Your Growing Roots

Meddle (PF) --> Dark SIde of The Moon (PF) --> The Division Bell (PF) --> Octavarium (DT) --> Six Degrees Of Inner Turbulence (DT) --> ... The Road Home (JR).

I had purchased some prog albums which I didn't really think of as prog in my younger years... Tool's early stuff, DSOTM, basically the more mainstream prog releases... Then I discovered Opeth which really led to my prog awakening by introducing me to Camel and Porcupine Tree, and it has snowballed from there...

It's a long and convoluted tale, so here are the benchmarks...

First prog album: Rush - A Show of Hands; I raced out and purchased it after hearing "The Rhythm Method", courtesy of a fellow HS drumline member.  After acquiring and digesting their complete discography,  I moved on to the relatively-well-known British prog bands (Crimson, Tull, Yes, ELP, Genesis), space rock (early Pink Floyd, Ohr-era Tangerine Dream), and fusion stuff like Mahavishnu and Return to Forever, which satisfied me for a few years... 
My later college experience was like a trail of prog rock bread crumbs-- one group or subgenre would lead to others and yet others in turn.  Edward Macan's book Rocking the Classics introduced me to some Iesser-known prog bands (VdGG, Gentle Giant, Camel, Jade Warrior, etc.) and Canterbury stuff; during that time (mid-90s) I was also turned on to post-rock, space rock, krautrock, and ambient music. 



Edited by nightlamp - December 18 2007 at 15:11

Lateralus (Tool)--Scenes From A Memory (DT)-----The Odyssey (SYX)------the rest is history...lovely welcoming into the world of extreme metal and prog.

unfortunately DT's Train of Thought and "images and words"
that's where everything started to me

My older brothers introduced me to "Prog," amongst other music, in the 70s.  I heard a wide variety of now "classic rock."   First purchase of an album in the archives might have been Pink Floyd's Works.  I was very big on Floyd, Supertramp, Mike Oldfield, Camel, and Alan Parsons Project as a youngster.  Some years later in the early 80s, a friend played Yes Fragile for me, Rush's Hemispheres, and Jethro Tull's Aqualung, and after that I identified myself as a fan of Progressive Rock, but I didn't know a great deal of it.  Then my Creative Writing teacher in high-school let us play albums in class, which is when I discovered Gryphon's Mignight Mushrumps and Focus' Hamburger Concerto which became my new favourites.  Into the early 90s, I worked as a bartender at a playhouse and Genesis' Lamb Lies Down on Broadway was a staple album after the show.

Went through a New Age phase in the 90s with Kitaro and Vangelis being favourites.  While I went through different syles of music at different times (classical, folk, jazz, classic rock like Santana, Zep, and Cream, New Age/ Electronic -- Laurie Anderson's Big Science still being one of my faves), I always had Prog albums that I would revisit.  After getting married, I pretty much stopped listening to rock (and my biggest love, classical) for many years since my wife doesn't like it, and so shifted my tastes more to her liking (she did like stuff like Kitaro and Alan Parsons Project).

Come 2004, we were preparing for a long road-trip, and I wanted to get some Prog albums even if my wife didn't like it.  I knew someone from a forum who was always raving about "In the Court of the Crimson King," so I got it and loved it.  I couldn't play it on the road-trip, but anyway...  I also got Genesis "Selling England" (Genesis for nostalgia sake) and loved Cinema Show and Firth of Fifth.  This was the start of my new Progressive Rock phase, which I'm still in even though my tastes have changed somewhat.  That led to rediscovering old albums I knew, and many more new to me ones -- Gentle Giant is the band that solidified my particular love of Prog (though I rarely listen to it now).  Then I got in to Mahavishnu Orchestra, Van der Graaf Generator, Le Orme and PFM, then more Prog Folk albums, then Canterbury (startting with Caravan and Hatfield of the North), Zeuhl with Magma, and then Avant Prog with bands such as Univers Zero... And a lot of music along the way.

Wasn't really in that order though, Avant Prog and Krautrock largely did come  later in my journey (I've liked Zappa for many years).  It was when I discovered French Prog that I really expanded as a progressive music fan.  I was using various resources including this one a few years ago to discover popular classic albums and then newer ones.  It's great that there's so much variety of  music here, because I probably would have left so-called "Prog" quite some time ago if it stopped with music like Yes, Genesis, and ELP (or indeed the more traditionally "Prog" groups).

Although their prog merits can be debated, I would have to say my prog influence started with the first Beatles recordings I bought when I was a kid, say 10 or 11 years old in the late 70's.  I then distinctly remember being influenced by Kansas "Leftoverture", Rush "All The World's A Stage", Jeff Wayne's "War Of The Worlds", "The Wall", and (of all things) Blondie's "Parallel Lines"...in particular, a song called "Fade Away And Radiate" which featured Robert Fripp.

Around 15 years old, I was into Zappa's "Apostrophe" and "Joe's Garage", Return To Forever, KC's debut and "Three Of A Perfect Pair", as well as Yes (I remember the day I first heard "Drama" and "Relayer") and ELP.  A year later, a friend introduced me to Marillion, IQ, and Twelfth Night.

I didn't know that much other prog existed through the next few years, though I did become more familiar with Genesis, Tull, and Gentle Giant.  It wasn't until around 1992 that I started becoming more aware of a whole other world of prog.  Starting with Magellan, Eloy, and Mr. Bungle I began exploring more in depth, and I haven't stopped since!

It was the  'Yes Album'.' Yours is no Disgrace'  simply blew me away in the summer of 1971.I had been on my Purple,Sabbath,Wishbone,Alice Cooper,and the mighty Uriah Heep rock overdose when I heard this new sound which shaped and changed my musical views for the past 37 years.Many years later I have listened to most.Although, I am not on here much these days i used to love my many jousts with the ' Three fates' and others from a  few years ago.Porcupine tree currently holds a special place in this prog heart of mine.

rush greatest hits lawlz