as this thread has been…