Prog Rock

[Okiedokes]

Progressive rock is probably my most favorite. Yes is my favorite band.

 

[LeaningIntoTheMuse]

Progressive rock is probably my most favorite. Yes is my favorite band.

Have you ever seen them live?

I shook hands with Jon Anderson last year, after a solo concert. He came out and talked to us in the entrance to the hall. I was geeking out!

 

[Peaches]

king crimson, camel, caravan, soft machine, Gong above all, gentle giant, the weirder the better - can someone please make more music like that?

---

Just wish there were more females into it. Doesn't bother me as much now that I'm older, but I always felt like a freak being the only girl in the crowd when I was younger and got really sick of other women thinking I was totally weird for liking that stuff!

me too!

 

[LeaningIntoTheMuse]

A woman who likes King Crimson, Camel, Gentle Giant, and Gong?

Please marry me!

I have seen King Crimson, sort of. I saw Robert Fripp solo in 2005, doing his ambient stuff, and I saw the rest of the band (minus Fripp) in 2012. When I saw Fripp, I was at the front of the stage, so close I could have touched him.

 

[dustgollum]

ooh, I forgot about Gentle Giant. Great stuff!
I would have loved to see Fripp doing his ambient stuff. There are some lovely recordings of those shows.
I've met Belew twice; he's very good about actually chatting w/ his fans after shows. A humble, caring and grateful guy. The 2nd time he was worried about his guitar sound that night, said he felt 'off' - I thought he was kidding but he was serious!
People in this thread might like to look up a fellow named 'Moondog' - he is long gone, but recordings are still out there, and he was way ahead of his time. More ambient/eclectic but definitely progressive, fascinating person. Created some of his own instruments.

 

[LeaningIntoTheMuse]

Interesting. I'll have to look that guy up!

Musicians are people, even the greatest can feel like they're being judged. I know Fripp has said before that he's a terrible guitarist, I don't know what he's talking about but that's how he feels.

Fripp doing ambient was strange, because at that time I wasn't familiar with his ambient stuff. Now I have all of it, but back then, I was only a fan of his rock stuff. It was pretty out of this world, to be honest; I think he played some of the stuff he did with Eno, he had Eno on a loop and was operating a tape machine that was playing back keyboards.

 

[Peaches]

A woman who likes King Crimson, Camel, Gentle Giant, and Gong?

Please marry me!

there are even two of them, take your pick

and you forgot Caravan, they were the best

when I was 19 I was lucky (or unlucky) enough to date a jerk who was a prog rock musician and who organized concerts, so I had some of the smaller bands sleep at my place (like the band of the guy from soft machine in the wheelchair, what's his name, Robert Wyatt, he wasn't there), had dinner with the Gong (!), too bad I was too young to really understand the huge honor, and generally distraught because of that guy. At least he left me the gift of this music, and those months as a groupie, I had fun.

Dustgollum, I am curious, how did you come to like this music? As you say, there are not many ladies who are into that, at the time the only other women I would meet in that scene were 50something hippies with floating hair and smiling eyes, or girlfriends (almost 20 years ago, now 70something)

last minute add: yes, Moondog! oh my, now I have to listen to all of them again - this was the song that got my heart forever



and this from the same album



oh, let's make a thread only for links

 

[LeaningIntoTheMuse]

That is so cool, Peaches! I would have loved to hang with the members of Soft Machine or Gong. Did you meet Allen, the lead singer of the classic Gong?

Prog rock isn't dead, it's just sleeping. I try to put as much of it into my music, and I know many musicians who are currently making what would be defined as prog rock. My favorites are Porcupine Tree, Spock's Beard, Dream Theater, IQ, Marillion, and The Flower Kings.

 

[dustgollum]

I got into prog because of being a musician, from other musicians. But later, because I grew up in a musically limited place and only heard mainstream stuff like Yes and Tull. Think I was 23 when I heard Crimson. Even now there are many I don't know, like Caravan.

