The Album That Killed Prog?

It's remarkable that the rebirth of progressive rock in the early Eighties, speerheaded by Marillion in the neo-prog rock movement, took lessons from the critical comments on the symphonic dinosaur rock (epitomized by albums like Love Beach by ELP and Tormato by Yes and 'overblown visuals' in shows by Genesis and Pink Floyd) between 1975-1980: smaller venues with direct contact between the musicians and the audience, the visuals as a support to the music instead the opposite, more rock elements, the lyrics were more about life than about SF and mythology and more head-and-tail compositions. So neo-prog delivered a new spirit, new energy and a more down to earth approach, more realistic (Fish his autobiografical inspired songs) and more in the rock and roll tradition (especially Pendragon and IQ). So King Prog was dead, long live King Neo Prog  !

Edited by erik neuteboom - July 22 2007 at 05:52

erik neuteboom wrote: It's remarkable that the rebirth of progressive rock in the early Eighties, speerheaded by Marillion in the neo-prog rock movement, took lessons from the critical comments on the symphonic dinosaur rock (epitomized by albums like Love Beach by ELP and Tormato by Yes and 'overblown visuals' in shows by Genesis and Pink Floyd) between 1975-1980: smaller venues with direct contact between the musicians and the audience, the visuals as a support to the music instead the opposite, more rock elements, the lyrics were more about life than about SF and mythology and more head-and-tail compositions. So neo-prog delivered a new spirit, new energy and a more down to earth approach, more realistic (Fish his autobiografical inspired songs) and more in the rock and roll tradition (especially Pendragon and IQ). So King Prog was dead, long live King Neo Prog  !

Well...  Genesis is a band that had the greater success when decided not to produce more Prog.  Also for the Supertramp or Yes was so. It is strange because (isn't only my opinion) Genesis or Supertramp produced remarkable song  is Prog that POP. For me "New Trolls '79" is a good album and "Che Idea" one of the more beautiful New Troll's song (and good is also "FS"). "Suonare Suonare", "Maestro Della Voce", "Come Ti Va", "Quartiere Otto", "Chi Ha Paura Della Notte" or"Meno Male Che Ci Sei" are between the beautifuls PFM's songs. For Banco... "Buone Notizie" is good and for me the first 5 songs are very good (and with an immense Di Giacomo).

In conclusion I think that Prog Dinosaurs sought other roads to remain in life.  But to say that, since they didn't produce Prog albums, the quality of their music was meager (and I don't exaggerate) is without sense.

In the great wrods of a great man: Prog isn't dead, it just smells funny 

Did someone mention 'death'..........?

BaldFriede wrote: darqdean wrote: BaldFriede wrote: I think if one comes up with the question "Which album killed prog?" he means "Which album rung in the bell for that comparatively week period of the last 70s", when most of the big acts seemed to stagnate or nun out of creativity or even turned to pop. This is my point about "Animals", by the way. Maybe it is not so bad an album in itself, but it is hardly a progress after "Wish You Were Here". "Animals" sounds as if Pink Floyd are just going through the motions. By the way, there were a few excellent albums in the late 70s, most notably "Xitintoday" by Nik Turner's Sphynx, "Fairy Tales" by Mother Gong or, to a slightly lesser extent, "Green" by Steve Hillage. But the so-called "Big 7" definitely ran out of steam. I LOVE this site. We gather together in the name of Prog and can never agree on anything - that is how Progressive music has proven its longevity - by being so diverse that it genders reactions from all directions. For a short while in the late 70's and for most of the 80's that diversity of opinion may have derailed the bandwagon, but it kept trundling along.   You have managed to berate one of my all-time favorite bands (Floyd) while simultaneously praising spin-offs from two of my other all-time favorites (Gong and Hawkwind). When Animals was released, the contemprary Gong album was Gazeuse! while the Hawks released Quark, Strangeness and Charm - those are my top three favorite albums from 1977 (followed closely by Aerie Faerie Nonsense). It is opinions like this that keep me coming back here - if we all agreed it would be a terribly dull place. Any contradictory opinion always makes me re-evaluate my own opinion - and for this I will re-visit Mother Gong (I only have the much later Wild Child)   schizoid_man77 wrote: schizoid_man77 wrote: How about "Never Mind the bollocks, here's the sex pistols"   Punk killed prog, not prog. Punk was music answer to music. Rebellious, sloppy, moshy freaks who dont know how to sing, play guitar/ bass, but they an play drums really fast, but with ZERO fills.   See, T I say again, No it didn't.   I admit that the Hype surrounding the album was damaging to all kinds of music, (including Punk-rock itself I might add), and caused many musicians (not just prog musicians) to re-evaluate their own music. But the album itself was a forgotten history within six months of its release. If that was a death-blow then Prog was already terminal before then, but the evidence says that prog took another 3 or 4 years to slip into the background/underground.   If you are to pick one influential punk-rock album from that era it would be The Clash (s/t) - the only punk album that people still listen to today. I thought about  "Animals" again today and tried to find out why I don't like it, and I think I know now. Pink Floyd never were masters of complicated composition. What they were masters at was creating new and exciting sounds. You can hear a lot of those on "Wish You Were Here",: the sound of the guitar in the famous four-tone motif and the machinelike sounds in "Welcome to the Machine", for example. Or think about the sounds they created in "Echoes. "On "Animals", however, all they come up with is the gimmick of using animal voices and running them through the synth a bit, which was outdated in the early 70s already. The rest of the sounds are all very well known, and so they reduce themselves to relatively simple songs, taking away their real trademark. And please don't go telling me how excellent the sound of "Animals" is; I am NOT talking about the sound of production. The production is as clean and crisp as always. They are suddenly the "emperor without clothes", and I think they look ugly that way. Conclusion:: Pink Floyd are, in my opinion, a psychedelic band; take away the psychedelic element, and you have an ordinary rock band without any signs of "progressive". And they managed to do that on "Animals".

Edited by bluetailfly - July 22 2007 at 23:47

sircosick wrote: It's hard and strange to think about a dead genre of music..... IMO any genre has dead, some of them are alive & kickin' and others are just suffering a painful agony

Prog is most certainly not dead. If it was however, ELP's Love Beach would be the culprit. It is one of the worst albums of all time of any genre of music. Graeme

A B Negative wrote: From what I can see, the modern punk scene is healthier than the modern prog scene.

What makes you think so?

ATTWT is the kind of record one tends to ignore.. then one day you listen again and thoroughly enjoy it

A B Negative wrote: From what I can see, the modern punk scene is healthier than the modern prog scene.

I highly doubt that. SGM, DT, PT, Tool, Flower Kings, Opeth, and many more are crafting some of the best prog ewver heard. Green Day was the last band I'd call punk (mind you, the lighter, Ramones side of punk),and Green Day's mass succes brought about pop punk and emo, neither of which have captured either of the two spirits of punk: light-hearted or socio-political rage. Modern prog proves that prog is nowhere near dead, while punk was fully consumed y the industry. The success of many of these prog acts might lead to another mass sellout one day just like the big names of the 70s did once major labels got involved