OK, the kids have had their fun with Poppy’s bumper “people talking over a drum machine” thread – aka the Hippity Hoppity thread – now it’s time for the grown-ups to show ’em how it’s done with a prog rock version. In other words, I’m shamelessly stealing Poppy’s idea.
That’s right, it’s another one of those YouTube clips list. But I’m hoping people will add a little explanation to their choices.
Here’s my favourite prog track. It’s Roundabout,the opening cut from Fragile the 1971 fourth Yes album. Eight minutes of great playing from a band at the absolute top of their game.
Fragile was the first Yes album with Rick Wakeman on keyboards and it features the classic line-up of Wakeman, Jon Anderson, Steve Howe, Chris Squire and Bill Bruford.
Said the straight man to the late man
“Where have you been?”
I’ve been here and I’ve been there, and I’ve been in between.
I talk to the trees…..
Oh no, wait, that’s Clint Eastwood…..
The B-Side of Lee Marvin’s number one hit Wand’rin’ Star, too
I’ve enthused over the years about The Waybacks who since about 2008 have been playing a classic album in its entirety on the Hillside Stage on the Saturday afternoon at Merlefest. In the past I’ve seen them do Sticky Fingers, Eat a Peach, Are you Experienced? This year they did The Eagles Greatest Hits Part 1. I wasn’t there but its looks great from the You Tubes. They do this on remarkably little rehearsal time, although in recent years they have been smart enough to appoint and announce a lead singer who presumably gets a core rehearsal in advance. Where possible they use other Merlefest acts in featured songs. I thought this year they surpassed themselves, by throwing in lots of references to birds (Eagles, geddit) and loads of tributes to people who’ve recently departed this mortal coil. No finer example than in this clip which includes Lyin’ Eyes, Already Gone and Desperado. At 2.20 they throw in a burst of And Your Bird Can Sing. But the big surprise is around 11.20 where at the end of Already Gone they pull off a decent reading of Roundabout as a tribute to Chris Squire. The tall lady singer who looks like she’s stepped out an Austin Powers movie is Nikki Bluhm, The splendid keyboard player is Jamie Crosby, David’s long lost son
Nice. I love the way Roundabout fits perfectly between the two Eagles songs.
I have many favourites, but I’m going to go with Genesis and One For The Vine from Wind & Wuthering – it’s one of the best songs Tony Banks ever wrote for the band, the different sections blend together seamlessly, and the lyrics tell a story which, at the end, circles back to the beginning.
It’s prog. Too structured for jazz-rock, too many themes. And, from 1969, it’s one of the first compositions in rock written to fill an album side (don’t mention Love’s ‘Revelation’, please – a studio jam stretched to fill a side). I can’t find a YouTube clip (hurrah!) of the suite itself, which is the second side of the album, so you’re on your own. It was on the Vertigo swirl label, and it’s one of my most-played albums over the decades. I like the first side, too, but it’s the suite that really works for me.
Nope – lengthy searches just reveal the full album, so here it is:
Funnily enough I just picked that up on CD. It’s a double set with the US version of Valentyne Suite (titled The Grass Is Greener and is very different) on Disc 2.
Co-produced by Gerry Bron, brother of actor Eleanor. Colosseum would move to Gerry’s Bronze label in 1971
I have that. There was a previous CD release known as “Hiseman’s revenge”, where James Litherland’s guitar was mixed down almost to inaudibility. Hiseman later denied any skullduggery. In spite of some rather snooty comments on Allmusic about his playing and singing, I always enjoyed them both. There’s also some argument about who wrote The Kettle on side one.
Yes, Litherland departed soon after VS and The Grass Is Greener has tracks featuring both him and his replacement Clem Clemson.
Aha, that’s it, I remember now. Having asked about the 2 versions of Valentyne Suite a week or so back, I recall, i teeing a Litherland and a Clemson.
My favourite bit remains, however, the Dave Greenslade hammond solo, where he keeps on turning it off mid chord, causing that wonderful downward fade effect. Out Ems Emerson there, I feel
A pedant writes: the correct surname is Clempson.
So it is. Thanks for the correction.
tssh I LOVE drum machines, and I posted a hip hop track on Poppy’s thread – but I’m not averse to a bit of Prog either -so let’s have ‘Playing the Game’ by Gentle Giant from ‘The Power and the Glory’ (although not sure if this Prog Rock or Art Rock ? It has an organ solo so I’m saying Prog)
I’m hammering the “prog” button for this one.
So many to choose from, but if i had to name one it would be “Cinema Show’ by Genesis.
Main reason is that its a track I constantly go back to, no matter how many times I’ve heard it and the keyboards at 9.33 onwards still make the hairs on the back of the neck stand up. Added to that, sublime guitar from Mr Hackett, its 10 mins long and jobs a good un.
The main motif coming in at 9.50 is just so exhilarating (not for the audio supplied on this clip, you understand, on proper hifi) where the keyboard hits this sixxy rhythm and the bass, ah the bass, just strides mightily upwards. One of the great moments in music generally. Good choice @Chrisf.
Weedy synth sound tho’, sounds like a cheap advert soundtrack, however good the tune.
This one ticks a few boxes: suite-like structure, opening stately melody with mellotron section, then a slightly abstract, unfurling, counted in thirteens (I think) section, over which the band actually manages to swing, headlong into the skronk section, and finally chilling down into a restatement of the melody. They had been building towards this for a few albums. As SAF might say: Prog? Bloody Hell!
