I discovered progressive rock music - to any serious extent after listening to then-current Yes and Genesis since 1983 or so - while attending high school in 1987-90. In one of the classrooms there was a most eloquent paper drawing of the Roger Dean moorglade hanging from the top of a blackboard, apparently a leftover by a pupil who attended the school sometime during the mid-70s. On the seat of a wooden chair in the same room, someone (possibly the very same person) had carved in the names of three artists I had come to know fairly well ; ELP (Brain Salad circle logo), Yes and Genesis (the latter's Lamb/And Then... logo) - and then a fourth.
"Magma". With the claw underneath. Given that I'd never heard them, I went home and read about the band in the two rock encyclopaedias I kept - the most significant being the Danish Politikens Rock Lexikon of 1985. At this point, 16 years of age, I had easily gotten into Genesis/Yes/Tull, spent a bit more time with ELP and partly struggled with King Crimson and Van der Graaf Generator. But man. I had no idea what transcendent listening was all about until attempting Soft Machine's Fourth and Magma Live. I instinctively realized that after overcoming the initial confusion and fascination with THIS stuff, I'd be essentially able to grasp *everything that would ever be presented to me*.
The experience of discovering organized sound of this conceptually radical nature within the moniker of "rock" was that paradigmatic. It changed the lot of my understanding of music as medium, and I keep wondering to this very day whether this would have happened at all if not for the carvings on that chair or if I hadn't originally exposed myself to somewhat easier going adventurous rock noise.
Bookmarks