Favourite bands of all time?

I presume this topic is about prog and related…

 

A lot of known and legendary prog bands fail to impress me in the post Seventies era, like Genesis, Yes, Pink Floyd, Barclay James Harvest, and even King Crimson, although I first liked Disciplne, witnessed a gig but later the music didn't genererate a lot of excitement, of course that is very personal/subjective. Now let's go.

Rush - especially the 1977-1983 era Amazing interplay, exciting compositions, and Lifeson is so good

Genesis - 70-77 era 12-string acoustic guitars, a huge plus

Pink Floyd - 76-79 era Wright and Gilmour delivered so many exciting legendary moments in prog

ELP - 1970-1977 era I love that over the top Moog and Hammond work!

Camel - Seventies plus Nude Andy Latimer is the prog version of blues

Barclay James Harvest - in fact I only play their 2 Mellotron drenched live albums Live and Live Tapes, but I 

                                   love it!

Le Orme - 1971-1973 era, especially Felona E Sorona

PFM - I prefer to listen to their live albums, more dynamic and exciting

Solaris - one of the most overlooked progrock beauties, Martian Chronicles, 1990 and Live In Los Angeles are top notch prog albums

Triana - first three studio albums, unsurpassed Rock Andaluz

Seventies Uriah Heep and Deep Purple, I love that powerful Hammond-heavy guitar sound!

Yes

Genesis

Rush

Marillion

King Crimson

The Who

Led Zeppelin

The Beatles

Camel

VDGG

Kansas

Pink Floyd

That's 12 and seems like a good place to stop. Of course I like more but those bands are all special to me for various reasons.

Edit. I realized I left off Pink Floyd so I took off Porcupine Tree and added Floyd instead to keep it at 12. To be honest I probably could swap out Marillion for PT but I'm not that big into the later metally PT. If it wasn't for maybe  a total of 20 minutes worth of metallish(notice the ish)in their later music they wouldn't have nearly the fanbase(from the metal crowd)that they do. Not that I hate metal or anything but it always seems to me that some people have to have it in their music(I don't).

Another band that just missed the cut for me is Gentle Giant. I could probably put them instead of Marillion also but I'll keep the list they way they are and just mention GG here. Very great band. Lot's of great bands out there. 

Le Orme-Strong run of albums in the 70s

Gentle Giant-Similar to Le Orme

Camel-Late starter but strong for 3/4 of 70s and early 80s

Magma-The most unique band in history

Van Der Graaf-Pity they split up twice in the 70s

Oblivion express-Auger was great starting with late 60s Trinity

Caravan-Strong run in 70s and early 80s

Genesis-Don't rate early 70s like PA does but late 70s pretty good

Frank Zappa-Pretty cool from 72-83

 

Giger Lenz Marron

Dzyan

Passport 

Colosseum

Dedalus

Strange Days

Wishbone Ash 

Nektar

Quatermass

There's my personal (prog) big 5. When I think about this I always take into account solo work of the musicians that are associated with the bands, much of which shows strong connections to the "main band's" material.

Can - Apart from the iconic material that they produced if the first seven or so years of their existence (which would be enough to grant them their spot), Holger Czukay and Irmin Schmidt have major bodies of great work that on its own could compete with some major prog bands, with Jaki Liebezeit and Damo Suzuki not far behind.

 

King Crimson - So many different periods on top level, and then Robert Fripp has his hands in so much more interesting stuff, Bill Bruford created some great stuff as bandleader, Adrian Belew has some very nice albums and there's a plethora of connections and appearances of other members that I wouldn't count into King Crimson but that still shows the quality and the richness of infuences taken in and given out by that monster of a band.

Art Zoyd - They have gazillions of albums, they were innovative and productive (at least) until Gerard Hourbette's death, and they did hardly ever any step wrong. Probably they have the largest number of albums of them all that I'd rate four star or above, Not even to mention the jungle of interesting side projects.

