Did You Think Prog Was Dead?

^ that's a three clappies post David  

Badabing666 wrote: One of the patterns emerging in these posts is that many of us listened to prog up to a certain age and then lost track. Obviously prog never went way, more a case that many of us were tempted away by other genres and, dare I say other distractions (partners, kids, stuff to fix etc). A significant factor for me was moving away from my home town where a couple of older mates were a constant source of prog music in the late 70's. That and the trips to London to dig up music gold in the second hand record stores of Soho. A quick glance at the discographies of many bands proves that there has been a constant output of prog music throughout the years demonstrating that it never went away. Let's face it, even now you have to put some effort into finding out about new albums and bands and praise be to the internet and the likes of PA & Progfreak for making it possible. That said I am betting that the average Joe on the street genuinely believes that prog passed away decades ago. I was out with some old mates the other night when the subject of music came up. I proudly declared my love of prog which was met by the usual pregnant pause and some embarrassed shuffling on their parts. What do I care. This has been a great year for many excellent new albums and having seen the likes of Dream Theater, Frost*, Mostly Autumn and due to see Steve Hackett in the autumn I am delighted that I rediscovered prog. Did i think that prog was dead? Yes, I used to until about 5 years ago. Now I know that it is very much alive, if a little off the beaten path.

While I was leafing through those old Friars Club flyers looking for documented references to the term "progressive rock" dating back to 1969, I came across one where the editor lamented the commercialisation of progressive rock that was pricing some of the bands out of the club's budget ... dated January 1970!

I, like many, think that I would have continued to go on thinking prog was dead without the internet (and this web site).

I think its easy - with the benefit of hindsight - to see that prog never actually went away and that there were decent prog releases every single year from the late 60's right through to the current day.

But it sure didn't seem like at the time!

That's because, in the late 1970s / early 1980s, the large commercially-orientated record companies very largely moved away from prog. A lot of the historic prog bands / artists either broke up, went on hiatus, adapted their musical sound or moved to much smaller or even homespun recording labels. In an era when there was no Internet, the fact that nobody was releasing stuff into mainstream record shops or writing about it in the main music media meant that it effecitvely 'disappeared' for most of us who were around at that time. Then, allayed to the fact that many of us who remember that 1970s era were getting into work / family / kids etc, further served to distance us. Speaking for myself, I had little spare money, time or even inclination to go hunting around for prog in obscure specialist music shops!

In reality, quite a bit of decent stuff was being released in that whole era, but until the Internet came along and revived interest, most of us were in total ignorance. At least we now have a huge body of work to discover!

Umm.. I didn't know it was called Prog...  Maybe I was a little thick or something, but when I was younger, when people asked me what music I liked I said "sort of hippy music like Pink Floyd, Genesis, Jethro Tull and stuff like that" - I certainly never knew it was called Progressive rock.   Time went by and we passed through the 80's and I must admit that I didn't think Hippy music was about any more - I was a little aware that Marillion were a kind of Genesis-like band but that's all I thought.

Into the early 2000's (20 years on now) and I had a major Pink Floyd and Genesis revival and bought up all my old vinyl albums on CD (I didn't have a record player any more).  It drove my wife mad - "not another bloomin' Pink Floyd album" "you're living in the past!".  I couldn't help it though - I couldn't listen to anything else.   In fact I liked their music this second time around a lot more than the first!  Maybe it's because I was older and more cultured.

Even at this stage I thought that there wasn't any music like that any more.

....Until quite by chance I stumbled across PA when I first had the internet in 2004.  I was interested if anybody evre wrote reviews on Pink Floyd albums and I keyed in Meddle into Google, and a review for the album came up in PA.  I was fascinated and hooked.

I also discovered it was called "Prog" - wow, at last I thought - now I know what it was actually called!!

With a little more time I was become a little embarrassed about my living in the past jibes (indeed my sons bought me a CD of Living in the Past by JT and thought it histerically funny!) - Umm I was happy though - I love that album.

So...  I thought, I wonder if there any modern bands who try and emulate the sound of Pink Floyd, then maybe I can get into them - be less "living in the past" and then I would even get the chance to see them live!!  Note I was also a little frustrated that Pink Floyd weren't producing any other albums and certainly I would never be able to see them live.

