Top 25 from these 8 nifty groups

[Galactic Bulldozer]

Islands
Lizard
Court
Taste
Power
3 friends
Tarkus
ELP
Stand Up
Benefit
Aqua
Thick
Yes album
Close
Relayer
AHM
wish
Dark side
Pawn
Godbluff
Pleasure Dome
Foxtrot
Nursery
Selling

[emperorken]

1. Foxtrot
2. Nursery Cryme
3. The Yes Album
4. ITCOTCK
5. TAAB
6. Trespass
7. TFTO
8. SEBTP
9. Brain Salad Surgery
10. Fragile
11. DSOTM
12. A Passion Play
13. Trick of the Tail
14. GFTO
15. Animals
16. Time and A Word
17. Tarkus
18. Wake of Poseidon
19. CTTE
20. Wish You Were Here
21. Relayer
22. Wind & Wuthering
23. Meddle
24. Aqualung
25. And Then There Were Three

Just a meaningless comment, but I could have easily plugged 5 Renaissance albums into this list had they been included.

[Digital_Man]

Hey I didn't think moderators were allowed to start list threads.

[Digital_Man]

Anyway,

KC- in the wake of poseiden, ITCOTCK, LTIA, RED (4)
Yes- GFTO, Relayer, TFTO, TYA, Fragile, TALK, CTTE, Drama (8)
Genesis- Foxtrot, ATOTT, LLDOBW, SEBTP, NC, W&W, (6)
Gentle Giant- Octopus, Free Hand, AtT, TF (4)
ELP- same, Tarkus, BSS, Trilogy (4)
Pink Floyd- AHM, Meddle, Animals, WYWH (4)


That's 30 Whoops. Oh well.

[Adrian]

I love lists.

1. Yes - Relayer
2. Yes - Close to the Edge
3. Pink Floyd - Meddie
4. Genesis - Live
5. Yes - Fragile
6. Yes - The Yes Album
7. Yes - Drama
8. VDGG - Pawn Hearts
9. Pink Floyd - Animals
10. King Crimson - Starless and Bible Black
11. Genesis - Foxtrot
12. Jethro Tull - Thick As a Brick
13. Pink Floyd - The Dark Side of the Moon
14. ELP - ELP
15. King Crimson - Red
16. Pink Floyd - Atom Heart Mother
17. King Crimson - Larks' Tongues in Aspic
18. King Crimson - Thrak
19. Pink Floyd - Ummagumma
20. Genesis - Wind and Wuthering
21. Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here
22. King Crimson - In the Court of the Crimson King
23. Yes - Going for the One
24. King Crimson - Islands
25. Gentle Giant - Octopus

Yes - 6, Pink Floyd - 6, King Crimson - 6, Genesis - 3, VDGG/Gentle Giant/Jethro Tull/ELP - 1 each.

[Trane]

Sure seems that way, even though they sold over 50,000,000 albums. Almost like it add cool points NOT to list them. Reminds me of back in the day when Yes fans or non-Big Six fans snubbed ELP as if to say, "I'm not a lemming. My taste is more sophisticated..."

I nthink ELP's horrible layers of musical excesses, their lack of humility (they were not only pompous, but bombastic as well) is more a big part of the answer as to why they might not be as highly regarded by many of us... ELP is the typîcal target for what went wrong with Prog back then.

If Johnny Rotten had worn an "I Hate ELP" T-shirt (instead of Floyd), many of us would probably have agreed.

I think, based on other threads I have read at PE over the years, that ELP doesn't have the staying power over the decades that the other larger bands have. I know that's my case. I rarely reach for an ELP album and it's been that way for over a decade.

I've consciously only rebought ELP's debut (screw the rest)... If I have Exhibition, it's because I found it at 1.00€.

At that stage it becomes less about interpretation and more about the ability or refusal to simply follow directions.

mdr250.gif

Sounds so familiar!!

oh, you might mean moi as well!!!


mdr250.gif

Hey I didn't think moderators were allowed to start list threads.

That's almost funny

[cavgator]

I nthink ELP's horrible layers of musical excesses, their lack of humility (they were not only pompous, but bombastic as well) is more a big part of the answer as to why they might not be as highly regarded by many of us... ELP is the typîcal target for what went wrong with Prog back then.

