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Diana Hignutt

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I've recently rediscovered my love of Prog. Prog, of course, being short for Prog Rock, i.e. Progressive Rock, a form of rock music that evolved out of psychedelic rock, principally in England, peaking in the 1970s. The first album, generally considered to be pure Prog, was King Crimson's 1969 debut album, In the Court of the Crimson King. The album features lush melotron keyboards, avant garde guitar work, layers of multi-instrumentalist musings, fantasy-based lyrics, musical complexity and virtuosity, and long songs. These features are generally considered the basic core of requirements for prog. In the Court of the Crimson King changed rock music forever. The big tracks to listen to here, are the frantic, heavy metal and jazz of "21st Century Schizoid Man," the dreamy and majestic "In the Court of the Crimson King," and the mournful and powerful, "Epitaph."

Other greats in the 70s prog movement include Yes, ELP, Jethro Tull, Pink Floyd, Genesis, and many others. Prog continues to this day with bands like Tool, and Dream Theater.

Anyone else dig prog? Let's talk about it.
 
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Yes. Yes to all of this. Hard to top CotCK, I'm also a big fan of In the Wake of Poseidon and, believe it or not, Islands is a sentimental fave. All kind of dorky and I love it. Love Tull as well, at some point around Broadsword they started to lose me, but what a run. Oh yeah, and Hawkwind! Love me Hawkwind, as cheesy as they can be sometimes.

I'm not 100% how you'd classify Mogwai but I think they're at least prog-adjacent. And frickin' awesome. Russian Circles and Grails are also good, a bit heavier. Legendary Pink Dots have been around forever and kind of an acquired taste, but I really dig them. I find a lot of bands I like on various post-rock Youtube channels, I think that's what the kinds are calling prog these days. There's one I like called The Bong Druid of Weed Mountain and it's exactly what it sounds like, losta doom & sludge metal, space rock and such, not always my jam but worth taking for a test drive if you're looking for new favs.
 

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I'm old enough to have seen Yes, King Crimson, Pink Floyd, Mike Oldfield, ELP and Jethro Tull in their pomp in Glasgow in the '70s as a late teenager and other prog bands such as Caravan, Camel, Greenslade, Marillion, Gryphon, Jon Hiseman's Collosseum etc as the decade went on. (missed Genesis though, which was always a bit of a regret.)

But I lost my zest for prog when punk/new wave came along just as I was leaving my teens and I fell into the groove with the likes of Elvis Costello and Graham Parker. Never really went back to it, although I still listen to the Floyd albums and In the Court of the Crimson King every so often. The others have been consigned to my history.
 

Diana Hignutt

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Yes. Yes to all of this. Hard to top CotCK, I'm also a big fan of In the Wake of Poseidon and, believe it or not, Islands is a sentimental fave. All kind of dorky and I love it. Love Tull as well, at some point around Broadsword they started to lose me, but what a run. Oh yeah, and Hawkwind! Love me Hawkwind, as cheesy as they can be sometimes.

I'm not 100% how you'd classify Mogwai but I think they're at least prog-adjacent. And frickin' awesome. Russian Circles and Grails are also good, a bit heavier. Legendary Pink Dots have been around forever and kind of an acquired taste, but I really dig them. I find a lot of bands I like on various post-rock Youtube channels, I think that's what the kinds are calling prog these days. There's one I like called The Bong Druid of Weed Mountain and it's exactly what it sounds like, losta doom & sludge metal, space rock and such, not always my jam but worth taking for a test drive if you're looking for new favs.

I'll have to check them out! Thanks for the rec.
 

Diana Hignutt

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I'm old enough to have seen Yes, King Crimson, Pink Floyd, Mike Oldfield, ELP and Jethro Tull in their pomp in Glasgow in the '70s as a late teenager and other prog bands such as Caravan, Camel, Greenslade, Marillion, Gryphon, Jon Hiseman's Collosseum etc as the decade went on. (missed Genesis though, which was always a bit of a regret.)

But I lost my zest for prog when punk/new wave came along just as I was leaving my teens and I fell into the groove with the likes of Elvis Costello and Graham Parker. Never really went back to it, although I still listen to the Floyd albums and In the Court of the Crimson King every so often. The others have been consigned to my history.

I've seen Yes from 90215 band through the Union band and back to the 90215 band, about times (from the 80s and 90s). I saw the Gilmour Floyd in the late 80s. Otherwise, I'm jealous.

