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The Pessimist
Prog Reviewer
Joined: June 13 2007
Location: United Kingdom
Status: Offline
Points: 3834
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Posted: May 01 2008 at 11:56 |
Pilgrims - Van Der Graaf Generator of "Still Life"
A number of reasons really: - It's not self-indulgent but you can tell they are good musicians - Some really nice organ playing by Mr Banton, if you are a keys player, you will appreciate it for sure! - Amazingly schizophrenic yet tuneful vocals that portray one of the best melodic lines i've ever heard - Really quite deep lyrics, I welled up the first time i heard them because i felt the lyrics describe me in a way "unknown in our purpose; alone but not worthless at home" - Great arrangement over two themes: theme 1 x2, theme 2, theme 1, theme 2, instrumental along melody lines of theme 2, where David Jackson and Guy Evans deserve a mention - It feels like an epic but is a mere 7 minutes, so you don't get bored but still experience the epicness of it
I think that is all that can be said, and the song is quite simply perfect, no question. There's nothing wrong with it for me.
Edited by kibble_alex - May 01 2008 at 11:59
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"Market value is irrelevant to intrinsic value."
Arnold Schoenberg
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MusicalSalmacis
Forum Senior Member
Joined: December 23 2007
Status: Offline
Points: 213
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Posted: May 01 2008 at 21:58 |
Ivan_Melgar_M wrote:
The Musical Box (Nursery Cryme):
1. Perfect Structure: Starts soft,. goes in crescendo, every section is connected perfectly with the next one and the finale is superb, ends right in the climax.
2. Powerful Lyrics: People complained about Prog being Dungeons and Dragosn or airytales, this song lyrics are pure violence, and terror.
3. Emotional performance: There may better voices in Prog, but the emotion that Peter Gabriel transmits is magnificent. Tony is amazing and Steve adds the perfect touch with some very aggressive guitar sections combined with softer ones, Phil and Steve are also great.
In other words, the perfect song.
Iván |
Musical Box is definitely up there for me as well. Heck, that's the song that turned me into prog in the first place.
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Toaster Mantis
Forum Senior Member
Joined: April 12 2008
Location: Denmark
Status: Offline
Points: 5898
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Posted: May 02 2008 at 03:26 |
Monster Magnet's Cyclops Revolution. The sound effects switching between left and right speaker, the use of dynamics, the "desert punk" atmosphere, all the strength and power with which Dave Wyndorf proclaims "I'm alive, not you!"... it's the single best rock song of the early 1990s. Period.
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Pnoom!
Forum Senior Member
Joined: September 02 2006
Location: OH
Status: Offline
Points: 4981
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Posted: May 02 2008 at 09:41 |
Those are the best three, it goes downhill from there.
IMO, nothing with the words, "I get up, I get down" can ever be perfect.
Still a great song.
As far as the most perfect song...
After the Flood by the Talk Talk.
Just sublime.
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Grimfurg
Forum Senior Member
Joined: January 19 2008
Location: Cairo
Status: Offline
Points: 265
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Posted: May 02 2008 at 12:20 |
Kohntarkosz - Magma (part 2 to be a little bit more precise). There's something that just really gets me with this song. It's insane.
And, Heart Of The Sunrise - Yes.
There's surely more.
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Pnoom!
Forum Senior Member
Joined: September 02 2006
Location: OH
Status: Offline
Points: 4981
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Posted: May 02 2008 at 12:24 |
Grimfurg wrote:
Kohntarkosz - Magma (part 2 to be a little bit more precise). There's something that just really gets me with this song. It's insane.
...
There's surely more.
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You are a winner.
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Real Paradox
Forum Senior Member
Joined: January 20 2008
Location: Lisbon
Status: Offline
Points: 174
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Posted: May 02 2008 at 14:21 |
Well, in terms of trying to , describe a song by using its recording abilities is a bit harsh... But
I guess if I would have to choose a song it would Porcupine Tree's "Arriving Somewhere But Not Here", because that song from my extensive musical
collection as a lot of recording/producing techniques that would make you feel mellow and astonishingly goosebumpy at the same time ( at least it happens with me all the time hehe ). I would certainly choose any particular song to express my congratulations to they're wonderfull and quite detailed studio work. Other eventual Heavy Prog bands could be thrown into this category, for exemple the artistically complicated Mars Volta (band I love a lot when it comes too full-edged live performances), because of their awkward technique of making challanging art, and then recording it very simply. I could give more accurate Univers Zero's or Henry Cow's Avant-Garde/RIO revolutionary studio albums( although I prefer not to speak so loudly about avant-garde bands when it comes to describing awsome recording techniques, because they make awsome live performances but the studio albums have quite the same audible quality, except for Magma I presume hehe ). Well I guess that's about it.