Ahem
https://youtu.be/OS0o4nD3QFs
Great choice. The problem with the “one track” rule is it excludes some great favourites. I was torn between Yes and something by Crimson, probably 21st Century Schizoid Man. I would have picked it too, except I could only find live versions on YouTube.
Indeed, Johnny. Not to mention the wonderful side 2 of Lizard (snappy title that), you know the Prince Rupert & Co. which is really all one long bit . Maybe that’s why it seldom gets a mention. Or is it because it features loads of horn players.
I love the second side of Lizard. Very transporting stuff. Jon Anderson’s vocals are beautiful.
Indeed. Beautiful. One of my favourite KC albums too – one that’s generally overlooked.
Hah! Just read that as trainspotting, which would have fit as well.
Need a choice from you too, HPS.
Okay, Valentyne, as you were.
Could easily have been Lizard, though.
My feelings about Prog are very similar to my feelings about Hip Hop: i don’t know much about it and, although there are some songs I love, I’m not quite sure what counts and what doesn’t. Two favourites come immediately to mind. Turn Of The Century from Yes’s Going For The One Is lovely. Most articles I’ve read about Yes cite Awaken as the most important/impressive track from that album, but I don’t agree. Turn Of The Century is much more beautiful, from its delicate beginning to its euphoric crescendo. And it’s about a chap called Roan, so it must be prog.
But my favourite is The Carpet Crawl from Seconds Out. For me it’s the best version of the song. Collins sings it more delicately than Gabriel, omitting the latter’s poncey intro verse but including the last verse that was left off the 1999 version. Carpet Crawl, The Carpet Crawlers… I can’t keep up with all the article/no article, noun/subject variations of the title. But it’s about a chap called Rael so it must be prog.
“I’m not quite sure what counts and what doesn’t.”
Prog has become a stereotype with an emphasis on the wibbling.
When a lot of the bands that we now refer to as Prog were starting out, it was progressive rock and a very broad church. Anyone who was experimenting and trying something new belonged. There would be nothing odd about Zappa, Fairport Convention, Jon Hiseman’s Coliseum, Donovan, Tiny Tim, Sly and the Family Stone,the Doors, Quintessence and Neil Young playing at the same festival. Or being played by Peel on the same radio show.
Hip hop didn’t exist yet, but groups like De La Soul or A Tribe Named Quest would not have been out of place.
Or the wonderful Jean Grae who Poppy posted on the HH thread.
In what way does this answer the request for “one favourite prog track”? Should we post all the prog tracks here on the hipitty-hoppity thread?
Ahem ! That was NOT prog, Kaisfatdude.
I managed about 10 seconds before the usual gritty urban solipsistic child adult whingeing did for it entirely.
Elves don’t moon about with their arses hanging out of their jogging bottoms .
“hangs head in shame”
It’s naughty corner for me. Please apologise to the elves on my behalf.
Swearing. You don’t hear too much effing and jeffing in prog. Or homophobia, misogyny, threats of violence and general unpleasantness. Not in Donovan’s music anyway.
Donovan doesn’t go about popping caps in peoples bottoms, no.
Not too many baseball caps, heavy gold jewellery, pimped up Mercs and BMWs or ladies with big arses in the Canterbury Scene, either.
Indeed, I doubt Richard Sinclair would have penned a song called ‘Golf Hoe’.
Nice Caravan reference there Rob
I don’t think you’d find Jon Anderson pimping The Moorglade, either.
In terms of violence, I can only think of a few references – Hogweeds and the Malleus Maleficarum, entirely in context and non gratuitous.
Cool. I’ll put the word out around the Thinhood. Hobbits are my homies.
You’ve become quite grumpy since they appointed you Blog Moderator, Saucecraft.
I’m not even End Boss (that’s Uncle Wheaty these days), and I don’t see how you can read grumpiness into that comment (or this one). Kaisfatsdads is the one to post YouTube themed threads (perhaps you hadn’t noticed?) so it’s ironic – or do I mean iconic – that he misses the ball so wildly here.
There isn’t a good prog track (we know Pink Floyd aren’t prog). It’s shite. At least hip hop tends to be short. Prog has good bits sometimes but it tends to be buried in amongst interminable wibble…
Ah, Prog – what’s not to like apart from everything about Prog?
I think Steve Hillage is Prog, isn’t he? He’s ok that Steve Hillage and the video that accompanies this track is simply outstanding.
Excellent idea to copy Poppy’s idea. But it once again leads to the agony of making a choice.
I’m tempted to push the envelope and post something modern by one of the bands who to my mind that are keeping the spirit of prog alive, such as Sigur Ros. Or should I go for a timeless classic like Yours in no disgrace by Yes, Supper’s Ready by Genesis, Clarence in Wonderland by Kevin Ayres and the Whole World, Living in the past by Jethro Tull or Nine Feet Underground by Caravan?
No, the honour is going to a personal favourite from another Canterbury band: Soft Machine’s Moon in June. I first heard it on Top Gear sitting in the park on a sunny Saturday afternoon.
Robert Wyatt’s deadpan vocals . The quirky, witty, self-referential, rather post-modern lyrics. (Is there any other song that mentions the tea machine at the BBC?). It name checks the Venerable Peel and several bands of the time. It sounds as though he’s improvising as he goes along.
Changes of time signature. Stupendous playing by Ratledge and Hopper. The sense that you never know what’s going to happen next.
It may be a an oddity and a museum piece. But it captures the playfulness, wit and spirit of experimentation of that time so very well.
Nice! And some good background info too
Glad you liked it. What makes it such an oddity in a prog context is that the lyrics are so down to earth and everyday. No escapism there.
