Most influential Prog Bands

Vibrationbaby wrote:  Marillion is another band that everyone was comparing to Genesis and other dinosaur bands back in '83. I could never understand that. I can't see anything that the two bands have in common. marillion were just a band that became popular during an era where everybody was listening to new wave and top forty crap. I dunno. I think I'll just go and bash my head against the wall for a while. You guys read too much into prog when it's not really that complex at all.

I agree entirely.  They were more influenced by Pink Floyd and Rush and this probably became even more evident once Fish left the band.  He just sort of sounded like Gabriel a bit but the music didn't have a whole lot in common with Genesis. 

As for influence in the 70s, I think some Italian prog rock bands have cited ELP as a major influence.  Triumvirat also mention ELP as an influence.  The Canterbury bands influenced each other, but that is understandable because it was a smaller scene, with the musicians shuttling between bands.  But I broadly agree that in the 70s, prog rock bands were influenced more by rock and classical music and less by other prog rock bands.

OT Räihälä wrote: Vibrationbaby wrote: What about Nue!? nobody mentioned Nue! unless I'm going blind in my old age. They were copied by everyone from Hawkwind to Bowie. Never heard of Nue! Can't be that big influence... unless you're talking about Neu!  [neu] means [new] in German. Edit: Oh, and Moshkito: why do you always put three fullstops when one is enough? How can you afford so many? And have you thought about your carbon footprint? [Tongue in cheek mode off] It's a pain to read when there are one million needless fullstops.

Well excuse me. I think I know the meaning of the word. Anyway. If you listen to Opa-Loka off Hawkwind's Warrior On The Edge Of Time there is definitely some Neu ! influence. Lemmy even said it was drummers Alan  Powell and Simon King's idea  back in the seventies after he got sacked.

I dunno I don't think prog bands were " influenced "  by other prog bands except maybe offshoot bands like Flash. Maybe The Nice had some bearing on bands like Ekseption or Triumvirat but I don't even think that they were even listening to each other. I saw an interview with Ian Anderson back in the seventies and he came off to be only vaguely familiar with the music of Focus who occasionally could sound like JT because of Van Leer's flute. Progrock or art rock artists ( whatever you want to call them )  were influenced by other musicians outside of their early seventies phenomenom and there was a lot of original music happening back then where did bands like Gentle Giant, Gnidrolog, Egg or Soft machine find their roots? Not from prog bands Classical, medieval and Baroque composers ( particularily JS Bach ), rock groups  from the sixties primarily the Beatles and jazzmen formed the core of their "influences. The movement was even dubbed " Baroque & Roll " by someone at some point I don't think any electric guitar player can honestly say that they weren' "influenced " to some extent by Hendrix really. I just don't think any band put in ad in Melody Maker that said something like : " Hey man, ELP copycat band looking for a cat who can play keyboards exactly like Emerson man".

 Marillion is another band that everyone was comparing to Genesis and other dinosaur bands back in '83. I could never understand that. I can't see anything that the two bands have in common. marillion were just a band that became popular during an era where everybody was listening to new wave and top forty crap. I dunno. I think I'll just go and bash my head against the wall for a while. You guys read too much into prog when it's not really that complex at all.




Edited by Vibrationbaby - April 05 2012 at 09:40

OT Räihälä wrote: ...  Oh, and Moshkito: why do you always put three fullstops when one is enough? How can you afford so many? And have you thought about your carbon footprint? [Tongue in cheek mode off] It's a pain to read when there are one million needless fullstops.

Edited by moshkito - April 05 2012 at 08:44

I'm going with Zappa. If you read through many of the classic Prog bands' liner notes, you will find that somewhere, he is connected!

Prog_Traveller wrote: 60's/70's The Nice, Pink Floyd, Moody Blues, King Crimson, Yes, Genesis, VDGG, Magma, Camel, Caravan, Gong, Genesis, Gentle Giant, Nektar, Procol Harum, PFM, Renaissance and probably a bunch of others as well. SOme more than others of course. Any big or even moderately well known band is going to have some kind of influence on the newer bands. 80's Saga, Marillion, IQ, Peter Gabriel(he was very popular in the eighties), Kate Bush, Rush. Seriously there aren't that many from the eighties unfortunately. 90's Flower Kings, Spock's Beard, Porcupine Tree, Radiohead 00's Transatlantic, Neal Morse, Mars Volta, Opeth, Porcupine Tree(I'll list them in this decade as well since this is when they really broke big). In order for a band to be influential they have to have some significant degree of popularity(at least within the specific genre in this case prog).

I would argue that Genesis had the most impact in the 80's, although Peter Gabriel solo is also a good choice,  Rush, well, maybe... but I wouldn't put them in the mix.

So my German is a bit rusty. Tsk, tsk, tsk.

OT Räihälä wrote: Vibrationbaby wrote: What about Nue!? nobody mentioned Nue! unless I'm going blind in my old age. They were copied by everyone from Hawkwind to Bowie. Never heard of Nue! Can't be that big influence... unless you're talking about Neu!  [neu] means [new] in German.

Neu! didn't have to influence a lot of people to make an impact, they just had to be an influence to the right people, and thus be an influence once-removed as it were. I think it is fair to say that many of the post-punk synth bands of the 80s were indirectly influenced by Neu! through being themselves being influenced by Eno, Bowie, Joy Division, Ultravox!, Numan etc.

Edited by Dean - April 04 2012 at 14:19

Vibrationbaby wrote: What about Nue!? nobody mentioned Nue! unless I'm going blind in my old age. They were copied by everyone from Hawkwind to Bowie.

Edited by OT Räihälä - April 04 2012 at 14:03

spknoevl wrote: I agree that Johnny Mac and Mahavishnu influenced many people.  Fripp has stated that he was so influenced by MO that he had to stop listening to them so he wouldn't up doing an imitation.  However, I don't really consider MO a progressive rock band - just a great jazz-rock band that influenced the prog rock movement and jazz movements.

 

Edited by moshkito - April 04 2012 at 12:30