Artists You Have To Like (Or Else)

[Vic2012]

It's 3 chords.

Thank you Renate.....

[aith01]

Ouch... getting overly complicated...

Yeah, isn't 3 chords a bit pretentious?

[Jerjo]

I am astonished a prog fan doesn't like Floyd but what do I know, I don't like Gentle Giant.

[aith01]

I am astonished a prog fan doesn't like Floyd but what do I know, I don't like Gentle Giant.

You can turn in your card at the door.

[GuitarGeek]

Petty much anything Blues related.

I risk bringing disdain down upon myself even mentioning this. I just never bought into the whole, "2 chords and the truth" crap.

What do you mean "the truth"? When I think "three chords and the truth", it's more bands like U2. In fact, on their cover of All Along The Watchtower, Bono sings, "All I've got is a red guitar, three chords and the truth". Then there was the Clash, The Sex Pistols, and all those other bands who thought they were going to "overthrow the Establishment" (whatever that is) with their music. Or at least, that's what we were supposed to believe they were trying to do.

[moecurlythanu]

^ Chris, it's a phrase attributed to a Country singer speaking about Country Music, not the Blues. Or the Sex Pistols.

[Vic2012]

I am astonished a prog fan doesn't like Floyd but what do I know, I don't like Gentle Giant.

You better like GG, or else. What's wrong with you?.....

[GuitarGeek]

I am astonished a prog fan doesn't like Floyd but what do I know, I don't like Gentle Giant.

The thing that astonished me was finding out how factional the "prog rock community" is. I mean I guess because of my age and the fact that I didn't grow up with a lot of other people who were into the same music as me, as a teenager and in my early 20's, I imagine that everyone who was into "prog rock" were into all the bands, or at least all the ones that a given person or circle of people had heard at that point. I had this idea in my head that if you liked Yes, you also automatically liked Genesis, ELP, King Crimson, Caravan, Nektar, and all the rest of them. I was maybe astute enough to realize that maybe being into that stuff wasn't going to guarantee you'd be into Magma or Henry Cow or the so called Krautrock stuff, but I thought people were a lot more eclectic in their tastes, at least so far as "prog rock" was concerned.

It wasn't the late 90's, after I'd been online for a couple years, that I realized that wasn't even close to true. People who liked Genesis didn't necessarily like Yes or King Crimson or Caravan. And then finding out about the factionalism within a given band's fanbase was a surprise too. I wasn't surprised that let's say there were Yes fans who weren't too crazy about the Trevor Rabin years. But I was somehow shocked to find out there were people who actually preferred the Rabin era over what was in my mind the classic years, ya know, the Steve Howe era. That seemed mindboggling to me somehow.

[mozo-pg]

My friend, as a 14 year old, immigrated to Ottawa (Canada) from NYC. He had long hair past half way down his back. He was also a great friend. He showed me his copy (LP) of Power and the Glory and played it for me. I was instantly a fan and it remains my favourite GG release (the same for Derek Shulman according the the interview Sean did with him). I keep exploing their music as a young teen and enjoyed it all. One of my favourites to this day. If you don't like 'em, cool, more for me.

[Jerjo]

Something about GG is just a little too TWEE for me. Canterbury I can do for the most part (and there's a lot of that that's borderline twee) but something in GG doesn't resonate for me. And so it goes. There are, after all, people on this board that don't like Rush.

[simon moon]

I am astonished a prog fan doesn't like Floyd but what do I know, I don't like Gentle Giant.

I actually didn't say I don't like them. I just feel they are vastly overrated.

And not to send this thread into a completely different (and even more annoying) direction, I don't even consider them a prog band. Space rock maybe...

For the most part, their stuff seems like pretty straight forward mainstream rock, with some drawn out spacey passages, and also pretty straight forward blues based, pentatonic guitar solos.

And yes, and argument can be made that Gary Green (GG) was also a blues based player. But that was on the rare occasions that he soloed. When he was playing within a piece, he was playing lines that fit precisely within that piece.

[JJ88]

Something about GG is just a little too TWEE for me. Canterbury I can do for the most part (and there's a lot of that that's borderline twee) but something in GG doesn't resonate for me.