If lack of humility was a screening criteria, ELP would be well behind Yes, who sacked musicians like Stalin sacked Bolsheviks, King Crimson, who lived and died with the petulance of Robert Fripp, Pink Floyd with Waters, Tull with Anderson, and Genesis with their perpetual wars.

As for the bombast, I saw ELP with all the other prog bands of the Big Six in their prime, and the only one that didn't have a pompous, elaborate stage show was King Crimson. They all tried to outdo each other. Back in the day, when both were at their peak, there was quite a rivalry between ELP and yes, especially among their fans. For each side, it was largely a zero sum game. Like Stalinism and Trotskyism, although the ideological foundation was the same, the devil were in the details, and adherents often took sides, especially with the endless "who's better, Emerson or Wakeman" nonsense. I think that still exists to some extent today, as thought the exaltation of one somehow took away from the other.

As for horrible layers of musical excess, ELP never tried to put together a two record album of four 20-minute epics filled with filler and blah. I think it is a matter of taste. ELP never made a prog album with just one song. I dont care what Anderson says, Thick As A Brick was hardly a spoof. if that was the case, he never would have done A Passion Play.

If Johnny Rotten had worn an "I Hate ELP" T-shirt (instead of Floyd), many of us would probably have agreed.

Or Yes, whom with ELP was probably more of a prototype of Spinal Tap than any other band?

I've consciously only rebought ELP's debut (screw the rest)... If I have Exhibition, it's because I found it at 1.00€.

Everyone has their own taste.

[mogrooves]

Or Yes, whom with ELP was probably more of a prototype of Spinal Tap than any other band?

I've always thought Uriah Heep.

[Mikhael]

Not my "Big 5", sorry.

[PeterG]

The reason Johhny wore that T-shirt was simply to provoke the British public, based on the simple fact that at that time Pink Floyd were HUGE, while ELP and Yes were hardly known to the British public - FACT. There's no getting away from the fact that the BIG names in the mainstream in the late 70s/early 80s lined up something like this.


1. Queen
2. Pink Floyd
3. Rolling Stones
4. Genesis
5. Dire Straits

[cavgator]

The reason Johhny wore that T-shirt was simply to provoke the British public, based on the simple fact that at that time Pink Floyd were HUGE, while ELP and Yes were hardly known to the British public - FACT. There's no getting away from the fact that the BIG names in the mainstream in the late 70s/early 80s lined up something like this.


1. Queen
2. Pink Floyd
3. Rolling Stones
4. Genesis
5. Dire Straits

I would gather you mean "hardly known to a certain segment" of the British population, mostly blue-collar, full of Thatcher-inspired angst, and under 18. Lydon's Pink floyd shirt was worn in the summer of 1975. By this time, the Big Six's last studio albums were:

ELP - Brain Salad Surgery
Yes - Relayer
Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here
King Crimsin - Red
Genesis - Trick Of The Tail
Jethro Tull - Minstrel In The Gallery

They were not jumping the shark here. Most of these were top-selling prog albums with accompanying world tours.

Yes and ELP were not as massively popular as they were only a year prior, but certainly they were very well known, unless Britain's youth had the attention span of a five year old. When prog bands can still fill Madison Square Garden after several nights, as both ELP and Yes did, they were hardly toiling in anonymity...

[Wounded Land]

Yeah, I can't possibly try to rank these, but my 25 would be:

Genesis Foxtrot
Genesis The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway
Genesis Nursery Cryme
Genesis Selling England by the Pound
Genesis A Trick of the Tail

Gentle Giant Acquiring the Taste
Gentle Giant In a Glass House
Gentle Giant Octopus

Jethro Tull Aqualung
Jethro Tull Thick as a Brick

King Crimson In the Court of the Crimson King
King Crimson Larks' Tongues in Aspic
King Crimson Red

Pink Floyd Animals
Pink Floyd Dark Side of the Moon
Pink Floyd Meddle
Pink Floyd Wish You Were Here

Van der Graaf Generator Godbluff
Van der Graaf Generator H to He, Who Am the Only One
Van der Graaf Generator Pawn Hearts
Van der Graaf Generator Still Life

Yes Close to the Edge
Yes Fragile
Yes Relayer
Yes The Yes Album

Genesis: 5
Pink Floyd, Van der Graaf Generator, Yes: 4
Gentle Giant, King Crimson: 3
Jethro Tull: 2
Emerson Lake & Palmer: 0

[PeterG]

I would gather you mean "hardly known to a certain segment" of the British population, mostly blue-collar, full of Thatcher-inspired angst, and under 18. Lydon's Pink floyd shirt was worn in the summer of 1975.

