How did you discover Progressive rock.

[seatrain]

I was introduced to Progressive rock in early 1972. I was very passionate about music and so was my high school friend in Florida.
One day he handed a me the Yes album Fragile, and said to me that you have got to give this band a listen, they are incredible.
He said that their music was complicated and may require repeated spins to really sink in, but i really think that you will enjoy it.
At that time i was not familiar with progressive rock. I listened to what my friend had told me and gave it repeated spins.
At first i thought the music was strange and unusual but i persisted and after the third or fourth spin i was hooked, in fact the Fragile release is still my favorite Yes release.

[battema]

I was cleaning my living room and found some behind the sofa.

[Mister Triscuits]

I don't believe I ever did discover it, because I'd been listening to it for years before I became aware of the term. In 1970-71 I started listening to (in this order, as best I can remember): Jethro Tull, Procol Harum, Frank Zappa, King Crimson, Soft Machine, ELP, Yes, and Pink Floyd. All very different bands, and I didn't yet have the pigeonhole of "progressive rock" to slot them into. How did I discover them? Most of them I simply heard on the radio before buying the records; Zappa and Soft Machine I had read about but had never heard, so I bought those on spec. I saw Pink Floyd on the KQED TV performance and asked my mom when she was going shopping to find me one of their albums, didn't matter which...the guy at the store sold her their new one, Meddle.

[IMWeasel]

Theses assholes on the internet made me join this group 23 years ago

[Zappathustra]

I was listening to heavy metal music as a teenager, and liked very much bands like Fates Warning, Watchtower, the first Dream Theater etc, music that I was buying upon release. Then I was told that a band named Rush had a profound influence on this sort of music. I bought 2112. It was like an alien object landing in my room. My first reaction was to grieve about the money I had thrown to the garbage. I pretty soon changed my mind. The rest is history.

[moecurlythanu]

We had been sailing for weeks, and were running low on provisions. Morale was also low. Then, about an hour past the third watch, the lad in the crow's nest shouted that he could see an outline of something ahead in the distance. We navigated in that direction and dropped anchor. I led the shore party, and as we set out upon this unknown land, I couldn't escape the feeling that were in a place where the laws of nature didn't apply. After several hours traversing a verdant landscape, we came upon a very large rock that seemed to glow with it's own light. Not a reflection, but rather a light emanating from within. Sitting cross legged on top of the rock was a short, elfin figure. He was chanting "Om Mani Padme Hum" and mumbling about mountains and the sky. We thought he may have been mad, so we gave him a wide berth, but planted our flag in the soil and claimed the rock for our nation and people.

[clivey]

School. Believe it or not. Mid 70's. Kids brought prog albums into music class . The teach used to play us ELP and Yes. He must have been a dude.
Also local FM radio DJ Jay Crawford played loads of prog on his show Edinburgh Rock. In particular Genesis tracks such as Suppers Ready etc . fantastic mainstream radio.

[Poisoned Youth]

In 1982, I was 12. I gravitated towards "proggy" elements and keyboards. The first albums I bought included Styx, Queen, and 90125 from Yes. My dad had passed away by then, but he had some 70s Yes records in his collection. They were a bit much for me at the time, but I would revisit them later.

I was pretty much a heavy metal, classic rock, and (some) new wave kinda teen. I really didn't come to understand "prog" until about 1992 when I wanted to go "back to the 70s" instead of listen to what was coming out that year. At that point, I started collecting more of the most obvious "Big 5-6-7-8" names.

Around 1994 I heard two compilations that changed my trajectory forever: King Crimson and Camel. It was downhill from there...

[Sputnik]

In Jr. High I started getting into Styx, Queen, ELO and a few other Prog leaning bands along with a diet of typical classic rock.

Then I found out a girl wanted to go out with me (a rare and unusual thing, believe me). So, I did what kids did back then, I invited her to a concert, which was Yes in the round in June of 1979. I borrowed a couple of albums from a friend (Tormato and Yessongs), but I didn't have a lot of time to get my ears around them, and I found the Yessongs material really weird. But from the opening seconds of that show, I was completely entranced. I've never had a musical experience to compare with that. I was hooked on Yes from that point forward, and Yes led me to the other big-name bands, which eventually led me to everything else.

As a date, that show was a total bust. I paid literally no attention to the girl, and she quite reasonably lost interest in me, though we're still friends to this day. It does stand as my top live music experience ever, though, and was truly my gateway to Prog.