Cardiacs - Unique, inspired and sparky from beginning to end, and also the supreme quality of some of Tim Smith's and Tavus Korabi's work outside the band and the reliable enjoyment I get from William D. Drake's material are testimony to what a force they were and in some way still are (I haven't given up hope that at some point some new music with Tim's active participation will appear).

Talk Talk - When it comes to quantity they may lag a bit behind the other nominees, but they finished their lifespan with three straight five star albums in a row plus the Mark Hollis album plus the astonishing work by .O.rang are enough to qualify them for my top 5 as well.

Also all respect to Pink Floyd - The Beatles - Van der Graaf Generator - Amon Düül II - Japan (or mainly Sylvian/Karn) and Kate Bush (not a band therefore out of competition here).

1: Genesis

They are really just the gold standard, the run from Trespass to Duke is just fantastic and Foxtrot is my favorite album of all time

2: King Crimson

I think they offer an amazing variety and really only have 1 or 2 duds in the discography, this one took me a while but they are the most progressive band in history to me. Also starless is the best song ever made

3: Camel

You know the ending of suppers ready where it climaxes at the new Jerusalem part? With Camel, I feel like they hit that same climax but several times over the course of an album. They just have such soaring highs and I love the sound in general, They struggled a bit in the 80s but were able to reinvent themselves in the 90s and 2000s to release some of their best work and I truly like almost their entire discography. Their music just resonates with me. Song within a song for example is simply just out of this world.

4: Yes

The thing with yes is that there is quite a lot of junk to sift through in their later discography but they are probably the single most influential band on the genre, from The Yes Album to Drama its just amazing album after amazing album.

5: Pink Floyd

I think Pink Floyd is amazing, but if I had the choice between discographies, id chose the above artists first. Animals, Dark Side, Meddle and Wish you were Here are all simply masterpieces, I do struggle with the Wall and absolutely despise Momentary Lapse but they have a generally solid discography

6: Kansas

This was my introduction to prog, I decided to turn on the greatest hits album while painting a fence and you wouldn't believe the shock when I heard Song For America, The Pinnacle and Closet Chronicles. Simply a very unique and influential prog band with an amazing first 5 albums. Post Point of Know Return its quite spotty with some garbage and some OK stuff, Somewhere to Elsewhere was quite nice though.

7: Spock's Beard

I just love this band, the first time I heard the Light it truly opened a whole new avenue of prog for me (Modern Prog) However I think V, Snow Live, X and Brief Nocturnes are their best work with imo V being their crowned achievement. The instrumentation is always extremely tight no matter what era.. Though they lost some personality when Neal Left, they adapted into a more mature sound.

8: King Gizzard and The Lizard Wizzard

I still cant wait for these guys to be on the website, honestly, i'm yet to hear anything by them I don't like (though their latest fishing for fishies isn't my favorite) Flying Microtonal Banana, Polygondwanaland, Im in your mind fuzz, Nonagon Infinity and Murder of the Universe are just truly among the most unique prog albums to come out in the last decade with excellent song writing and instrumentation all around

9: Jethro Tull

I've recently gotten into these guys and love the sound, but in my opinion they have probably 7 or 8 very solid 4 star albums with maybe one 5 star album and thats Thick as a Brick. Whereas the above artists in my opinion have at least two 5 star albums, but thats besides the point. These guys just rock and I can really listen to them at any time. Songs from the wood, TAAB and Stand up are my favorites personally.

10: Focus

I just love this bands sound, sure they peaked early after Hamburger Concerto. But still their work on moving waves and focus 3 are just brilliant with Hamburger Concerto just being their peak. But focus 3 is my favorite ;)

honorable mentions

marillion

dream theater

nektar

transatlantic

elp

supertramp

wobbler (probably moving into the top 10)

Van Der Graff (Probably moving into the top 10)

Rush

Outside of Prog:

Deep Purple

Boston

Steely Dan

Blue Oyster Cult

Chicago

Led Zeppelin

The Who

The Eagles