I like Gentle Giant but funnily enough this above is how I feel about that post-TAAB, pre-Songs From The Wood Jethro Tull period, which is positively worshipped on here. I keep the albums because they might click with me one day. There are isolated moments I like such as 'Skating Away...' and the Minstrel... title track. Overall however, I've found these albums over-ornate and, yes, often twee. Give me This Was any day, which again most people on here don't rate.

[Rarebird]

Yeah, typo.

Either way, my sentiments are the same.

Mostly not really a blues-lover myself, though there are some exceptions, which are bluesy, which I like, like Free and Beth Hart.

[Vic2012]

Give me This Was any day, which again most people on here don't rate.

For years I ignored This Was because "proggers" on forums dismissed it as "not prog." It was to be avoided. Well, I bought it because a few proggers actually recommended it. I loved it instantly. I like it as much as Aqualung or TAAB, and certainly much more than To Old To R&R (which I find mostly boring).

[Trane]

Mostly not really a blues-lover myself, though there are some exceptions, which are bluesy, which I like, like Free and Beth Hart.

I had my blues-rock phase (76-78) right after my first prog-phase (74-76) and my blues phase arounf 80-82, which probably opened the door into my jazz and JR/F phase for the remainder of the 80's

I can still listen to Savoy Brown, TYA, Peter Green's FM, early Gallagher, early J Winter (etc... ), but in homeopathic doses (1 album every second or third month, or so).
I've got more problems listening to Big Bill Broonzy, Jimmy Rushing, Muddy Waters, BB King, etc... Especially if it's a "before the 70's" recording.
If there is a blues or blues-rock track playing on the radio, I won't zap away either.
Last Blues concert I saw?? Stan Webb & Chicken Shack some 7 or 8 years ago in a festival, and bizarelly, I enjoyed it tremendously (but then again, I had seen SW some six times prior to that, but only the first time (around 1991) had given me that excitement.

[Sturgeon's Lawyer]

...Then there was the Clash, The Sex Pistols, and all those other bands who thought they were going to "overthrow the Establishment" (whatever that is) with their music. Or at least, that's what we were supposed to believe they were trying to do.

I think that's way overstating what punk rockers believe(d) they were (are) "trying to do". More than anything else, punk was a reaction agfainst the demands for technical prowess and compositional complexity that produced prog, metal, and similar. It was along the lines of "Rock'n'roll is s'posed to be music for the working class, let's take it back." Make it simple and easy to understand "again".

Oh, yes, there was some politics mixed up in it - at least for bands like the Clash and Dead Kennedys - but it wasn't necessary; it's hard to think of bands less political than the Sex Pistols or the Ramones.

[Trane]

I like Gentle Giant but funnily enough this above is how I feel about that post-TAAB, pre-Songs From The Wood Jethro Tull period, which is positively worshipped on here. I keep the albums because they might click with me one day. There are isolated moments I like such as 'Skating Away...' and the Minstrel... title track. Overall however, I've found these albums over-ornate and, yes, often twee. Give me This Was any day, which again most people on here don't rate.

TBH, Even the Sftw/HH/SW trilogy, I don't even care that much about it as well. Yeah, I got those three (with Mistrel and PP) dirt cheap, and hopefully, someday I'll see what everyone raves on about it... Give me the first five and LITP, and that's all I really need.

For years I ignored This Was because "proggers" on forums dismissed it as "not prog." It was to be avoided. Well, I bought it because a few proggers actually recommended it. I loved it instantly. I like it as much as Aqualung or TAAB, and certainly much more than To Old To R&R (which I find mostly boring).

Yup always loved TW, but part of the reason was that my father owned it on the strength of Serenade (Rashaan's tune) just like he had Stanf Up because of Bourée. My dad had helped organized RRK's gig in Brussels in 68/9, and that was the first time I was a a jazz gig and RRK and his men the first black dudes I'd ever seen.

I think that's way overstating what punk rockers believe(d) they were (are) "trying to do". More than anything else, punk was a reaction agfainst the demands for technical prowess and compositional complexity that produced prog, metal, and similar. It was along the lines of "Rock'n'roll is s'posed to be music for the working class, let's take it back." Make it simple and easy to understand "again".

You know, I think that this "Working Class thing" wass always been a bunch of crap, cos the guys buying Elvis, Jerry Lee, Chuck, Little R, etc... they were middle class kids (as if middle class wasn't working anyways)who could afford to spend money on records and concert places.