Wyatt is rather an oddity for a prog musician. On one hand, he’s musically very experimental and innovative, and yet at the same time, one of his finest moments is a very political song, Langer and Costello’s Shipbuilding. Social comment is not something you’ll find much in prog. Although there is Genesis’s abusrdist Get them out by Friday.
The other Softs hated it and only contributed on the most basic level, idiots that they were. Such a wonderful work, and yet one that undoubtedly contributed to Wyatt’s eventually departure.
In my view, the best of the early Soft Machine (Wyatt-featuring) albums is undoubtedly “Volume Two”. Plenty of Wyatt whimsy and a rake of excellent playing. It also contains the world’s most (possibly only) interesting drum solo.
I have dored this band since my early teenage years, and this song is a particular favourite. Fast forward from 1981 to 2006, sitting on top of Glastonbury Tor watching the early dawn summer sun rise over the town and levels, basking all it’s in glow ,as this played on my Ipod in perfect accompaniment.
Very difficult – no, impossible, task. Yes, Genesis, Crimson, Floyd, Rush, Marillion, Tull – where to even begin…..
As there’s already a few Yessongs been chosen, try this ELP classic
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WKNOlDtZluU
This is possibly the birth of prog in one track and still my favourite. Four great musicians (including the much underrated David O’list on guitar) giving it some welly.
The Nice – Rondo
Oh yes! Give me The Nice over ELP any day. In the same way I’ll take Free over Bad Company also.
And Wings over The Beatlies!
And U-Boat over Spiders From Mars
Interestingly, the vamp on which this is built is practically exactly the one used for The Valentyne Suite (above).
David O’List blotted his copy by slashing major chords all over “America”, Nice’s best-known work. Shoulda been minor. Cringe every time I hear it.
David O’List is the nearly man of rock. In 1967 his first band the Attack recorded the original version of Hi Ho Silver Lining. Unfortunately for O’List, Jeff Beck released his version a week later and killed the Attack’s record.
Then after recording only for one album with the Nice, he briefly joined Pink Floyd (standing in for Syd), Jethro Tull (ditto Mick Abrahams) and a pre-first album Roxy Music.
The Canterbury side of prog is a shade under-represented here, so let’s add Caravan’s magnum opus “Nine Feet Underground”. It’s a bonanza for lovers of Dave Sinclair’s keyboard-playing, Pye Hastings delivers a great vocal, but the two things I love most about it are the way it seems to start in the middle – as if it’s already been in progress for a while – and the way the riff in the final section sounds as though it’s going to be “Sunshine Of Your Love”, and then isn’t.
https://youtu.be/ViOrtk3wWwg
I only recently turned onto Caravan after picking up the deluxe edition of In The Land Of Grey And Pink. I was aware of their earlier albums, but this is such a strong record all the way through.
Love ‘Grey & Pink’ but for me the stand out album is ‘If I Could Do It All Over Again’. Pure Caravan at Pye Hasting’s best. He was the better songwriter after all.
On the subject of Canterbury, Soft Machine, who were the Pride of Prog for their first three albums became a jazz fusion band in their later career. Whereas Kevin Ayers and Robert Wyatt continued to remain true to the spirit of the original band.
Wyatt has of course been covered by the Unthanks. Might I dare to suggest that, with their more recent longer songs and more lavish arrangements, the Tyneside sisters are now dabbling their toes in the sea of prog?
Soft Machine ended up tedious Open University Lecturer Skronk Bores.
Skronk? If only. Last album, The Land Of Cockayne, was such blow-dried soft-dick go-nowhere fluff, it sullied the name of a once-great band. Jenkins had completely taken over by then and all original members sidelined/gone.
As a lover of Skronk proper, I stand corrected, Declandude. I am fortunate indeed to have not had the displeasure.
I detest even the name ‘skronk’. It sounds utterly detestable. As far as I can see there is one man with an absurd hairdo behind it all – Bob Roachford or something like that. The sooner it disappears the better.
Skronk is merely a quick description of saxophones being overblown, common in jazz, not so much in rock. Shrieking, rasping, farting, you get the picture @Colin H. Not a pretty word but onomatopoeic.
It needs to be stopped, Declan. It was all done by 1970, and mostly in Germany. Once Albert Ayler, John Coltrane and Peter Brotzman had done their skronking by then there was nothing new to add, and merely future generations to annoy. Anyone still doing it needs to stop.
I think you’ll find that Peter Brötzmann’s skronking isn’t ‘done’ at all. At the age of 75, the “Machine Gun” hitmaker is still skronking away, gig after gig, night after night….
Quite. Saw Brötzmann just weeks ago. Got exactly what I had expected.
Brotzmann needs to stop. He skronked all there was to skronk 45+ years ago. There’s no skronking left that needs to be skronked. He should stop now – it’s a bloody racket and we’ve all got a headache. It isn’t big, it isn’t clever. And if the word is in any dictionary it needs to be excised.
Re: Caravan’s “If I Could Do It All Over Again, I’d Do It All Over You”
Yes, that’s a superb record. I was listening to it this evening, actually, while making a delicious slow-cook pasta sauce for dinner. The stand-out track has got to be the long medley that was on the old side 2 of the LP, namely “Can’t Be Long Now / Françoise / For Richard / Warlock” . Absolutely top stuff.
Despite my love for Yes, KC and the Canterbury Scene, it’s got to be Van der Graaf Generator. Rather than the obvious “Prog” tracks, usually lengthy and pre 1973, I’ve chosen a spiritually uplifting song from Still Life, probably my favourite album, come to that. When the bridge transitions into the chorus, I defy your heart not to soar.