So I turned back to PA to try and find out if they covered such new bands - and here I first discovered Porcupine Tree - as there was a bit then on the website that kind of said "if you liked this, then you'll like that..."  well, not exactly, but it was something like that.  I think it was because Porcupine Tree were under the "psychedelic/ space rock" category then - a category I think they should still be under.

(I also saw a magazine in the shops entitled "Prog Rock" which discussed all those early bands (since the dawn of realisation of the word Prog from PA!!!), and then in an article at the back discussed modern bands who try to play it today.  I discovered the Mars Volta through that article.)

Fascinated, I found by surprise in an HMV stall a copy of "Coma Divine" by Porcupine Tree - and a new age of discovery started for me.

Since then, I have become fascinated by the new Prog rock scene, which is still very much alive and kicking - and actually developed considerably (moved onwards that is) from its roots.

There is now - in the 2000's a new wave of Prog music which is very powerful and exceptionally good - don't miss it!

Yes, I think as many of you have said it kind of died in the 80's (all bar Marillion), and with it the Hippies passed away.  The styles and fashions - and the "beardy weirdies" as my wife calls them - and the Old Grey Whistle Test - have all gone - but that doesn't matter, it's the music that counts really - and that music has been re-born.

Personally, on my vovage of discovery I have delved back into the recent past to try and figure out where/when that re-birth happened.  I have discovered that it happened very quietly (and barely anyone noticed) with the issue of "On the Sunday of Life.." by Porcupine Tree.

Since then, bit by bit, it has developed - with many new structures and facets - into the fabulous tidal wave of great new music now, which certainly equals the greatness of the past at the present time I think in terms of beautiful music (now with superior recording facilities and technology)

Get out there, and enjoy - this is true "New Wave" not that of Punk rock at the end of the 70's - and you'll even get to see these bands live!!!

My dream came true in April 2007 when I got to see Porcupine Tree in Bristol...

Oh..And my wife did say recently when I said about me "living in the past" - she said "oh, you're not so bad on that now"  Yey - I'm a happy man.

...But I still listen to Pink Floyd sometimes!  (I just don't tell her!)

pp

(PS - Great thread and lush posts from everybody - sorry this one is so ridiculously long - I'll be proud of anyone who reads it all !!!)

DangerousCurves wrote: ^ I read it (and found it very interesting)!   I don't think it died, I think it just died to the mainstream. Being born in 1981 I obviously missed the first wave. It was only when after finding musical direction just over ten years ago, through late Genesis into early, that I had ever heard of the term 'Progressive Rock.' I think Pink Floyd was the only other prog band I had heard of at that point and that was only from 'Another Brick In The Wall Pt 2'. Then a friend who was around then, showed me Yes, King Crimson, ELP and others and the rest is history, as they say. I think that a certain 'spirit' of prog was carried through with the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal.

Proud of you! (I said I would be!)

Interestingly - for me Another Brick in the Wall Pt 2 was the beginning for me - when it hit the charts in 1979 (yes, sad isn't it? - not the most glamorous beginning for me)

Yes, agreed - Heavy metal now has vastly moved on from what it was - and in a way the best place to look for musical virtuosity is in metal nowadays - as my sons keep telling me - but I say that has come influenced from Prog.

But it's not always musical virtuosity that's the best...

Yes, I thought it was dead.  But I didn't really think of myself as a prog guy when I was heavy into Rush, Yes, Kansas, Floyd, Alan Parsons and some others in the 80's.  I bought a bunch of used stuff and a lot of it happened to be prog (also got TAAB on vinyl for $2 new).  I went thru a heavy metal phase and then soured on that; got into the whole grunge thing but as the years went on, I bought less and less music because nothing appealed.  It never occurred to me that there might be prog bands still out there, making music that I would love.

Thank goodness for Vapor Trails.  The album is not one of my favorites, but I bought it on Amazon at the end of my dry period and got Dream Theater, then Transatlantic and Flower Kings recommendations off that shaky album and it was a short step to buying hundreds of prog albums from there.

I have to agree that this site has opened my eyes to a hell of a lot of bands that would have passed me by.