No, I mean the British public in general not just working class labour voters. ELP and Yes were close to non-existent on the radio and TV. For the record Thatcher came into power in 79. I always voted for Labour at General Elections.

[Yaman Aksu]

Something like this. Not in order.

King Crimson - In the Court Of the Crimson King
King Crimson - Larks' Tongues In Aspic
King Crimson - Red
King Crimson - Discipline
King Crimson - Absent Lovers
King Crimson - Live in Japan 1984 Three of a Perfect Pair (DVD, dunno whether was released as cd)
King Crimson - Thrak
King Crimson - The Construkction of Light
King Crimson - Heavy Construkction
King Crimson - Power to Believe

Genesis - Nursery Cryme
Genesis - Foxtrot
Genesis - Selling England By The Pound
Genesis - The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway
Genesis - A Trick Of The Tail
Genesis - Wind & Wuthering
Genesis - And Then There Were Three…
Genesis - Duke
Genesis - Seconds Out
Genesis - Musica, Live 1980

Pink Floyd - Animals
Pink Floyd - Dark Side of the Moon
Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here
Pink Floyd - A Momentary Lapse of Reason
Pink Floyd - Division Bell

[spacefreak]

15s
1. Genesis -Selling England By The Pound
2. Jethro Tull -Thick as a Brick
3. King Crimson -Larks Tongues In Aspic
4. Pink Floyd -The Piper at the Gates of Dawn
5. Pink Floyd -Dark Side of the Moon
6. Van der Graaf Generator -The Least We Can Do Is Wave to Each Other
7. Van der Graaf Generator -Pawn Hearts
8. Van der Graaf Generator -Still Life
9. Yes -Close to the Edge

14s
10. Emerson, Lake and Palmer -Emerson, Lake and Palmer
11. Emerson, Lake and Palmer -Tarkus
12. Genesis -Nursery Cryme
13. Genesis -Foxtrot
14. Gentle Giant -Octopus
15. Gentle Giant -In A Glass House
16. Jethro Tull -Stand Up
17. Jethro Tull -Aqualung
18. King Crimson -In the Court of the Crimson King
19. King Crimson -Lizard
20. Pink Floyd -Saucerful of Secrets
21. Pink Floyd -Atom Heart Mother
22. Pink Floyd -Meddle
23. Pink Floyd -Ummagumma
24. Van der Graaf Generator -H to HE Who Am the Only One
25. Yes -Tales From Topographic Oceans



Yes: 2
Genesis: 3
ELP: 2
King Crimson: 3
Pink Floyd: 6
Jethro Tull: 3
Van der Graaf Generator: 4
Gentle Giant: 2

[Bucka001]

The reason Johhny wore that T-shirt was simply to provoke the British public, based on the simple fact that at that time Pink Floyd were HUGE, while ELP and Yes were hardly known to the British public - FACT. There's no getting away from the fact that the BIG names in the mainstream in the late 70s/early 80s lined up something like this.


1. Queen
2. Pink Floyd
3. Rolling Stones
4. Genesis
5. Dire Straits

You kind of do the ol' switcheroo here. You talk about Rotten wearing the shirt, and then use the climate of the late 70s/early 80s to make your point. But Lydon wore that shirt in the mid-70s, not the late 70s/early 80s. Even if you spell out FACT in capital letters, I won't believe that Yes and ELP were hardly known to the British public in '75/'76/'77. Didn't Tales/Relayer/GFTO chart really well in Britain, like top five? Didn't BSS and Works also chart top ten in Britain? Any way you slice it, that doesn't constitute two bands that were hardly known to the British public. If you're playing mega-concerts, as these two were, then it's not just the heads who read NME, MM, or Sounds that were turning out.

And JR probably wore that shirt because he really didn't like Pink Floyd (although he probably dug the Barrett psych era, if the script were stuck to...). His tastes were Beefheart, reggae, Tim Buckley, Can, Hammill, Nico, Lou Reed... miles away from Dark Side of the Moon and Wish You Were Here.