I couldn’t find the studio version – hopefully this will do…
Tricky business, yer prog – rule of thumb, it’s a ‘cow-pat’ job, best avoided, obv., but, hmm…..
Favourite song by a recognised prog act – Family’s ‘Scene Thru The Eye of a Lens’ – by a considerable distance. I suspect the 45 is now worth more in monetary terms than the rest of their entire back catalogue put together. Absolute gem, and probably the song which sealed the deal for Jimmy Miller to produce the Stones.
Favourite actual prog track – Jethro Tull’s ‘Reason For Waiting’ – if indeed ‘Stand Up!’ is now thought of as a prog record.
Let’s hear that rare single from Leicester’s finest.
*Adopts Peel voice* “These are Family with their first single Scene Through The Eye Of A Lens. Three more in session from them later”
Great choice Fitterdude. I’ve been scratching my head over what VDGG track to choose. The agony of choice.
Very tricky – Lighthouse keepers, Pioneers over c, Childlike faith…..and the rest….in the end, I just picked one that does my heart good…And you and I has a similar effect, funnily enough…when I heard it live on GFTO tour, I nearly levitated….
Good choices all.
You saw Yes on the GFTO tour ? Lucky you !
Golf Hoe? I love it.
Rob and JC have just invented a new sub genre: Hip Hop Prog.
I look forward to hearing artists like
G.W.A. (Goblins with Attitudes)
The Disposable Heroes of Hiphobbitry
De La Hole
Snoop Doggy Progg
And albums like
Fear of an Orc Planet
Tales from the Tobergraphic Projects
Selling Compton by the pound
LOL.
Never really sure what does and doesn’t constitute Prog, especially when it comes to modern bands. There’s quite a lot of crossover with Metal, but I don’t know if the likes of Tool, Mastodon and Comets on Fire are really what we’re after here.
Going to go for this, by the Mars Volta. Partly because it’s such a glorious I wig-out, partly because I really love At The Drive-In and the fact that half the band went charging off to make this sort of stuff is still immensely pleasing – they basically located the precise intersection of punk and prog.
You’re definitely on to something there, Bingo. If we want to find those who were the musical beacon carriers of the prog spirit, metal is the place to look.
Er, no, actually. Prog remains a vigorous genre, and always has been. Loadsa contemporary prog bands carrying the musical beacon of the prog spirit.
Can’t possibly agree with your assertion about metel, KFD, a genre so conservative that the Grand Ol’ Opry must be envious.
Mars Volta has got one metel element in there though: the piercing vocalist. Still quite an interesting band (and interesting here doesn’t stand for shite..).
HPS sounds about right.
metel?
That’s exactly what a massive younger person would say*
*Yeah I know, way to ruin a meme, but I’d have bet money that you would have gone for the Mars Volta.
I know, I know.
To be honest, this was my first thought, but I wasn’t sure if it might be disqualified on the basis that Mastodon sometimes have women in their videos…
A singer with a stupendous set of pipes. Technically sophisticated musicians. Complex, intriguing songs.
Mew from Denmark certainly belong to the modern prog canon.
Try The Zookeeper’s Boy.
And let’s not forget their Danish prog predecessors: Burning Red Ivanhoe.
Agree with you on Mew. For me Efterklang were in the same ball park.
An impossible question to answer, but Big Big Train are making Prog that is as good as anything Yes or Genesis have ever done (and I adore both of those bands.)
Today, this is my favourite.
Good call. I was debating whether to go BBT or Genesis / Cinema Show as above. If it had of been BBT, I think I’d have gone with Victorian Brickwork – especially the version from the recent London shows with the gorgeous trumpet at the end.
What do you think to the new album, Folklore ?
Grrrr. My copy has not arrived yet. However, having listened to the various tracks via the radio interviews of the last few weeks, I know it will be wonderful. Brooklands made me cry the first time I heard it.
Is it just me or is ‘Big Big Train’ a really terrible name for a band? Like ‘Huge Big Motor Car’, ‘Tall Tall Window’, Great Big Stupid Name’, etc.
Yes, it is, Colin. Did Steve Marriott christen his group the Small Small Faces? Was the early incarnation of the Who called the High High Numbers? It’s a fucking idiotic name.
I prefer Kaleidoscope when it comes to contemporary prog, anyway. Less glum. No crying required.
I have a theory, which is mine.
Big Big Train might be named after the Triang ‘O’ gauge toy train, the one with the bright coloured track, and sh*t.
http://i1060.photobucket.com/albums/t449/GCU_Grey_Area/DSC_0011_zps52bcca35.jpg
Big Train was already taken by the BBC comedy series.
Big Big Big Train would have been silly.
// theory ends.
I’ll go for the obvious one – 21st Century Schizoid Man. I’ll never forget the first time I heard it in Music class. It seemed wildly ahead of its time. I loved the crunchiness and sonic attack plus the frenzied time changes. The essence of prog.
Ever heard the story (from Fripp himself, if memory serves) that the zingy, staccato bit in the middle is actually a guitar adaptation of Paganini violin exercises?
No, Not Prog I.
Can’t stand elfinism or magical dwarfery. Pointless time changes or ethereal whinny. Can’t stand the voices of Anderson, I or Anderson, J.
Can’t stand Canterbury which apart from the cathedral is a boring, little provincial town. Scene? More avant garde thinking and bohemian endeavour in Littlehampton.
And talking of little hamptons. It is music for chaps with small willies and an inordinate interest in medieval instruments of torture.
