I thought id ask this question in a thread because its a very interesting one (well i think so anyway lol)

I can remember the first ever prog rock band i got into, and the first ever prog metal band i got into.   And there is something in common between the 2 (which ill get onto at the end).

The very first prog rock band i got into was Arena.   Their song Chosen appeared on a Metal Hammer promo CD in 2000.   I loved the way that it reminded me of the song Cry Little Sister from The Lost Boys soundtrack.  But it wasnt to be until 2004 that i bought my first Arena album,  the album that song came from, which of course was Immortal?.   I started checking out more songs of theirs from that album, it was from a website (possibly Arena's then official one).   Heard the song The Butterfly Man, all nice and darky like Chosen.   After hearing that song i thought "right that does it, i gotta buy this album" and i did.   When i listened to the whole album i was disappointed that not every song sounded dark.   Songs like Fridays Dream and Climbing the Net sounded the opposite, they sounded most jolly.   But..............in time the jolly songs grew on me aswell, and i was able to appreciate them just as much.

Then in 2006 i got a job at a petrol station.   One of my work collegues was a 50 year old man that was into progressive rock.  He mainly liked Yes and Pink Floyd and we talked about our music tastes.  I then learnt that Arena is labeled as Neo Prog Rock.   So when i realised that Arena and the likes of Pink Floyd and Yes are under the same umbrella, i then started checking out Pink Floyd and Yes.   Sorry Yes fans, but Pink Floyd appealed to me more of the 2.   Thats when i realised i had discovered the world of progressive rock.

The first ever Progressive metal band i ever got into was Savatage.  My friend reccomended them to me in 2006.  I soon grew fond of them.   I loved the way they employed classical and opera into metal like Queen do with rock.   The song Chance very much reminded me of Queen's song Bohemian Rhapsody.  In 2007 i learnt of Progressive Powerfest festival in Cheltenham, Jon Oliva headlined it.  I attended it and as a result learnt of other progressive metal bands like Threshold (my number 2 prog metal band), Dreamscape and Haggard.  That was me now in the world of progressive metal aswell.

Ok, heres the connection between the 2 with my testimony.........When i got into Arena, i never purposely went looking for progressive rock bands, didnt even know the term existed.  Simply got into them just because i liked them.   Same goes with Savatage, never purposely went looking for progressive metal bands, they were introduced to me, and i just simply got into them cause i liked them.   But any other prog rock or prog metal band that came after them, it was a conscious choice.   This is why labeling bands as certain genres does matter to a degree.   Because yeah, you get into a band , you wanna hear more stuff like that.

We have to go way back to my days in Brazil ... it would be the Beatles and the Rolling Stones, both which were burning up the radio at that time. I can remember some individual singers from that time in Brazil, but no bands.

You funny, funny dude!

Yes, I can remember too. It was The Moody Blues' Days of Future Passed, long before I realised it's the very first Symphonic Prog album about fifty years in the future. 

so can I 

Even very much indeed, but yes, Emerson, Lake & Palmer.

That's very interesting to hear here, as we didn't get it in the thread "The Best Progressive Rock band from the '60s?", where we discussed which were the first Prog albums ever. 

Of course I can, I'm not THAT old yet.

I think you'll find I did mention The Moody Blues there, in my A-Z list. 

Is that really you, JD? Anyway, sexy garment. 

Yes, as one of the 26 "Most Influential Sixties Bands". 

Gotta be Rush Hemispheres, bought it when I was ten because I liked the cover.  

Did you see the cover of the latest PROG magazine? There was something on it about them being the first progressive rock band. 

The first prog band I liked was Rush, and they've been my favorite band ever since.

I was listening to Moody Blues, Procol Harum, Zep,  Zappa, etc,,,, but when I heard ITCOTCK in April of 1970....it blew me away.. so I suppose that was the first one that really made a huge impression.

My journey started with... well, Journey. Their Greatest Hits Live album was my very first record as a kid, and eventually that led me to discovering the rest of their discog; of course, that resulted in me discovering their first three albums, which were in more of a fusion/prog vein. From there, I started getting into Queen's proggier albums such as Queen II and A Night at the Opera, which only intrigued me further; I absolutely loved all the weird time sigs and multi-layered compositions, as well as Freddie Mercury's sense of drama and bombast. 

However, the real launching pad past this point was Rush. Journey and Queen led me to them, and once I got to albums like A Farewell to Kings and Hemispheres, I knew I was tackling a different beast altogether. Extended suites, epic narratives inspired by program music, the incredible instrumental prowess of the trio... I was mesmerized. And from there, I discovered all the major English prog bands... Gentle Giant, King Crimson, Pink Floyd, Van Der Graaf Generator, the works 

But still, it's funny to think that Journey started it all for me 

One thing that i was particually interested in was, was the first ever prog rock band that you all got into, was a result of you thinking "i wanna give this prog rock genre a go, what band from that field shall i give a chance to first?", or was it a case of, you never went purposely hunting, you just so happend to get into that band because someone or some thing put it infront of you and you just decided you liked it, and then the prog rock band hunting started after that?

Im getting the impression that not many people got into prog rock because of the former circumstances.

And yeah, getting into a prog related band first might have been that first step for many people.  You get into Asia, you decide you like them, you find out that John Wetton, Carl Palmer, Geoff Downes and Steve Rowe were part of prog rock bands, and then you check them bands out.

Yes, I remember too, but only after 9:01:25 

My first memory of listening to a prog album which really impressed me is ELP's Tarkus, which I absolutely loved. I was 5 years old.

And together with it many other early prog like KC's In the Court, Pink Floyd, Genesis, Yes, Jethro, The Moody Blues... 

Si it was not a conscious search for prog, nor somebody else's recommendation which led me to prog, I was simply immersed in it since a very young age. 

I was 12 I think, I didn't consciously check genres out, my father played Manfred Mann's Earth Band's Watch as a tape in the car and I was absolutely stunned by it. A friend got me into Pink Floyd a few weeks later. From then I started to check out and look for many things, also read stuff to get ideas... for example I "gave this jazz rock genre a go" like you said, within one year I had become this kind of person.

I was there at ProgPower II as well! A great day out, although I probably preferred the previous year's event as Therion headlined.

I was 14 in winter 1982/3 when I borrowed Genesis: Three Sides Live on a cassette from an older friend.. around the same time, I remember Tommy Vance playing Grendel, 2112 and Supper's Ready among other things and thinking it was really rather good! 

Yup, this has been discussed too many times

If really interested enough, read my bio 

Hi,

I think this complicates things a lot, but if we do not have the guts to know/understand the history of the prog music and where it came from, then the Beatles and Rolling Stones, way back in 1964 didn't mean crap! In fact, they revolutionized the music and radio, specifically, in many places, and I was in Brazil, to give you an idea.

As such, it was extremely progressive, although these days, most folks that post on PA have no idea what that means or have any kind of conception as to what that meant in the first place. It was VERY DIFFERENT then, and a couple of years later, in America, I got to see and hear BLONDE ON BLONDE tear up radio and AM disk jerks in Madison make fun of him and not playing anything he had ... until the following year the FM radio exploded and that album was a massive one on it!

This changes the story quite a bit ... since the only one you are wanting to hear about it the top ten in the late 60's and early 70's, who had become many of the bands that were played on FM radio in America, though their exposure in Europe was quite different, even when you read Dave Cousins book!

Essentially, "rock", prog or not, started when it went electric ... so seeing some of the listings here, it is really difficult to not see that they are merely voting for their favorite, because you were not going to exactly hear Uriah Heep on many stations on the FM dial ... though some did play it, and they made their money off the sales in America for a long time. That states that the person also heard a few other things that he/she is not mentioning, that might not be considered "prog rock" ... but I really doubt that UH was played next to AM dial crap ... so the comment and choice is weird to say the least. At least from the history I witnessed in Madison WI (to 1971) and then Southern California from then on. I was very well aware of the FM radio band as early as 1968 in Madison, which played things like Fairport Convention, Jethro Tull, King Crimson, Uriah Heep, and many other bands that AM hit/radio would never touch. However, the FM radio dial in Santa Barbara and Southern California was far more advanced and creative than many other places, is my thought ... there were stations in LA (KNAC to name one!) that played IMPORTS a lot during the day, and many bands got a lot of attention from it, and some that were included a wee bit later, would have been Golden Earring, Nektar, Hawkwind, and many others which are now considered "prime" when it comes to the definition of "progressive" anything.

The only sad thing from your OP is that it lacks history ... leaving only one thing for folks to mention ... their favorite band ... heck I could tell you that I first heard AD2 in 1972 (Carnival in Babylon) but it wasn't until 3 months later when I got Wolf City ... that it really jumped my bones beautifully! But that is not to suggest there there was nothing else then ... I was already listening to Hawkwind, for example.

Surely not me, the year was 1972, I was 15 years old, just began to dig music, and didn't even think of different genres.

Hi,

I don't think we could ... there were no "genres" per se at the time ... only an FM radio station that played more than most ever did because they were independent (or similar ... most were independently owned all the way to the end of the 70's!) and played a lot of different things. 

You would have been, but probably not realized, how linked up some of the stuff was that you were hearing. I did not really think of this link, until I saw the Hipgnosis Cereal Box album jacket on a Kevin Ayers album, that had the "ingredients" listed on the side, which were about 25 different bands, and some of them are still played today and appreciated a lot. The American bands did not mix as much, thus the NY, SF, South and Midwest scenes varied harshly and so different that it made it very difficult for them to "conquer" radio as well as they could have. But we can not say that Jimi, Janis, Jim and others did not burn our ears in great style ... I'm pretty sure you had, by then, already heard them which would change your answer some, though many folks don't consider The Doors progressive, and they helped write the book on it! Well, they, at least had an education (musical as well!), something that the folks that "invented" the progressive music definition for the masses, did not have ... and severely lacked!

No reason to be so authoritarian. 

Right on! Days of Future Passed sounds more symphonic to me than any album by Genesis or Yes, apart from Yes Symphonic Live, obviously. 

Hi,

I may have the quoting order incorrect. If so, my apologies.

It is one of the saddest facts that one album that is so "symphonic" in nature, is in essence another "fake" symphonic, however, with the advent of the media today and the ability of the studios to see that it was done and made into a fabulous album, deserves the thought of "symphonic" ... we don't take the SYMPHONIC away from bands, just because a keyboard player was added later, and was not, in essence, a part of the band ... studio musicians are a way of life and have been for many years, and before all rock music!

But, in general, that Moody Blues album was more symphonic than those mentioned by PP, with only one thought in my mind ... they ended up (or already were) all pop bands, and the fact that they mixed and matched and added this and that, was no big deal, specially as the studios got better and better.

History has a lot of music going back hundreds of years that was "finished" by someone else, and stuff was added that is thought to not exist at the time during the composer's time. Rock music, and specially the hypocritical music recording folks and companies, have been down right malicious and pathetic ... they did the commercial thing and then dumped the artists in the dump ... and some of them never recovered ... they were merely asked to sing this and get lost! Only to have one artist be grossly embarrassed on a national TV audience, and all of a sudden we are all throwing stones ... when we should have been throwing stones at the music business that took all the money they made from it and walked away hands clean!

What was done to that album was excellent. And it makes what CARAVAN went on to do with an orchestra even more valuable and important which included some original material added by the orchestra. But the condemnation of the whole thing is sad ... really sad ... no one complained when a synthesizer replaced a whole orchestra ... EVER ... but here we are upset ... about how the music industry made fools of us ... and we're defending them instead of the artist's idea and creativity.

The main thing that bothered me, was that the Moody Blues were not anything more than a simple pop band, and on top of it, their quasi new age stuff, all of a sudden was very plastic and melting! But I find it sad to hear that album trashed. I saw the Moodies live when they still had Mike Pinder with them, and it sounded excellent on his hands, although not quite sounding like a full orchestra ... but sadly, the band ended up being just another meaningless band with another album every other year!

For me, the first progressive rock¹ album I heard and liked was Pink Floyd - Dark Side Of The Moon not long after it was released. A few days before I listened to it for the first time, my older brother was telling me about an album which had unusual music, and this piqued my interest. When he brought it home and played it, I actually had already heard "Us and Them" on the radio. Although I did like the album, I don't think I ever truly loved the album, although it certainly had an impact on me because it did eventually lead me to explore other Pink Floyd albums.

 

Before then, I did fall in love with the Argent song "Hold Your Head Up". I especially fell in love with the organ solo and was thus disappointed when the radio played the short version. However, it was not until the '90s that I eventually got the album containing the song (and the song itself).

 

The first progressive rock album I truly fell in love with was probably Supertramp - Crime Of The Century, or perhaps Split Enz - Mental Notes, which I heard around the same time.

 

I can't say when exactly, but it was during the mid-'70s that I would occasionally hear "21st Century Schizoid Man" played on the radio. This was a song I loved, but didn't know who it was or what album it was from until a few years later when I heard King Crimson - In The Court Of The Crimson King for the first time. That was a wonderful moment. However, by this time I had already heard quite a few progressive rock albums.

 

I should remark that at this time, the term "progressive rock" was unknown to me, and the concept itself was something I was only vaguely aware of, and it was not until progressive rock was replaced on the radio by reggae that I became acutely aware of this type of music that I missed.

 

 

¹ Not Prog Related or Proto-Prog.

 

 

Yeyyyyy nice one.    I know that Threshold did not play at that years Prog Powerfest, but the festival still introduced me to them, cause the festival gave us goodybags didnt they?, and in that bag were some promo CD's.   Thresholds song Slipstream which was on one of the promo CD's totally stood out from all the other songs.  That same year i checked out some more Threshold songs on their Myspace page, checked out their songs on their page on here, Progressive Archives, back when the site had flash players on where you could stream songs, and after that the rest was history.  16 years later and all their albums in my collection.   I also have 1 album by Dreamscape and 2 albums by Haggard.

Kamelot were the band that got the most crowd attendance that day, unfortunately i had to leave before Jon Oliva's performance was over, because i was just too tired to stay anymore :-(  .  Jon Oliva walked right past me in the entrance way of the building, looking like he had a painful foot.  Then later on on stage he explained that he fell off the tour bus and injured his foot, and that it was probably his brothers ghost that pushed him off lol.

That was also the last year that festival ran in the UK, so it was my first and last.

Thanks for your memories! I seem to recall PP I in 2006 had Pagan's Mind, Threshold and Therion as the last 3 acts, although none of the others before them were especially memorable for me.

At PP II in 2007, I think Kamelot were the biggest draw, when they released Ghost Opera. Communic, Dreamscape and Leaves Eyes were also good. It's a shame Haggard were late and only got to play a 25 minute set, iirc. 

It's a real shame they never got to do any others, but I believe the organisers ran into financial trouble organising PP III through a serious lack of ticket sales and could only pull Evergrey as they headline act.

Still, we both have the memories...  

Whatever I think of Days of Future Passed, the definition of Symphonic Prog is not a fact. 

Very well said, Mike... 

Personally, I love DOFP and I think the expression 'Proto Symphonic Prog' does it justice. To our ears now, it probably sounds fairly tame, so it can be difficult to imagine just how ground breaking a concept it was in 1967. Record companies didn't want to touch it, because it didn't contain any tunes the kids could bop around to on the dance floor...   

That can sound authoritarian to me, as well. 

I agree with both of your definitions:- Proto Symphonic Crossover Prog sounds like the ideal all-encompassing genre to describe The Magnificent Moodies and it could equally apply to Procol Harum too. 

The Crossover Prog movement

or

The Crossover Progressive Rock movement?  

Proto-Symphonic sounds quite fine to me as well. 

I will qualify that about a year before that in 1971 I'd discovered the hard rock of Deep Purple mark II, and the proto-prog of DP mark I.

Emerson, Lake and Palmer first of all.