How did you find Prog?

Up until my freshman year in high school (only 3 years back) I had been listening to AC/DC, Sabbath, The Who, The Beatles, Led Zeppelin and Rush. I was trying to branch out into new music styles. I was listening to a lot of stuff back then: jazz, calypso, new age, blues of all different sorts, the list goes on. I was trying to get music anywhere I could. I liked all these styles, and still do, but none of it really stuck with me.

My love with progressive rock was a gradual thing. I came across many great albums: Fragile, Close to the Edge, Dark Side of the Moon, Emerson, Lake and Palmer. But it was Van Der Graaf Generator's Pawn Hearts where I really got into it, an album I found on iTunes. Here was something dark and exotic, completely unlike anything I had heard before. The best part was it was all mine. I had entered a unique world which no one else around me had journeyed into.

Roy-Mus wrote:   I think my father is to blame: it all started when he bought the Pink Floyd Pulse CDs. It wasn't a sudden love affair, but I started getting accostumed to that album (in tape mode) playing in the car. Now, I even have the 14 albums boxset ad most of their DVDs. Then, some time later, he bought the best of Jethro Tull and ELP (I got instantly addicted to Tarkus) and when I started having my own money, I started buying other records and even discovered the first Camel LP in my attic - WONDERFUL!. Nowadays,  I spend by time between here, youtube and prog blogs looking for that lost prog gem...

Such a delicious memory.  How great is it to be young and discover an album in the attic or basement?!  

Pink Floyd > Camel > Caravan > Genesis > Yes > King Crimosn > Everything else.

I have always been a fan of classic rock and metal. Bands such as Queen, The Who, Rush, Jethro Tull, David Bowie, Iron Maiden, Black Sabbath, Metallica, Dio and various others where all I listened to for the longest time. Than one day I accidently discovered Deloused in the Comatarium by The Mars Volta. That album blew me away. It took so much from what I already loved, mixed it together and threw in a whole bunch of cool sh*t. After this album I found out that Rush and Jethro Tull where considered prog like the mars volta, though they are different they share the values of exploring the possibilities of what a band can do with music. From that album on I kept looking into prog, I became addicted to some classic prog bands, some modern prog bands. I enjoy alot of the various subgenres and crossover/ proto prog bands that I have heard also.

I was fortunate to be in junior high when, I think anyway, prog was at its most popular. Queen was on the radio a lot, Another Brick in the Wall was played to death, and Rush was just reaching their Moving Pictures/Signals stage, which was accessible enough for radio. The Walkman hadn't come out yet, so I carried around a transistor radio. There was a fabulous progressive FM station out of Rhode Island back then, and that's all it took.

My first concert was Styx's Kilroy tour, but I always like Paradise better. I got into "alternative" music in high school, but still gravitated towards the stuff on the fringe- mainly Sonic Youth. I still loved Floyd and Rush, but they fell out of favor with my friends. I hit college, and hung out a lot with an older guy who got me into Crimson (I remembered hearing 21st Century Schizoid Man on the radio years earlier), Yes (I was into 90125 years earlier, but never really gave them a listen beyond that), Genesis, and all the rest.

Since then I've enjoyed watching "alternative" mix with prog, with Tool, and later DT and the others. It's been a great ride. 

Hey guys...I gotta chime in here if only to share my perspective, which is not that much different than yours really-but it's not to find other prog-vets here. I listened to the usual fare in Jr High (Sabbath, Beatles et.) but I was on a limited budget, and hadn't even discoveed FM radio yet. As I entered HS, I started devouring anything I could get my hands on (Beach Boys, The Outsiders, Peter and Gordon, Kingston Trio even Herb Alpert). I was raiding my parent's record player at the time and listening to what I could find. By the time I hit 15-16 and moved up to LA w/ my grandmother, I was hungry for something new. A teacher at Franklin High School in 1973 actually took the time to give me some stuff he was "growing weary of", since he was leaning towards Classical and Jazz. I remember he loaned me a copy of Saturation Point by Darryl Way's Wolf and Camel's 1st album. Not a bad place to start! He drove me up to Van Nuys after school one day to Moby Disc Records and bought  me a few albums. At the same time I discovered Poo-Bah Records in Pasadena, and they were playing everything! Henry Cow, Gong, anyhthing on Virgin Records and pretty out there stuff. From then on it was MY MUSIC and my self-exploration. 

I've always liked heavy rock. My mom always tells me how I kicked to the beats when she was in rock concerts.
Also my parents used to play a lot of heavy rock when I was at the size of a thermostat.

My favourite song when I was a kid was Knockin' on Heaven's Door by Guns 'N Roses. I still remember vividly how I tried to tell curious girl my favorite song in the grade school. Not easy for 8-year-old finnish boy with no experience of the english language. "nokkin on hewens toor"

I remember hearing Deep Purple's Smoke On the Water before but when I was a teenager it totally blew my mind. Then I started to listen a lot of Deep Purple.

The next stage was Deep Purples Child in Time. I realised I like longer and more complex songs that takes you to a emotional trip. I tried to google and ask around, but didn't quite knew what to look for. Then my friend told me about Jethro Tull's Thick As a Brick and pointed me into progarchive.com.

I've just glanced these forums from time to time but mostly I've used the site only for finding music. Nowadays I don't listen to much anything else than prog.

I heard "Pull me Under" on the radio, back when I was in the Army. I loved it. I thought, it was Queensryche (sp?), at first. A few weeks later, I was on a field exercise, in the tent, and a friend let me borrow some of his cassettes. He had Images and Words, and I listened to it till my batteries were dead.

At a very young age, my dad introduced me to his favorite band, Genesis.  It's all I listened to from age two to ten, until he led me to other of his favorites.  Though I still consider Genesis to be my favorite band, I've found a whole world of progressive music since then, from friends, online archives and general exploration.  I'm actually really pleased with the way my tastes have evolved - especially in the last year.

I dreamed of a fountain around which a piper modestly played a tune about the splendor of his music.