Opinions Of An Apprentice- Streamsciosness

I decided to open this space for my musical prog-related ramblings.

 

Edited by Luca Pacchiarini - August 20 2009 at 15:36

I'm not sure of German Oak's position.

Wow, picturing Yes coming on stage to Siegfried instead of Firebird.  Or there's a section early in Parsifal that I think would work nicely.  Anyhow, give me Mozart over that sickness any day.

Another great post from Luca, who seemingly came out of nowhere and has become a favorite of mine.

chaos8619 wrote: In Romania, a former communist country, all the artist who don't collaborate with the communist regime were banned and a lot of them were force to emigrate in western countrys. After the second world war, the new communist regime oppress all the artist and a lot of them were arrested and deported in Siberia. Jazz music was forbidden for a long period of time, also the modern classical music. Great romanian artist like composer George Enescu, sculptor Constantin Brâncuş, absurd dramatist Eugen Ionesco and many other were force to leave for good their country. In the mid 60's was a period of freedom and this was the moment wen jazz begun to be appreciate and to be played at national radio station. Also some western movies and music penetrate the censorship, which help the development of romanian rock music. The most important romanian rock bands from 70's (Phoenix, Sfinx, Progresiv TM, Experimental Q, Rosu si Negru, Pro Musica, Curtea Veche) were strongly prog influenced bands, but because of the censorship most of them couldn't record albums and even the music they record was severely tainted from communist censorship. In the 80's, the prog rock was almost extinct (with the exception of bands like Celelalte Cuvinte, Pro Musica, Basorelief, Accent, Post Scriptum) and hard rock/ metal bands (Iris, Metropol, Holograf, Voltaj) were constantly baned. A great protestant hard rock song from that period is "Trenul fară naş" (the train without check man) from the band Iris, who manage to get through the communist censorship and was a huge underground hit. Also Dan Andrei Aldea, the front man of the band Sfinx release a single in 1980, with just a few months before he will leave for ever  Romania "Zece  arici inamorati/ Noi nu ne temem" (ten gnomes armed/ we are not afraid), single who was baned son after the release because of the very ironic lyrics and burlesque music. The avant-garde musician and poet Mircea Florian release with his band Florian din Transilvania in 1986 the LP "Tainicul vartej", who was the only avant-rock/kraut LP ever released in Romania before 1989, and just a few month later, Mircea Florian emigrate in Western Germany and the album was banned.

Thank you for contributing, informative post 

Your thread reminded me of this album:

Residents - Third Reich & Roll

Okay, a few words about Yugoslavian rock and Yugoslavian political climate here.

Yugoslavia was communist, socialists, people's and whatnot country with its dictatorship and cenzorships etc...Having a private company or stating religious feelings in public was highly discouraged.

However. Yugoslavia was very open for both Western and Eastern European tourists, Yuogoslav citizens were more or less free to travel whenever they wanted, Zamyatin's and Orwell's book were never banned, Hollywood movies were every night on state TV. Pop rock hits were all time on radio.

The level of opression was gradually falling down every decade from 50's to 80's.

Yugoslavia never signed neither a North Atlantic nor Warszaw treaty - it was a member of Non-Aligned Movement - which means all the things Third World - South America, Africa, Indochina etc. - were highly popular - culture, literature, art, music etc. I still remeber my mother used to lull me using some Indonesian song "saronkankini, saronkankana" as a lullaby. Quite a bizarre thing from today's perspective.

Anyway. Rock songs were filtered through cenzorship - if they were about religion or politics. Paradoxically, the most opressive attited towards rock began in the 80's - with the advent of punk and new wave, who were very bitter and critical aboout the politics. Still, it remains the most prolific scene of the former country, with hundreds of great artists - if by a chance this isn't ProgArchives but Punk&NewWaveArchives, Yugoslavia would be a giant next to USA, UK and Germany, I'm sure.

As far as Prog Rock goes - everything folk was, of course, widely popular; and anything even remotly related to jazz, which is quite obvious when you're discovering the Yu prog scene. Symphonic prog as a domestic phenomenon was literally non-existent; hard-rock ,avangarde and psychedelia were all popular to some degree. There was an explosion of artists and ideas, but unfortunatelly very few very able to enter a studio and release an album in the 70's, otherwise situation would be quite different.

Yugoslavian classic rock and prog scene is widely regarded as a good and very prolific around these circles, but I discovered here Polish ,Czechoslovakian, Hungarian and Romanian scenes (Which are great!!) and started thinking that perhaps Yu-rock is nothing special from a broader perspective, except for ourselves... I mean, it's great, but we could have been achieving  so much more. But the thing is, we're not only lazy Balkan b*****ds, we're actually proud of it.

The war ended the story and brought some different mindsets, but art and culture of former countries is still influential to each other - which will yield some interesting results when bitter spirits settle down...but that's another story.

totem63 wrote: Luca, IMHO prog could NEVER be a dictature's soundtrack. I can imagine some folk soundscape during lega's reunions, but it's a poor approach to a cultural movement, intended only as blind roots achievement without a real comprehension or cultural growth. progressive music it's the real opposite, with it's inner complexity, to all that mus belong to a dictature's culture, as this need monolithic and non critic expressions, based on slogans and simple ways of expression.

That's exactly what I think, in my first post I wrote "too complex" or something like that, I can't remember exactly.... what I wanted to write here, was: what would have happened to our genre if it took place in that period?

i've walked a lot around victory square, lyon's square.... pappagallo's jewelry... gaggioli & vezzosi... gran bazaar.... looong time ago.... 

My guess?

Slartibartfast wrote: Residents - Third Reich & Roll

All music would sound like this. There would be German Chubby Checker.