Progarchives.com has always (since 2002) relied on banners ads to cover web hosting fees and all. Please consider supporting us by giving monthly PayPal donations and help keep PA fast-loading and ad-free forever.
Welcome to the site man, I hope you'll stick around. With your eclectic tastes you're bound to find some interesting music, as well as people, here on PA
“The Guide says there is an art to flying or rather a knack. The knack lies in learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss.”
Joined: April 03 2007
Location: United States
Status: Offline
Points: 1
Posted: July 30 2013 at 10:12
It was 1984 and I was 22 years old. Prior to that I was a huge fan of radio-friendly music since early childhood, then added classic rock to my loves...but at 21, while serving in the US Marine Corps, a guy who would end up being a lifelong friend gave me a copy of King Crimson's "In The Court of the Crimson King" to listen to "to see what I thought".
That was it - I was hooked. He had a HUGE music library and we started going to Tower Records together every Saturday morning together to buy new prog & classic rock LPs and CDs and listen to them over beers all day.
I still love classic rock - and have since added blues and jazz to my loves - but prog is just as much of a passion as it was then, 30 years ago. My wife and 19 year old son also listen to prog with me - in fact my wife's favorite request is for Porcupine Tree (as well as Steve Wilson's solo stuff and Blackfield). We have seen Yes, Kansas and Transatlantic in concert together a s family and my wife and son loved it as much as I did.
I will never love only one style of music and simply can't relate to anyone who does. It's just too self-limiting and reeks of snobbery (as well as dishonesty) to my way of thinking. But prog is possibly my "favorite" along with instrumental rock/jazz fusion.
My music library now consists of about 5000 CDs and another 1000 downloaded albums, with no duplication between them (sadly, I traded in or sold over 1500 LPs in 1993 when we were all told "vinyl is dead!") and probably 1/4 of the library is either serious prog or prog-related. And as for King Crimson, the band that got me hooked? I own every single band album and side project album (including every one of the King Crimson Collector's Club releases) as well as every solo album form each former or present member, as well as their OWN occasional side-project bands. And I thank my old friend to this very day by sending him new releases from his favorite prog bands (such as Nektar) as a gift when they are released.
I blame it all on Pink Floyd. I have been obsessed with Pink Floyd since I was 14. I had always liked classic rock, folk and metal but was getting bored with it all. Being a huge Pink Floyd fan and interested in anything they did, I started listening to the bands on the same record label, the Harvest label. and that really opened the door to all the stuff I love now like Caravan, Kevin Ayers, Roy Harper, Gong, Steve HIllage, Kraan, Passport, Brand X, Camel, Isotope, Secret Oyster, Egg, Gilgamesh, Khan, PFM, among many others!
My parents were ELO and Alan Parsons Project fans (not completely prog, but a good stepping stone for a six year old in 1978). Love the Parsons hand in new Steven Wilson "Raven that refused to sing" release.
I threw five clocks down on my bed
The chimes danced out on golden threads
And turned to footprints on my wall
Sequined Tears began to fall...
I lived next to some programmers/coders in Plano Texas when I was in middle school. One of them turned me onto the police and then Utopia which turned into Todd Rundgren. So, in seventh grade we had this kid that was destined to listen to ACDC and Motley Crue all the sudden fall in love with Todd Rundgren and the Police. Made my way to Led Zeppelin after that. That lead to Rush. Rush lead to Yes and Super Tramp. Then came Japan and Can. That lead to Genesis and Peter Gabriel. That lead to Marillion, Kevin Gilbert and Gentle Giant, etc, etc, etc.....
Joined: March 18 2013
Location: South Africa
Status: Offline
Points: 291
Posted: July 25 2013 at 14:26
I was around 12 years old when my grandfather gave me a powerfull old valve radio that he was no longer using. I surfed the Shortwave Bands and kind of late one evening I came across a channel called Radio Nederlands which was playing amazing music. They had an underground rock music session every Sunday night and I fell in love with what I heard. I think it was the first Uriah Heep album "Very 'Eavy, Very 'Umble" that they were featuring that specific evening. I didn't miss a Sunday night session with them after that.
Ahhh - in college, my roommate Dan had an older brother who was into Genesis. He infected me with UK, King Crimson, Genesis, Styx, Yes, The Stawbs, Marillion..... It pretty much ruined my chances of becoming a famous pop star....
deanmadonia.com
"Scared cows make the best hamburger" - Mark Twain
Our band director formed a percussion ensemble
to perform Karn Evil 9 Second impression on vibes, xylophones, marimbas,
etc. I'm sure we did a mediocre job at it but a quick google of the
song made me realize there was a whole genre of 'progressive rock' that I
was missing out on.
How about a marimba version of Fripp's guitar part in the middle of Fracture?
4 hands, 6 mallets, 1 marimba
This is actually one of the better keyboard percussion prog pieces I have seen. When my brother was in band, the percussion competed with a select parts from Dream Theater songs Metropolis, Erotomania, and Space Dye Vest... I wish I had a link to show you. It turned out much cleaner than our sloppy ELP tribute that is for sure.
