The First Proto-Prog Songs

Chico Hamilton's magnificent albums during the early to mid 60's are somewhat overlooked. Probably because they weren't experimenting with free form avantgarde jazz. But while Coleman and Ayler blew their horns and jazz out of the mainstream and into the finearts, Chico's quintet, with Charles Lloyd's free spirited, wandering, groovin' compositions and especially the eastern/indian/rockin' sounds of hungarian (electric) guitarist Gabor Szabo... practically invented psychedelia and Jazzrock-fusion. Rick Manczarek must have heard Szabo playing at some point before The End. Here's the title track from 1962's Man From Two Worlds:

ClemofNazareth wrote: Can I get a nod for Moondog? "Organ Rounds" (1949): "Surf Session" (1953 as a single, 1956 on his second full-length album):

Telstar and the other Joe Meek stuff is definitely on my proto list. Really psychedelic stuff.

What else?



And, definitely, anything from the Byrds. The first one might be "It's No Use" with a breathtaking, and really brief, guitar solo at 1:20. The strange chromatic 'what I love to live' part with the cryptic lyrics also qualifies. These jazzy licks surely were the blueprint for many proto-prog material from America. Jefferson Airplane sounded a lot like the Byrds on their debut album...





Edited by Einsetumadur - February 01 2013 at 10:42

Shadow Morton (1940 - 2013) RIP  produced the first proto prog song

Edited by Stool Man - February 17 2013 at 15:48

We have to be careful here. I am being pedantic but the question is what might be the first Proto-prog song. Song means it has to have "singing". So a number of the tracks put forward don't qualify. But I know, I know who cares?!

I am glad someone (Prog-Traveller) has put Del Shannon's 1961 hit "Runaway' in there. The song itself isn't all that proto-prog but the unusual-for-its-day 26 sec musical interlude (from 1.10 to 1.36) with Shannon's keyboardist, Max Crook playing his self-invented clavione-based electric keyboard, the Musitron, makes this track very different from anything that was released before it. Listen here:


If we are allowed to include just music, then The Dr Who theme from 1963 is right up there. Fascinating reading here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doctor_Who_theme_music              Funny I always thought that this recording was the first moog synthesizer track ever but it is not a moog synthesizer at all. Here's the theme:


Then there is what I believe is really the first proto-prog song. The Byrds "Eight Miles High" first recorded in December 1965 for RCA, which was some 4 months before the better known version was released in early 1966. I understand someone putting forward "It's No Use" by the Byrds but "Eight Miles High is pure proto-prog from go to whoa. What a fantastic song!
Here's the 1965 version:


And here is the more familiar one from early 1966. They are quite different.

ole-the-first wrote:

Sorry ole..I can't hear anything that is proto-prog in this song. Please explain.

BarryGlibb wrote: ole-the-first wrote: Sorry ole..I can't hear anything that is proto-prog in this song. Please explain.

1. Unconventional song structure. It starts like a lullaby and then building up into the journey of dream. Six different melodies were used in less than three minutes instead of verse-chorus structure.
2. Use of symphonic arrangements.

Isn't that enough to consider this song non-conventional and experimental, and so also proto-progressive?

Here are two from the early 1960s:




and one from 1965: