Progressive Rock

b0b · Post by **b0b** » 1 Oct 2016 9:33 pm

I found this burn of prog rock on the internet:

www.cracked.com/funny-2359-progressive-rock/

It's funny because it's (at least partly) true. Is anyone offended? What are your thoughts about progressive rock?

Joachim Kettner · Post by **Joachim Kettner** » 2 Oct 2016 6:45 am

They got a real good kick from bands like Ace, the Clash and the Pretenders. A litte later came Punk with it's "anybody can play an instrument" attitude. I liked early Yes although.

Charlie McDonald · Post by **Charlie McDonald** » 2 Oct 2016 7:14 am

I always thought progressive rock a contradiction in terms, but I understand it better from the article. It has a lot to do with pants.

'Glam rock' came later, I think, and that obscured the former term from obscene association, since nothing has been offensive since.

The article is right about the attitude of superiority. For that reason, I liked Yes. (Apparently I'm on the 'butt' side of the chart.)

Larry Carlson · Post by **Larry Carlson** » 2 Oct 2016 7:19 am

One of my favorite groups is still Jethro Tull.
Never heard a flute in a rock song until Ian Anderson came along. I liked it....
Anyone who can write and play a 48 minute song is ok by me.
My wife thinks I'm weird but I'm not sure that's the main reason.

There is a drawer just to the right of where I am sitting.
There is at least 7 of their CD's sitting in there.

As for the article; it was funny, interesting and had some truth in it.

Jerry Overstreet · Post by **Jerry Overstreet** » 2 Oct 2016 8:56 am

Offended? Hardly. I listened to a lot of prog rock back in the day and am familiar with just about all those groups' music.

I have some of it in my vinyl collection including that Focus Thijs van Leer yodeling tune Hocus Pocus from Live at the Rainbow 1973. [Better than 8 minutes long. One of the other cuts is more than 11.]

These guys were Dutch, so yodeling would not be considered unusual and the musicianship was pretty outstanding with Akkerman and the band as it was with many prog rock bands.

Joe Krumel · Post by **Joe Krumel** » 2 Oct 2016 9:02 am

In my case when I was younger I Liked some out of the box stuff. Expression can take many forms Yoko etc. Now I'm old and get bored with it. Not sure why? I work at Gibson guitars and find it somewhat refreshing to be around musicians who don't care about the rules of music. Anyhow if we all did the same thing man it would be a pretty stale world. joe

Ollin Landers · Post by **Ollin Landers** » 3 Oct 2016 4:21 am

WOW!

And not even a mention or nod to Wishbone Ash?

I don't listen to Prog-Rock much anymore. I guess my attention span isn't what it used to be. Or, my chemical condition is not what it used to be.

Offended? Not at all.

I think the problem is bands that came later are not nearly as talented as some of the great Prog-Rock bands that came before them. They try to imitate what they cannot. So they imitate what they can. And it's usually not the best of what made their predecessors so great.

OK! we can't play as well as those guys or come up with new fresh and original songs. So, let's dress like them, have a cryptic name and play way to much.

I'll listen to any genre of music as long as it's done well by very talented musicians.

Offended? Not at all.

I think parody like imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

I read somewhere once there was a rookie baseball player that was being harassed by the older catcher at the plate.

Trying to get a rise out of him he said "You know what the papers are saying about you?" "You're the great new rookie that'll never live up to the hype". "They say blah blah blah".

Finally after the second pitch the rookie turned to the catcher and said "Do you know what the papers are saying about you? NOTHING".

Chris Walke · Post by **Chris Walke** » 4 Oct 2016 9:24 am

I'm not a prog rock "fan" anymore, it's more nostalgia now, but in the 80s, I was in high school / college, and pop radio was nothing but bad synthesizer usage....I retreated to classic rock, largely made up of prog rock. I loved it.

that being said...this page is hilarious and right on point. Prog rock fans shouldn't be offended. If fans of any genre of music should have a sense of humor, it should be prog rock fans.

Bryan Staddon · Post by **Bryan Staddon** » 5 Oct 2016 3:57 pm

I thought it was pretty funny but it was the usual criticism which we fans of progressive rock are pretty used to by now. As with all classifications it kind of becomes meaningless when it could include The Beatles or The Left Banke, or Pink Floyd or King Crimson, or Gentle Giant and my favorite, Gong. all these bands and many many others are called Prog even though they are wildly different.
Also a lot of prog was really funny, Early Genesis lyrics are way tongue in cheek, and of course Frank Zappa, Gong stuff is just hilarious and really witty, I do think some proggers were a little silly and a lot of people thought it wasn't cool after punk became marketing . Every band I was in before I could actually play could have been called punk. They all sounded like the MC5.
. I still listen to a lot of prog, and some of the new bands are great, Mars Volta was the first time in years I've heard a drummer with his own sound, whereas in prog you could have a Bruford or a Collins or a Cobham, a producer these days would try to tell Keith Moon to keep a steady beat, and hopefully Keith would have killed him. same with Guitar players the differences are so vast, David Gilmour, to Robert Fripp is a big leap. So I still love prog and I miss the experimenting that went on. Here's a quick look at a very small part of my prog collection, check it out if you like that kind of thing. And hey bOb remember when anthem of the sun was called progressive rock,
Be Bop Deluxe, Hawkwind, Heldon,Flash,Focus,Camel,Can,Gong,Steve Hillage, PFM, Area, Gentle Giant, Cluster, Popol Vuh, Ammon Duel, Ashra Tempel, ,Renaissance, Nektar, Hatfield and the North, National Health, Khan,And the list could go on, my only complaint is we could use a prog band with a steel player.