A lot of people were with you when Prog was abandoned for Punk and New Wave. Heck, Prog was absolutely reviled as ultra-pretentious dinosaur rock back in the late 70s, but it's been quietly making a comeback.
 

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Oh yeah, and on the subject of King Crimson, I can't think of anyone weird enough to admit Lizard is one of their favorite albums....but Lizard​ is one of my favorite albums. :)
 

Diana Hignutt

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Oh yeah, and on the subject of King Crimson, I can't think of anyone weird enough to admit Lizard is one of their favorite albums....but Lizard​ is one of my favorite albums. :)

Oh yeah. What's that song on there that Jon Anderson from Yes sings? Prince Rupert Awakes, I think. Just brilliant. On whole, I prefer the Greg Lake Crimson to the others, but Lizard stands out.

And that brings up, Yes, way up there on my list of faves. I'm pretty sure Close to the Edge is the greatest prog album of all time, and the undisputed peak of Yes, with the best of the many line ups of that band. If I were to rank Yes my top would be:

1) CTTE
2) Fragile
3) The Yes Album
4) Going for the One
5) Drama
6) Relayer
7) Tales
...
 

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Oh yeah. What's that song on there that Jon Anderson from Yes sings?

Yeah, that's the one. Lake-era is my favorite too.

1) CTTE
2) Fragile
3) The Yes Album
4) Going for the One
5) Drama
6) Relayer
7) Tales
...

I have a soft spot for Tales, but notice it's rarely at the top of anyone's list.

Every listen to Tortoise? Exceedingly hard to classify, my GF and I got in an argument when we saw them last year because I defined them as prog/psych with a bit of a Dead vibe, and she took bigly offense and said they were more noise/experimental. I don't think we ever settled it, but they definitely speak to my prog-loving stoner soul.
 

Diana Hignutt

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Yeah, that's the one. Lake-era is my favorite too.



I have a soft spot for Tales, but notice it's rarely at the top of anyone's list.

Every listen to Tortoise? Exceedingly hard to classify, my GF and I got in an argument when we saw them last year because I defined them as prog/psych with a bit of a Dead vibe, and she took bigly offense and said they were more noise/experimental. I don't think we ever settled it, but they definitely speak to my prog-loving stoner soul.

So, yeah, Tales and Relayer are probably tied in my mind. I do just love "Gates of Delirium", but on any given day, "The Remembering" or the "Revealing Science of God" might lean me a bit higher on Tales. I do, also, have a soft spot for the Buggles/Yes Drama album, which most fans want nothing to do with.
 

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My first taste of Prog came in 1980, when my sister gave me her old Kansas records. Now, some people will quickly dismiss Kansas as American, and therefore, not true Prog, but that's not fair. There is no question that the two Kansas records in question, Leftoverture and Point of No Return are as prog as prog gets, and are certainly more prog than their Canadian friends, RUSH. Anyway, those two albums in early 1980 started me on the road to being a prog fan, though I didn't realize it.
 

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I was lucky growing up in the suburbs of Philadelphia where we had some great FM album oriented rock stations. We has such prog radio luminaries as Michael Tearson and Ed Sciaky (who broke Yes in the US radio market), and such radio programs as "For Headphones Only" and "The Sunday Night Progressive Radio Show."
 

Diana Hignutt

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Still mourning Neil Peart's passing... :(

Never cared for his Randian Objectivist lyrical themes, but what an amazing drummer. I still get bummed years later about Keith Emerson's suicide, so I feel you...
 

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He did outgrow those thankfully.

Yeah, my understanding is that while it did influence him (and boy ever can you tell if you hate-read Ayn Rand as much as I do), he's spent years walking back the perception that he buys into the more social Darwinist and 'I'm gonna get mine' aspects of that philosophy.
 
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Diana Hignutt

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ELP was the first Prog supergroup. Keith Emerson from the Nice on keyboards, Greg Lake of King Crimson on bass, vocals, and guitar, and Carl Palmer from Atomic Rooster and the Crazy World of Arthur Brown on drums. Keith Emerson was an early adopter of the MOOG synthesizer, and arguably the greatest keyboard player in rock music. Here's their song, Knife Edge from their self-titled debut album.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XwIehM-x6kA
 

Diana Hignutt

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In the early days of the band that was to become Jethro Tull, lead singer, Ian Anderson says they changed their name so often that when he would show up at their gigs, he would look at the marquee. If the didn't recognise the name of a band, he would assume that was this band.

Here' their early remake of "Bouree"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N2RNe2jwHE0