1975: Hayward & Lodge - Blue Jays -  http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_l1Hr46rQ8oA1IGGodOHI0AFZxJefwJ-eA" rel="nofollow - http://www.youtube.com/playlist? http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_l1Hr46rQ8oA1IGGodOHI0AFZxJefwJ-eA" rel="nofollow - list=OLAK5uy_l1Hr46rQ8oA1IGGodOHI0AFZxJefwJ-eA

 1974: Tangerine Dream - Ricochet -  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xM1Wc6ha_ic" rel="nofollow - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xM1Wc6ha_ic

Yes, although not always in order of release year. For instance, I bought Renaissance' Ashes Are Burning firstly, followed by Turn of the Cards and then Prologue. The first YES album I ever bought was 90125 in 1983, and besides the Classic Yes compilation, they were the only two YES albums I owned before going online in 2010, when I discovered a whole new world of prog that I never knew existed before. 

My earliest experiences although I didn't necessarily know they were called prog at the time:

Rush - Signals  Bought on cassette tape in late 1982

Pink Floyd - The Final Cut Bought on vinyl in the summer of 1983

Genesis - Shapes (s/t) christmas present in 1983

Yes - 90125 bought on cassette tape in late 83 or early 84

Yes - Classic Yes - was waiting for me on cassette tape in the summer of 84 (I ordered it through the mail just before I went to summer camp. Some kids at camp were really into Yes so it made me even more excited when I got home to listen to it)

Yes - Fragile  Late summer of 1984 (late July or August of that year)

In 1985 I first heard King Crimson, Relayer by Yes, etc. The snow ball obviously started to roll and by 86 I was well on my way to being a prog fan having known the term by then.

I was instantly grabbed by the sound of the Mellotron in the title song.  The rest is history. 

None really ... I was already into the music that was putting the bubblegum AM thing to bed, with the Beatles, Moody Blues, and as time went by, I got into Janis, Jim, and many others as soon as they appeared and it was the "new mantra", the new vision, that took over for me ... it was a cultural revolution for me, and I welcomed it. And when that shooting took place in Ohio, I knew I was in the right place, fighting with the artists for something that was fair ... and not out of line.

The music, like the arts, NEVER STOPPED, and continued, and I have been with them since then.

To think that there was one album, or band that made a difference is strange to me ... so how were you aware of things around you ... and worse ... did it matter at all? 

For many of us, going back to the 60's, most of it was important, and not just hot farts, and insipid lyrics by a lot of bands considered tops in various lists.

I like to say that the "poetry" was killed, and replaced by plastic, or plasticine as the Beatles said. And I think that many of us didn't care anymore ... like we were defeated, anyway! A generation, that while well meaning, did not have the inner strength to continue ... they had to wait for it to get commercialized!

The first Prog album, I liked (even much), was ELP's Trilogy.

That was a revelation to me. This is even possible? For a while I thought all other bands were pants though. Nothing compared to this. Eventually I got to prog in general but it took a few years for the Tarkus effect to wear off. Most 70's prog was always a little wimpy compared to ELP!

Hi,

I really miss, what I call, the "artistic" side of the music ... when all it means these days to be progressive is to have "lyrics" tell us what the whole thing is about ... not realizing that the music, for hundreds of years, has always spoken far more than many words ... and that is not to say that some words are not special, but within the past 20 years, not a whole lot has really shown itself to be absolutely  massively well composed material ... and all we have to do is hear Rachel Flowers do TARKUS in its entirety on the piano alone ... to realize what an incredible piece of music it is ... and not many pieces stand out like it.

I always reference this with my days at UCSB ... 40 years ago ... no professor would ever have looked at that and thought it was excellent, and Keith had to "translate it" for his mates, and ended up with an incredible piece of music ... only to find many years later ... what it really was ... but that "style" was how things got noticed in those days ... and gracious goodness ... it doesn't really get a whole lot better than that. 

I always thought TFTO and Tarkus were 2 of the greatest things in my collection, and often I say ... my life!

About three years ago, I listened to Focus III. For several months, I had been leaning towards listening to more complex music, but I had never listened to progressive rock. I didn't know what kind of music it was, but I really liked the album. When I looked up information about the band on the internet, I immediately recognized the brilliant Hocus Pocus (which up to that point I had found horrible). After that, I listened to Hamburger Concerto, which blew my mind after a couple of listens. So, we could say that Hamburger Concerto is the first prog album I listened to (I don't consider Focus III to be progressive rock).

Dark Side of the Moon

Nursery Cryme

Frets N Worries wrote: Dire Straits - Love Over Gold

Interesting pick. I wonder how it got you to more technical prog.

Grumpyprogfan hits on this idea...I think the "real" answer for me would be Pink Floyd - Dark Side of the Moon. My dad got a copy on CD as part of his Columbia House "Bonus" CDs when I was like 10 years old and I used to listen to it on the family stereo all the time...but I didn't know it was prog, really.

