Which prog musicians(not bands) have been the most influential on the genre?

[kayfabe58]

I can name a few...
Without too much thought my first choice is
Fripp
then possibly Emerson (via the classical bombast)
I guess David Bowie can be included if only for his prog associations...
Brian Eno a bit of a left field choice, but a pretty big rep
Zappa(who i know very little about)not always prog, but has to be included for too many reasons to list

[Scrotum Scissor]

^

While these are all valid suggestions and points (re: Zappa's general influence on all experimental rock/pop music has been vast, even indirectly with artists who rarely or never listened to him or with others who claim their dislike for him - like the guy in Dirty Projectors), I can't really see the fruitful answer as such, considering that the "genre" at large lacks both integral stylistic coherence and aesthetic self-containment. Some names have been influenctial on internal developments in "prog" alone, while others have actually shed substantial impact outside of it.

[Levgan]

In addition to fine musicians mentioned in the original post, here are a few more:

Jaki Liebezeit - whose hypnotic repetitive grooves paved the way for krautrock and then for all kinds of twisted electronic bands of the next 50 years

Christian Vander - who basically invented the entire new musical genre

Peter Gabriel - whose ghost still reigns over any vocalist with a theatrical singing style, prog or otherwise; note I don't even mention his influence as a solo performer, which was also impossible to ignore, but largely outside of prog

[mogrooves]

Robert Wyatt
Fripp
Arthur Brown

[MYSTERIOUS TRAVELLER]

1969 Tony Williams and John McLaughlin - Emergency!

and Zappa of course

[Mr.Flower]

I think from a different perspective, producers/arrangers such as George Martin and Brian Wilson had as much influence as individual musicians. Moving forward what bands thought they could do with a pop single and moving towards albums and concepts, replete with different sounds/instruments and arrangements. Progressive musicians in the late 60s probably would have found a way of doing these things anyway, but Wilson and Martin (amongst others) probably opened a lot of peoples' eyes (and minds) to what could be achieved outside the parameters of what was acceptable at the time.

[Scrotum Scissor]

I think from a different perspective, producers/arrangers such as George Martin and Brian Wilson

Absolutely, and in Wilson's case it probably extended to his role as composer of great detail, nuance and dissonance.

[walt]

Mike Ratledge, as far as providing a "sound",a singular soundworld on organ and electric piano(and as composer) that influenced and inspired forward looking/thinking keyboard players, among others.

[jeffo621]

I immediately thought of Steven Wilson

[bob_32_116]

Squire. Anderson, Howe, Wakeman
Vangelis
Jean-Michel Jarre
Tony Banks
Steven Wilson

Just a few that spring immediately to mind.

[Dana5140]

Squire first and foremost. Fripp. Vander. Froese. Emerson. Kate Bush.

[Scrotum Scissor]

I immediately thought of Steven Wilson

Wilson started up in the late 80s, got somewhat better known about 15 years after that and is primarily established within the confines of (certain branches of) "prog" music today (with the possible exception of some of his production or remixing jobs). Somehow I can't see how such a merit could have been particularly "influential" on a genre which to some degree ceased developments even before he got started. The fact that there are several bands citing him as source (40% apparently from Poland) doesn't put him in the class of people who were in the game before the guy was born.

[Dana5140]

Well, the question was about musicians. Some people have listed a few producer/engineers but that is not really the question. And while Wilson is a musician, the argument here is about his work as a sound engineer/re-recorder, which is not the same thing.

I love Mike Ratledge, but cannot think of anyone who really cites him as a major influence nor any movement that he personally has influenced. Same for Vangelis or JMJ- Edgar Froese preceded both (yes, Aphrodite's Child was early, but Vangelis had not developed his later sound then). I think the names are predictable- you have to fairly been well known to influence lots of people. Ergo, Squire, on bass for example.

[philsunset]

Fripp. If for nothing else than ITCOTCK. But there were also the 70s and 80 KC too.

[Scrotum Scissor]

Ted Joppa. He played ass-kazoo in the Woshpumps and exhorted heavy influence on Mark Coxux from the L'Eau du Colon Externe (obscure yet multi-legendary Zeuhl-discoband from Sawyer, east of Spokane).

[Zonefish]

The way I look to attack the question is what style and sounds do I hear most emulated in all these 2nd and 3rd generation prog bands...and more often than not I hear Dave Gilmour on guitar, Tony Banks on keys, Squire on bass and Peart on drums.

[walt]

I love Mike Ratledge, but cannot think of anyone who really cites him as a major influence nor any movement that he personally has influenced..