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What is This?
It is what keeps us going...
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burtonrulez
Forum Groupie
Joined: September 13 2007
Location: United Kingdom
Status: Offline
Points: 51
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Posted: May 02 2008 at 14:44 |
I would say... 'The Bewlay Brothers' by David Bowie, a lost gem in his vast catalogue that comes pretty close to prog, and has a brilliant melody, lyrics and unexpected ending. Also it is chilling to the bone even more so than anything on 'The Man Who Sold the World'.
If I had to choose something more strictly prog it would either be 'Close to the Edge' an obviously brilliant piece of music, or 'A Farewell to Kings' which I now have an urge to listen to <runs up stairs to fetch CD>
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el böthy
Prog Reviewer
Joined: April 27 2005
Location: Argentina
Status: Offline
Points: 6336
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Posted: May 02 2008 at 16:34 |
"I" by Meshuggah is pretty much the masterpiece among masterpieces, at least in metal and... hate to be obvious... but "Close to the edge"
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"You want me to play what, Robert?"
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Grimfurg
Forum Senior Member
Joined: January 19 2008
Location: Cairo
Status: Offline
Points: 265
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Posted: May 03 2008 at 06:52 |
Pnoom! wrote:
Grimfurg wrote:
Kohntarkosz - Magma (part 2 to be a little bit more precise). There's something that just really gets me with this song. It's insane.
...
There's surely more.
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You are a winner. |
I know right? I mean, the intro is amazing, the rhodes piano riff is awesome. And the way that riff builds up is sick. Then when the group vocals come it's just insane. And let's not talk about the guitar solo, it's ending is immense. My favorite part though is when Vander goes crazy and starts his monologue. I dare someone to find a song that has as much fearsome power as this one. I should also add (these are amazing, but behind Kohntarkosz): King Crimson - Starless Genesis - Los Endos; The Musical Box Mahavishnu Orchestra - Meeting Of The Spirits Soft Machine - Slightly All The Time...
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sleeper
Prog Reviewer
Joined: October 09 2005
Location: Entropia
Status: Offline
Points: 16449
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Posted: May 03 2008 at 17:53 |
Perfect songs? Well, I'm not going to try to explain them, but these songs just really "do it" for me.
Pain of Salvation- People Passing By, In the Flesh, Idioglossia, Beyond the Pale, Iter Impius Dream Theater- Metropolis Part 1, Learning to Live, Voices Kayo Dot- The Manifold Curiosity, Aurora on an Asylumn Wall maudlin of the Well- Heaven and Week, The Ferryman, Girl with a Watering Can, Gleam in Ranks, Birth Pains of Astral Projection Dark Suns- Flies in Amber, 29 Genesis- The Musical Box, Get 'Em Out by Friday, Supper's Ready, Firht of Fifth Pink Floyd- Wish You Were Here, Dogs, Intersteller Overdrive The Mars Volta- Cassandra Gemini Opeth- When, April Etheral, Moonlaps Vertigo, Face of Melinda, Bleak, The Drapery Falls, Blackwater Park Transatlantic- All of the Above Marillion- Script for a Jesters Tear, Fugazi, The Last Straw, Easter, The Invisable Man Le Orme- Sopesi Nell 'Incredible Van der Graaf Generator- White Hammer, The Emporer in his War Room, Man Erg, La Rossa, Arrow Grayceon- Sounds Like Thunder White Willow- Cryptomenysis, The Reach, Anemnasis, Chemical Sunset, Soulburn, Ghost
I've probably got a few others, but everyone of these songs is perfect to me.
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Spending more than I should on Prog since 2005
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ten years after
Forum Senior Member
Joined: September 07 2007
Location: Australia
Status: Offline
Points: 1008
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Posted: May 03 2008 at 20:26 |
I would nominate The Trees version of She Walked Through the Fair as the perfect Traditional Folk Rock song. Celia Humphris' vocal is sublime with a stunning instrumental mid-section.
There have been heaps of other versions of this song, of course, including Simple Minds using the tune for Belfast Child.
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Roland113
Special Collaborator
Honorary Collaborator
Joined: March 30 2008
Location: Pittsburgh, PA
Status: Offline
Points: 3842
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Posted: May 06 2008 at 20:37 |
Ok, I'll admit, I didn't see Big Country coming. I'll have to seek that song out now.
