Prog Songs or Albums About Time Travel?

**Yodelgoat** · 01-20-2018

There's got to be a Moody Blues Song about it. - I can't recall a specific song, but they were all about Transcendental Meditation and the ability to slip in and out of time.

'39 is by far the most blatant attempt to describe Time travel, r the effects of traveling close to a black hole or traveling close to the speed of light. That's more about time warping, than actual time travel. Does Areon's Universal Migrator qualify somehow?

**arabicadabra** · 01-20-2018

Spiraling - Time Travel Made Easy

**bill g** · 01-20-2018

I suppose it's too obvious to mention 'One For The Vine'. Then there's the 'Curious Feeling' album where he goes back and causes a young person to lose his memory, not realizing it was himself, due to the fact that he lost his memory. Great concept.

And I suspect time travel in the convoluted 'Lialim High' album by Twin Age, but the story is both complex and vague enough for the actual meaning to be beyond my reach...

**yoyiceu** · 01-20-2018

'Time Machine', Beggar's Opera, on their Waters of Change album.

**Steve983** · 01-21-2018

There's an album by French band Mysterkah called Fresq which is a concept album about an alien who visits earth, doesn't like what he sees, builds a cryo machine , goes to sleep for thousands of years and wakes up after a nuclear holocaust has ravaged the earth and sets about rebuilding the world anew. It was released on Cyclops back in 2002, very strong musically with female vocals. Cant see any YouTube links sadly but its a good album.

http://www.musicaldiscoveries.com/reviews/mysterkah.htm

**Trane** · 01-21-2018

Originally Posted by ThomasKDye

A soldier, disillusioned with his leader, deserts during a march and falls into a wormhole or something to arrive somewhere unspecified. The people who see him assume he's a messiah. The soldier denies it ("This can't go on, this will be all that I fled from") until he realizes the people need him as a leader ("They leave me no choice, I must lead them to glory"). He leads them on a march, but in the distance sees a deserting soldier who disappears as he runs away. The lyrics imply that they're the same people ("He thought he recognized him by his walk and by the way he fell") and the events are going in a circle.

I agree with almost everthing, except for the wormhole or time travel. part. No evidence of that.

... or did I miss it??

**ryder** · 01-21-2018

http://www.rwcc.com/product.asp?int_titleID=21

Rick Wakeman

**yamishogun** · 01-21-2018

The Time Machine Alan Parson

I used to have this album and grew to like the whole thing but not sure of anything specific about time travel apart from the first and last songs that were called "The Time Machine" Part 1 and Part 2.

Edit: I see that BravadoNJ already mentioned this album. From wikipedia: ""Temporalia" features a narration by professor Frank Close on the idea of the universe itself acting as a sort of time machine, whilst "Press Rewind" ponders what we might do if we were able to reverse time, and change decisions we have made."

**interbellum** · 01-21-2018

The movie Donnie Darko has a lot of time-traveling and so does Michael Andrews' soundtrack.
Here's an obvious one, Philosophy Of Time Travel:

**proggy_jazzer** · 01-21-2018

Originally Posted by ThomasKDye

A soldier, disillusioned with his leader, deserts during a march and falls into a wormhole or something to arrive somewhere unspecified. The people who see him assume he's a messiah. The soldier denies it ("This can't go on, this will be all that I fled from") until he realizes the people need him as a leader ("They leave me no choice, I must lead them to glory"). He leads them on a march, but in the distance sees a deserting soldier who disappears as he runs away. The lyrics imply that they're the same people ("He thought he recognized him by his walk and by the way he fell") and the events are going in a circle.

Excellent synopsis. I don't really know if it was intended to be a reference to time travel or not, but I do know it's one of my all-time favorite Genesis compositions, and it reminds me that one of my favorite aspects of the band is the stories that are told in the lyrics of the albums up through, say, Duke or so. In a way, many of them are about time-travel in the sense that they have the ability to transport the listener to a different reality and set of circumstances.