And it is all chaps. Where are the women? Other than as cartoons of ever attendant voluptuous handmaidens. Presumably made wet by a multiple keyboard set-up.
I abhor the artwork of Roger Dean. I laugh in the face of Colosseum . I stand firm against Gentle Giant, early Genesis and Egg.
I say nay, nay and thrice nay as faux-Chaucerian Englysshe is the only language you people understand.
Have some Magma. And don’t tell me it’s not prog! No, it couldn’t be. It’s bold, dark and energetic. It’s good, in other words.
Magma
De Futura
Of course it’s prog. I love Magma, and I pack a Crumhorn.
You’re right, Fin.
Women of Prog would be a very slim volume.
Efterklang have had two women, Heather Woods Broderick and Katinka Fogh Vindelev, as members of their band, but otherwise I’m hard pressed to think of anyone.
Not, of course, that gender equality leads to better music, but it is odd.
Oh I say KFD! How quickly you forget Curved Air. The Bolton-born Annie Haslam of Renaissance. Barbara Gaskin of, erm, Dave Stewart & Barbara Gaskin.
Let us not forget Earth and Fire.
Glad to see the wonderful Annie Haslam mentioned. Renaissance are really the only ‘prog’ band that I’ve ever had much time for, and much of that regard is to do with AH’s wonderful pipes.
She gave up the music business for quite a time, concentrating on painting, but reformed the band with the now sadly late Michael Dunford. She is the only member left from the long-lasting mark 2 line up, and has just completed a UK tour.
I’ll go with this one, my favourite by Renaissance.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6B70MNHCFAo
Whether it was coincidence, or “something” about Renaissance, but my dog freaked and whined when I last played that album.
I must play it again to see if it upsets him again.
Wind added at a later date, presumably…
A lot of time in the Naughty Corner on this thread, Beany.
“Sonja! Sonja! I am so fickle. Can you ever forgive me?
I still dream of you prowling the stage of the Roundhouse in those skin-tight leather trousers. But no one ever told me you were a Princess of Prog.”
Sexy, alluring, danceable and prog? Are you sure about this, Beanster?
Are you describing me so as a compliment? I shall take it of course. I have been know to flip a wig at the odd Prog tune dear boy.
All this bemoaning the “lack of women” in prog/rock/whatever – this is an example of “virtue signalling”, isn’t it? We might as well dismiss most of the arts since the dawn of time on the basis of “unfair representation”.
And as has been pointed out here, the little ladies* were allowed into prog as much as any other genre.
(*go for it)
It’s also clearly a racist genre. Surprised I’m the first to smugly point this out.
Au contraire. Prog embraces all the major races: human, elvenfolk, faeries, the great Dwarf peoples of the Upper Valleys, centaurs (both thoroughbred and nag) and even the Blood Orcs.
Black Lives Matter.
Let’s not forget the epic Rise Of The Tardigrades.
Less easy snottiness about ELP, if you please: we all read the NME, we all know the tropes, and there is infinitely more pretentiousness in the typical skronk/ Wire/ avant-rock beard-stroker than this guileless paen to mid-70s adolescence that we all see for what it is.
This is 30 minutes of cracking Hammond, piano trio jazziness, a fantastical theme to the song (in which the enemy wins), AND a drum solo: our cup runneth over. Other than “Pirates”, i don’t think they ever produced anything else to keep up the quality. That, and I grew up and found there are lots of other types of music.
Followed by the text
Your Skronk deaf spot aside, I heartily concur.
* Etheric Fist Bump*
Thar “followed by the text” should, of course, read “Karn Evil 9”.
Have an Up for Efterklang, Ernie.
Ambitious, adventurous, epic, symphonic, innovative: they definitely fit the bill.
In recent times, and assuming I can’t have Pure Reason Revolution, ( bit Floyd and we have already been told they aren’t prog), then this..
Dont know if this is prog or heavy metal, but I love this song.
Rainbow – Stargazer (or Rainbow doing Kashmir IMHO)
https://youtu.be/W6CjO0H2j0s
If Ernie can pick tedious hipster ballbags The Decembrists, then you can certainly pick Rainbow’s Stargazer, J the B!
It’s a stupendous track, pushing all the right prog buttons. RJD – pipes of gold…
To which the only possible retort is this
Opening number to a show at the Festival Hall on one occasion, which must have been an eye opener for punters who had turned up to hear favourites from the King is Dead.
https://youtu.be/vorz-CGgKPI
And why can’t we have the Floyd?
Perhaps by the end they were a one band genre in their own right. But the early Floyd were as prog as they come.
“Early Floyd were as prog as they come”?
You’re struggling with this thread a bit, aren’t you?
Perhaps early middle period around 1970/71 (Atom Heart Mother and Meddle) they could safely be called prog, but in 1967/68 Floyd were full blown psych
I’ve always thought they were more space rock (if anything) than prog. Hawkwind aren’t really prog, nor Can nor any other of the Krautrockers. But they’re all as spacey as Kevin on acid in orbit around Saturn. You can argue that the long side of AHM is prog as it conforms to most of the rules, but I think the Floyd were really a rock group, taking the form as far in any direction as they could. Early Floyd almost invented psych-pop, but they were a pop group, who had big pop hits. Kaisfatdad’s claim here that Syd’s Floyd (he defines their early period) was prog is the first, and very possibly the last, time I’ve heard it made. It’s not the “naughty” chair he’s sitting on.
According to my US copy of >I>Piper… the Floyd were a “Teen Group”
http://i.imgur.com/oO5rRIw.jpg
I was definitely thinking about Atom Heart Mother when I made my rather sweeping statement. I saw them perform it live twice and it colours my image of them rather a lot.
