What not prog band would've made the best prog?

Fercandio46 wrote: Marc Ribot & Ceramic Dog

progaardvark wrote: Off the top of my head... I think Billy Joel could have pulled off a prog album. David Bowie could have pulled off one too. ELO started off in mix of prog and pop. If they had gone in the prog direction, I think they could have pulled off a decent album or two.  Scott Walker would also be high on my list too if he had started with the avant-garde stuff right after Scott 4.

Edited by Jamesluvsprog - July 26 2023 at 16:02

BarryGlibb wrote: Definitely Big Country...a brilliant band...some of their longer songs and especially the 12" singles were very prog leaning. BC comprised four extra-special musicians.

One person in particular who wasn't Progressive Rock, but structured music to be Progressive in Pop Music Culture was Laura Nyro. In 1967 she was writing hit records for Pop Bands, but her versions of the songs were not exactly sugar coated for the industry.

In 67' she wrote a song titled "The Confession " which was kind of odd and to this day...I can hear YES playing it. Sometimes she reminded me of a Broadway style . Other times she was very jazzy . She wanted to pursue her own style of music. She sat at the piano with Miles Davis and asked for his approval on the New York Tendaberry album. His response was to not change anything. Many artists surrounding her began writing like her...even if it was a snippet of her idea.

She basically came along and changed the way Pop Music could be written by creating jazzy dissonance, odd time changes, and some of the most beautiful melodic chord voicing that no one had ever heard before. This particular aspect to Laura Nyro was a major influence on Todd Rundgren. Not only did a lot of his songs contain her style of writing, but he actually used many of her odd chord progressions on Utopia albums. ..and particularly on keyboards that sounded Electronic and were sustaining with ambience and especially on side 2 of the Initiation album.

So she was really different because even though we had Gil Evans, Miles Davis, Herb Albert and the Tijuana Brass, Brian Wilson, Lennon and McCartney...with all of their innovative writing qualities she remained to be completely different than all of them. Her ideas for Pop Music raised the question "Why does Pop Music have to be simple?" We can still have a catchy hook, a distinctive melody, but be Progressive underneath it all.

Listening to her is an acquired taste...because she's odd. She wrote some really strange music . Todd Rundgren described her looking like a very large gypsy. I don't know what she heard in her head as her ideas were forming. Most of what she wrote no one had ever thought of. She completely changed the way musicians wrote on a national scale. She was very ethereal, energetic, creative, and innovative.

excellent

Lady Gaga.  She's an excellent vocalist & pianist, and her stage skills are sublime! 

Echoes from Meddle is not prog? Well, I'll be. I just read a post saying they weren't prog.

Edited by SteveG - December 24 2022 at 06:40

Ten Years After...

The Tubes would be ideal candidates for Prog. They were never thought to be Prog in the 70s when "White Punks On Dope" was played on the radio. Their image was of the later Glam Rock style..mid to late 70s. A bit like Rocky Horror Picture Show. Their first album ends with White Punks On Dope , but building up to that point are songs like "Up From The Deep", "Mondo Bondage, "Boy Crazy" and others that enter Zappa territory regarding instrumental passages and arrangements.

Obviously not a band that had an ambition to be successful in Progressive Rock..but the irony of how complex their arrangements were right?

I've replied twice...I have forgotten the previous but I'm happy to see that my opinion about Devo and Stevens is not changed