**mellotron storm** · 01-21-2018

German bands seem to be all over this concept. Eloy has been mentioned, I like that one. Mythos' debut has a song on it called Encyclopedia Terra Part 2 but it's more about a machine he creates that allows him to sleep for however long he wants as he hopes to wake up eventually to a World of peace and tranquility. No it only gets worse.
Dzyan- Time Machine
Breaking Orbit- The Time Traveller

**ThomasKDye** · 01-21-2018

Originally Posted by Trane

I agree with almost everthing, except for the wormhole or time travel. part. No evidence of that.

... or did I miss it??

You're right, there is no evidence of it, except how he got from the mountain to the "wilderness of ice" is glossed over weirdly:

"A misplaced footfall made him stray from the path prepared for him, off of the mountain, on to a wilderness of ice. This unexpected vision made him stand and shake with fear..."

So in other words, this was something he was unprepared for and he had no idea would happen. It could mean anything. To me, it means he disappeared from one world to the next.

Originally Posted by proggy_jazzer

I don't really know if it was intended to be a reference to time travel or not

It may not be. In any event, it's supposed to be about a sort of vicious cycle. To be fair, despite being a ten-minute song, Tony can only put so many words in there, so it's fair if he leaves stuff to the imagination.

**Progbear** · 01-21-2018

Originally Posted by ThomasKDye

A soldier, disillusioned with his leader, deserts during a march and falls into a wormhole or something to arrive somewhere unspecified. The people who see him assume he's a messiah. The soldier denies it ("This can't go on, this will be all that I fled from") until he realizes the people need him as a leader ("They leave me no choice, I must lead them to glory"). He leads them on a march, but in the distance sees a deserting soldier who disappears as he runs away. The lyrics imply that they're the same people ("He thought he recognized him by his walk and by the way he fell") and the events are going in a circle.

Even after that description, I’m still confused.

confused robeson reaction.jpg

There is this, though. I think:

**Progtastic** · 01-22-2018

Frost* - Pocket Sun

**battema** · 01-22-2018

Not progressive rock but very definitely about a form of time travel (and IMHO a lovely ballad):

**gojikranz** · 01-22-2018

kate bush snowed in at wheeler street.

**rcarlberg** · 01-22-2018

Paul Desmond - Take Five

**Lino** · 01-22-2018

**Lino** · 01-22-2018

Originally Posted by yoyiceu

'Time Machine', Beggar's Opera, on their Waters of Change album.

Great track!...in a wierd cheesy kinda way lol. Love it.

**ghostsofpompeii** · 01-22-2018

Excellent album from the project band CYRIL "Gone Through Years" which is based on H.G. Wells "The Time Machine". Seems more like the remake of the film. The band is made up of members of Toxic Smile. Another of the many projects from keyboardist Marek Arnold ... with vocals from Larry B.

**Trane** · 01-23-2018

Cygnus X-1 on AFTK and Cygnus X-1 (or X-2 as I call it) in Hemispheres??

**alanterrill** · 01-23-2018

Peter Hammill's 'Traintime' - its not obvious what this is about -relativity I think, but there was a book by Dagmar Klein about Hammill's lyrics and she devoted a whole chapter to this track. If her anaylsis is anything like correct, this is a very deep song. http://sofasound.com/phcds/patlyrics.htm#5

**bill g** · 01-23-2018

Originally Posted by ThomasKDye

You're right, there is no evidence of it, except how he got from the mountain to the "wilderness of ice" is glossed over weirdly:

"A misplaced footfall made him stray from the path prepared for him, off of the mountain, on to a wilderness of ice. This unexpected vision made him stand and shake with fear..."

So in other words, this was something he was unprepared for and he had no idea would happen. It could mean anything. To me, it means he disappeared from one world to the next.

It may not be. In any event, it's supposed to be about a sort of vicious cycle. To be fair, despite being a ten-minute song, Tony can only put so many words in there, so it's fair if he leaves stuff to the imagination.

Well, since he is seeing an earlier manifestation of himself, he had to go back in time to be the leader he was trying to flee from, right? At least that is how I've always perceived it.