They (punks) were lazy bastards but the record establishment used them against the prog and AOR artistes costing them l
millions to make a 33, while it took 1 000 $£ to record a punk 45 and another 1000 to press them and sell them all. The establishment used these punks to gain back control of the studio ($$$$-wise anyways), like they had it before 1967.

And the medias (essentially the Brutish weekly press) let these punks get away with murder.

[Dave (in MA)]

Something about GG is just a little too TWEE for me.

I don't know about that, but I have 3 or 4 GG records and don't play them very often. The vocals get on my nerves for some reason. Maybe I like the idea of Gentle Giant better than I like Gentle Giant.

[progmatist]

Re: the 3 chords and the truth country music trope: There's also a long running joke that if you play a country record backwards, you get your wife back, your house back, your truck back, your dog back....

[NogbadTheBad]

Re: the 3 chords and the truth country music trope: There's also a long running joke that if you play a country record backwards, you get your wife back, your house back, your truck back, your dog back....

Presumably if you play the blues backwards you go to bed feeling hale and healthy.

[aith01]

Re: the 3 chords and the truth country music trope: There's also a long running joke that if you play a country record backwards, you get your wife back, your house back, your truck back, your dog back....

Presumably if you play the blues backwards you to bed feeling hale and healthy.

That's good.

[Vic2012]

Hilarious....

[GuitarGeek]

Oh, yes, there was some politics mixed up in it - at least for bands like the Clash and Dead Kennedys - but it wasn't necessary; it's hard to think of bands less political than the Sex Pistols or the Ramones.

So you're saying I just hallucinated all that business about Johnny Rotten saying he was going to nail the coffin shut on the Establishment?

As for The Ramones, they actually did have one political song, Bonzo Goes To Bitburg, which criticized Ronald Reagan's official visit to the Bitburg cemetery where the Nazis are buried. Course, most of their songs weren't political at all. That's what was great about them, they were just a fun rock n roll band most of the time. I mean, how can you not love a song like Teenage Lobotomy or Rock And Roll High School?

[clivey]

It's probably a good idea to remember that punk in UK was really not related to the Art punk of US.
In UK your average family in the mid 70's lived in what we would call poverty. ie no Car, central heating, poor quality housing and really not too much in the way of stuff. The pub rock scene thrived and many of the bands jumped on the new wagon.
Average kids could now afford a Hondo 2 Les Paul but no way an early synth ,Hammond or even a rock drum kit .
Most of the early singles from about 1975 until late 80's were demos recorded in half a day and pressed at the bands expense .
This is the essence of " Indie", No accountibility.

[Trane]

It's probably a good idea to remember that punk in UK was really not related to the Art punk of US.
In UK your average family in the mid 70's lived in what we would call poverty. ie no Car, central heating, poor quality housing and really not too much in the way of stuff. The pub rock scene thrived and many of the bands jumped on the new wagon.
Average kids could now afford a Hondo 2 Les Paul but no way an early synth ,Hammond or even a rock drum kit .
Most of the early singles from about 1975 until late 80's were demos recorded in half a day and pressed at the bands expense .
This is the essence of " Indie", No accountibility.

I'd agree that a vast amount of UK families were doing much worse than continental families, in terms of home comfort, and that in some ways, this started to change with Bitcher's arrival to power.



Reading Barry Miles' London Calling, successful UK music crazes-currents were mostly about fashion anyways, beit the Teddy Boys, Mods, Rockers, even the designer hippy clothes (unlike the real US hippies which were dirty and broke), glam/glitter etc.... (outside of Wankerman's stardust-sprinkled cape, 70's proggers just looked like "hippies"). I'm more speaking of the "followers", not the actual artistes.

Even punk clothes were outrageously expensive (Camden) and that's partly why the real poor guys started making teir own punk clothes (sometimes out of garbage bags and safety pins) and thus bringing the punk-DIY legend.... DIY clothes which MMcLaren and VWestwood recuperated and copied anyways. Still according to BM's LC, a lot of punks were actually middle-class kids playing-pretending to be proletarians to be more credible on the scene.


But the rest of the punk movement was not really DIY anyways. These guys didn't make their own instruments, even if they recorded cassettes in a garage or in a basement. Most of the punk bands (still according to BM's LC) couldn't find gigs even if their lives depended on it. The pub rockers were hogging all the pub's date to themselves, and pub owners weren't willing to have the violent scene come over their places.