I chose keyboard percussion almost exclusively for the fact that playing with 4 mallets makes you look cool
Couldn't agree more and l like both those bands mentioned very much, especially NIGHTWISH. Their last 2 albums I think are incredible and are the most advanced compositions yet. I could not pass up buying special editions for both Dark Passion Play and Immaginarium. Love the instrumental discs where Halopainen's keyboards are heightened with the overall grand orchestration. Also, how do you feel about Transiberian Orchestra?
I also have the special edition of Imagenaerum, but for me Once is a stronger album than DPP. It has a few of my all time favorite Nightwish songs, mainly the stunning epic Ghost Love Score... I'm very interested to see how the solo album Holopainen is now working on will turn out.
Haven't heard Transiberian Orchestra before, sounded really interesting though, I'll definitely check them out. Any good suggestions to start with?
I think Beethoven's last Night and Night Castle are decent places to start.
But, like all Trans-Siberian Orchestra albums they are not consistent all the way through, meaning you'll find some mediocre tracks on all albums. I really liked Ephiany off the Night Castle album. It's gold. 10min+ epic.
Joined: July 21 2013
Location: u.k
Status: Offline
Points: 207
Posted: July 22 2013 at 14:28
I was 15 yrs old.1980.Heard "Games Without Frontiers" on BBC radio.Liked it instantly. Went out later and bought Peter Gabriel 3. Brilliant! Had no idea who he was,asked around, former lead singer with genesis. Few days passed ,got "Selling England" WOW!!! Haven't looked back since!
Joined: June 23 2013
Location: Finland
Status: Offline
Points: 20
Posted: July 22 2013 at 13:49
progbethyname wrote:
Couldn't agree more and l like both those bands mentioned very much, especially NIGHTWISH. Their last 2 albums I think are incredible and are the most advanced compositions yet. I could not pass up buying special editions for both Dark Passion Play and Immaginarium. Love the instrumental discs where Halopainen's keyboards are heightened with the overall grand orchestration. Also, how do you feel about Transiberian Orchestra?
I also have the special edition of Imagenaerum, but for me Once is a stronger album than DPP. It has a few of my all time favorite Nightwish songs, mainly the stunning epic Ghost Love Score... I'm very interested to see how the solo album Holopainen is now working on will turn out.
Haven't heard Transiberian Orchestra before, sounded really interesting though, I'll definitely check them out. Any good suggestions to start with?
<FONT size=2 face=Helv><FONT size=2 face=Helv> <P dir=ltr>I'm quite new on this site so here's my story....
The first time I heard prog was mid-90s when I went to high school specialised in theatre & music. My music teacher (a man at late 40s at the time) was crazy about Mike Oldfield and we practised Tubular Bells along with the other stuff he gave us to play & sing. Generally at that time I went through various musical phases, 80s hair metal, punk, folk (even learned to play a little guitar inspired by Joan Baez), classical, 90s alt rock and the "angry young women" etc. so I developed a very eclectical musical taste. When I started my studies at the Business School I tried almost too hard to fit in because I came from a very different background than most of my friends so I sort of gave up following my natural tastes and settled for the popular for quite a while. When I met my husband 9 years ago we started again to go to gigs together, mostly hard rock & heavy metal that he likes and there's plenty of that available in Finland. As odd as it may be, I have been the one who has then started to search also other stuff than Iron Maiden, Metallica, Stratovarius and the likes (still good bands though...). and I've come across prog from the metal side of it. I guess Devin Townsend, Opeth, Riverside, Anathema and Pain of Salvation were the real eye-openers for me.
Very cool and interesting story, especially about your teacher being wild about Tubular Bells. ;) It's also nice to here someone with a classical music background discover prog metal. Most of the classical junkies go straight to symphonic and psyche prog I find. :) anyway. Thank you for sharing.
Haha, although I've studied a little classical singing, I'm far from classical junkie . I find it quite common here though as quite a few Finnish metal bands, most obvious being Nightwish and Apocalyptica, have lots of classical influences in their music.
Couldn't agree more and l like both those bands mentioned very much, especially NIGHTWISH. Their last 2 albums I think are incredible and are the most advanced compositions yet. I could not pass up buying special editions for both Dark Passion Play and Immaginarium. Love the instrumental discs where Halopainen's keyboards are heightened with the overall grand orchestration. Also, how do you feel about Transiberian Orchestra?
Joined: July 20 2013
Location: United States
Status: Offline
Points: 123
Posted: July 20 2013 at 17:24
I must have been 9 or 10 years old. I had remembered my dad watching Roger Waters do the Wall in Berlin on tape and wanted to listen to that song that said "we don't need no education."
Joined: July 09 2013
Location: Essex UK
Status: Offline
Points: 7
Posted: July 18 2013 at 16:47
in 1984.
