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Topic ClosedWas prog actually popular in the 70s??

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Aussie-Byrd-Brother View Drop Down
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: April 27 2013 at 13:27
Originally posted by cstack3 cstack3 wrote:

I don't think Justin Bieber has a full-length concert movie yet.  What would it be called, "Give Me Back My Monkey!" ??  What a w*nker. 

Sadly, Cstack3, Justin Bieber DID have a full-length concert/doco movie, in 3D no less! I only remember this because several girls in my office mentioned when it came out they were off to watch it....think I said something like `Well, you might as well have just taken that money....and flushed it down the toilet!"
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: April 27 2013 at 13:07
Originally posted by progbethyname progbethyname wrote:


You don't wanna know what they listen to. You would cry in your soup. I say soup because you claim to be 'so old' so I assume you have no teeth. Lol. Na seriously though Dean you are very open minded and offer a lot of great insights to topics that revolve around youth or experience. Are you of the BOOMER generation?
Let's say I have most of my teeth, I am British so would be fitted into the bad-teeth stereotype whether it was true or not - soup is not something I enjoy, I honestly don't see the point of it. I have no real concept of what a boomer is and don't specifically associate myself with that generation eventhough technically I belong, nor would I associate myself with Generation X. I actually think the generation that invented Prog (ie MY generation) are the inbetweenies that come from that overlap between the two - too young to be beatniks or hippies, to old to be punks and that is why Prog is so difficult to pin down to any single ideal, subculture, style or motivation.
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: April 27 2013 at 12:46
Originally posted by HackettFan HackettFan wrote:

What counts as popular is a tricky thing. Zeppelin was popular among cool people (of any age). Michael Jackson was popular but not very cool. I would have been socially embarrassed to be anywhere close to someone grooving to that in highschool.
That "cool" thing is very important (when you are a teenager), it is also inversely proportional to popularity - when I was at school it was very uncool to like T.Rex if you were of the clique that listened to Zappa or Beefheart, King Crimson or Van der Graaf Generator, Moody Blues or Pink Floyd, Genesis or Yes - however you were permitted to like Tyrannosaurus Rex - moreover it was really cool to say you liked them before Bolan went electric. In a high school in North Bedfordshire UK in the early 1970s Led Zeppelin were considered the epitome of uncool, even by kids who'd walk around with a copy of Masters Of Reality or In Rock tucked under their arm, such is the fickleness of cool.
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: April 27 2013 at 12:44
Ermm My Yessongs vinyl is a tripple album - you need to take your's back and get a refund.
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: April 27 2013 at 12:34
Speaking of movies, don't forget that "Yessongs" was far more than a double-vinyl LP!  The movie "Yessongs" was a theatrical release and attracted very healthy audiences at screenings in the USA:


This was in 1975.  I don't think Justin Bieber has a full-length concert movie yet.  What would it be called, "Give Me Back My Monkey!" ??  What a w*nker. 

From Amazon.com: 

Yes was on tour to promote the recent release of Close to the Edge when this energetic performance was captured on 16-millimeter film in London's Rainbow Theatre in December 1972. 

Although this DVD was mastered from a ragged print (with plenty of scratches evident throughout), this is actually the better of the two Yes discs available (the other--Live in Philadelphia--has an even murkier transfer from videotape), with marginally better sound quality and a 75-minute performance that finds the band at the height of their "early years" popularity. 

The lineup is the same as that of the 1979 performance in Philadelphia (Jon Anderson, Steve Howe, Chris Squire, Alan White, Rick Wakeman), but this concert is by a much younger, much more ambitious band that was still forging its formidable prog-rock identity. As a result this is the more valuable of the two Yes performances on DVD--a tighter, sharper, more satisfying look at the band at the peak of their creativity. 

It's also worth noting that they allowed room for solo improvisations (such as Howe's playful rendition of "The Clap" and Wakeman's excerpts from "The Six Wives of Henry VIII"), but as a group they remained intimately faithful to their studio recordings. And although even die-hard fans will grumble about the film's murky quality (which DVD can do nothing to improve), camera access was adequate for this show and each member of the band is given adequate screen time to demonstrate his instrumental virtuosity--particularly Howe, whose guitar work here is nothing short of amazing. 

