Prog: The comeback

[Guest]

Fact One: Chatting with an otherwise well-balanced friend at the weekend, he let slip that he bought four (count 'em - four) Genesis albums last month.

Fact Two: People ON THIS VERY BOARD have recently confessed to being fans of (gulp) Tangerine Dream, Hawkwind, and XTC

Fact Three: I played an album by Gong this evening. I quite liked it. (It was "Shamal".)

Fact Four: The May issue of Record Collector lists 20 essential prog albums. They are
1 Moody Blues In search of the lost chord
2 Soft Machine First
3 Jethro Tull Aqualung
4 King Crimson In the court
5 The Nice Nice
6 Caravan If i could....
7 Barclay james harvest Once Again
8 VDGG Pawn Hearts
9 Rush 2112
10 Mike Oldfield Tubular Bells
11 Genesis The lamb
12 manfred Mann's earthband Solar Fire
13 Pink Floyd The dark side of the moon
14 Procol Harum Shine on brightly
15 Gentle Giant Octopus
16 ELP Pictures at an exhibition
17 Camel Moonmadness
18 Tangerine Dream Pheadra
19 Eloy Inside
20 Yes Close to the edge

I only have four of them but I don't think I can afford to be complacent. I felt my hand pausing when it passed Rick Wakeman's "Myths and Legends of King Arthur" the other day and I'm not sure how long I can go on resisting.

Please. Help me. I must be strong.

Let me listen to Britney withou prejudice.

[paulw]

[Guest]

[bellybabe]

It scares me that i used to have some of those albums. In fact between me and one of my brothers we had eight of them. Mine were the Jethro Tull and the BJH...i got to borrow everything else from said big brother. But it does scare me. It's a bit like listening to Radio Two...except I'm not THAT old yet ...

[jimann]

Thank God! I thought I was the last person alive that had even heard of these bands (although not all liked) - obviously paulw is probably less than 45 years of age since he has not been party to the ramifications of being a prog rock pensioner. Rap!!! Pah!, R & B!!! Pah! Beyonce! Beyond Me! Pah again.

Some of Alex's listed bands and albums were, and are brilliant, especially King Crimson, Gentle Giant ('sfunny how we all ended up with Octopus) Jethro Tull and my fave, Genesis' The Lamb - all this ancient prog talk would make your hair grow again - wish it would with mine anyway!

One to add to your list might be a band called Quatermass - but then again, perhaps not all of the prog rock world could have been persuaded to buy absolutely ANYTHING that was released on the Harvest label at one time. I have a weakness for brilliant album design!

Have you ever watched programmes on telly that list top 10 things from years gone by and when they come to the music item, it's all Donny and Mud - we need to dissociate the days of our youth from this diabolical plan to make the youth of today think that we all listened to Abba and Pickettywitch, no wonder they see pop idol and Eminem as a musical challenge - snobbish, I know, but I need horlicks when I hear the rap fellas.
We also need to discuss the heavy & hard rock credentials of some of the following -

Led Zeppelin
Deep Purple
Black Sabbath
Grand Funk Railroad
The Who
Arthur Brown's Kingdom Come
Mountain
Jimi Hendrix

I'd also add to the prog rock list, Radiohead, for their albums from The Bends through to Hail to the thief, - see!! now look at what you've done - got me all wound up talking about real music!

Ah well - it was my first post, and probably my last as no-one will want to talk about prog OR rock again - just when I thought like minded prog pensioners like me needed a good old rant!!!

I see Alvin Lee's playing at the Usher Hall on Monday 17th - might see you there if my doctor takes away the funny wee jacket!!! [/b]

[Guest]

Hi Jimann, welcome to Portyweb! Always happy to talk music. But the prog thing is getting worse, I'm afraid. I've only gone and bought a Van Der Graaf Generator Box Set. It was sitting on the shelf, looking all lonely, and I was looking at the track listings thinking "Ooh, that looks good" and "Ooh, I remember that" and when I got in the car, there it was, sitting next to me on the passenger seat.

[Guest]

Out of all the bands mentioned I would still listen to the following:

Jimi Hendrix - transcends all musical genres, still sounds great. A true legend.

Led Zeppelin - I had the lot - I, II, III, IV, Houses of the Holy, Physical Graffiti. Blues-inspired heavy rock at its very best.

Deep Purple - not really, but I still remember trying to play that classic riff from 'Smoke on the Water' on my Les Paul copy.

The Who - must get 'Tommy' on DVD. Ann-Margaret writhing around in chocolate and cold baked beans was a pivotal moment for me.

Pink Floyd - anything up to (and excluding) 'Dark Side of the Moon'

Everything else is just pretentious nonsense. The triple gatefold concept albums, the 20 minute guitar solos. And then there was punk.

[scossie5]

Wow such memories. I remember one 5-hour car trip from Sydney to Orange NSW spent most successfully trotting out names like the ones here after someone in the car said 'there was no good music in the 70s' - we were referring to disco, of course!

[jimann]

Bob, You're a bigger music snob than me........ but I like your style - Pink Floyd, remember Meddle, pity Smoke on the Water is all people seem to remember of Deep Purple, what about Child In Time or Mandrake Root from their earlier proper albums where they thought they were serious musicians!
Pretentious nonsense you say - perhaps, but it's OUR pretentious nonsense, and it only made us wear loon pants and long hair - no harm to anyone.

Scossie5, now that's what I call a decent debate, time well spent, but, can you justify talking about such pretentious nonsense while ignoring the drive from Sydney to Orange NSW - must have been some argument not to have mentioned the scenery you saw! Tell us more about the journey!

Just goes to show though........ Pretentious music lovers 1, top of the pops and Gibson Les Paul copy owners 0.

Alex - Van Der Graaf Generator!! Now there's a name to conjure with, only know H to HE, and Peter Hamill's Fool's Mate - too much piano for my liking but interesting! .............. Now they're pretentious!!! But what a brilliant moniker, eh!

[Guest]

Oh my God, I'm turning into Surrealist.

[scossie5]

Sadly, if you're an Aussie. the drive from Sydney to Orange is tarmac. tarmac, tarmac - Macdonalds - gumtrees, parched earth and fruit orchards. These days through, Orange is all vineyards and the chardonnay is highly recommended. Even Scotmid has it sometimes!