[Scrotum Scissor]

GGiant - Giant for a Day
GGiant - Civilian
Yes - Open Your Eyes
Yes - Union
ELP - Love Beach
ELP - In the Hot Seat
Genesis - Invisible Touch
Genesis - The Way We Walk - live - the Hits
King Crimson - The ProjeCKts 19-CD Very Interesting CKollection
Jethro Tull - Under Wraps
VdGG - Present - CD2
Pink Floyd - Collection of Great Dance Songs
Pink Floyd - The Division Bell

All I can remember for now.

[PeterG]

Okay, British radio mid-70s to mid-80s rarely played prog or punk. There were niche radio programmes of course who over the years progressed from prog to punk to new wave to indie, most famously, John Peel, Bob Harris, Janice Long etc.

BUT 95% of airtime on the popular music channels was taken up by mainstream pop,rock,soul etc.

[Rufus]

BUT 95% of airtime on the popular music channels was taken up by mainstream pop,rock,soul etc.

As has always been the case though one could argue Alan Freeman's Friday Night Rock Show was mainstream at the time. It was broadcast at peak times & he loved his prog. There was another similar show/DJ but can't think of it right now? Wondrous Stories obviously got lots of mainstream airplay when it was in the charts but can't think of much else towards the end of the 70's!

[Trane]

GGiant - Giant for a Day
GGiant - Civilian
Yes - Open Your Eyes
Yes - Union
ELP - Love Beach
ELP - In the Hot Seat
Genesis - Invisible Touch
Genesis - The Way We Walk - live - the Hits
King Crimson - The ProjeCKts 19-CD Very Interesting CKollection
Jethro Tull - Under Wraps
VdGG - Present - CD2
Pink Floyd - Collection of Great Dance Songs
Pink Floyd - The Division Bell

All I can remember for now.

indisputable list

[Dave (in MA)]

King Crimson - The ProjeCKts 19-CD Very Interesting CKollection

I'd order that in a heartbeat.

no pun intended

[saulgoodman]

I love list making


1. King Crimson-In the Court of the Crimson King
2. Van der Graaf Generator-Pawn Hearts
3. Pink Floyd-Piper at the Gates of Dawn
4. Genesis-Foxtrot
5. Genesis-Nursery Cryme
6. King Crimson-Lizard
7. Yes-Tales from Topographic Oceans
8. Genesis-Selling England by the Pound
9. Gentle Giant Octopus
10.Genesis-Lamb Lies Down on Broadway
11. Van der Graaf Generator-Godbluff
12. King Crimson-Red
13. Gentle Giant-Three Friends
14. King Crimson-In the Wake of Poseidon
15. Genesis-Trespass
16. Van der Graaf Generator-Still Life
17. Genesis-A Trick of the Tail
18. Gentle Giant-Acquiring the Taste
19. King Crimson-Islands
20. King Crimson-Larks Tongue in Aspic
21. King Crimson-Starless and Bible Black
22. Gentle Giant-In a Glass House
23. Pink Floyd-Saucerful of Secrets
24. Pink Floyd-Meddle
25. Emerson Lake and Palmer-Tarkus

[PeterG]

As has always been the case though one could argue Alan Freeman's Friday Night Rock Show was mainstream at the time. It was broadcast at peak times & he loved his prog. There was another similar show/DJ but can't think of it right now? Wondrous Stories obviously got lots of mainstream airplay when it was in the charts but can't think of much else towards the end of the 70's!

Well of course you had Johnny Walker's show as well. But specific non-mainstream rock shows were few and far between.

[taliesin]

Yes, Genesis, ELP, King Crimson, Pink Floyd, Jethro Tull, Van der Graaf Generator, Gentle Giant.

Trick of the Tail
BSS
Heavy Horses
Discipline
Free Hand
Close to the Edge
Power & the Glory
Passion Play
Selling England
Trilogy
Yessongs (sorry)
Animals
Larks Tongues
In the Court
Octopus
Wind and Wuthering
Minstrel in the Gallery
Wish You Were Here
Tarkus
Wake of Poseidon
Relayer
Power to Believe
Songs from the Wood
Foxtrot

Fragile

KC - 5, JT - 4, ELP - 3, GG - 3, Yes - 4, Genesis - 4, PF - 2