Bill

[mozo-pg]

My brother gave me a Christmas Gift in 1975, Genesis Live. I thought the cover looked bizarre and played it. It's sounded like noise to this 13 year old boy. I kept with it. My close friend said to me I was going to play the grooves out the the LP. Never stopped loving Genesis, my favourite band. I've said this a million times but I went to my first concert 3 months later, in March 1976. It was Genesis and the counter culture was still running strong . I had a blast in more then one way.

[JKL2000]

During the summer between 11th and 12th grade I went on one of those cross country teen-tours, where dozens of teenagers and some poor counselors travel on a bus, visit a lot of national parks and other attractions, and listen to music to while away the hours on the bus. About two thirds through the trip, a kid I'd become friends with loaned me his cassette of Dark Side of the Moon and said I should listen to it, so I did, on headphones in the tent at night (sometimes we camped, sometimes stayed at hotels). It took a few listens, but I soon loved it and listened to it several nights. There was also a girl who was really into this band called Genesis, and she played Duke out loud on the bus a lot, though I only remember hearing Behind the Lines.

Not a lot of other progress until I started college, but I quickly became friends with the guys across the hall, and within the first couple of weeks they got me to listen to 2112 and The Lamb and the floodgates were opened. I started spending tons of time in the several record stores on or near campus, and moved on to Syd-era Floyd big time, and the rest is history.

I should give some credit to my older brother, who had softened me up over the years with "The In Sound from Way Out" (not the Beastie Boys album) and Tommy, and a couple of other weird albums. I never listened to a lot of radio before college, or when I did I guess it was AM radio and I wasn't hearing too much challenging music there.

[Zeuhlmate]

I did'nt - it was all over the radio, and most classmates had a big brother who played it.
Heard Beatles in 63 (when I was 6) and continued listening.

[Scott Bails]

Asia

[bigjohnwayne]

Growing up in the mid 90s, the most interesting CDs my dad had were Trick of the Tail, Duke and Misplaced Childhood. One day in the late 90s he bought the first UK album and bought a new needle for the turntable he hadn't used since the late 80s. The albums from his vinyl collection that fascinated me most were Tales from Topographic Oceans, The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway, and A Young Person's Guide to King Crimson. I bought a CD player, we had the internet, we found some prog websites, and him and I rode the third wave prog revival the whole way.

[the winter tree]

I heard YES "Your's is no Disgrace at the age of 12 on the radio at my uncle's porch in 1974. I had never heard music quite like this before. Over the next few years I started hearing more artists that pushed the boundaries of popular music. The same year my cousin played me Dark Side of the Moon which was transcendent.

[Koreabruce]

Just being awake and alive and aware of all that was on the radio back in 1970, when I was 10, was likely the general time of the 'discovery'. Like the winter tree, I can point to Yours Is No Disgrace as the first overtly progressive rock song that caught my attention. My family was visiting relatives in Vermillion-on-the-Lake in Ohio in either '71 or '72. My cousins lived literally right across the road from Lake Erie in this incredibly huge tumbledown house that had once been a rather lavish inn back in the early 19th century. Upstairs in his very large bedroom, my older cousin told my brother and me to sit on the floor between the two speakers of his stereo and listen to this amazing song. I distinctly recall hearing Steve Howe's guitar bouncing around between the speakers and my cousin singing along with all the lyrics (well, the ones he could make out anyway). I was hooked on that first listen. It certainly whetted my appetite for longer, more adventurous songs. I think that the atmosphere of that huge old house played an important role as well.

[flowerking]

Two of the earliest albums I owned I bought off my sister when she needed cash. This was around 1978. I bought Journey to the Centre of the Earth and Remember the Future. I was mostly into hard rock/heavy metal at that time but also liked Jethro Tull and Yes. The main rock radio station in St. Louis, KSHE, occasionally played some prog pieces like Camel and Renaissance and I loved them. But my real slide into prog happened once I started listening to Genesis around 1981. This was followed by Saga, ELP, Ambrosia, and Kansas, more Renaissance, Tull and Yes.

[markwoll]

It was top 40 on the radio when I was a kid. Focus, Yes, ELP, Johnny Winter. One of my neighbors had Zappa, Black Sabbath, James Gang, Led Zeppelin records and 8 tracks.
The early 70's were a perfect storm. My mom had bought me a Switched-on Bach album because I liked tech stuff and I liked the synth sounds. That helped also.
Then I found college radio. WGTB and WAMU ( Rock & Roll Jukebox ). They played All the good stuff and much much more.
And then in high school I found the 'Stereo Club' where I heard Manzanera, Eno and RTF.
It was all downhill from there.