I realise now, long after, that it was Ron Geesin’s album as much as theirs and that they later largely disowned it.
HP’s rather good description of the Floyd as “a rock group, taking the form as far in any direction as they could” sounds to me like an rather apt summary of what the early days of prog rock was about.
It certainly describes Soft Machine, who also started as pop group, and whose first album was as psychedelic as it was progressive.
AHM trivia
In 2008 at the Chelsea Festival, Geesin performed it live with Italian Floyd tribute band, Mu, Floyd, and Gilmour joined them on stage o nthe second night,
Someone once made the comment (in another thread) that the definition of prog is a relatively recent thing – “progressive” meant Laura Nyro, the ISB, anyone who was pushing the boundaries in any way. “Prog” refers to a recognised formula, more or less, and Pink Floyd only followed it in AHM. Which I know a lot of us here like, in spite of the band’s embarrassment.
That’s true. “Progressive” and “Underground” were interchangeable and it covered folk, rock, blues and jazz.
And even a band like the Bonzos could be included under those two categories. It was more a question of attitude towards the Establishment rather than the musical genre you played.
It’s interesting for us in retrospect to try and put labels on artists. For working musicians of the time, it was all a question of bums on seats. To be seen an Underground band in the late 60s or to be seen as a punk band in the late 70s probably meant that you sold more albums, got more gigs, had more media attention etc.
It was important your albums were to be found in the right place in the record shop. Where did they put Osibisa? Under rock I suspect.
Here’s my favourite progressive track (for today at any rate):
https://youtu.be/rryGNsjhp_M
WHAT ?
Crivens…..
A bit late to this I see Kaisfatdude – early Floyd full blown psych – then psych noodling, followed by not quite prog but progish AHM – then not prog at all.
The Floyd “prog or not” debate is clearly right, but Dream Theatre bring out max progginess in that pretty unambiguously proggy Floyd moment which is “Any Colour You Like”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BIKUF7C5Q6s
another thumbs-up for the pomp-prog-rock of “Stargazer”: the finest moment of “Rainbow”, apart from when Bungle feltched Jeffrey.
Pretty much all of my quick ‘n’ easy Prog choices have already been exhibited, so I’ll go back, back, back into the mists of hippiedom, when Prog didn’t even know it was Prog and nominate The Crazy World Of Arthur Brown.
BTW those of you on this thread who don’t like Prog, Go Eat Chain!
(Child Of My Kingdom)
I know the answer to this quiz! I was going to say VDGG – A Plague Of Lighthouse Keepers or ELP – Tarkus but this has to be my numero uno desert island Prog song. I’m the Guaranteed Eternal Sanctuary Man
Genesis – Supper’s Ready
This has to be in here somewhere. Nektar, Remember The Future. In true Prog tradition the album is one entire track, but well worth a listen. Interestingly this is described as a vinyl recording and the quality is fantastic, even through small computer speakers. It also has an authentic scratch at in the first few bars. Clearly this was caused by the listener dropping the roach end of their joint on the disc as they loaded it onto their home entertainment centre.
Enjoy. As da youngsters say.
Saw them about 5 years ago at the Borderline. They began the show with A Tab in the Ocean, which held up well
Rail Band –
Pushing the prog envelope to Africa._
Not so far-fetched. Salif Keita has often mentioned his fondness for the Floyd, even if he has now become more of a Celine Dion fan!
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/3671193/Salif-Keita-I-prefer-Celine-Dion-these-days.html
World Music Network have released a series of psychedelic compilation albums from all over the place. That track was from the Rough Guide To Psychedelic Africa.
This is their top 5 psychedelic tracks for summer evenings:
http://www.worldmusic.net/news/news/2015-06-22/rough-guide-to-summer-evenings-top-5-psychedelic-tracks/
Bollywood and Latin Psychedelia, to name but two. How can we not be interested?
(All I need now are a few more warm summer evenings.)
Do the rules of Prog state “songs must exceed 12 minutes and contain at least 3 section”?
If that is the case, then this track aint Prog, but resides in my “go to” Prog album
Again trying to look past the usual suspects, this…
Marillion – Childhoods End / White Feather
For me, it has to be ‘Anonymous II’ by Focus, from their ‘Focus 3’ double LP, one and a bit side of which was this track. This is the slightly briefer but still exhilarating 22 minute minute BBC In Concert version.
It has rock bombast, jazz proficiency, classical pretensions, all perfectly balanced, and is distinctly European (modal, like Renaissance music – no blues scales or rock cliches here) – which, in my view, progressive rock has to be; it’s a wholly European music, in the same way that blues and soul are American forms.
Plus, being Dutch/not-from-Britain, Focus were the underdogs of the underdog music (prog) – plus they didn’t sing – everything was stacked against them. I’m drawn to that sort of thing. And despite all of that they p***ed all over all comers in progdom, and their classic albums still do to this day!
Also, Pierre Van Der Linden is just about the only drummer whose drum solos are worth hearing. I saw the revived Van Leer/Van Der Linden version of Focus three or four years back in Belfast, when Pierre had just rejoined. He took a mesmerising 10+ minute solo during they show. They got an encore (of COURSE they did!) and he took another mesmerising 10+ minute solo. I shook his hand afterwards.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7UMn-teKrTw
Define Prog?
wikipedia states:
Progressive rock (first known as progressive pop, later prog rock, prog, and sometimes art rock) is a rock music subgenre that originated in the United Kingdom with further developments in Germany, Italy, and France, throughout the mid-to-late 1960s and 1970s. It developed from psychedelic rock, and originated as an attempt to give greater artistic weight and credibility to rock music. Bands abandoned the short pop single in favor of instrumentation and compositional techniques more frequently associated with jazz or classical music in an effort to give rock music the same level of musical sophistication and critical respect.
