Describe your descent into prog...

[JKL2000]

Re: hearing prog on the radio, I have only had a few experiences out of the usual classic rock/prog things on the radio variety. But one night in the early 80s I was home from college and listening to a NY station like WFUV on headphones and these two young girls were playing music and started playing Genesis - I forget what, but something when Gabriel and Hackett were still in the band. Then they talked about it a lot. It was kind of magical, and I know it sounds like a dream but it really happened!

[Interstellar]

Reading some of the posts, it seems that my descent into prog occurred early. The first LP my brother bought was Atom Heart Mother, sometime around 1976 (I was six). I knew this record had been released on my birth year, and it somehow seemed to encapsulate the spirit of my childhood - life was strange, exciting, sweetly beautiful and scary at times.
Although my brother also developped a passion for Status Quo, which were in a slightly different realm, PF became my main musical reference. For a child, those records were a fascinating experience, in which intense melodies shared the soundscape with noises.
In the late 90s I discovered the term "prog" and slowly began to realise this was some sort of label for the kind of music I liked the most - which I could have described as "eclectic and ambitious rock music".

[Paul]

Born in 67, first musical loves were classic rock and early metal (Sabs/Zep/Purple/ACDC/Queen/Priest/Maiden/Molly Hatchet/Scorpions, etc), but I also liked synth music (Jean Michel Jarre/Kraftwerk), new wave and synth-pop (Ultravox/Simple Minds/Human League, etc), punk and post-punk (Pistols/Damned/Buzzcocks/Banshees/Joy Division/The Jam, etc).

When I was 14 I was given a tape with Trespass on one side and A Trick of the Tail on the other, which blew me away, and this led me to the rest of Genesis, Yes, Floyd, Tull, Crimson, Rush and Gong. The first contemporary prog band I got into was Marillion. I also listened to a bit of fusion (Mahavishnu/Al Di Meola).

And in terms of prog that was pretty much it until I discovered the internet in 1999 - I never looked further than those bands. The late 80s and 90s were for me all about thrash metal/grunge/alt-metal/hardcore/EDM/goa trance, etc.

The internet introduced me to ELP, Camel, Canterbury, RPI, avant-prog, Krautrock, and all the other flavours of progressive music from all over the world. And jazz. So thank you Prog Ears, prog.net, GEPR, Giant Progweed, Gnosis, etc.

[AMP2112]

Born in 74...when I was I listened to abba in Spanish when doing housework on the weekends with my family. Became a Phil Collins fan because he was very popular (grew up listening to fm radio 82-86 so I was exposed to a little of everything from flock of seagulls to beastie boys) bought all the catalog of Phil and then went into genesis one album at a time going back to the first. So then I bought the solo catalogue with Gabriel Hackett and Anthony Phillips...after that was all done in college I got into Floyd and liked an album called images and words from a local Long Island band. I like them a lot despite not knowing any metal. Bought all of dream theater catalogue before awake. And I was hooked..in college I also got into yes. Then I found bob wolfe’s table at a record convention in nyc and that opened the floodgates.

[proggy_jazzer]

Since my original post turned out to be very utilitarian compared to some of these great anecdotes, I'll add a few specific memories:

• dancing around the living room with my little sister acting out 'Maxwell's Silver Hammer'
• putting my Mom's stereo speakers on the floor two feet apart, putting on 'Animals' and sitting between them
• happening on a free performance by Kansas at Six Flags while on tour with my church bell choir
• memorizing every word and sound from 'Billy the Mountain' and reciting parts whenever the mood struck
• attempting to play 'The Spider' on piano and micromoog in my HS variety show (thank GOD no-one recorded things in those days)
• seeing the ELP Works tour with the full orchestra twice within a week
• seeing Yes in the round on the 'Ten True Summers' tour

All before I turned 18...

[hFx]

As a young teenager, hearing Perpetual Change and LtiA pt 2 on the radio got me to buy Yessongs and LtiA. Yes was a revelation and LtiA not so much except for that one track...
Later a short glimpse of Rush doing Fly by Night on TV led to buying Caress of Steel (!!) and I've been a fan ever since. Also on TV, that ELP road movie got me to buy Trilogy and I loved it, even though the band didn't have a guitarist! My older sister was a Pink Floyd fan and a friend was into Genesis, but I wasn't hooked back then.