[Man In The Mountain]

My best friend when I was 12 or 13 played me a new album he got called "All The World's A Stage" by some band called Rush. He was going on and on about the drummer, and yeah that guy was pretty impressive, but what impressed me the most is when this big epic thing came on. I think it was called 2112.


It's remarkable that at such a young age we were introduced and listening to such challenging music that has lasted our lifetime. We grew up in the age of FM radio and Hi-Fi Stereos. What a wonderful thing.

[Don Arnold]

I was about 16, and purchased my first stereo. It was close to Christmas, so my brother-in-law (or perhaps soon-to-be my brother-in-law) bought me two records as a gift to seed my collection. One was Neiges by Andre Gagnon. The other was Old Loves Die Hard by Triumvirat. Up to that point, I hadn't really been into music much, but I was totally captivated by the Triumvirat album, and that led me on a search for similar sounding bands. Which, of course, led me to ELP, Genesis, Yes, and so on. I've never looked back. By the way, I also loved the Gagnon album, and went on to purchase other records by him.

[SteveSly]

For me it was a transition in high school in the late 70’s. I was big into Bob Seger, BTO, REO Speedwagon and other mainstream rock that was big in the Midwest at the time. Then one day I heard the song “Killer Queen” on the radio and I found it to be really something different. Around the same time Styx started getting significant airplay in my area and I eventually started exploring the two bands. Although it can be debated whether either are prog or not, they both used elements of prog in their music which appealed to me, and started me down the path. When Kansas “Carry On Wayward Son” became a hit I went out and bought the “Leftoveture” album it it changed my musical life. I had several years of piano lessons when I was a kid and played French horn all through my school years and finally I found music that melded elements of classical music with rock. Kansas eventually led me to all the classic prog bands and the rest is history.

[mylard]

So, I'm 27 for context. My parents listened to "classic rock" when I was a kid. They mostly steered clear of the more progressive stuff, but they did listen to a fair amount of Pink Floyd. When I was in high school, I was a hilariously passionate hip-hop fan. I was on a Cross Country team, and I would offer to drive people home from practice just so I could show them whatever mixtape I had downloaded the night before. Then, when I was in my freshman year of college, I decided I wanted to do a study abroad in Sweden, and, in preparation, I wanted to familiarize myself with the culture a bit. I quickly discovered that metal was quite popular in Sweden. I tried out a few Swedish bands, but was mostly turned off by the harsh vocals until I came across Opeth. It still took me a long time to appreciate their harsh vocals, but I loved their clean but still quite "dark" songs. It felt like I'd discovered a secret world. I'd never heard anything like it, and it was totally different from what anyone I knew listened to. Anyways, that was the starting point, and from there I branched out further into the metal world, but also into both older and more modern progressive rock.

[Boceephus]

Born in 1961, I had two older brothers who were into a wide swath of music; classical, jazz, rock. My four older sisters played Motown, soft rock, musicals & whatever was on the radio. My mother always had country music on the radio in the kitchen. Prog was just a part of the whole panorama.


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[reynard]

Fairly standardly for me I suppose. Got a a lot of hand me down records as a kid, lots of Beatles of course & another I listened to a lot was Goodbye Yellow Brick Road. I especially loved A Day in the Life, The Sun King Medley & Funeral For a Friend/Love Lies Bleeding. Those and Scenes From an Italian Restaurant from The Stranger, which was the first LP I bought with my own money, I feel pre-conditioned me for what was to come. That would be going through the record collections of the older siblings of my friends after school when they weren't home. That was plenty of Kansas, Tull, Queen, Yes, Zappa, ELP, The Who & Floyd primarily. The rest as they say is history.

[Tangram]

School. Believe it or not. Mid 70's. Kids brought prog albums into music class . The teach used to play us ELP and Yes. He must have been a dude.
Also local FM radio DJ Jay Crawford played loads of prog on his show Edinburgh Rock. In particular Genesis tracks such as Suppers Ready etc . fantastic mainstream radio.

Music Appreciation Class in High School. The teacher played everything. Zeppelin, ELP, Beethoven, Mozart, Big band, you name it, he played it. But my prog introduction was the more common route to Pink Floyd by an older brother.