A couple of random thoughts....
For me, I love the term Prog. It sets me apart from almost everyone in my various circles of friends and associates. Not in an elitist way mind you. More in the fact it has become part of what defines me. I'm Don and I listen to Prog.
Many of my friends/family decry the stuff. It's howls of derision ("how can you listen to that stuff?"..."what do you find to like in it?"..."do we have to listen to it during our risk game?", etc. etc.). However, it also becomes a conversation piece where occasionally folks ask me to define Prog Rock and/or give examples of it. Once in a while (okay, a blue moon actually) someone will actually seem genuinely interested in Prog. For example last evening we had guests over and one of them remarked how they loved the "haunting melody" in Scarborough Fair". So I took her to my man cave and put on the version by The Enid.
Another use of the term "Prog" (or "Prog Rock", "Progressive Rock", etc.) for me is I have found it useful when conversing about music with friends who share the passion. It can be a term of reference. "Is that band Prog"? one of us would ask, and the yes or no answer would then be informative. And further, a band example would give an idea what to expect (that band sounds similar to Mona Lisa, for example).
Oh yeah, forgot....zeitgeist!
Last edited by Don Arnold; 08-31-2014 at 08:54 PM. Reason: Not enough zeitgeist in the thread.
And He who who he ho ho ho ha ha ha hee hee heee I am the walrus.......
the ignore function is a wonderful thing
Why is it whenever someone mentions an artist that was clearly progressive (yet not the Symph weenie definition of Prog) do certain people feel compelled to snort "thats not Prog" like a whiny 5th grader?
To me, prog is always what Prog Magazine tells me it is. And they sure use it A LOT.
ALLL-Ot!
Nigel Kennedy, Vanessa Mae, Yanni and stuff. If Steven Wilson would only touch them, then we would pick'em up and they'd be prog. Play that "Final Cunt-down" synth theme with a 'tron sample, add a StormThorg-like cover with a canoo donning a microwave oven in a snot river on the moon, and place a sticker on it telling us how Roine Stolt's grandma contributed kazoo to the chorus - and there's prog for'ya.
"Improvisation is not an excuse for musical laziness" - Fred Frith
"[...] things that we never dreamed of doing in Crimson or in any band that I've been in," - Tony Levin speaking of SGM
the first time I heard the 4-letter word was in the late 80s.
None of the Progressive Rock friends I knew in the 70s ever said "prog"
we spoke of music being progressive and said stuff like "that rocks" but I'm pretty sure the term "prog" was invented by the Neo/Symph crowd in the 80s so they could claim it was "unique British genius" and other such exclusionary, mayonnaise on wonder bread revisionist history of Progressive Rock music.
Why is it whenever someone mentions an artist that was clearly progressive (yet not the Symph weenie definition of Prog) do certain people feel compelled to snort "thats not Prog" like a whiny 5th grader?
Not sure, but by the mid-90s, echolyn could complain of being "Flogged and prog'd/revivaled to death".
I seem to recall it as "Prog Rock" however, and not just "Prog".
As Jon Anderson stated:
....It's not a good word, Symphonic rock, ...it sounds like, um, Strawberry Bricks!"
http://strawberrybricks.com/sb.wav
"Always ready with the ray of sunshine"
Mick Wall certainly termed it "prog rock" when he flogged that debut Marillion album in an early edition of Kerrang! magazine, and I believe the term "neo-prog" was in use by the late 80s to denote that microwave of then recent and purpotedly progressive [sic] acts all committing to the Genesis/Yes thing in a stripped-down fashion.
When the Norwegian Colours label started releasing vinyls of "retro-p" with Thule, Landberk, Änglagård and more by 1989-92, they rarely used the abbreviated "prog", preferring to apply the general expression of progressive rock or symphonic rock or even art rock. I can live with the latter.
"Improvisation is not an excuse for musical laziness" - Fred Frith
"[...] things that we never dreamed of doing in Crimson or in any band that I've been in," - Tony Levin speaking of SGM
I remember back in third grade in 63 we were looking at some volcanic rocks from Progvania and I said this must be "Prog Rock".
NEVER UNDERESTIMATE THE POWER OF STUPID PEOPLE IN LARGE GROUPS!
I went to the Czech republic a while back... saw some Prague Rock.
"Always ready with the ray of sunshine"
I recall reading about the controversy surrounding Swiss-born Charles Adrien Wettach (1880-1959), who went by the name Grock. He was often called "The King of Clowns," but had many detractors who felt he wasn't. The debate raged on for years and broke into two distinct camps, those who were anti-Grock and those who were Pro-Grock.
"The White Zone is for loading and unloading only. If you got to load or unload go to the White Zone!"
Indeed. Whatever you call it, there is a genre of music -- by which I mean, a set of artists with some recognisable stylistic similarities and common influences, who also influenced each other -- that grew out of 1960s pop and rock, which was also influenced by a European classical tradition and by jazz, of which Yes, King Crimson and Genesis were key exemplars. That genre can be contextualised with respect to and has overlaps with other genres of music from around the same period. That genre has parallels with and was influenced by other developments in music across the 20th century.
For convenience, I call that genre "prog", recognising that that name has a history and wasn't used contemporaneously with the genre's most popular period in the early to mid-seventies. I use the shortening "prog" to make clear that this is a genre label, not a descriptive adjective, a problem with many genre names.
Again as with other genres, that genre's history is not neat and tidy. There are many acts who do not fit the genre label well, but nonetheless fit it well enough. For example, there are acts who appear like cases of parallel evolution, with common influences and similar stylistic elements, but which were not part of the genre's main developments.
Such complexity, such messiness, is a fact of life. It needn't be a cause of discord or insults.
Henry
Where Are They Now? Yes news: http://www.bondegezou.co.uk/wh_now.htm
Blogdegezou, the accompanying blog: http://bondegezou.blogspot.com/
"Improvisation is not an excuse for musical laziness" - Fred Frith
"[...] things that we never dreamed of doing in Crimson or in any band that I've been in," - Tony Levin speaking of SGM
It was around 1995 when a local station said Yes was coming to the city and a deep voice added, "The first alternative rock band."
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