[bondegezou]

I was born in '71, so prog was past its heyday when I was developing musical tastes.

Me too.

I went to university. A friend had a CD player. First one I'd seen up close, very exciting. He usually played the same 3 CDs: 90125, Hold Your Fire and Power Windows. I fell in love with the music, particularly "It Can Happen", so I started buying other Yes and Rush albums, just on cassette! And I kept going, exploring.

Henry

[winkersnufs]

G'Morning! ~

I do believe I have talked about this, here on PE, before. As a young sprout, playing violin in public school orchestras, quartets, and another orchestral concern... Music was definitely in my blood. Popular music was listened to on a small, plastic, portable radio that I hid under my pillow at rest time. One day I heard 'Roll Over Beethoven' by the ELOrchestra and for me, at that time, was the perfect mix of somewhat orchestral music AND rock n roll. I'm soon to be 58 yrs and that revelation(??) was at about 12-13 years old. The ride begins!


Just can't seem to shake it either!

Carry On

Chris Buckley

[JKL2000]

Then I found bob wolfe’s table at a record convention in nyc and that opened the floodgates.

LOL - this was quite important to me too! It's where I first experienced the sensation of buying a stack of CDs at once, and in his hucksterish (but sincere) way Bob introduced me to a lot of neo-prog I wouldn't have known about. Although CTTOI, sort of around the same time I was exploring the great Laser's Edge catalogs, so I guess they went hand in hand (there's an image!).

[Teddy Vengeance]

I was always attracted to music that gave me a higher-order emotional connection. Ok, that sounded a little precious so allow me to explain.

As long as I can remember, if music was playing around me I felt that I had to actively listen to it (I can ignore unwanted visual clutter but I have definite trouble filtering out the aural- yes, it’s a problem). If there was an element of mystery attached to the music I heard, slightly off the beat, minor chords, unexpected progressions and developments, all the better. Even as a child, these sounds got me stirred up.

I heard the title bit of Thick As A Brick at age 13 on the radio. I discovered that this ‘song’ went on for another 40 minutes, so I bought it. My first LP. ‘Stagnation’ on Trespass was the next step. At age 13/14 it was almost like imbibing a wine of great depth and complexity. Pawn Hearts came next...

I found it all so impenetrable, which was exactly what I was looking for. Things that can’t be sorted out too easily attract me. Always have. Prog and similar musics feed this hunger.

I was never interested in listening to music as if it were the accompanying BGM for every life scene in which I appeared. Music as self punctuation, as accessory. You know, some badass dude appears on film and so we hear that expected metal riff.

Not surprisingly, a lot of folks adorn themselves with music that serves to punctuate the desired image and this constitutes their idea of musical ‘likes’. I can respect and accept that some people do so, that’s fine - I’m sure some might wonder why I don’t put more consideration into my choice of car or clothing. But Music always struck me at a core level.

[MJBrady]

Born in 59. Dad owned a jazz club, and loved hifi
Three older brothers and one sister, all into music, kept me sneaking into their rooms to look at their records.
Radio had some influence but not much, although I am old enough to recall hearing Tull, ELP, Yes, Floyd, Crimson, Genesis and even Gentle Giant on local radio, but I had already began a record collection by then.

For some reason, the more complicated the music, the more I loved it, perhaps having started playing guitar and bass when I was 10 learning to play things over my head was what I wanted. Anyway, in my teens, there was a station called Beeker Street from Little Rock, we had to go to the top of a remote hill during clear skies after 11:00 pm to hear the show. There is where we were hearing things like Budgie, Atomic Rooster, Banco, PFM, Magma, Passport, etc, etc. Loved that show.

Developed a fanatical record collecting habit, spending hours in various stores looking for obscure gems, finding that one among the many was always the goal, ended up with a lot of great music, but even more clunkers along the way. Where was the internet when I needed it most.
Now people can sample most any artist without the commitment of purchasing a wrapped vinyl record. And one can find endless websites to research both old and newer music from the progressive family.