Progressive rock sometimes abandons the danceable beat that defines earlier rock styles and is more likely to experiment with compositional structure, instrumentation, harmony, rhythm, and lyrical content. It may demand more effort on the part of the listener than other types of music. Musicians in progressive rock typically display a high degree of instrumental skill. Musical forms are blurred through the use of extended sections and of musical interludes that bridge separate sections, which results in classical-style suites. Early progressive rock groups expanded the timbral palette of the then-traditional rock instrumentation by adding instruments more typical of folk, jazz, or music in the classical tradition. A number of bands, especially at the genre’s onset, recorded albums in which they performed with full orchestras. Progressive rock artists are more likely to explore complex time signatures such as 5/8 and 7/8. Tempo, key, and time signature changes are common within progressive rock compositions.
Songs were replaced with musical suites that often stretched to 20 or 40 minutes in length and contained symphonic influences, extended musical themes, philosophical, mystical, or surreal lyrics, and complex orchestrations. The genre was criticized, however, as some reviewers found the concepts “pretentious” and the sounds “pompous” and “overblown”
I own a Prog compilation that includes many of the bands included here, and also includes bands that I wouldn’t cite as Prog Rock such as Small Faces, Kinks, Status Quo and Tyrannosaurus Rex.
Songwise, these bands may have produced “Prog Style” offerings (and in the case of Small Faces, having a concept album is certainly a qualification), but are they really Prog in the truest sense of the term?
So, in summary, I think I know what Prog is, but also don’t.
Prog (like art) is whatever you say it is.
And with that (possibly ambiguous) definition in mind, this is a definitely Progtastic:
I’ve got a 4 CD Rhino box set titled Supernatural Fairy Tales: The Progressive Rock Era. With its sumptuous Roger Dean designed packaging and often obscure track listing it’s generally excellent. But it was put together in the US and as we know from bitter experience, the Americans often have a very different idea of what constitutes a particular genre than we do (look at what they classed as punk for example – Blondie, Talking Heads etc).
So, alongside Yes, The Nice, Genesis and VDGG, we have tracks by, ahem, Roxy Music, ELO, Traffic, Golden Earring and Zappa. Plus borderline candidates like Argent, Pretty Things, Wishbone Ash and the Moody Blues
HP will be pleased to know it also has plenty of Gong and Henry Cow/Slapp Happy
http://i.imgur.com/ItygAbl.jpg
Correction: it’s a FIVE CD box set.
Argent – Lothlorien. Perhaps not as bonkers as The Coming of Kohoutek.
Yes, that’s the one. Disc 3, track 2.
I googled it. Not available on Amazon UK as far as I can see. There are plenty of similar releases in the Prog Rocks! series, promoted by Prog magazine over here.
Looks like it’s out of print.
KFD commented earlier on the scarcity of women in prog. Here are three of recent vintage.
We now hand you back to ‘My favourite Prog Track’
Rats. Wrong clip.
Thanks Ernie. I enjoyed that a lot. An oboe! And a real sense of fun. I’ll watch out for them.
Even better – treated bassoon. Whatever that means.
Terrific, Ernie. Google calls them craft pop, whatever that means.
Henry Cow are from Cambridge and were described as ‘prog’ before they hooked with Slapp Happy. I’m voting for the organised chaos of Amygdala.
http://youtu.be/WqnNTzLMZBg
Fine, fine choice, Tigger old man…..
Saw them supporting Beefheart in Glasgow. The bassist didn’t take kindly to my critique – ‘Fuck off, you pretentious wankers.’
Even worse than Henry Cow was Slapp Happy. Awful tripe with a wailing German womyns, Dagmar, or something.
Spooky dude. I wore my henry cow T shirt to the pub last night.
Has to be Genesis. And as much as I love Steve Hackett’s guitar – I don’t think anything quite goosebumps me as much as the way he soars over the vocal ‘And he’s crying’ in Suppers Ready (unless its the whole of Vaughn Williams’ ‘Tallis’) – then it is ‘Entangled’. Because of the Mellotron/ARP? outro.
I love A Trick Of The Tail – It was a toss-up for me whether to choose One For The Vine or Mad Man Moon…
Hmmm … I seem to be arriving rather late to this thread. And, surprise surprise, some of my prog favourites have already been taken by other Afterworders with impeccable taste: Supper’s Ready, And You and I, Cinema Show, Nine Feet Underground, Turn of the Century…
So I suppose my choice is a toss-up between Firth of Fifth and this, Yes’s “Parallels”
You’ve probably seen this YouTube clip before. It’s a rehearsal for the song without vocals, but with a monster contribution from a guy who’s much missed by many of us on the Afterword – Bass Maestro Chris Squire.
I am even later to the thread than you, duco01. Yet you just pipped me to Firth Of Fifth. If I can’t have that then I’ll go for Close To The Edge. I am astound, but no-one else has yet picked it.
As has been said a lot of my favourite track have been mentioned already but this a brilliant tune. And with most of the best Prog it is a bit scary and a bit bonkers.
When one mentions prog, there is a lot talk about strange time signatures, long songs and stunning musicianship etc. Can I just say that one of the reasons that I like Genesis, Soft Machine, Caravan, Pink Floyd and several more bands in this genre, is that they are so English.
