The Very start…

In the Court of King Crimson – King Crimson

Sgt Pepper – The Beatles

Nice project, mister...  Well, to begin, you need a couple of albums that changed the face of rock because of their prog side.  In 67, Sgt Peppers form The Beatles, and The Piper at the gates of dawn, from Pink Floyd.  Those two aren't quite prog, but very psychedelic and innovative.  Then, the monster, in 69, by King Crimson: In the court of the Crimson King.  That is the father of prog, the album that influenced most of the groups that are on this site.  Then, few groups did classic albums into the seventees.  These are some of the most important:

Emerson Lake and Palmer - Their self-titled album and Brain Salad Surgery

Pink Floyd - Dark side of the moon, Wish you Were Here, Animals and The Wall

Jethro Tull - Aqualung and Thick as a Brick

Genesis - Foxtrot, Nursery Crime, Selling England by the Pound, The Lamb lies down on Broadway

King Crimson - Lizard, Lark's toungues in aspic, Islands, Starless and Bible Black

Yes - Fragile, The Yes album, Close to the Edge, Relayer

This is actually what's called the Big 6.  Other groups from the first prog era are very important, too

Gentle Giant, Frank Zappa, Van Der Graaf Generator, Camel, Rush, Kraftwerk, Mahavishnu Orchestra, to mention only them...

At the end of the seventees, groups were going more commercial, leaders were leaving groups and good stuff was getting rare...  Punk was getting big and hated prog, so that dropped the popularity of prog.  That's when the neo-prog era comes in, with one group that saved prog: Marillion.  It was a group strongly influenced by Genesis that was very popular in the eighties. IQ, Soft Machine and a lot of stuff made by old groups members, like Steve Hackett, Peter Gabriel, Roger Waters, etc.  But King Crimson was still living, with Robert Fripp being the only one left from the first albums, and they were still creating good stuff.  ELP, Genesis, Gentle Giant and Yes completly fell into commercial, their last albums are very not as good as the first...  I think the second era of Prog is the less interseting...

Then, the ninetees brouth prog as it is today, with groups that are mostly divided into two: metal and electronica.  For the first types, Dream Theater, Opeth, Symphony X, Mars Volta, Tool were the most important.  Their sound is way more heavier than Rush.For the second, it was Porcupine Tree, Radiohead, Godspeed You Black Emperor...  Those were in the majority more space.  There were other groups who sounded more like the previous era, like Anglagard.

That's it, man, a prog history in 20 minutes.  Of course, there are a lot of people I didn't mention, but for excellent albums, look the top 100 prog albums, you'll enjoy.

^ How can you mention the 90's without Spocks Beard and The Flower Kings.  On top of that the Prog Fests that started up and some continuing until today!!  Very important reason Prog is doing as well today.

There is another very important album released in 1968 called Touch by a band called Touch.  members from Yes, King Crimson and Kerry Livgren from Kansas have all stated this album was very influential in their works.

Arguably the first album of progressive rock was released in 1966:

Cygnus X-2 wrote: Arguably the first album of progressive rock was released in 1966:

Agreed.

See reading the bios here at PA really helps

This is an excerpt from the brilliant Bio written about Touch by our own Dick Heath:

"Praise for TOUCH’s music came from many well known rock artists, e.g. Hendrix (who part bank rolled studio costs of the recording), and Mick Jagger. Glowing endorsements as to the influence of TOUCH have been made subsequently by Jon Anderson and Kerry Livgren – see the liner notes of the Renaissance Records reissue on CD. And the album as an import, was played heavily by the DJs in the London underground clubs – where future British prog stars relaxed in the early hours of the morning, after a hard days night gigging."

Here is the link to the whole bio:

http://www.progarchives.com/Progressive_rock_discography_BAND.asp?band_id=1552 - http://www.progarchives.com/Progressive_rock_discography_BAN D.asp?band_id=1552

Work your way through these:

http://www.progressiverock.com/timeline.asp?sYear=1967 - http://www.progressiverock.com/timeline.asp?sYear=1967

from 1967 to 1979 and you�Lll be able to arm wrestle any Prog Rock fan on this site.

No one can recognize when progressive rock was born. If I start such collection, I would make Sun Ra. Sun Ra is usually put into jazz, however I think Sun Ra produced progressive music in the middle of 1960s. Ii was prior to Frank Zappa/Freak Out !

Also I suggest different way. Progressive rock has been produced all around the world. Do you wish to create the history of each country ? USA, UK, Germany, France, Italy, Japan, Brazil have been produced quite large number of progressive rock bands/musicians since 1960s. Also, Sweden, Spain, Argentina etc have interesting history. Though many European and American fans don't notice the movement, Indonesia is very fantastic country. As far as I know Indonesia is a big progressive rock country next to Japan in Asia.

I think that you have some good suggestions but I would be weary of spending a lot of money on music other people recommend.  You need to enter into a relationship with the music.  There are many groups/albums that I hated the first time I heard them.  I remember when I was about 15 I wanted to buy Physical Graffitti but it was a double album and quite expensive.  I noticed a lot of guys were getting Jeff Beck Wired.  It was on sale for 3.99 as opposed to 9.99 for the Zep so I picked it up and on first listen I did not like it.  Then a couple of months later, after I had purchassed the Zep record, I tried Wired again and ended up listening to it every day for months.  That having been said, look at the top 500 that the website provides. that's what it is there for. 

If you want some help it would also be best to know what you like to listen to.  If you listen to metal, for example, you might like King Crimson Red or Dream Theater Metropolis.  If you like folk music you would like The Yes Album or Jethro Tull, Thick as a Brick. If you like classical piano, ELP's debut or Rick Wakemans The Six Wives of henry VIII, might be up your alley.  Then from there you can just explore reading reviews and listening to the record excerpts on Amazon before you buy. 

DallasBryan wrote: I think that any history of prog should also include artists from other countries besides England Other early 70's albums to consider are Billy Cobham - Spectrum(USA) Herbie Hancock - Headhunters Bo Hansson - Lord of the Rings(SWE) Samla Mammas Manna - Matlid Focus - 3(HOL) Clearlight - Symphony(FRA) Annexus Quam - Osmose(GER) Can - Tago Mago PFM - Per Un Amico(ITA) Banco - Darwin

Excellent point

T-BONE wrote: protokaw? who do they sound like???

http://www.progarchives.com/Progressive_rock_discography_BAND.asp?band_id=1057 - http://www.progarchives.com/Progressive_rock_discography_BAN D.asp?band_id=1057

Read the bio (but read past the first sentence) and then read the reviews.  You should have a good idea after that. New CD omes out on the 31st!

You know, there was a prog movement after the 70's. It's called Neo-Prog. It's a nice subgenre.