With that being said, I thought of two songs that are close to perfection, for me.
Dark Star by Fish. Amazing song, lyrics are strong, the structure is sound, the instrumentals are awe inspiring and the complete product is about as good as it gets.
Promised Land by Queensryche is another fantastic sounding song. The vocals and music, again wonderful and the most striking bit about the song is the space in it. It's not cluttered, every noise, note, word and pause can be heard with almost perfect alacrity.
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Astrodomine
Forum Senior Member
Joined: March 06 2007
Location: Canada
Status: Offline
Points: 182
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Posted: May 07 2008 at 09:39 |
laplace wrote:
nothing beats Henry Cow's "Beautiful as the Moon / Terrible as an Army with Banners" in terms of progression, well-judged improv-to-structure ratio, ability to haunt and overall life-enhancing correctness in music. Nothing, not even bloody Magma. o:) |
I agree! This song is perfect in all senses! Also: Inca Roads - Frank Zappa Histoire Sans Parole - Harmonium
Edited by Astrodomine - May 07 2008 at 09:41
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Rocktopus
Forum Senior Member
Joined: March 02 2006
Location: Norway
Status: Offline
Points: 4202
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Posted: May 07 2008 at 09:51 |
It must be Mother Sky by Can. Perfect trip. Almost makes me wish I was a dopesmoker.
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Over land and under ashes
In the sunlight, see - it flashes
Find a fly and eat his eye
But don't believe in me
Don't believe in me
Don't believe in me
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Evans
Forum Senior Member
Joined: July 15 2006
Location: Sweden
Status: Offline
Points: 3004
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Posted: May 07 2008 at 10:12 |
It's not prog, and it's swedish. As far as prog goes, though, "Sea Song" from Rock Bottom is a pretty perfect song in terms of balance between melody, atmosphere, emotion, and experimentation.
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'Let's give it another fifteen seconds..'
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LinusW
Special Collaborator
Honorary Collaborator
Joined: September 27 2007
Location: Sweden
Status: Offline
Points: 10665
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Posted: May 07 2008 at 10:24 |
Evans wrote:
It's not prog, and it's swedish. As far as prog goes, though, "Sea Song" from Rock Bottom is a pretty perfect song in terms of balance between melody, atmosphere, emotion, and experimentation.
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Kent, I suppose
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proggrl
Forum Newbie
Joined: April 04 2006
Location: United States
Status: Offline
Points: 7
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Posted: May 07 2008 at 11:11 |
For me eas - Shades by echolyn - just beacuse it encompasses everything I love about music in the most perfect way. :)
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The downside of being better than everyone else is that people tend to assume you're pretentious.
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crimson87
Prog Reviewer
Joined: January 03 2008
Location: Argentina
Status: Offline
Points: 1818
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Posted: May 07 2008 at 21:11 |
kibble_alex wrote:
Pilgrims - Van Der Graaf Generator of "Still Life"
A number of reasons really: - It's not self-indulgent but you can tell they are good musicians - Some really nice organ playing by Mr Banton, if you are a keys player, you will appreciate it for sure! - Amazingly schizophrenic yet tuneful vocals that portray one of the best melodic lines i've ever heard - Really quite deep lyrics, I welled up the first time i heard them because i felt the lyrics describe me in a way "unknown in our purpose; alone but not worthless at home" - Great arrangement over two themes: theme 1 x2, theme 2, theme 1, theme 2, instrumental along melody lines of theme 2, where David Jackson and Guy Evans deserve a mention - It feels like an epic but is a mere 7 minutes, so you don't get bored but still experience the epicness of it
I think that is all that can be said, and the song is quite simply perfect, no question. There's nothing wrong with it for me.
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That´s so f**king true!!! Probably "House with no door" may do it as well.Tarkus is another one
You haven´t named "Peaches en regalia" thats a crime
Confortably Numb in PULSE , Ephitaph and "IN THE WAKE OF POSEIDON" specially , "I talk to the wind is a perfect ballad.I almost forget about "Song of the gulls"
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The Quiet One
Prog Reviewer
Joined: January 16 2008
Location: Argentina
Status: Offline
Points: 15745
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Posted: May 07 2008 at 21:16 |
I can surely say Even In the Quitest Moments by Supertramp.
Not the best of the band but close. The voices are incredible, and the structure of the song is very well done as Can Utility and the Coastliners, not the same magnitude of course but still...life? hehe
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