Originally Posted by The Dark Elf
"The White Zone is for loading and unloading only. If you got to load or unload go to the White Zone!"
It was a review on the BBC's entertainment teletext site. Also read another review in a tabloid that said many punters left during his set?
Key word "tabloid"...
Yeah well he took some tiny time off the constant reading of Huffington, The Nation, Le Monde, Der Spiegel and The Progressive, like.
"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
Should he be reading Red Nation or TownHall, then?
"The White Zone is for loading and unloading only. If you got to load or unload go to the White Zone!"
Only after he's finsihed the followup to Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, kinda.
LONG LIVE PROG!
"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
Well it was a Sunday evening in London and many trains home to the suburbs and beyond leave pretty early, nobody was leaving out of disappointment. It was a show built around one legendary lengthy double vinyl plus accompanying EP, so it was always going to be a long show.
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….but…. but… but…. those details do not fit into Rufus' agenda.
I can't imagine any prog fan not being a fan of everything Stevie Wonder made in the 1970's. It's pure magic. Some of the very best music has to offer.
Another poor review in yesterday's Sunday Mail...they gave it 2 out of 5 stars!
That's like having a bad review in the Beano, it doesn't even count as a newspaper, let alone an arbiter of musical taste. Run along now Rufus and stop with this negative crusade against one of music's most endearing and enduring talents.
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yes... yes he is
and yes, Stevie's music, though never Symph Rock, was very progressive in the early 70s
I dunno if I'll get to see this show, but I sure hope he comes to AZ with it so I have the chance!
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?
so I've been delving heavily into Stevie's music for the past few weeks as I digitally remaster my LPs (the reasons I remaster LPs is found in the ABCDEFG thread so please dont ask) and I am even more impressed by his genius now than I was back in the 80s when I spun these albums in regular rotation!
The song craftsmanship, the keys and the amazing variety of his musical palette is nothing short of astonishing. His first serious album apart from the Motown hitsville factory is Where I'm Coming From and he just continued to get better and better for the next 5 albums.
There's some seriously heavy and beautiful music here that I kind of glossed over back in the day. And every one of his classic albums is different than the others. No two albums are alike in any sense; each one evoking different emotions and moods.
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?
Nope, missed it, in fact I totally forgot what a PROG legend he was...
Influential across the board.
Does he need to be a fucking "[...] PROG legend" to warrant interest? In an internet forum supposedly attending to principles of musical creativity?
"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
He's obviously never heard the unreleased 21-minute version of "I just called to say I love you"...his loss.
Aahh, I dunno. To me, this is where Stevie went too commercial and away from the sacred shores of prog. I mean, from the 1980 Hotter Than July album even his main hit "Happy Birthday" actually sported polyrhythms - in the chorus, nonetheless.
But yeah, Stevie's masterworks did appear from Talking Book and until Plants. Yet I can still hear those voices from the late 80s screaming how Genesis were "[…] not creative", and based on their 80s output I'd agree. However, the suspicion was ripe about those voices somehow being ignorant, although I'm resolutely sure this is simply just me pretending to be elitist. Of course, the 80s *-only-* had Asia, GTR and Phil Collins, seeing how everything which indeed did move on was too 'obscure' to be taken seriously.
"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
That's a bit of a leap from his innocent comment.
"The White Zone is for loading and unloading only. If you got to load or unload go to the White Zone!"
especially that he was answering a post some two years after it was posted
Given his 60's and 80's stuff, if you don't know of Wonder's early to mid-70's album, one could find the comment not that dumb
I usually don't formalise but this thread could've found its way into OT without being a scandal
my music collection increased tenfolds when I switched from drug-addicts to complete nutcases.
He made a point as to how Wonder not being a "[…] prog legend" somehow instinctively implied that he himself naturally didn't watch a documentary on the man's doings. If anything was innocent, it was my lacklustre but obviously quite controversial counterpoint as to his inherent logic there.
I mean, we're in a forum where "Lend Your Love To Me Tonight" might be subjected to painstaking analysis.
"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
Which was already attemptively pointed out in my comment in post #43.
Seeing as it is, most "serious" Stevie cavalcades seem to stress his classic 70s material. This is usually what is toted and what he'll luckily be remembered for.
Which I'm sadly isn't too sure about when it gets to Genesis or Yes - "Invisible Touch" over "One for the Vine", "Leave It" over "Awaken"?
"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
Getting past the pedantic discussion of whether Stevie is/was "prog" (not in the mellotrons and silver capes sense, no), it's impossible to disagree with you here.
Stevie's supernova of creativity from 1970-76 was pretty amazing. Every album in that run was a trailblazer, yet utterly personal to him.
I do wonder what happened to him after that. It sort of seems like he stopped trying. I like some of his music after that, but it's not even close to being at the same level.
I don't think anyone in this thread implied that Stevie Wonder ever was "prog" in that respect. It was a general question as to his level of sophistication and merit as pop/rock ccomposer and performer. In recent years, some contributors in here approach 80s outputs of former "prog" bands as if this was still "prog" - this being underlined by discussions on its "right" to or "alibi" for being here. Then why the hell is it so damn corny how a genuinely once creative artist is remembered and appreciated?
Steveie Wonder's peak was 40-50 yrars ago. So was that of much more generic names handled in here.
"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
Or, perhaps, you just made that assumption all on your own.
"The White Zone is for loading and unloading only. If you got to load or unload go to the White Zone!"
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