I was into heavy rock and through that got into Marillion who were lumped in with the heavy rock movement at the time.
That led me into checking out other progressive rock bands such as Genesis, Yes, Pink Floyd etc and it snowballed from there.
I realised that progressive rock has much more to it than straight ahead rock, or heavy rock.
Joined: March 29 2013
Location: WA
Status: Offline
Points: 4596
Posted: July 18 2013 at 11:58
bloodnarfer wrote:
Our band director formed a percussion ensemble to perform Karn Evil 9 Second impression on vibes, xylophones, marimbas, etc. I'm sure we did a mediocre job at it but a quick google of the song made me realize there was a whole genre of 'progressive rock' that I was missing out on.
How about a marimba version of Fripp's guitar part in the middle of Fracture?
Joined: June 23 2013
Location: Finland
Status: Offline
Points: 20
Posted: July 18 2013 at 09:44
progbethyname wrote:
josuu wrote:
<FONT size=2 face=Helv><FONT size=2 face=Helv> <P dir=ltr>I'm quite new on this site so here's my story....
The first time I heard prog was mid-90s when I went to high school specialised in theatre & music. My music teacher (a man at late 40s at the time) was crazy about Mike Oldfield and we practised Tubular Bells along with the other stuff he gave us to play & sing. Generally at that time I went through various musical phases, 80s hair metal, punk, folk (even learned to play a little guitar inspired by Joan Baez), classical, 90s alt rock and the "angry young women" etc. so I developed a very eclectical musical taste. When I started my studies at the Business School I tried almost too hard to fit in because I came from a very different background than most of my friends so I sort of gave up following my natural tastes and settled for the popular for quite a while. When I met my husband 9 years ago we started again to go to gigs together, mostly hard rock & heavy metal that he likes and there's plenty of that available in Finland. As odd as it may be, I have been the one who has then started to search also other stuff than Iron Maiden, Metallica, Stratovarius and the likes (still good bands though...). and I've come across prog from the metal side of it. I guess Devin Townsend, Opeth, Riverside, Anathema and Pain of Salvation were the real eye-openers for me.
Very cool and interesting story, especially about your teacher being wild about Tubular Bells. ;) It's also nice to here someone with a classical music background discover prog metal. Most of the classical junkies go straight to symphonic and psyche prog I find. :) anyway. Thank you for sharing.
Haha, although I've studied a little classical singing, I'm far from classical junkie . I find it quite common here though as quite a few Finnish metal bands, most obvious being Nightwish and Apocalyptica, have lots of classical influences in their music.
I think it was always in me from a young age. My mom used to play a lot of Genesis, Yes, Kansas, Styx, and such. But it wasn't until I was a freshman in high school did I realize it. Our band director formed a percussion ensemble to perform Karn Evil 9 Second impression on vibes, xylophones, marimbas, etc. I'm sure we did a mediocre job at it but a quick google of the song made me realize there was a whole genre of 'progressive rock' that I was missing out on.
<FONT size=2 face=Helv><FONT size=2 face=Helv>
<P dir=ltr>I'm quite new on this site so here's my story....
The first time I heard prog was mid-90s when I went to high school specialised in theatre & music. My music teacher (a man at late 40s at the time) was crazy about Mike Oldfield and we practised Tubular Bells along with the other stuff he gave us to play & sing. Generally at that time I went through various musical phases, 80s hair metal, punk, folk (even learned to play a little guitar inspired by Joan Baez), classical, 90s alt rock and the "angry young women" etc. so I developed a very eclectical musical taste. When I started my studies at the Business School I tried almost too hard to fit in because I came from a very different background than most of my friends so I sort of gave up following my natural tastes and settled for the popular for quite a while. When I met my husband 9 years ago we started again to go to gigs together, mostly hard rock & heavy metal that he likes and there's plenty of that available in Finland. As odd as it may be, I have been the one who has then started to search also other stuff than Iron Maiden, Metallica, Stratovarius and the likes (still good bands though...). and I've come across prog from the metal side of it. I guess Devin Townsend, Opeth, Riverside, Anathema and Pain of Salvation were the real eye-openers for me.
Very cool and interesting story, especially about your teacher being wild about Tubular Bells. ;)
It's also nice to here someone with a classical music background discover prog metal. Most of the classical junkies go straight to symphonic and psyche prog I find. :) anyway. Thank you for sharing.
You cannot post new topics in this forum You cannot reply to topics in this forum You cannot delete your posts in this forum You cannot edit your posts in this forum You cannot create polls in this forum You cannot vote in polls in this forum
This page was generated in 0.390 seconds.
Donate monthly and keep PA fast-loading and ad-free forever.
/PAlogo_v2.gif "Progarchives.com Homepage")
When were you infected by Prog?
Topic Options
The.Crimson.King wrote:
. I find it quite common here though as quite a few Finnish metal bands, most obvious being Nightwish and Apocalyptica, have lots of classical influences in their music.