I haven't done any research on this question, but it would seem to me that Dave Stewart, Dave Sinclair,Dave Jarrett,Peter Robinson, and perhaps Dave McRae..perhaps others, would cite Ratledge as an influence, perhaps not as a major influence(perhaps yes), but as i said, Ratledge's sound cast a shadow.I proffer no opinion about any movement influenced or started by Ratledge.

[Jay.Dee]

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)

Beethoven would have been a great figure in music no matter when he was born, but we had the luck that he arrived at a point in music history that was perfect for his temperament and musical personality. Classicism was breaking down, and the tonal possibilities of romanticism lay before him. He thus became music’s greatest explorer of unknown regions. He kept to the quest up to the end, and his late sonatas and quartets are the most mysterious and sublime music written by a human being until the appearance of YES.

Franz Schubert (1797-1828)

Whatever the structural deficits of Schubert’s attempts to compose in large forms, the faults are always overcome by his infinitely varied sense of invention. There are gorgeous melodies, to be sure, but notice also his tendency to shock the listener with unexpected modulations into major keys. People say Mozart’s early death was music’s greatest loss. I say that if Schubert had lived to be 70, we would not need to listen to much else, perhaps with the exception for King Crimson and Henry Cow.

Richard Wagner (1813-1883)

What strange works the Wagner operas are. To the beginner, they seem too long. To those who know them well, they are too short. Wagner is a master dramatic psychologist, a composer who understands how the human attention span works with music. An unpleasant character himself, the deep humanity of his characters in his operas reveal an unparalleled grasp of the human condition, mirrored one hundred years later in the oeuvre of Van der Graaf Generator.

Frederic Chopin (1810-1849)

The myriad worlds of Chopin’s music are like nothing else in art. Using 10 fingers on a keyboard, he could create imaginative and emotional works that were utterly distinct–from each other and from all other music. He proves that human passion can be at its most intense in the most economical and limited art forms. Even the tiniest of Chopin’s works resonates across the universe in the similar way Pink Floyd's space explorations do.

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)

Praising Bach is near to impossible without sounding maudlin. He was the great pioneer, a man whose music will last as long as the human race. Yet let me express a regret: Just as I feel sorrow for the early deaths of Mozart and Schubert, I too regret that Bach had to spend his later years teaching, directing, writing and recycling music for a city church. Had he been able to open his early promise, this composer of instrumental sonatas, suites and partitas might, like Handel, have turned his hand to opera and larger instrumental forms that were on the musical horizon. Bach’s later career was Christianity’s gain, but perhaps it was music’s loss. It brings to mind Soft Machine, next century's music pioneers, whose later years were fusion's gain, but arguably prog's loss.

http://www.forbes.com/2009/02/10/den...ton_slide.html

[the winter tree]

Fripp
Emerson
Squire
Howe
Hackett
Hammill
both Andersons
Tony Banks
Gabriel
Gilmour

[Kavus Torabi]

Don Van Vliet.

Surely?

Certainly I could attribute a large proportion of my record collection to post-Beefheart artists.

Say what you like about his methods (and you may not like his music or what it influenced) but the man casts a very long, in some ways unparalleled, shadow on experimental/ exploratory rock music.

[Scrotum Scissor]

Don Van Vliet.

Surely?

Certainly I could attribute a large proportion of my record collection to post-Beefheart artists.

Most of what is (still) namechecked as "weird prog" or "brutal prog" is indebted to him in one way or another. The entire roster of a label like Skin Graft rests on some aspect of his influence - although I'd be surprised if many folks in here would know too much about that label. They might know Cuneiform, of course - whose "prog" bulk also reflects a somewhat heavy Beef-burden next to the Zappatas and Softies and Magmaticians and Crimsodiacs.

[Kavus Torabi]

Off the top of my head...
XTC, Deerhoof, Tom Waits, Sonic Youth, U.S. Maple, PJ Harvey, Devo, Don Caballero, Henry Cow, The Soft Boys, Henry Kaiser and Melvins all owe, to various degrees, a debt to Don Van Vliet.

I'd say that was pretty influential.

[Scrotum Scissor]

^ And that's a definite token to the general influence he's had on various rock music pioneers. But he has also informed numerous established acts more or less within the 'progressive rock' camp, including some of those Steve F. took on board this last decade, such as Ahleuchatistas, Afuche, Upsilon Acrux and even Time of Orchids.

I'd actually say that very few of the current/contemporary progressive artists I respect have NOT at some point taken Beefheart's vision into account in one way or another. He was a free spirit in terms of creativity, MO and aesthetics, so I guess it's only fitting that 'progressives' should endorse it.

[bob_32_116]

I never heard of this van Vliet character. was he a musician, a producer, a band frontman, or what?

[bennymania]

I never heard of this van Vliet character. was he a musician, a producer, a band frontman, or what?

AKA Captain Beefheart.