Your top most pretentious prog bands?

SteveG wrote: All of them.

Does Trans-Siberian Orchestra count as a prog rock/metal band?

Hate the word "pretentious" in this thread because it seemed to be the main operative word that hack Robert Hilburn (former L.A. Times music critic) used from time to time to describe acts such as Yes and ELP back in the '70s and '80s. I mean, find some other word in a thesaurus already, pal. The guy was a real hose bag, and reading his reviews proved that continually.

Evidently there are very different understandings of what constitutes pretentiousness being employed by different posters. My own personal one is that pretentiousness is about pretence - specifically, pretending to operate on some kind of artistic or intellectual level that is not actually earned or achieved. e.g. Jon Anderson's Yes lyrics were frequently pretentious as they aspired to the status of poetry / philosophy without having any actual substance. Peter Hamill's lyrics with VdGG weren't pretentious because, although they had obvious literary and intellectual aspirations, Hamill had the substance to back it up - an actual poet not a pretend one.

It's a tough call there are a number of my faves  Jethro Tull, Yes, & Pink Floyd. Would you also include Marillion i guess so and yet another one i am trying to get my head around and to think it must be one of the longest tracks i have ever heard, overblown, contentious over the top, Transatlantic Whirlwind just on 80 minutes long.
I'll be honest with you still trying to come to grips with the song. In regards to Jethro Tull they are one of my faves i have a number of their albums and a glutton for punishment, their recent remastering/remixing 4 disc box sets Passion Play, War Child, Minstrel In The Gallery, Too Old To Rock and Roll and the 2 disc 5.1 surround sound set of Thick As A Brick. On the way too most likely in the same format will be Songs From The Wood. For better of for worse, a similar path to some of Yes's classics. The anniversary edition of The Yes Album in which you get 7 different versions of the one album! Fragile, Relayer, Close To The Edge, The Yes album & the recent Tales From Topographic Oceans, if i could use a Yes pun, talk about overblown, over the top too much to handle what were they thinking at the time? Who knows but the biggest surprise although there are only 4 tracks on the album totalling just on 80 minutes, the bluray edition although they are the same, with an odd live edit and singles talk about too much 4 songs a total 0f 12 and a half hours on bluray! In other words
36 tracks! It takes a lot of time to get through, Alan Parsons hmmm

Sean Trane wrote: ELP & Wakeman were in a class of their own

Agree! But they happen to release some good albums though.

^Today we are in agreement.

Other labels I see applied that is abundantly arrogant is "soulless". Just because I do not hear something does not mean it isn't there. Different sounds and acts speak to different people.

U2

Ive always believed that music is created in the cosmos and is only channelled through humans therefore it is impossible for music to be pretentious.. even if, on occasion, the people who make it might be

rockandbluesman7 wrote: Thatfabu i will never forget there are so many classic albums and for some reason when i first heard Where The Streets Have No Name i thought what a great song from their soon to be released The Joshua Tree, then the song that got me over the cliff and on the Edge oops not intentional hmmm With Or Without You, 25 million albums later or more from my perspective and i have 550 cd's & some vinyl it would have to be an all time classic i'd rate it in my collection top 10 one of the finest.