If you had to pick one track from one band (song or instrumental) that best sums up what you want to listen to in prog rock, that best defines you as a listener, what is it? Yes, I know one track is tough, but that's why we do these. Multiple choices are automatically eliminated for wimpyness. The thread title is too short for all the words---its YOUR favorite or definitive prog rock track.

 

 

Mine would have to be Los Endos (live) from the Seconds Out album, Genesis. I find I probably listen to that track over the years the most. It defines everything I love about Genesis, it defines why I love progressive rock, and every time I heard it played live in concert over the years, including 4 times last fall, it never has failed to give me chills up the spine. Powerful, searing, bubbling and gurgling with synths, huge rolling toms and knife edge guitars, it never fails to impress me. Since the Seconds Out live version is the last one with Hackett, I have to go with that. Genesis at the peak of their craft.

 

 

Hmm... part of me wants to say Starless for its multiple parts, it's buildup, and its final explosion, but I would imagine that's less representative of prog than, say Supper's Ready.

 

I think I'll go with Tarkus.  While not my favorite prog song (not even close), it has all the elements commonly associated with prog (virtuosity, multiple parts, etc).  Not only that, though, it also represents the aspects of prog commonly associated with the genre by non-prog fans (pomposity, silly lyrics, etc), so in that sense, it is representative of prog to both those inside and outside of the prog community.

 

laplace, It may be worth checking this out if you get a chance...

 

http://www.progarchives.com/album.asp?id=2900 - Saat
EMTIDI

 

I found Dolly Holmes' vocals in Saat to be a very pleasant surprise!

 

 

I'd agree with that one .....not cliched though; they're one of the originals and rarely bettered.

 

You can't pick that, it's by two bands

 

 

The Musical Box is a good'un as well.

Thick as a Brick too,

You see where this is going...

 

 

Actually all of the ones mentioned so far that I've heard seem like good choices to me.  For a single piece to "sum up" prog, it would have to cover a lot of ground; hit the soft and heavy, complex and melodic parts with good fluidity.  Genesis and Yes were the best at that IMO, and that's why were talk about them so much.

 

TAAB is my favourite album of all time but it is missing the really serious keyboard workout that I think would be required to be "the one track for all things prog".

 

 

 

 

"Buckingham Green" by Ween. Laugh all you want, but that things really IS like the ultimate prog song. Where else can you have all of prog's epic sprawl crammed into three minutes? Dude, that thing is DEEP. Epic. Emotional. Cold. Virtuoso. And awesome.

 

Cacho, maybe I am wrong, which would make you right! I had another listen to TAAB last night ( as one does ) with this thread in mind. There IS enough from the keys and perhaps TAAB DOES fit the bill after all!

 

 

Trilogy by ELP maybe, Roundabout, not sure

 

It is all that VDGG has come to personify and more. 'A Plague of Lighthouse Keepers' was the first track I had heard from this amazing band. It's unbelievable in every aspect, running for an awesome 23 minutes, it tells the story of an eyewitness who sees the unspeakable as he feels his body fading in a storm while voyaging on a doomed ship. It reminds one of Coleridge's Rime of the Ancient Mariner (check Iron Maiden's take on this poem). The narrator notes “I prophesy disaster and then I count the cost. I shine but shining, dying I know that I am almost lost.” The piano gets faster and seems to be falling down an abyss. There is a brief interlude that reminds one of a ship floating on an endless ocean and we hear the lonely saxophone blasts that resemble bizarre fog horns. You can almost picture the image of a ghost ship sailing through fog and there's a genuinely creepy ambience. The song takes on a darker atmosphere and Hammill begins to use his patented gravel tone to sing of death spectres that scratch on windows, hollowed faces, and lost mastheads that pierce the freezing dark. There are several parts that flash by until the track moves to Presence of the Night/ Kosmos Tours. The saxophone really shines in this section and a weird time signature locks in, with Hammill singing “Why can't I let me live and be free, but I die very slowly alone.” A beautiful hammond sound fills the void and the tempo ignites to a frenetic pace where it spirals blissfully out of control. Then it all ends suddenly and the gorgeous piano reverberates to a melancholic contemplative Hammill who asks “Lighthouses might hold the key but can I reach the door?” It's a lovely moment after all the mayhem preceding, then the next section begins suddenly with Hammill's rasping vocals and short jagged spurts of noise from Banton and Evans, The Clot Thickens. At times the sound seems curiously off kilter, out of tune and rhythm but it all gels perfectly into the tranquil Land's End, “Stars slice horizons where the lines stand much too stark, I feel I am drowning hands stretch in the dark...” And it ends on a rather positive note in a sense where Hammill muses that “it doesn't feel so very bad now” and perhaps “the end is the start... all things are apart.” You can take what you will from the potent lyrics but all is sung with absolute conviction which makes the piece all the more intriguing. It is a ballad of gothic grandeur in every sense that constantly surprises with its complex twisting structure.

 

 

You are on the ball, jimmy_row. I sort of like to add Eruption by Focus, River of Life by PFM, The Golden Void by Hawkwind, Isle of Everywhere by Gong, the entire Red Queen to Gryphon 3 album  and , yes I must say Tubular Bells by Oldfield .

And as a sign of respect to my avatar , "the Bogus Man" by Roxy Music , very prog, very modern , very cool.

"Shine on you Crazy Diamond" by Pink Floyd, possibly because it was one of the first I heard, and it made me think of what the so called "Progressive Rock" (that I didn't know) was. 

 

More modern and avant-gard I like Mr. Bungle's "Carry Stress in the Jaw", the only musical appearance of Grampa Simpson I'm aware of.

I think Alifib from Robert Wyatt's "Rock bottom" is the prog tune for me. The slow hypnotic start, the incredible lyrics, the amazing singing and above all - the sadness and the way we can realy feel the pain and sorrow is ............................................................................................... what art realy is.

 

I chose this track because like the album from which it comes, it sums up the grand parodox of prog, the good (artistry, virtuosity) and the bad (pretentiousness, indulgence).

 

Another good track to sum up prog is Karn Evil 9 by Emerson Lake and Palmer. Indulgent, pretentious, bombastic, mad time signature changes and bizarre multi movement suite structure - in other words Pretentious Revisionist Organic Genius (P.R.O.G).