Ollin Landers · Post by **Ollin Landers** » 6 Oct 2016 3:36 am

my only complaint is we could use a prog band with a steel player.

Steve Howe YES

David Gilmour Pink Floyd

Well you said steel player. It may be a totally different style but it's still steel guitar.

Mike Neer · Post by **Mike Neer** » 6 Oct 2016 4:02 am

Ollin Landers wrote:my only complaint is we could use a prog band with a steel player.

Who needs a steel player when you have Allan Holdsworth?

Matthew Walton · Post by **Matthew Walton** » 6 Oct 2016 9:12 am

I still have dreams of being in a prog rock band that has steel guitar and flute.

As for being offended, only because the Moody Blues didn't at least get a shoutout in the article!

Duane Reese · Post by **Duane Reese** » 8 Oct 2016 11:53 pm

A friend of mine, who is really into prog rock, once said, "Simple music for simple minds!"

That's okay. I've got nothing to prove.

They call it "progressive", but when it becomes more technical than tasteful, I don't see what progress has been made. Some of it is very tasteful, but some of it is just a talent show for a niche audience of wannabes.

Duane Reese · Post by **Duane Reese** » 9 Oct 2016 12:16 am

Duane Reese wrote:That's okay. I've got nothing to prove.

What's funny about that is the fact that just about everyone who starts playing any kind of rock music is doing it for the purpose of proving something, consciously or not.

Ian Rae · Post by **Ian Rae** » 9 Oct 2016 2:39 am

Coming from a classical background, but loving the excitement of rock and the expression of blues, I went for anything more than three minutes long with more than three chords, of which Jethro Tull is a good example.

Later it became more about clothes.

Joachim Kettner · Post by **Joachim Kettner** » 9 Oct 2016 5:22 am

Back in '68 I saw Jethro Tull at a festival in England. That flute player looked like he just escaped a Charles Dickens novel. Made me feel uneasy as a kid.

Quentin Hickey · Post by **Quentin Hickey** » 11 Apr 2017 4:48 pm

If a prog band can have a flute than it sure can have steel. As a matter of fact I would love to sit in with a prog group but none in my area so I am stuck with you tube and the internet. I would love to play some Rush on steel guitar!!

Quentin Hickey · Post by **Quentin Hickey** » 11 Apr 2017 4:56 pm

Mike Neer wrote:
Ollin Landers wrote:my only complaint is we could use a prog band with a steel player.
Who needs a steel player when you have Allan Holdsworth?

Check out Tom Lippincott, that guy is out of this world!

Frank Freniere · Post by **Frank Freniere** » 12 Apr 2017 5:15 am

Joachim Kettner wrote:Back in '68 I saw Jethro Tull at a festival in England. That flute player looked like he just escaped a Charles Dickens novel. Made me feel uneasy as a kid.

Hah- Nice description, Joachim! I saw "Aqualung" himself at the '69 Newport Jazz Festival and had the same impression: kind of a creepy-looking stork on the flute. Jeff Beck Group was great, tho.

Joachim Kettner · Post by **Joachim Kettner** » 12 Apr 2017 8:07 am

Frank, the Jeff Beck Group also appeared at the festival I was talking about. It was at that time, I think, when their album "Truth" came out. And btw the first I saw rockers and skinheads, because JL Lewis and Slade were also on stage.

Ken Pippus · Post by **Ken Pippus** » 12 Apr 2017 9:02 am

I saw Jethro Tull in Calgary during the Aqualung tour. Entertaining, and more than a little pretentious.

The warmup act was a no-name who were the antithesis of progressive rock. I liked them, but doubted they would amount to much. They were called the Eagles.

Tucker Jackson · Post by **Tucker Jackson** » 12 Apr 2017 9:32 am

b0b wrote:It's funny because it's (at least partly) true.

I'll go you one further: it's funny because it's totally true.

And I say that as one who listened to all the usual suspects, because that's what was happening in rock music at the time. Solid stuff from bands like Pink Floyd, Tull, Yes, ELP, Genesis, Rush, et. al. Some of it might hold up today.

Still, I laughed out loud several times at the article.

It made a good point about the music being more about good players showing their stuff rather than good vocalists or melodies/songs.

On the one hand, I seriously admire and applaud the chops of some of those players -- and on the other, I wish all those skills were less self-indulgently employed in the Realm of Epic Wizardry. My definition of 'good musicianship' has evolved to encompass the idea that advanced hot chops should be in service of something simpler and more primitively 'human' (a solid melody, maybe? Or at least a hook? Throw a brother a bone). The bands I listed were better in that respect and I think that's why they had a larger audience than the other proggy bands. For example, the guitar solo on "Aqualung" is my idea of good musicianship: it serves the larger song, and doesn't take 6 minutes.

Joachim Kettner · Post by **Joachim Kettner** » 12 Apr 2017 11:25 am

Ken Pippus wrote:I saw Jethro Tull in Calgary during the Aqualung tour. Entertaining, and more than a little pretentious.

The warmup act was a no-name who were the antithesis of progressive rock. I liked them, but doubted they would amount to much. They were called the Eagles.

Wasn't there a dispute once that they adopted one of Tull's song structures for "Hotel California"?

Ken Pippus · Post by **Ken Pippus** » 12 Apr 2017 12:46 pm

http://ultimateclassicrock.com/jethro-t ... alifornia/

Quentin Hickey · Post by **Quentin Hickey** » 12 Apr 2017 3:46 pm

Jethro Till is kind of weird to watch on his flute but he really gets his point across. Some of his early stuff was really baroque sounding. Everything he out out since I really like.

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