While it's unfortunate that both DVDs featuring live Yes music leave much to be desired, this disc is definitely worth owning if you've ever wanted to see the giants of '70s prog-rock at the top of their game. --Jeff Shannon
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: April 27 2013 at 10:48
Originally posted by Aussie-Byrd-Brother Aussie-Byrd-Brother wrote:

Originally posted by progbethyname progbethyname wrote:

The fact that you tried has me quite impressed. I've yet to give it a go cause I wanna keep my legs.

Worst was the fact that no-one else was around, I wasn't even trying to impress anyone lol! I randomly pulled that move out at home to a song that came on the TV....as I screwed it up (it was that sort of kick thing he used to do), my leg corked and I crumbled to the floor in agony. Thing is, if I'd pulled off the move properly, even in my pain, I would have been pretty pleased with myself


Should've filmed it. Imagine trying to do that move to a PFM record. Awkward? Also you would be amazed at the dance moves Ive blended with my prog favourites. I do a good James LaBRIE impression...lots of hand jesters. Oh too funny and of course I do this privately. It's my world! Ha ha
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: April 27 2013 at 10:42
Originally posted by progbethyname progbethyname wrote:

The fact that you tried has me quite impressed. I've yet to give it a go cause I wanna keep my legs.

Worst was the fact that no-one else was around, I wasn't even trying to impress anyone lol! I randomly pulled that move out at home to a song that came on the TV....as I screwed it up (it was that sort of kick thing he used to do), my leg corked and I crumbled to the floor in agony. Thing is, if I'd pulled off the move properly, even in my pain, I would have been pretty pleased with myself
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: April 27 2013 at 10:37
Originally posted by Aussie-Byrd-Brother Aussie-Byrd-Brother wrote:

Originally posted by progbethyname progbethyname wrote:

Your wrong just in one small area where by MICHEAL JACKSON was very cool. Have you seen that f**ker Dance? sh*t, everyone was moonwalking in 1982. Lol

You might be on to something, Nick....why just a few hours ago I tried pulling a kind of Jackson-styled dance move, and totally f**ked up my left leg.




The fact that you tried has me quite impressed. I've yet to give it a go cause I wanna keep my legs.
Gimmie my headphones now!!! 🎧🤣
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: April 27 2013 at 10:34
Originally posted by progbethyname progbethyname wrote:

Your wrong just in one small area where by MICHEAL JACKSON was very cool. Have you seen that f**ker Dance? sh*t, everyone was moonwalking in 1982. Lol

You might be on to something, Nick....why just a few hours ago I tried pulling a kind of Jackson-styled dance move, and totally f**ked up my left leg.
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: April 27 2013 at 10:28
I am not white but I am young and male and I know lots of people who don't like prog but are interested in rock.  None of them like Spice Girls or Bieber.  Bieber has just become a cliche to diss everything that is to do with mainstream music as if the mainstream has never promoted any artists better than him.
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: April 27 2013 at 10:16
Originally posted by Dean Dean wrote:

Originally posted by progbethyname progbethyname wrote:

Originally posted by sukmytoe sukmytoe wrote:

If album sales had anything to do with the quality of music then I guess "prog" would be in trouble as it would mean that Michael Jackson's music was of a far better quality than anything that we like here. Heavy sales equates to selling many albums to many people and Justin Bieber will know all about that. You sell more music to musical airheads than you do to serious listeners as there are way more airheads out there who are interested in fads and catchy jingles as opposed to more complex music that you have to spend time with to get what it's about.
90125 and the like were never meant for the serious prog listener - they are aimed at the masses.

 
Yyyyyyyyyeeeeeeeeeeeeesssssssss!!!

Nnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnoooooooooooooooo!!! Pig
 

A lot of really dumb things can be said on this subject and all of it to do with elitism and pretentiousness - the whole mindset that what you like is better than anything everyone else likes because you are a better person and have better taste and better appreciation of music. Calling people who buy music you don't like "airheads" is playground taunting and best left there.

 

I own Thriller, I can't say that I liked it much after the first two or three plays and it sits in my album rack unplayed since 1983, but I do recognise its quality on all levels, I can also recognise that a lot of music that we call Prog falls short even if I do like it a lot and play it regularly.

 

The age-group and social profile of the people in the 70s who were into Prog are the same demographic who listen to whatever was considered "serious" music in later decades - those people didn't listen to Donny Osmond or Bananrama or the Spice Girls or Justin Bieber. When making these comparisons you have to compare like with like - comparing the best of one genre you like to the worse of another that you would never buy regardless of which decade you were born in is specious, just as comparing whatever is "in" with the current generation of young white male well-educated types (I dunno, I'm too old to even guess what they listen to but I bet it's not Justin Bieber) to the teeny-bopper music of the 70s is fallacious.


You don't wanna know what they listen to. You would cry in your soup. I say soup because you claim to be 'so old' so I assume you have no teeth. Lol. Na seriously though Dean you are very open minded and offer a lot of great insights to topics that revolve around youth or experience. Are you of the BOOMER generation?
Gimmie my headphones now!!! 🎧🤣
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: April 27 2013 at 10:11
Originally posted by HackettFan HackettFan wrote:

What counts as popular is a tricky thing. Zeppelin was popular among cool people (of any age). Michael Jackson was popular but not very cool. I would have been socially embarrassed to be anywhere close to someone grooving to that in highschool. I knew some of Prog in the 70s though only peripherally, but among white males in the suburbs in the early 80s in the confines of Western NY it was exceptionally popular in a sort of cool underground fashion. There was no shame about being uncool playing Prog music or wearing Prog t-shirts when I was in highschool in the early 80s.. The same may perhaps cannot be said about other geographical regions, I don't know. But getting back to the seventies, I know Dean has a good sense of the scene in its the Prog main homeland, but a thing I'm curious about is how widespread was its success geographically in the 70s. I suspect that at it's height it may have been exceptionally popular in the northeast US, but never really swept the nation. Happy to be wrong though.


Your wrong just in one small area where by MICHEAL JACKSON was very cool. Have you seen that f**ker Dance? sh*t, everyone was moonwalking in 1982. Lol
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: April 27 2013 at 10:08
Unless my memory is playing dirty tricks on me, the label "progressive rock" (let alone "prog") didn't use to be the primary descriptor of great many bands that we are discussing here on PA today. 

Many of the top bands listed here, Pink Floyd, Yes, Rush, Jethro Tull and others used to be called symphonic-, art-, psychedelic-, hard-, folk- etc. rock.  

   
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: April 27 2013 at 10:07
Originally posted by The Doctor The Doctor wrote:

^I always thought he was kind of meh.  People like David Bowie and Prince were much better pop song writers and entertainers IMO.
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Prog is whatevey you want it to be. So dont diss other peoples prog, and they wont diss yours
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: April 27 2013 at 10:00
Was never exceptionally popular in Denmark, if we are talking Yes Genesis King Crimson ELP VDGG GG, and compare to Deep Purple, Black Sabbath, Status Que, Nazereth, Slade , Sweet. Ect.
Prog was for a special kind of listener, even at its prime.
Not to mention all the Mainstream stars, Donny Osmond, Elton John, Wings, Fleetwood Mac, ect, was doing much better (no surprise)
Pink Floyd is the only prog band, making it very big, in the 70's, in Denmark.
And then some of the "more or less prog" like Manfred Man, Mike Oldfield, Supertramp, Roxy Music, Bowie.






