When were you infected by Prog?

When I was 10 in 1987, my father offered me "Dark Side" for my birthday.
Firstly I thought it was a weird gift, but after a few weeks, it had changed my "vision" of music.

Been listening to classic rock when I was 14-15 y.o. Then, when I was 15-16, I stumbled into PF (all those high school kids were wearing those DSOTM T-shirts) ... and never looked back. But if you don't count them ... KC ... . Saw the term "progressive rock" in Wiki, did some research, found out about KC, visited dizzler.com, heard the Mellotron theme from "The Court ..." ... and THEN I never looked back.

Edited by Dayvenkirq - September 12 2012 at 17:59

I've always listened it it since I was a kid in the car. But I really started when I was 14 I think. I'm 20 now.

dogen wrote: When I was 10. I'm 52 now...

Wow ! some one who is older than me and younger than Dean. I don't know how many times I have beeb accused of showing false ID because I look about ten years younger. Especially at airports. I AM 50 years old. Maybe I should dye my hair grey and get Clint Eastwood to permantally disfigure my face. And, eat a lot of cheesecake so as to gain some weight. I am only 165 lbs ( old English imperial ) My wife has to watchher diet but I can eat anything.

When I was 10.

I'm 52 now...

When I was 13 (two years ago), the only music I was listening to was the Chemical Brothers, Orbital, LCD Soundsystem, and other weird trance music. Soon enough my dad gave me Rush's Moving Pictures and I was completely hooked on prog and its mind-bending nature. Pretty soon I was listening to Dream Theater, Kansas, Porcupine Tree, Tool, Yes, and King Crimson. It got to the point where my video gaming turned into book-reading, and I didn't even know the definition of "outside" was anymore. Now I'm 15 and already making a life out of prog rock, wasting away countless days just listening to the music and doing the drum covers.

Oh god, I can remember prog smacking me in the face. It was when I was 14 (so, two years ago). I had already been getting into the classic rock/prog-related vein, so stuff like Led Zeppelin, the Beatles, and Deep Purple were relevant to my interests. However, at the end of 8th grade, I met this amazing girl. We talked for a long while, and hit it off really well. One day, we were talking about music and she mentioned Pink Floyd. Being a classic rocker, I had already heard the radio staple "Another Brick in the Wall, Part 2" so it wasn't a new name. She spoke very highly of them, so off I went looking for some Floyd.

Of course, my search led me to the two staples: Dark Side, and the Wall. I fell in love immediately. I found myself listening to the entirety of Dark Side religiously every day.  Near the end of that summer, I viewed "The Wall" film. It absolutely blew my mind, and I ravenously wanted more. As a side note, during the Pink Floyd obsession, I constantly listened to Rush's "Moving Pictures" and the Yes song "Roundabout" as well. As school started, I always came home with a dorky smile on my face, sitting down and listening to the Pink Floyd.

However, one day, everything changed. The girl and I got into a major fight, and I found myself in a really bad spot. A few days after our fight, we tried to console our differences through text. I asked her since the "relationship" was over, did she ever like me? She replied with a simple "no." While this was happening, I was listening to my copy of Wish You Were Here. The title track was her favorite Floyd song and was playing at the time, and... well, I cried to put it simply. Even after our spat, we solved our differences and remain friends. But her love of Floyd stuck with me, and I constantly found more Floyd in the form of Atom Heart Mother and Meddle. I wasn't done with prog yet.

The next summer, I was surfing through YouTube when suddenly a band called Emerson, Lake, and Palmer came up in the suggestions. I was infatuated with the piece "Tarkus", due to my newfound love of lengthy tracks in the form of "Echoes". I took a listen, and was blown away. By the end of that summer, I was hooked on ELP. My 10th grade year started, and I began visiting a chat room on a Wiki website. A few people in there loved ELP, and directed me towards bands such as King Crimson, Genesis, and more Yes. Everything began escalating from there!

Through my friends at the Wiki, I have discovered hundreds of excellent artists, especially Dream Theater, Iron Maiden, Sunn O))), Earth, Big Big Train, Devil Doll, Keith Tippett, Camel, Transatlantic, Spock's Beard, Anglagard, and so many others. It has been an amazing journey, and I'm discovering more and more each day!

I think the roots of it started when I was a child. My Dad used to listen to poppy Genesis, The Moody Blues, etc. The first time I myself started to progress towards progressive music was with Tool's 1998 release Ænima. My friend then introduced me to Dream Theater with the song A Change of Seasons in 1999, and I was instantly hooked. It progressed to Liquid Tension Experiment, Transatlantic, Spock's Beard, Flower Kings, Marillion, King Crimson (was VERY hard to get into at first for me, until I made the connection to Tool with the song "Three of a Perfect Pair"). Then from there it just exploded retroactively into the past... Yes, Gentle Giant, Kansas, Genesis, etc. etc.

My parents were divorced and I didn't get to spend a lot of time with my dad. When I did, we would listen to progressive music nonstop. One of my earliest memories as a wee lad is cruising with my dad in his '57 Chevy station wagon blasting ABWH.

At age 14, the best age.