[Paulrus]

Born in '64 and had an older brother who was into Yes, ELP and Tull in the early 70s (plus stuff like Traffic and CSNY.) I was already a big Beatles nut at the time so I was receptive to pop music with complex harmonies and vocals. But the moment I went *snap* was when I was about 9 years old. I vividly remember him putting Fragile on the turntable in our shared bedroom. Like many older brothers he used to bully me a bit and I think he thought it might be fun to freak out his little kid brother by playing "South Side of the Sky" and scaring me with the sound effects of running, the door slamming and ominous wind. Little did he realize he'd totally piqued my interest instead!

I didn't become a big Yes fan at that moment but it did open my ears to proggy bands who were getting radio play like Edgar Winter and ELO. IMO the radio discussion we're having in this thread is key because in the 1970s you would hear songs in regular rotation on Philadelphia AM radio (I lived in Wilmington, DE back then) that -- if they weren't straight up prog anyways -- served as an easy gateway music to prog. Stuff like Paul McCartney's "Uncle Albert" or Jethro Tull's "Living in the Past."

[Soc Prof]

Born in 1969. Classic rock stations played a lot of early Yes when I was a teenager. They even played some ELP. My sister photocopied a page out of book she ran across showing "The Trip to Asia"--the different bands that members of Asia had played in. This made me curious about other British prog bands like King Crimson and UK. Fortunately, my town had a good used record store where I could find the goods. Got into early Genesis and Steve Hackett big time.

In college at UC Berkeley I listened to the Stone Trek radio show, which introduced my to Camel, IQ, The Enid, Sebastian Hardie, Focus, and Happy the Man. Later in grad school found i/e magazine, then alt.music.progressive and rec.music.progressive. The Princeton Record exchange had a lot of used prog lps. Also met Alan Benjamin, who lived down the street from a place where I was doing sociological research.

Moved to Denver in 1999. Met up with the Colorado Art Rock Society. Still here.

[peppot]

Got Jethro Tull from my brother late 90s... listened a bunch to Splunge Radio, discovered tons including Crimson, VdGG to start with...

[expresso]

At first i started listening to metal bands like Iron Maiden, Sabbath, 70's Scorpions, Malmsteen. I also discovered classic hard rock bands like Deep Purple/Rainbow/MSG.
In the 90's i discovered Dream Theater and i also listened to Fates Warning, Queensryche and many other prog/power/symphonic metal bands.

The whole alternative-grunge scene at the time didn't appeal to me, so i also started exploring older bands like Yes, Jethro Tull, ELP, Genesis, Wishbone Ash etc.

After that i started listening to a lot of classical music and jazz/fusion.

So it was actually like listening to my favorite band's influences all the way to the past.

[yamishogun]

When I was 14 I was given a tape with Trespass on one side and A Trick of the Tail on the other, which blew me away, and this led me to the rest of Genesis, Yes, Floyd, ...

Born in the Summer of 69, I listened to Styx and Genesis (Abacab) not yet having heard Yes (90125) or Rush (Power Windows). I liked most of Abacab along with "Misunderstanding" and "Turn It On". One night on the way back from a junior high ski trip, the driver put on something really different but really liked it despite it being more 'all over the place' than I was used to. I was stunned to hear the driver say it was Genesis.

"The same Genesis who made Abacab"?

"Yep - It's called The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway."

I then met someone in my astronomy club who was ten years older and a huge Genesis fan - until Phil Collins started to sing - who at least made me more aware of 1970s but didn't check any of that out until I was blown away by "The Cage" on Three Sides Live several years later in college. I listened to all Rush in high school but took much longer to listen to all of Genesis and Yes. (Ten minutes of TFTO killed my desire to listen to anything from Tales through Drama for about five years until I got Yesstories.)

[Right_Brained]

Interesting thread . . .

