50 Songs to get someone into Prog

Hi,

I'm not sure that length is such a problem as we can imagine. I've never heard of anyone saying "noodling" to Beethoven, Mozart or Tchaikovsky. Music is music, and it has a different feeling and idea for different listeners. In my case I started with classical music at 10/11 and rock music came later. I had no aversion to long material and was already enjoying things like opera ... and it was all beautiful material, regardless of noodling ... I suppose we could consider Piccini guilty in Turandot for using 3 stooges for one minute, but in the end, it might have been a leitmotif that was needed in the middle of heavy handed material.

Melodic ... my first Genesis listen and album, was ... SEBTP ... and it is probably the best of the albums ... specially if we let go the "idea" of what "progressive BS" is or isn't. I have never really met anyone that is into progressive music, and not into the rest of music at all ... that just seems wrong, and really sad to the music itself and its creators. We might as well brand them ... a bit sick in my book!

Considering that I have been with Guy Guden and Space Pirate Radio from the early days as roommate from 1972 on, and then on the first SPR show in January 1974 ... over almost 50 years, the number of folks that have loved the show and heard the different material is so out there ... and so far and away in this galaxy, it's not even funny. But, it's there ... and the only thing it says is that it is about the music ... and music ... and music ... and it doesn't matter what kind it is ... nowadays, folks can even hear some Miles ... and a backwards Herb Alpert ,,, but in the end, what attracts you to it is some sound that clicks with your imagination, and not my choice or anyone else's ... we might think otherwise, but it's really hard to say that we are simply listing our favorites ... we're not even taking into consideration what the projective listener likes and listens to ... heck my sister played for the Symphony in Santa Barbara (Harp!!!) ... and I was hoping to have her listen to some jazz and rock with it, so it was "viable" instead of a freak instrument so big that it was a pain in the arse to bring in to the symphony! Nope. Never ... and she was the one that brought Alan Stivell from France and blew my ears on it in 1971 ... a couple of years later, she quit playing all along, and never returned to music! 

Again, based on the incredible history of Space Pirate Radio, anything we think will sound ... off key when its time comes ... and the person looks away and doesn't even bother listening to 3 or 4 measures!

PS: One funny bit. You know one thing that was an ear turner in Guy's shows? ... I mention it all the time, but you guys wouldn't believe me ... stuff played backwards, that was ... what is that? ... and nothing gets your attention better than one of those moments ... you have no idea what this is when you have not heard any of it ... unless you pay attention to TD and EF had a few effects hidden in there, or realize that what Vangelis just did was use t-spoons! In all of his albums!!!!! 

Hi,

That someone into classical would be interested in prog ... is an assumption. It has no basis in reality. I, basically, told me, the story as I experienced. There is no accounting for tastes and what clicks in someone's mind, despite us thinking that some bits and pieces of the definition of the music is "it".