Four non English prog bands from the 70's.........

AFlowerKingCrimson wrote: cstack3 wrote: I believe the Starcastle epic "Lady of the Lake" appeared on the charts.... https://www.musicvf.com/Starcastle.art I looked them up and they didn't seem to have any albums that charted in the US but I could be wrong. They are nonetheless worth mentioning(I actually did mention them earlier).

AFlowerKingCrimson wrote: Easy Money wrote: The first three or more Chicago albums are progressive rock. Unfortunately not everyone agrees with that. I remember telling my brother I thought Chicago were prog and he has seen them in concert and told me that nothing he heard sounded like prog. Maybe they cut the prog stuff from their set I don't know. Someone on here got on my case because I didn't make a distinction between prog and progressive rock. A band like Chicago is a good case for his point though. They were progressive rock but I have a hard time thinking of them as prog. Ultimately I will pass since I don't consider Chicago to be a prog band. They are kind of the same as Journey in that they started in that direction but ultimately became something different.  I like all of your arguments here, Mike. Well said!  Anyway, according to wikipedia only the first two and the seventh one are progressive rock and even those have other categories as well. They are crossover on here though.

cstack3 wrote: I believe the Starcastle epic "Lady of the Lake" appeared on the charts.... https://www.musicvf.com/Starcastle.art

BaldFriede wrote: AFlowerKingCrimson wrote: ........to break through commercially in the US in the 70's.  I could be wrong on this but it seems to me that there were only four bands not from England to achieve some kind of signifcant success in the 70's (in the US at least). Those bands were: 1. Focus 2. PFM 3. Kansas 4. Rush All four charted in the US (yes even PFM believe it or not). Some people might say Nektar(who also charted but they were English so I don't really count them). Some might say Triumvirat but I don't think they had any real chart success in the US. Also, Eloy didn't break through in America and neither did Banco. Tangerine Dream might have but they were more electronic and probably not really considered progressive rock at the time. Also, I don't really count Styx since they were closer to art rock/pomp rock or even arena rock. I would be curious to know if there any from the 80's or 90's(or even later)but I doubt it. How about Kraftwerk and "Autobahn"? According to Wikipedia "The radio edit of the title track became a surprise international hit, reaching number 11 in the UK, number 12 in both Canada and the Netherlands, number 25 on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart, and number 30 in the Australian chart".

The Mars Volta charted quite high in the US - the Bedlam in Goliath was a US no.3. 

livedead wrote: What about Crack the Sky? Their first three albums charted in the Billboard top 200.

I generally prefer Kayak over Focus as I'm not a great fan of fusion (which is what Focus mainly were).

I also think that you have a relatively broad view on prog, since we've had a number of interesting discussions. I also enjoy seeing the polls and lists that you come up with. Of course, we don't always agree, but I do think we are on the same page much of the time.

There are some bands I sometimes think are within the sphere of prog that have been, rather unfortunately, utterly and completely lambasted. But, I wouldn't really know how to classify them.

One difficulty about classifying prog is that it is heavily influenced by various genres. So, you can have two different prog bands, and each one may sound more like a band OUTSIDE of prog than they actually resemble one another. Then, the tendency of the goodhearted person is to want to include rather than exclude. I suppose what you really have are many bands that are either on the fringe of prog, or are heavily influencing prog. It is exasperating to try to classify this music.

I've seen a case or two where it seems that the musicians themselves are disappointed, because they have striven to do something new, have even received recognition for stepping into new territory, but then they aren't included as prog. Perhaps they have accomplished something progressive within their primary genre, but what they have done is perhaps not "prog rock", per se.

I understand that there is the prog related category, but sometimes these bands do not even make it onto that list. You see some of these artists being brought up time and time again. Of course, you have to draw the line somewhere. It's funny, but if you look at people's top 10 prog band lists here (even the die-hards), you'll often see them posted.

Here's a trippy Jefferson Starship flashback for you!
Link

Edited by Jaketejas - July 09 2020 at 16:06

I have a wide net too but at some point you have to make the distinction between which bands are prog related(and maybe more comfortably fit in other genres)and which bands could truly be classified as prog. Otherwise it becomes this runaway snowball thing. I understand that it's a subjective thing of course. There's people who don't agree with bands I consider prog. For example I consider Traffic to be prog and I know they are on here but some people don't. Some people don't consider Pink Floyd to be prog either. Apparently any band who was played on the radio can't be prog. SMH. 

Edited by AFlowerKingCrimson - July 09 2020 at 14:30