Born in 1957 in Detroit. Had an older brother who was really into pop music who influenced my taste in music. It started with the usual suspects, Beatles, Stones, Who etc. and at some point I realized that I had an affinity for all things British (with some blame going to James Bond and Diana Riggs' Mrs. Peel) that led me on a deeper musical exploration to discover the Kinks, Faces, Traffic, etc. Music was more accessible at that time with FM stations like WABX playing full albums after midnight with a playlist that featured everything from Zappa to Crimson. Detroit must have been on the A list for concert tours at that time because all sorts of bands were coming through the city that were rarely played on the radio.

My first concert at the tender age of 15 was seeing Procul Harum (Grand Hotel) with Steeleye Span (Parcel of Rogues) opening at Ford Auditorium. I was hooked. Within months I saw Floyd debuting Dark Side at Cobo Hall. I was on the lookout for anything quirky and English and it just so happened that I caught the crest of a wave for what we now consider prog. If I had to pick one band that pointed me in the direction of prog, I'd have to say it would probably be the Moody Blues with their esoteric lyrics and spacey sound. I was an art student and this new music was inspirational for drawing and painting. Unfortunately mainstream prog had a short life span, but I managed to get a good taste of it while it lasted.

Here's a truncated list of some of the prog bands that I managed to see in Motown within the span of about seven years:
- Yes (Topographic, Yesterdays, Relayer and Tormato tours) with Gryphon opening on Yesterdays tour
- Tull (Passion Play, Minstrel, Songs from the Wood, Heavy Horses)
- Crimson (twice) on the Larks tour (and again later in the 80s from Discipline to Beat)
- Genesis (Selling England, Lamb, Tails, Wind and Duke)
- ELP (Works w/orchestra)
- Gentle Giant & Renaissance on the same bill (front row seats)
- Strawbs (Hero, Ghosts)
- Moody Blues (Seventh Sojurn)
- Tangerine Dream
- Bowie (Stage tour featuring Belew and Simon House)
- ELO (Face the Music, New World) with Pavlov's Dog & Steve Hillage Bands opening respectively
- Mahavishnu Orchestra (Birds of Fire)
- Return to Forever (Romantic Warrior)

At that point in time there were so many concerts happening that I couldn't see them all, and I let some good ones get away. I still remember having to sit out Focus, Hawkwind and later XTC which I'll always regret.

Almost forgot to mention that an important guide to discovering many of these bands was Melody Maker. This was pre-internet and there was newsstand in the neighborhood that amazingly enough carried the British music tabloid along with the daily racing forms. I often wondered who else bought it besides me. But this was an essential tool for me to learn about more obscure bands like Camel and Gentle Giant. I often based my music-buying decisions on reviews that I read there and I have to say overall it served me well.



-

[bill g]

I was always attracted to music that gave me a higher-order emotional connection. Ok, that sounded a little precious so allow me to explain.

As long as I can remember, if music was playing around me I felt that I had to actively listen to it (I can ignore unwanted visual clutter but I have definite trouble filtering out the aural- yes, it’s a problem). If there was an element of mystery attached to the music I heard, slightly off the beat, minor chords, unexpected progressions and developments, all the better. Even as a child, these sounds got me stirred up.

I heard the title bit of Thick As A Brick at age 13 on the radio. I discovered that this ‘song’ went on for another 40 minutes, so I bought it. My first LP. ‘Stagnation’ on Trespass was the next step. At age 13/14 it was almost like imbibing a wine of great depth and complexity. Pawn Hearts came next...

I found it all so impenetrable, which was exactly what I was looking for. Things that can’t be sorted out too easily attract me. Always have. Prog and similar musics feed this hunger.

I was never interested in listening to music as if it were the accompanying BGM for every life scene in which I appeared. Music as self punctuation, as accessory. You know, some badass dude appears on film and so we hear that expected metal riff.

Not surprisingly, a lot of folks adorn themselves with music that serves to punctuate the desired image and this constitutes their idea of musical ‘likes’. I can respect and accept that some people do so, that’s fine - I’m sure some might wonder why I don’t put more consideration into my choice of car or clothing. But Music always struck me at a core level.