The band that turned me on to "Prog" proper was Änglagård. I saw them at NEARfest in 2003 and nearly fell over myself running to their merch booth after their performance. Bought a copy of "Hybris" immediately and fell all the way down the rabbit hole.

So what do you consider Focus 3 to be then? 

Force Majeure was the fourth Tangerine Dream album I ever bought, after Stratosfear, Ricochet & Rubycon. From Tangerine Dream, that led me on to the music of Jean Michel Jarre, Vangelis, Synergy and Tomita..... You say Tomita, I say Tomato. Let's call the whole thing off. 

Soooo, I'd say that Harmonium's debut and Crime Of The Century (my first two albums bought with my own money in 74) were it.

I watched an interview with Van Leer recently and he said he hated the term 'progressive rock' and still does. He considers Focus an 'instrumental band'.  Anyhow Focus 3 is more fusion based so I agree with the view that it's not really 'prog' as such. Hamburger Concerto however clearly is prog despite what Van Leer may assert. IMO

Hi,

ERUPTION is the treat in that album ... a really special piece of  music. 

And yes, HAMBURGER CONCERTO is also a very nice treat. As is other stuff in that album ...

Hi,

He's not the only one ... Robert Fripp has stated that KC is not progressive.

But, I think the issue here, is that we're talking about folks that know music very well, and are truly educated in terms of its history and a lot of music. And remember that Van Leer had several solo albums (the Introspection Series) that were all about classical music in the flute. And that kinda pretty much states to my ear that all music is just a natural "progression" based on its history and how the playing of it evolved, from the quartets and small gigs on the courts to an organ at a church, to eventual huge orchestras some 450 years later. That is a "progression" and the composing side adjusted to what was available, which is AKIN to the new electric instruments after WW2, and eventually Rock Music, and Jazz Music. 

Sadly, for commercial purposes, Focus likely will not be found in many places, other than "progressive" websites ... and one song in the "classic radio" which the band will never get paid for! (per article just this week on USA TODAY ... written by David Byrne!)

No, but I've heard Quark, Strangeness and Charm, where Hawkwind  sound strangely punkish, and lacking in charm. but maybe not so surprising for 1977. 

Eruption is on Moving Waves (Focus II) and not Focus 3.

Spirit Of The Age was great at least. I love the whole album actually and it's probably the only Hawkwind album that I can put up with it. (Bad nostalgia of a sixth form common room and Hawkwind were constantly on the stereo especially anything involving Michael Moorcroft bellowing out.)

I suppose I need to expand my listening but I've only tried a few albums here and there. Space Ritual is the only other album I've properly listened to. Warrior On The Edge Of Time is still very much the Moorcock (not Moorcroft above, typo!) era but I note it has a strong rating on PA so I'll give that a go.

Jethro Tull, Kansas, Yes, etc. in popular settings (not so much outwardly noted as "prog" or something unique).

With Gentle Giant, I got into the more complex / deep prog.

So we listened to Yes, Tull, King Crimson, Zeppelin, Sabbath, Floyd, Genesis, The Who, The Allman Brothers, Traffic, Moody Blues, The Stones, Procol Harum, Santana, Bowie, Neil Young, T. Rex, Humble Pie, Mott the Hoople, Alice Cooper, and 60s stuff like The Beatles, the Doors, Hendrix, Janis, Cream, etc. The "genre" didn't mean jack. It was either good, or it was ignored.

Hi,

That's the thing that bothers me the most about some of the things listed that (supposedly) are good, and I have sat and listened to it ... and honestly, I could not say "it was good". 

I don't like to compare things, since it was a different time and place, but a lot of the music these days, is missing the strength ... of what another band says ... forgot what you are fighting for ... and try hard to make us think that words from the "book" are important and then some "conceptual" things here and there, that sound no different than anything else.

I am not sure that many folks realize how DIFFERENT each one was that you mentioned, as opposed to some listing where many bands have a similar format and basically the same style, with the "solos" in exactly the same place ... it's like the personality of the music is invisible, and we can't say that about your list.

I think I was born for listening prog, but the album is this:

Hi,

There weren't many copycats way back when and THAT IS THE REASON why we remember so many of them! But saying that TODAY, when we go through the list of each month, it is a completely different story ... not that many things are exceptionally "different" as the stuff was 50 years ago, and we are not able to appreciate it without comparing it to something else.

None of us sits here and says that the Romantic Era in music was better than the Expressionistic Era in music, and it was obvious that it was a different time and place for each of those ... but we keep listing these bands in the same era as if it all was up in the last 5 years or so ... and that is something that is difficult to relate to a lot of "today's" audience. It's not that they don't listen to music, or don't like yesterday's stuff ... it is more that it is looked at as exactly the same as those were 50 years ago ... AND THAT IS NOT THE CASE at all!

To me, they are all different ... and that is what makes me enjoy them even though some will say that this bands sounds like and that band sounds like, which for me is like saying Triumvirat sounds like ELP ... it takes the compositional side of Triumvirat out the window for me, and that is not fair to the musicians that tried so hard to do what they saw and thought was valuable.