Mount Rushmore of Prog

mlkpad14 wrote: I guess I am a little late to the party. Bands (going with 5): Genesis Van Der Graaf Generator Riverside Gong Soft Machine Solo Artists (6 this time, if that is okay): Steve Hackett Peter Hammill Robert Wyatt John Petrucci Robert Fripp Steven Wilson

I would have also liked to get some sort of RPI in there. PFM or Banco...

Dellinger wrote: Logan wrote: YESESIS wrote: Logan wrote: YESESIS wrote: HackettFan wrote: Genesis Frank Zappa Jade Warrior Focus Genesis and Zappa, that's right! The other two though.. I don't know ANYTHING about lol. I'll have to run straight to Wikipedia and do some research here.  Focus is, imo, utterly essential. You might have heard "Hocus Pocus" before on classic rock radio. I love the first four albums, and but both Hamurger Concerto and Moving Waves I think you should check out pronto. It was my favourite band at one time, has exciting, beautiful, majestic and humorous music. Amazing band. I think someone who digs Zappa, Gentle Giant, ELP and various symphonic music could potentially really fall for it. Yeah, I think you need to hear it. I'm playing Moving Waves right now, been too long. and I've called Hamburger Concerto a meaty masterpiece. Yeah, that Focus Hocus Pocus sounds really familiar(I mean hearing those words together, not sure about the actual song yet). Ok, definitely sounds like a band that I need to check out quick, fast, and in a hurry. If they're a former favorite band of yours then.. I'm thinking they have to be good. Thanks for the input man.  I've got some out there tastes, and most I would not recommend, and some music I like that even I don't think is good, but Focus is one that I love that I really believe is genuinely great and you might love too. They have chops, huge beauty, a sense of fun -- got it all going on. Focus 3 I really love too. Which of the first four I love most depends on the day. It's also one of the few bands that I've continued to love over many years. Later ones are really good too, imo. Happy listening (methinks excessive excitement can be a turn off so I'm trying to reign it in). Just didn't know you didn't know it yet, would have recommended it before. I think of Focus as a really big name in Prog, but it's not (so called second tier I think, or third maybe) and it doesn't come up much around the forum any more. It used to get mentioned a lot around here in various discussion threads. I second the Focus recommendation... really wonderful band. For me, check out Hamburger Concerto first. Yeah, they might have lost an edge with the change of drummer (Van der Linden was just wonderful... I guess the chance could be compared to when Yes lost Bruford and replaced him with White), but the album as a whole is my favourite from them. Moving Waves is another great one too. Well, I guess every album up to Hamburger Concerto should be checked out.

Very good analogy with Bruford. Hamburger Conerto is an, imo, mesmerising album even if the drumming lost some creativity. They wanted more of a straight rock drummer for it and maybe that approach does fit the music and concept more (the rock take on more classical style music).

I would also check out Hamburger Concerto first -- it's the album that made me a fan and is definitely the ones I have turned to the most over the years. "The Hamburger Concerto" suite is just one of the most glorious moments in prog, in my opinion. I've had goosebumps from it, but the whole album is great, including the "Hocus Pocus" like "Harem Scarem" (the riffs of which remind me very much of Miles Davis "It's About That Time" off In a Silent Way).

Incidentally, the title is a pastiche of Bach's Brandenburg Concertos (a favourite of mine as child), a bit of a P.D.Q. Bach thing to do, and the title track is based on Variations on a Theme by Haydn by Johannes Brahms. I grew up with classical music, and my Dad's favourite composer was Brahms. He would have hated Hamburger Concerto, but then he loathed rock music, but I got more out of with my background growing up with classical music. That said, one doesn't need the background to appreciate it. Great album.

I do think that there's some later really good Focus music too even on low rated albums such as Mother Focus (I love Bennie Helder and the title track), but for me the first four are all essential. Hamburger, then Moving waves, then the more jazz Focus 3, and then the first, I think. Hopefully you'll be hooked. Although Focus is a well-respected band in prog circles, it's one that I think deserves a wider audience. On classic rock radio they referred to the band as one hit wonder (for Hocus Pocus) -- I think both Sylvia and House of the King also got a lot of radio play (and House of the King was the theme song of a British comedy I like very much starring Steve Coogan called Saxondale. Just a bit of trivia.

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My new Prog Rushmore (that name has stuck with me). This time by band:

Area
Art Zoyd
Can
Popol Vuh

I would have included Focus, but I opted to focus on some others.

YESESIS wrote: Dellinger wrote: OK, only faces... Robert Fripp, Peter Gabriel (with his flower costume), Rick Wakeman, and Ian Anderson, I guess. For a fifth one... perhaps Keith Emerson, or Frank Zappa as you have said so much, or Roger Waters. Hey we have two that are the same, Zappa and Gabriel. Right on.

Well, those one I wrote there weren't so much because of how much I like their music, but rather because of how iconic their looks are for the prog world

YESESIS wrote: Logan wrote: YESESIS wrote: HackettFan wrote: Genesis Frank Zappa Jade Warrior Focus Genesis and Zappa, that's right! The other two though.. I don't know ANYTHING about lol. I'll have to run straight to Wikipedia and do some research here.  Focis is, imo, utterly essential. You might have heard "Hocus Pocus" before on classic rock radio. I love the first four albums, and but both Hamurger Concerto and Moving Waves I think you should check out pronto. It was my favourite band at one time, has exciting, beautiful, majestic and humorous music. Amazing band. I think someone who digs Zappa, Gentle Giant, ELP and various symphonic music could potentially really fall for it. Yeah, I think you need to hear it. I'm playing Moving Waves right now, been too long. and I've called Hamburger Concerto a meaty masterpiece. Yeah, that Focus Hocus Pocus sounds really familiar(I mean hearing those words together, not sure about the actual song yet). Ok, definitely sounds like a band that I need to check out quick, fast, and in a hurry. If they're a former favorite band of yours then.. I'm thinking they have to be good. Thanks for the input man.

I've got some out there tastes, and most I would not recommend, and some music I like that even I don't think is good, but Focus is one that I love that I really believe is genuinely great and you might love too. They have chops, huge beauty, a sense of fun -- got it all going on. Focus 3 I really love too. Which of the first four I love most depends on the day. It's also one of the few bands that I've continued to love over many years. Later ones are really good too, imo. Happy listening (methinks excessive excitement can be a turn off so I'm trying to reign it in). Just didn't know you didn't know it yet, would have recommended it before. I think of Focus as a really big name in Prog, but it's not (so called second tier I think, or third maybe) and it doesn't come up much around the forum any more. It used to get mentioned a lot around here in various discussion threads.

If its heads only, I'd go:
Daevid Allen, Ian Anderson, Geddy Lee, and perhaps Frans Krassenburg...

If there's a Mount Rushmore of Prog, then what would its equivalent of a Crazy Horse Memorial? Is it going to be a progressive classical composer whose influence on prog isn't often recognized? A punk musician? Neil Young?