This is very well stated and how I feel and have not been able to quite put into such eloquence.

[Gravedigger]

Its been a few years since I told the story:

I was 13 years old and had a huge crush on my best friend's 20 year old sister. It was 1974, but she still was dressing like it was the '60s...
short skirts, go-go boots... think of the Dancing Troll on YouTube to get an idea.

Anyway, my friend said her favorite group was ELP. I wasn't familiar with them, but I figured I would buy an album so we could talk about
them together. I rode my bike to JByrons dept. store with what little allowance and chore money I had saved. There was no way I could
afford the brand new 3LP live album ($10.99?!), so I bought Brain Salad Surgery and listened intently until I knew everything about that
album. ("Okay, on the second time through the "Roll up"s, Palmer reverses the cowbell with the hi-hat smashes")
I had fantasies of us listening to the album together, she would be impressed, we would make out...

Of course the scrawny adolescent didn't make it with the college hottie, but he did fall in love with the music and sought out
similar musical experiences.

[soundsweird]

I guess the first album I bought that fit the definition was Days of Future Passed in 1967. I had a friend whose dad was a music distributor, retailer or something, and he had a bunch of sealed albums he was selling for $1.25 each. They weren't promos, so I don't know what the deal was. I also bought the first Fever Tree album at the same time. After that, I bought Moody Blues albums as they were released. In 1969 or 1970, I was talking to a record store employee who knew I liked The Moodies, so he showed me the first two King Crimson albums. He said, "These guys are like the Moody Blues, except a lot heavier!" I bought them immediately, and haven't looked back since...

[hwkn]

I first got into prog listening to my oldest brother play King Crimson's In The Wake Of Poseidon on LP back around 1975/76 when I was around 8 years old as well as Pink Floyd's Ummagumma and Wish You Were Here.

[Teddy Vengeance]

This is very well stated and how I feel and have not been able to quite put into such eloquence.

If you liked that, you might like my book:
http://www.progressiveears.org/forum...t-of-our-times

[bill g]

If you liked that, you might like my book:
http://www.progressiveears.org/forum...t-of-our-times

I see you have a kindle version. Having published a novel myself, I'd be most remiss to not read yours! Will do so once I finish the time travel trilogy I'm currently reading (On book 3, so it shouldn't be too long)

[No Pride]

First of all, I was born in '53, so I was still in my late teens when prog came on the radar. My dad was a percussionist in The Chicago Symphony Orchestra and I grew up with classical music playing in our home. My older brother was buying Motown 45s and I liked it all, but I fell in love with music (and started playing guitar) when I saw The Beatles' classic first appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show. A little later, I discovered Jimi Hendrix, Jeff Beck, Cream and Led Zeppelin and got really into that stuff. By my senior year of high school, a buddy and I started listening to jazz of all sorts, from Sun Ra to Charlie Parker, etc. When the '70s came around, musicians were blending all of this stuff into something exciting and unique; progressive rock and jazz/rock fusion. It was like eating at a buffet with all of my favorite foods in one place! So it's a no-brainer that I gravitated to prog and fusion. At the time I didn't differentiate between the two, aside from one coming mostly from England (and being more composition oriented with vocals) and the other coming from the US (and being more improvisation oriented and mostly instrumental). When I first came to PE, I was a little shocked to discover that a fair share of proggers didn't like fusion; to me, they were non-identical twins from different parents (and parts of the world). But I'm used to it by now.

[bill g]

So it's a no-brainer that I gravitated to prog and fusion. At the time I didn't differentiate between the two, aside from one coming mostly from England (and being more composition oriented with vocals) and the other coming from the US (and being more improvisation oriented and mostly instrumental). When I first came to PE, I was a little shocked to discover that a fair share of proggers didn't like fusion; to me, they were non-identical twins from different parents (and parts of the world). But I'm used to it by now.

Yes same here. Shocked that there were those who didn't like fusion, and some who didn't like symphonic prog. But then I don't really like AOR flavored prog, which maybe some find shocking too, maybe in part that the AOR thing was more later 70s and I was more in a formative stage in the early 70s.