The lamb may have laid down on Broadway but supper was ready in the Home Counties followed perhaps by a walk down to the pub through Grantchester Meadows for a post-prandial pint ,
It’s on track, inexplicably split. Gryphon presenting ye olde englishe folke-progge.
(Saw PiL last night, wondering if they count, if you disregard the fat bloke on “vocals”.)
“Midnight Mushrumps” by Gryphon.
I bought that album about 18 months ago, as a direct result of an Afterword recommendation. I think it was a thread about “long instrumental tracks” or something.
I can’t remember who it was that recommended the album, but it is indeed a little cracker. Absolutely ideal for those who like both prog and early music.
Well nobody’s looking so I’m going to sneak this one here:
Reader’s voice: “But Hawkfall, you can’t post a Queen clip on a Prog Rock thread!”
But, but, the album is essentially a Prog album, especially the Freddie Mercury side, which is more mental than anything Genesis ever did apart from that Rael album.
All contributions welcome Hawkie. Those early Queen albums are pretty strange and all over the place musically.
Five prog-tastic hours of music …..
Nice work KFD. I shall listen to that while working tomorrow.
At last! A Spottytube list I wish I could play!
A little Genesis-heavy for my taste, but otherwise, barring a few incongruous modern bands, generally excellent.
Wot? No Crimso?
Oh yeah, there’s an omission
My prog epiphany occurred one Sunday morning in the 70s lying flat on my back after a refreshing cigarette. The music was uplifting and at times euphoric. Many years later, while driving late at night, Bob Harris played this same track in its entirety and I felt that euphoria all over again. I love And You and I, Roundabout and much classic prog (A Plague of Lighthousekeepers anyone?), but this is my favourite – Starship Trooper
https://youtu.be/DKftiJS30Cs
Great choice. Have you heard Joe Bonamassa’s take on that? He plays it as a medley with Tull’s A New Day Yesterday
Thanks, hadn’t heard that. I do like the way JB is respectful of the classics while casting them in a new light. He does a great Kossoff too
Bonamassa is the real deal. He churns out way too many albums for me, but was weened on the British Blues Boom and can do all the Peter Green, Clapton and, as you say, Kossoff stuff perfectly.
*SNNNNNNNOOOOOOOOORRRRRRRRRRRRRRE*
Pink Floyd cover bands are legion. There seems to be an EU Directive that every member state should have one. Canadian band The Musical Box make sure that early Genesis is not forgotten and have even been allowed to borrow original costumes. But what about the early days of King Crimson? Mr Fripp is unlikely to perform 21st century schizoid man live in 2016.
But in the early noughties, previous KC members got together as 21st Century Schizoid Band, and kept the legacy alive for a couple of years. Did anyone see them?
I do love the piano part on Catfood, even if the rest of the song has dated a tad.
Saw their early incarnation with Michael Giles at The Stables near Milton Keynes. A top-class band.
They were good enough for that Robert Fripp to recall Mel Collins and recruit Jakko Jacszyk from their ranks for an album projekct (“A Scarcity of Miracles”?) and then the recent 3-drummer Crims lineup.
Jakko is of course a fine guitarist and singer with an interesting history/CV and he’s a local Croxley Green boy to boot.
“Mr Fripp is unlikely to perform 21st century schizoid man live in 2016.”
You are so wrong. That is exactly what he is doing all around Europe with the new King Crimson. Bloody brilliant they are too.
Glad to hear that @beany. I have tickets to see them here in September.
Thanks I will google Jakko and find out more, @Mike_H. Croxley Green rock heroes deserve out support.!
I can’t believe etc….. Paranoid Android. I mean come on.
I’ve got all their albums. We call them the “Andies” round here.
Best British Prog – Close To The Edge by Yes
Best US Prog – The Ikon by Todd Rundgrens Utopia
Best Canadian Prog – Sleep by Godspeed You! Black Emperor
Best European Prog – Storm & Thunder by Dutch Band Earth & Fire
Do GY!BE count as Prog?
I would need to change my answer, if so. I’d have thought they were Post-Rock.
I would count them as prog, assuming one allows that prog doesn’t necessarily have to sound like it did in 1971. And if you apply that measure then a lot what we now consider to be jazz presumably isn’t jazz.
What about Explosions in the Sky, Mogwai, Slint, etc?
If they’re all prog then this may actually turn out to be just about my favourite genre.
Sorry, intermittent access to wi-fi and being slow witted in general means that I’m late for this lovely thread 🙂
I do like Yes. early Genesis and the like but my prog tastes veer more towards the Jazz-Rock or Krautrock end of things. Usually, the more tortuous, elongated or “experimental” the better 🙂
Talking of Krautrock (a term I’ve always found a bit whiffy but seems accepted at large even by the Germans themselves), with all the talk of Brexit, it may be worth considering our European neighbours contribution to the genre.
So, could I suggest Premiata Forneria Marconi (P.F.M) from Italy? They may not have quite the same virtuosity as the similarly three pronged E.L.P but they have more than a majestic moment or two.
The fact they sing in Italian need not deter us as it forms part of the soundscape, to use a horifically pretentious term. In any event, whatever he is singing about probably makes more sense than goodness only knows what Jon Anderson is on about in And You And I:
A man conceived a moment’s answer to the dream
Staying the flowers daily, sensing all the themes
As a foundation left to create the spiral aim
A movement regained and regarded both the same
All complete in the sight of seeds of life with you
No, me neither 🙂
So, if I may I’ll plump for this as my favourite “Prog” track
Premiata Forneria Marconi: L’isola Di Niente