Has prog ever made you cry?

 

I can't remember any specific case but yes, I know that if I happen to be in some certain intense state of mind, certain songs or passages can surely tie a knot in my throat. Maybe the a cappella begining of Dancing With The Moonlit Knight, indeed Turn of the Century, Queen's Nevermore or You Take My Breath Away, The Lamia...

 

Not only "progressive" music ... but any music really.

 

The last piece in Nektar's Recycled is one of the saddest things I have ever heard. The band was done and broke and tired and it was over. The material in the next album was almost all from previous stuff they had done in concert before, so that album was not "new" per se, and since then ... I personally have not felt that it was as good or strong as it could be. I did, enjoy tremendously their concert in America (Nearfest?) which was good, but ... but ... but ... I had tears in my eyes ... it felt old, tired, and trying to find a spark that was not there.

 

Fairport Convention - One More Chance from the album "Rising for the Moon". Sandy Denny did not survive this song and died a couple of weeks later. To make matters even more nerve wrecking, on the remastered CD there is a piano version that is far more hauntingly beautiful than the massive voice and instrumental jam on the first version on the album, which is magnificent already and a very honest and touching tribute to the lady ... one of the most powerful and saddest moments in rock music for me! A truly beautiful voice.

 

AD2 - Apocaliptyc Bore on the Side 2 of Vive La Trance -- It is an anthem of sorts but it really helps tell the story of the band and its work ... and after that piece ... it was over. No more jams that mattered and that enthralled us, instead a few pieces of some synthesizer touch here and there in the album "Made in Germany" that were pathetic and were mostly meaningless as opposed to the previous montages they had done. The lyrics kinda tell it all, that the days of drugs and fun were over ... and the music in their albums never again regained the power, strength and intent that it had before. There always was one or two cuts worth listening to, but hearing "Loosey Girls" is not the same thing as "Yeti" or anything in "Wolf City" ... and to me it was ... not good.

 

AD2 - Part 2. The hatred and the disgusting attitude that they have towards a lot of their music. The album "Utopia" is very good and has a lot of nice things ... yet John calls is "b*****d" on an email. The album No blah blah number is also very good ... it's not even listed on their website! In the end, this is sad, and a disrespect to the art of creativity and experience. You can not tear out a piece of your heart and not pay the price for it! And in art it is visible ... and as Guy Guden would say ... get thee off your bummery!

 

Can - I saw Damo with a band over here in the west coast. I took pictures on the show and such (posted on teh website) ... and just before the end of the show ... I left. I felt empty. I felt out of time and place. Because of my film/theater work and studies and background, I loved the free form that this was and what it brought about. For people on stage and film (and hopefully music ... as Can is that example!), stuff like this is very important and valuable ... and all I saw was ... a sort of top ten rendition now of what was left of it. It was not good. Not even close. It had nice bits ... but it was not that great. When I got home, I started crying ... it was like our friends had left. I certainly do not want Damo to be on my wall like Elvis is on so many walls, but what I saw ... was not "creative" ... and it lacked spark.  I kept thinking of the old like in the old days ... these guys needed to be and get stoned, because they stunk!

 

The Who (At Knebworth or equivalent about 6 or 7 years ... not sure which). There is a moment in there that I had seen inside my dreams several weeks earlier and one of the reasons I wanted to see The Who do their thing (and hoped the screwed up tv transmissions would show it!), was to try and find/catch that moment. It's very subtle, last a few seconds and it's just before a loud scream ... and the moment before it was what I was looking for it ... it was him saying to himself "I don't want to do this anymore. It doesn't mean anything to anyone in here!" .... and I have always agreed and thought that the album "Who Are You" was specially important because of that and what this group had come through and how they were also revolting to a lot of the social bs ... and guess what ... that scream is about that ... and I know what Roger meant and wanted to say, and could no longer say it, because it didn't matter anymore ... we're just a bunch of __________ fans that don't give a cahoot about the music and what it means. We also believe in prog ... not because of what it means, but because of our own ideas. And that is not the main reason why most artists ever get on the stage. It was sad ... and the real end of my generation as a bunch of geriatric hippocrites that don't know what the word "love" really means, and on top of it, they mostly don't care and are not capable of showing it. And it's a totally disassociated group ... that believes in the top ten, but not in the music itself. How much more vain can that be? Roger you can scream again ... but no one will hear you! And you know it!

 

The Man Band -- The long cut of C'mon in "Back Into the Future". I think this is Mickey in that long version of the piece that does the yodeling and lala's alongside the choir and the guitar. It sure sounds like him. A few years back I saw the DVD about Tom Dowd and him talking ... about "catching the magic when it happens" ... you can't set it up, and sometimes it is not perfect, but the moment itself ... is glorious ... and he found us ... one of the best moments in rock history ... in Layla. Every time I hear that long piece and that wonderful lala'ing in the middle of it, you know one thing about music, or ideas ... you have to FEEL IT to do it ... and you will never find a better example, in live music than those few minutes of the most amazing feeling ... and here was ... a very special moment that you can not script ... to me this is as good as anything else ... and I still cry ... because you can hear the dreaminess and the desire coming through ... at least what the piece meant to Mickey that no one else could relate to is my thought!

 

Klaus Schulze with Lisa Garrard - Das Rheingold. This is not for everyone, and not something that progressive afficcionados even enjoy listening to ... but yeah ... when I was done hearing that I applauded the grit, the courage and the essential desire to just live through the music ... regardless of what it is. Someone in this board once sais that LIsa was boring repetitive and stuck up ... and I ... I cired. I thought that Richard Wagner, Mahler and many others would have loved to have heard this, and might have added/changed the course of opera ... Italy is/was way too melody minded to appreciate something like this ... and what I heard there was ... yeah ... I have few words for it, but I will dream with this forever. It talks more than anyone will ever know.

 

And finally ... Magma in San Francisco 1999 at the Music Festival that Sean Ahearn lost his shirt and shorts on. He didn't deserve that loss for his insane efforts with "progressive music" but we're a fickle and f**ked up group sometimes. I was the first out of my seat for a standing ovation that ended up lasting almost 15 minutes and had Christian in tears. I had a camera and was shooting the whole event, and I could no longer focus and the last 45 minutes ... just let it go ... you gotta see it to believe it. Maybe it was the feeling that after all these years, like 30 of them, FINALLY a validation that all this is important and means something for me ... but I was very glad to shake Christian and Stella's hands and thank them ... for some reason I kept thinking this would not come off well live ... despite having heard a couple of their live albums ... and of course ... sublime is not enough of a word for this hour plus of music!

 

And the reprise of "Hey baby, with your guardian eye so blue" at the end of Supper's Ready.

 

 

I feel tears at awesome moments during live concerts sometimes. Even with cover singer, when I saw Yes a few years ago and they got to "I get up, I get down" I felt it.