Vangelis was progressive!

Too commercial? I've never heard Nucleogenesis in a disco. I heard Owner of a lonely heart and another brick in the wall, instead.

Dean wrote: Slartibartfast wrote: I'm going to have to side with Iván about Cairo being cheesy in parts.  Short Stories is a different matter for me.  I remember when it first came out.  Jon and Vangelis doing a whole album togethere!!!  Blew me away.  I was of course a total Yes fan at the time and loves the Vangelis stuff that got used on Cosmos. Iván didn't say 'cheesy in parts', he said 'Jon & Vangelis albums, which I found cheesy (specially "The friends of Mr Cairo")' .. he then goes on to say 'still the title song sounds like a soundtrack for a B class detective movie' ...   How is that cheesy? Does it sport a mullet? Wear shoulder pads and spandex pants? Open its shirt to the navel to show-off its hairy chest and gold medalion? Sing power ballards about dead pet dogs? Build a City on Rock'n'Roll? String together tired cliches to make a lyric? Drip enough schmaltzy syrup to power a Pancake house for a month? Does it try too hard to be trendy and cred? Does it go on tour with Michael Bolton and Celine Dion? Does it display so much kitschy lack of taste that it makes garden gnomes look cool?   'Back To School' is disposible pop, but it isn't cheese. 'Inside of This' is sentimental but is too understated to be schmaltz. 'Believe' - okay I'll give you that one... in a Neil Morse kind of way. 'State of Independance' ... even the Donna Summer disco version doesn't make it onto the cheese scale.     The Vangelis stuff used on Cosmos was from Heaven and Hell, which Anderson provided lyrics for.

That's why I conditionally sided with him.
Be it resolved that Friends was corny instead of cheesy on the tracks Back To School and Friends Of Mr. Cairo.  I've never been one to dis prog when it's gets cheesy, corny, campy or however you'd characterize some of it's less serious moments.  Part of the charm for me actually.  Benny The Bouncer, Cannibal Surf Babe, pretty much all of the Residents, Whodunnit, Hocus Pocus, etc.

I do believe Albedo was also in the Cosmos soundtrack.  Jon's brief contribution to Heaven and Hell was very nice.  Just the mention of it and the music comes into my head.


Edited by Slartibartfast - December 22 2009 at 09:58

Ricochet wrote: Rocktopus wrote: Ricochet wrote: I doubt Vangelis will be moved back to Prog Electronic, the lead Specialist of the genre thinks his music was too commercial. First of all, that's no real reason, and second, its not really true. About half of these albums quite experimental, and not much here can be labelled commercial. I know he was commercial from the 80's and on, but so was almost every band who survived the 70's. These specialists can't have heard Hypothesis, The Dragon or Beaubourg. C'est la vie, I basically feel the same way.

I'm in no way an expert in Vangelis (in fact I only heard his "Conquest of Paradise" soundtrack a long time ago) but I agree we shouldn't depend on one person's tastes. He may think whatever he wants but if majority feels otherwise... I also think that a genre team should consist of at least three members to be able to outvote such intransigent person.

octopus-4 wrote: Hey, if one thinks that Vangelis is cheesy he has the right to think so. We are discussing about feelings and tastes not about Truth. I'm enjoying this forum and since when I replied first, I have been back to listen to Vangelis. There's a lot of musicians that I don't like, and mentioning them may create a "scandal". I hate Phil Collins, just to mention one.

I don't question anyone's right to call it cheesy, or their personal tastes, I just think that if negativisms are thrown they have the right to be challenged

I think this discussion is keeping the world in sync. 

Edited by Vibrationbaby - December 20 2009 at 14:16

Dean wrote: Ivan_Melgar_M wrote: BTW: Not negativism, it's my taste, negativism is to say ELP is crap, and I read it thousands of times.   Iván "cheesy" is a positivism?? Perhaps in a kitsch so-bad-it's-good kind of way...

Tony R wrote: I don't think you could ever put a positive spin on calling anything "cheesy" unless it was cheese...

And it would depend of which cheese we're talking about.

As FZ said,

Vangelis plays easy listening-functional-radiophonic-mainstream synth music which features just a few memorable proggy moments...that's the reason why I moved it from electronic prog to Prog related years ago. I did the same with J.M Jarre, but for the last I think he doesn't deserve a place in a website devoted to prog rock, whatever the subgenres. In France Jean Michel Jarre is compared to the most cheesy-old fashioned commercial artists we have. It's clear that Vangelis deserves a better mention than Jarre, but prog related is just what his music sounds like. 

Edited by philippe - December 22 2009 at 03:59

So "Horizon", "Entends, tu le chiens aboyer", "Ignacio", "Soil Festivities" are prog related only while  "Sussudio", "Big generator", "Remote Romance" and "Heartbreaker" are prog?