I'm a 70s kid. As a kid the girls I knew liked disco and the boys dug Kiss, ha. My father loved music and had great taste, so I heard 60s stuff like the Beatles very young. Later I met kids, mostly male, with wider horizons eventually moved to a bigger place and when I was doing the band thing I was into lots of genres...was in a prog and a punk band at the same time.

That's cool you got to hang out with so many musicians...some are egomaniacs, but some are pretty nice folks

 

[Peaches]

That is so cool, Peaches! I would have loved to hang with the members of Soft Machine or Gong. Did you meet Allen, the lead singer of the classic Gong?

Prog rock isn't dead, it's just sleeping. I try to put as much of it into my music, and I know many musicians who are currently making what would be defined as prog rock. My favorites are Porcupine Tree, Spock's Beard, Dream Theater, IQ, Marillion, and The Flower Kings.

yes, it was with Daevid Allen all right, there was Gilli Smith, and the other people I don't really remember. We talked about the collapse of capitalism, and Iraq wars Oh, well, they are just people too.

nice knowing about Spock's beard, and the flower kings, never heard of them

 

[LeaningIntoTheMuse]

That is so cool, Peaches! I would have loved to hang with the members of Soft Machine or Gong. Did you meet Allen, the lead singer of the classic Gong?

Prog rock isn't dead, it's just sleeping. I try to put as much of it into my music, and I know many musicians who are currently making what would be defined as prog rock. My favorites are Porcupine Tree, Spock's Beard, Dream Theater, IQ, Marillion, and The Flower Kings.

yes, it was with Daevid Allen all right, there was Gilli Smith, and the other people I don't really remember. We talked about the collapse of capitalism, and Iraq wars Oh, well, they are just people too.

nice knowing about Spock's beard, and the flower kings, never heard of them

Spock's Beard sound like a modern version of Kansas. And if you like Yes, you'll LOVE The Flower Kings...it seems they take the most progressive aspects of Jon Anderson Yes and throw it into long albums. They have been known for releasing double and even triple length albums.

 

[user 92987]

FM's "Black Noise" is a prog album that I truly love. FM toured with Rush in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Black Noise is their first album and, by far, their best. I suspect the departure of Nash the Slash removed much energy from the band. Ben Mink is a good violinist (listen to Rush's "Losing It"), but Nash the Slash was the key to FM's brilliance on Black Noise.

Subsequent releases from FM are just awful, namely "Con-Test". It makes me sad, since I love their first album so much.

Here it is on YouTube.

 

[Minus]

Journey before their label pushed them into a more mainstream
sound in order to increase financial returns for the label.

[youtube]tDe-ZuEZF-k[/youtube]

 

[user 92987]

Journey before their label pushed them into a more mainstream
sound in order to increase financial returns for the label.

Yes! I enjoy their first three albums. Aynsley Dunbar is a fantastic drummer.
The introduction of Steve Perry transformed the band, though. However, their album "Dream After Dream" is a nice last prog effort, much in the same way that Genesis' "Duke" was.

 

[Minus]

I never heard "Dream After Dream". I gave up on them when their sound changed and wasn't aware that they went back and for another prog album. Sounds interesting but i still prefer Gregg Rolie for vocals. Yes Aynsley Dunbar has a very impressive body of work.

 

[user 92987]

"Dream After Dream" was a soundtrack for a Japanese movie. It wasn't entirely a prog album, but it has elements of each of the first three albums in each song.

I prefer Gregg Rolie as well. It is painful to hear his diminishing roles on Infinity, Evolution, and Departure. I think I'll play their first album right now.

 

[LeaningIntoTheMuse]

The funny thing is, Journey's newer efforts (the last 2 albums with the new lead singer) sound more progressive than their most popular stuff. I like the direction the band is going in.

 

[Minus]

I am glad to hear that someone else prefers Rolie since Fleischman and Perry both seemed to be intended to address perceived shortcomings with the group, though the idea of having a front man may have been a big part of that since Rolie clearly showed, with his work in Santana, that his vocals could have broad appeal.

 

[Peaches]

did someone mention Henry Cow already?

 

[Minus]

Not that i recall.