What is the relationship between prog and psychedelic music?

[Homburg]

Discuss

[bob_32_116]

They are partially overlapping musical subsets.

[rickawakeman]

Prog was an outgrowth of psychedelic music.

[rcarlberg]

Prog was an outgrowth of psychedelic music.

Good start, but I'd take it a little farther. In the 1970s music began to move out of the strictures of the 1950s and early 1960s, and all sorts of experimentation went on -- electric folk, ethnic fusions, jazz-rock fusions, classical-rock fusions, long meandering jams which came to be known as psychedelic music (due to the condition of the players and the listeners...)

What came to be called "progressive rock" was the stuff called "art rock" at the time which basically covered anything with odd time signatures, odd instrumentation, elaborate song structures (not A-B-A-B), or anything else that "progressed" the state of music.

[strawberrybrick]

In England, psychedelic rock was above ground, then went "underground" and came out "progressive".

[Brian Griffin]

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BG

[GuitarGeek]

I've always thought progressive rock and psychedelia were two sides of the same coin. Both were inclined towards moving beyond the "single" and pop song formats, and creating something new or different.

[Nijinsky Hind]

Hand in glove
Peas and carrots
Bird and a wing

In my mind it's hard to have one without the other. Most of the prog I like has strong psychedelic undertones or overtones.

[Homburg]

10685438_447611895376715_4400220381536505584_n.jpg

Where's that from?

[mogrooves]

The progressive ethos of psychedelia--socially and aesthetically--as well as its spirit of experimentalism and eclecticism, and its promise of both self and collective freedom gave license to the musical aspirations of what would come to be referred to as "Prog." The extent to which it delivered on that promise is, however, debatable.

[WytchCrypt]

I find a very fuzzy line between psych & prog with a lot of common ground.

[progeezer]

The progressive ethos of psychedelia--socially and aesthetically--as well as its spirit of experimentalism and eclecticism, and its promise of both self and collective freedom gave license to the musical aspirations of what would come to be referred to as "Prog." The extent to which it delivered on that promise is, however, debatable.

A succinct and accurate two-sentence answer to the OP's question imo.

[Don Arnold]

Twelve posts and....no zeitgeist!

Seriously though, to my ears there definitely exists a relationship between the these two "P"s. Now, how one classifies a band as one P or the other P depends on numerous factors. I'd suggest, at a very simplistic level, there are Psychedelic bands that have Prog elements and Prog bands that have Psychedelic elements, and then some bands from both groups that have no characteristics of the other style.

[Homburg]

The progressive ethos of psychedelia--socially and aesthetically--as well as its spirit of experimentalism and eclecticism, and its promise of both self and collective freedom gave license to the musical aspirations of what would come to be referred to as "Prog."

Yes, well put.

I wonder when, and how, anyone first started distinguishing the two? My impression is that in 1967-70 the distinction wasn't made.

[Trane]

I've always thought progressive rock and psychedelia were two sides of the same coin. Both were inclined towards moving beyond the "single" and pop song formats, and creating something new or different.

Well, to be honest See Emily Play is a very different beast than Atom Heart Mother, despite the four years separating them

[zombywoof]

Attached at the hip.

[mogrooves]

I wonder when, and how, anyone first started distinguishing the two? My impression is that in 1967-70 the distinction wasn't made.

I put the waning of the psychedelic era in music circa the second half of '68. Influential albums such as Music From Big Pink, Wheels of Fire, Electric Ladyland, Beggar's Banquet, Sweetheart of the Rodeo, and the "White album" all marked an incipient turn from psych. Blues rock, country rock/Americana, and "Art rock" were paths taken, the latter having emerged out of psych through what appears retrospectively to be a transitional phase we now call "proto-Prog" during the years you cite, culminating in the full-on Prog of ItCoKC.

[moecurlythanu]

Psychedelic music was the result of Hallucinogens on previous musical forms. Progressive Rock was the result of Hallucinogens marinating and percolating on that result.

[Mister Triscuits]

Just good friends.

[Wisdomview]

psych, is/was prog, albeit a little sloppier with a few more blurred edges.

[Calabasas_Trafalgar]

Psych was musicians with interesting ideas who hadn't quite learned to play their instruments and used a lot of studio effects to cover those deficiencies. Prog was after they learned to play.

[Jay.Dee]

Psych was musicians with interesting ideas who hadn't quite learned to play their instruments and used a lot of studio effects to cover those deficiencies. Prog was after they learned to play.

Oh my dear...

[Homburg]

I put the waning of the psychedelic era in music circa the second half of '68. Influential albums such as Music From Big Pink, Wheels of Fire, Electric Ladyland, Beggar's Banquet, Sweetheart of the Rodeo, and the "White album" all marked an incipient turn from psych. Blues rock, country rock/Americana, and "Art rock" were paths taken, the latter having emerged out of psych through what appears retrospectively to be a transitional phase we now call "proto-Prog" during the years you cite, culminating in the full-on Prog of ItCoKC.

Thanks, good answer.

[Smörgåsbord]

They are partially overlapping musical subsets.

+1

[Scrotum Scissor]

Blues rock, country rock/Americana, and "Art rock" were paths taken, the latter having emerged out of psych through what appears retrospectively to be a transitional phase we now call "proto-Prog" during the years you cite, culminating in the full-on Prog of ItCoKC.

I think the transition between the first and second Soft Machine albums illustrate the overriding paradigma neatly. They grew out of the psychedelic core of the UK underground (early singles), made their profoundly ambitious and elaborate yet still loosely structured debut, before making the first truly "through-composed" work of British progressive rock with Volume Two. There are purported "prog" bands today whose music couldn't even begin to match the level of harmonic and dynamic finesse and refinement of that album.