I know we debated this in the old place but hey new site ,let’s argue the same stuff again.
David Peperell, a bloke I know in Melbourne , a veteran of the Melbourne music scene and someone whose musical opinion I respect came up with his own criteria for Prog. He was prompted by this silly list of prog bands ….Toto?
http://www.listchallenges.com/top-100-prog-bands-of-all-time?fb_action_ids=10153124109608724&fb_action_types=og.comments
According to David, prog bands must be 1. English and 2. Active in the period 1969-1979. German bands are Kraut Rock not Prog and bands after 1979 are just out of the cultural loop.
I queried the English only criterion and thought prog bands could exist outside his time period but I concede this is where the original and the best comes from.
I offered this definition. I
Bands using elaborate time scales, a bevy of keyboards , musically trained classical influences if not classics lifted, extended instrumental passages and lyrics pertaining to fantasy worlds to me are prog. Throw in a few capes and you’re a cert.
And here was his list of who he regarded as genuine prog. ( Yes I spotted Focus as anomalous to0)
ALAN PARSONS PROJECT
ATOMIC ROOSTER
BARCLAY JAMES HARVEST
BEGGARS OPERA
BRIAN ENO
CAMEL
CARAVAN
COLOSSEUM
CURVED AIR
EGG
ELECTRIC LIGHT ORCHESTRA
EMERSON, LAKE & PALMER
FOCUS
GENESIS
GENTLE GIANT
GONG
GREENSLADE
HATFIELD AND THE NORTH
HAWKWIND
HENRY COW
JETHRO TULL
KHAN
KING CRIMSON
KINGDOM COME
MATCHING MOLE
MCDONALD AND GILES
MIKE OLDFIELD
MOODY BLUES
NEKTAR
PINK FLOYD
PROCUL HARUM
QUATERMASS
RENAISSANCE
RICK WAKEMAN
ROBERT FRIPP
SOFT MACHINE
STEVE HILLAGE
STRAWBS
VAN DER GRAAF GENERATOR
YES
English ideally, active 69-79 not neccesarily….
Brian Eno? I never realised I liked any prog.
(Mind you, I wouldn’t have categorised BJH, ELO nor Strawbs as prog.)
Have Prog compilation which includes Roxy Music … more blurring of genre silos
Agree re Eno and ELO and as debated elsewhere Tull are sometimes prog sometimes not.
Strawbs had a pretty diverse catalogue so depends which records I guess.
Yup, Sweden didn’t have any prog bands, we had progg. The criteria for Swedish progg ?
1: Lyrics had to be be political, of a leftie kind.
2: The music could be pretty much anything; rock, folk, pop, singer-songwriter, reggae, blues, jazz, psych, instrumental noodlings, you name it.
3: Unless you played the instrumental noodling kind of progg (and not always then), there was no need to be very good at playing instruments or singing. Everybody can sing and play, if they want to! (This do-it-yourself attitude plus the leftie politics was the reason why Swedish proggers and Swedish punks got along quite well most of the time. Punk icons Ebba Grön made a cover version of a progg song and turned it into an anthem for a new generation)
4: There was always room for a folk instrument in progg. The old folk music gatherings were suddenly flooded with long-haired youths from the cities during the 70s, eager to learn how to build their own keyed fiddles…
Eno isn’t prog. Cressida are though, before Vulpes comes blundering in.
Ahh, that’s obviously not how you post a video. Better read the FAQ then.
Stick it in the video link box. Agree re eno
“Time scales”?? I think you mean time signatures.
Yes I did Mousey but you can’t edit thread comments so there it hangs.
Tull ? English ?
Ditto Mr Derek Fish of Marillion
I don’t care. I don’t mean I don’t care uninterestedly or apathetically, I mean I strongly don’t care for these ridiculously finicky definitions about moustache length, model of Mellotron, complexity of time signature or length of bass solo. They smack of smugness and ‘only *my* bands are special and deserve recognition’.
If you’re saying someone like Steven Wilson shouldn’t be described as prog because of some ridiculously narrow restriction on time period, you might as well say Shakin’ Stevens isn’t Rock and Roll, Cassandra Wilson isn’t jazz, Jo Bonamassa isn’t blues and Cara Dillon isn’t folk.
Your mates list and definition of Prog are wrong Junior. There are many bands who qualify for the Prog label out of his time scale before and after…go investigate, I did and there are wonders to behold (IMHO). His list is not a list of Prog bands/artists but then again the definition of Prog is always open to debate.
He defended his view after I challenged him. His argument was there may be bands in the prog tradition but this was when program came about , this is the original and the best prog and the rest are pretenders. My words. Blues is a great example to the contrary Is Robert Johnson ,Charlie Patton, Chicago blues sure but to say Bonamassa , Gary Clark etc aren’t blues hmmmm. Guess he’d say they are in the tradition but not makers of the sound.
Ta Jr. I am a moron.
Supertramp
They were prog for at least three albums in the mid 1970s – Crime of the Century, Even In The Quietest Moments and Crisis What Crisis are all prog IMHO.
Definitions, schnefinitions, huh.
Got this t’other day, and nothing has reminded more of Yes album era Yes/ELP and the ilk than this for years……..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xIzkAVd5meE
Not English but definitely progular.
ELO’s second album would be the one to prosecute their claim to progness.
Longwinded ought to be a condition as well – say, maximum of three songs per vinyl side, or two with one split into Part A and Part B.
Replace Focus with Family
One of the most English bands omitted from his list and definitely the most underrated. Here is their full album for some Sunday morning Prog. Mellotrons ahoy!
https://youtu.be/F7sTsR1uvKE
Anyone else here? Am I playing with myself? (fnar fnar)
Have some Prog 2.0
Well, you may have been, Beany – but here’s some more post-1979 progressive music anyway…
Just out of the time-frame, and led by a Scot (so not totally English) but Marillion meet the rest of the criteria
I’ve got the criteria for prog…
Golden Age? It went thatta way!
Course ya do!
Course it did!