Edited by tamijo - April 27 2013 at 10:06
Prog is whatevey you want it to be. So dont diss other peoples prog, and they wont diss yours
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: April 27 2013 at 08:17
What counts as popular is a tricky thing. Zeppelin was popular among cool people (of any age). Michael Jackson was popular but not very cool. I would have been socially embarrassed to be anywhere close to someone grooving to that in highschool. I knew some of Prog in the 70s though only peripherally, but among white males in the suburbs in the early 80s in the confines of Western NY it was exceptionally popular in a sort of cool underground fashion. There was no shame about being uncool playing Prog music or wearing Prog t-shirts when I was in highschool in the early 80s.. The same may perhaps cannot be said about other geographical regions, I don't know. But getting back to the seventies, I know Dean has a good sense of the scene in its the Prog main homeland, but a thing I'm curious about is how widespread was its success geographically in the 70s. I suspect that at it's height it may have been exceptionally popular in the northeast US, but never really swept the nation. Happy to be wrong though.

Edited by HackettFan - April 27 2013 at 08:21
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: April 27 2013 at 06:16
Originally posted by progbethyname progbethyname wrote:

Originally posted by sukmytoe sukmytoe wrote:

If album sales had anything to do with the quality of music then I guess "prog" would be in trouble as it would mean that Michael Jackson's music was of a far better quality than anything that we like here. Heavy sales equates to selling many albums to many people and Justin Bieber will know all about that. You sell more music to musical airheads than you do to serious listeners as there are way more airheads out there who are interested in fads and catchy jingles as opposed to more complex music that you have to spend time with to get what it's about.
90125 and the like were never meant for the serious prog listener - they are aimed at the masses.

 


Yyyyyyyyyeeeeeeeeeeeeesssssssss!!!
Nnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnoooooooooooooooo!!! Pig
 
A lot of really dumb things can be said on this subject and all of it to do with elitism and pretentiousness - the whole mindset that what you like is better than anything everyone else likes because you are a better person and have better taste and better appreciation of music. Calling people who buy music you don't like "airheads" is playground taunting and best left there.
 
I own Thriller, I can't say that I liked it much after the first two or three plays and it sits in my album rack unplayed since 1983, but I do recognise its quality on all levels, I can also recognise that a lot of music that we call Prog falls short even if I do like it a lot and play it regularly.
 
The age-group and social profile of the people in the 70s who were into Prog are the same demographic who listen to whatever was considered "serious" music in later decades - those people didn't listen to Donny Osmond or Bananrama or the Spice Girls or Justin Bieber. When making these comparisons you have to compare like with like - comparing the best of one genre you like to the worse of another that you would never buy regardless of which decade you were born in is specious, just as comparing whatever is "in" with the current generation of young white male well-educated types (I dunno, I'm too old to even guess what they listen to but I bet it's not Justin Bieber) to the teeny-bopper music of the 70s is fallacious.
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: April 27 2013 at 03:45
Originally posted by ExittheLemming ExittheLemming wrote:

 
Nothing to say about your post. Just wanted to pass compliments on your GROOVY AVATAR - I was one of those unfortunate souls who loved BOTH ELP and the Clash simultaneously and was considered suitable for sectioning under the mental health act by both the Punks and the Hippies (no bad thing really, not belonging to a tribe...)

It is rather fine isn't it?  I can't take credit for it though as I stole it from another website. I actually got into Prog and grew my hair in the summer of 1977. As timing goes it was right up there with Godley and Creme releasing a TRIPLE concept album the same year.LOL Didn't much care for the Clash but loved the Stranglers, which gave me some limited street cred and probably stopped me getting beaten up once or twice at school.
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: April 27 2013 at 02:20
Originally posted by chopper chopper wrote:

Originally posted by Lord_Adon Lord_Adon wrote:

If prog were popular it would have been called pop.

It was but it wasn't.

Dark Side Of The Moon found the perfect balance and arguably was closer to pop than prog but then we have the discussion about what is prog. ie long complex tracks instead of music for radio consumption. Some bands were clever enough to straddle both things but that was a tightrope that you could only fall off eventually.
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: April 27 2013 at 00:46
Originally posted by Stool Man Stool Man wrote:

OK, who spiked Dean's tea? LOL


My thoughts exactly. Smile
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