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Prog about nightmarish technocracy?
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David_D View Drop Down
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    Posted: July 29 2024 at 05:24

Besides the overtly political Prog, and according to Edward Macan's Rocking the Classics (1997, p. 69, 73), symbols drawn from mythology, fantasy and science fiction literature, as well as a host of sacred texts from the past have been used in Progressive Rock lyrics as symbols of resistance and protest in two ways:
1. to symbolize an idealized society toward which we might strive, or
2. to symbolize a nightmarish technocracy which the hippies believed is on the verge of overwhelming us. 

In this thread, I'd like us to put focus on the second way, and a couple of examples are Emerson, Lake & Palmer's Karn Evil 9 suite, with its story of a computer becoming a tyrannical overlord, and the Tarkus suite, which can be interpreted too as technology running amok and out of the control of its creators, visiting misery upon all it touches.

What else can we find of Prog symbolizing some kind of nightmarish technocracy?


Edited by David_D - July 31 2024 at 05:55
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The first group that came to my mind was Ayreon. In particular some of the songs off of Actual Fantasy, and the albums 01011001 and The Source.
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that's a happy bag of lettuce
this car smells like cartilage
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John Mitchell's "Lonely Robot" comes to mind.
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2112 is the first one I can think of.
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Simon Says - Tardigrade (the whole album)
“On the day of my creation, I fell in love with education. And overcoming all frustration, a teacher I became.”
— Ernest Vong
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Originally posted by Manuel Manuel wrote:

John Mitchell's "Lonely Robot" comes to mind.

My first thought also...
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Originally posted by someone_else someone_else wrote:

2112 is the first one I can think of.

I think, 2112 is more about authoritarianism than technocracy, or how do you see it?
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David_D View Drop Down
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Voivod - Nothingface (1989)

This Prog Metal album may not be that much about technocracy, but I think it can at least be said to be quite a lot about nightmarish industrialism. The Canadian Voivod was born in Jonquiére, a town with pulp, paper and aluminium factories churned unceasingly, spewing smoke and generating a perpetual mechanical din. The drummer, Michel Langevin, could have nightmares because of the sounds from these factories, and all that can be heard in the album's sound and seen in the coverart and lyrics.

                           


Edited by David_D - July 31 2024 at 04:57
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someone_else View Drop Down
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Originally posted by David_D David_D wrote:

Originally posted by someone_else someone_else wrote:

2112 is the first one I can think of.

I think, 2112 is more about authoritarianism than technocracy, or how do you see it?

You may be right, but the line "Our great computers fill these hallowed halls" slipped through my mind.
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Originally posted by someone_else someone_else wrote:

Originally posted by David_D David_D wrote:

Originally posted by someone_else someone_else wrote:

2112 is the first one I can think of.

I think, 2112 is more about authoritarianism than technocracy, or how do you see it?

You may be right, but the line "Our great computers fill these hallowed halls" slipped through my mind.

The inner gatefold with the electronic printed circuit board below the Red Star man would indicate that indeed, technology has become the main controlling tool for that authoritarianism. 
let's just stay above the moral melee
prefer the sink to the gutter
keep our sand-castle virtues
content to be a doer
as well as a thinker,
prefer lifting our pen
rather than un-sheath our sword
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Rick Wakeman - 1984
Giorgio Mororder - Metropolis

Everything by Magma (except for Merci)
Some Art Zoyd
I stand with Roger Waters, I stand with Joan Baez, I stand with Victor Jara, I stand with Woody Guthrie. Music is revolution
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Originally posted by octopus-4 octopus-4 wrote:

Everything by Magma (except for Merci)

Can you explain a bit about how you see it?
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Points: 8951 		Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote kenethlevine Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 30 2024 at 20:57
It's hard to tell but it seems like Phideaux' "Doomsday Afternoon" might qualify
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 ZERO HOUR  'the tower of sbarize ''
Nothing can last
there are no second chances.
Never give a day away.
Always live for today.


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Originally posted by martinprog77 martinprog77 wrote:

 ZERO HOUR  'The Towers of Avarice ''

I think there's a lot of Prog Metal from that era which would fir the description well, including Anubis Gate, Beyond Twilight, Communic, Andromeda, Dominici, which dealt with a future dystopia in one form or another?
Music has always been a matter of energy to me. On some nights I believe that a car with the needle on empty can run 50 more miles if you have the right music very loud on the radio. Hunter S Thompson
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Eloy - "The Light from Deep Darkness",  Floating (1974)

This epic may symbolize some nightmarish technocracy too, as it looks to be apocalyptic and about some technology, probably atomar, 
which will destroy the future of the mankind by destroying the entire Earth. Pollution as a reason can maybe be a possibility too.





Edited by David_D - July 31 2024 at 11:55
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King Crimson, "Epitaph" was there first. 
I am not a Robot, I'm a FREE MAN!!
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King Crimson - "Epitaph"

The wall on which the prophets wrote
Is cracking at the seams
Upon the instruments of death
The sunlight brightly gleams
When every man is torn apart
With nightmares and with dreams
Will no one lay the laurel wreath
When silence drowns the screams
Confusion will be my epitaph
As I crawl a cracked and broken path
If we make it, we can all sit back and laugh
But I fear tomorrow I'll be crying
Yes, I fear tomorrow I'll be crying
Yes, I fear tomorrow I'll be crying
Between the iron gates of fate
The seeds of time were sown
And watered by the deeds of those
Who know and who are known
Knowledge is a deadly friend
If no one sets the rules
The fate of all mankind, I see
Is in the hands of fools
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^That song "Epitaph" literally helped me to direct my angst about the American environmental disaster of the late 1960s (rivers catching on fire etc.) and inspired me to pursue work in the environmental field.  Music by Yes ("Let them rape the forests" - uh, no way!) helped as well!!  

This is the result (I am co-founder):  http://www.neochloris.com


Edited by cstack3 - July 31 2024 at 16:38
I am not a Robot, I'm a FREE MAN!!
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Originally posted by cstack3 cstack3 wrote:

^That song "Epitaph" literally helped me to direct my angst about the American environmental disaster of the late 1960s (rivers catching on fire etc.) and inspired me to pursue work in the environmental field.  Music by Yes ("Let them rape the forests" - uh, no way!) helped as well!!  

This is the result (I am co-founder):  http://www.neochloris.com

Some great lyrics!!
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