Charly García for prog-related

A few months ago, I suggested the great Luis Alberto Spinetta, with his extensive solo career and as the leader of the jazz-rock/fusion bands Invisible and Spinetta Jade, the hard rock/blues rock/prog related band Pescado Rabioso, and the proto-prog band Almendra. I believe it is now time for the other great figure of Argentine music, Charly García, the leading member of the bands Sui Géneris (folk/folk prog/symphonic prog) (who released one of the first great albums of national progressive rock, Pequeñas Anécdotas Sobre las Instituciones), La Máquina de Hacer Pájaros (symphonic prog), and the acclaimed supergroup Serú Girán (eclectic/symphonic prog, prog related) (s/t, La Grasa de las Capitales, Bicicleta, etc.). He had a long solo career with several successful albums during the '80s and '90s. 

Edited by ThyroidGlands - February 22 2025 at 21:38

Most of his albums can be found as playlists on this YouTube channel:

Hrychu wrote: Good luck. From what I've heard, for an act to be considered for Prog Related, it has to be evaluated for and rejected from a "true prog" sub-genre first.

I suggest Crossover (a sort of suggestion within the suggestion!)

Links for the first four albums in yam yam's post above (Thanks David!). I'll be back with some more links later.

Edited by Heart of the Matter - February 23 2025 at 17:25

La Hija de la Lágrima, 1994





Say no More, 1996

Sorry guys, both my colleagues in Crossover have voted 'no', meaning that Charly has been rejected and there's nothing more I can do.

^ Yeah, I guess...but it would have been nice if we could have honoured the guy for what he achieved with a page of his own in Prog-Related. The two collaborators who voted 'no' are far more experienced and knowledgeable about what constitutes prog than I am though, so no complaints really...and we did at least give Charly his chance. 

ThyroidGlands wrote: I don't understand. Charly was the leader of two of the most important and influential progressive bands in Latin America. Isn't that enough to have him included in the prog related category?

^ I think we can be quite flexible. I like to take things ona case-by-case basis, but also recognise the guidelines. Not all teams use no quite the same way, but I know I would want to take their opinions on why they think it is not even related-worthy into account if they even delved into that in the discussion. At that point I would want a Special Collaborator to make a topic on the band in the Collab zone under Artists/Bands under evaluation. If there is sufficient support there (or not much dissent at least), then a case PMed to an Admin on why they think it should be included as well as some of the most relevant music material would be helpful. Traditionally, the Admin team would not even listen to the music for an evaluation, but I like to to hear that the music at least has progressive or unusual qualities even if it is not Prog-genre per se. An artist's associations with bands is not enough (so, say Phil Collins solo is not in PA) we do consider if the artists "solo", or a related band's, music is influenced by progressive rock, is an influence on the progressive rock scenes (or on specific bands/artist deemed Prog) and we do consider the qualities of the music itself. is it adventurous? Is it genre-bending? Is it progressive? Is it quirky, experimental or unusual, can it be likened to music under the progressive rock umbrella? Prog related is thought to be for exceptional cases and the quality of the arguments for and against (how compelling they are) do matter.

Lots can be taken into consideration. I would not want to completely discount an act just because it got "no" votes, but I would want to understand the reasoning behind the "no" votes. If it's because people think the music itself has nothing (or very little) to do with Prog, well, that is a compelling reason not to take it further. I know when I was on a Prog genre team I would vote related if I thought the music itself had any progressive qualities. That did not mean that I thought it should be in Prog Related, but that I thought it was musically feasible to potentially be there. Not all would use the PR option that way and I kow some who would vote on teams no rather than move and Prog Related if they thought it was not right for their subgenre. To me it makes sense that we can be open to reconsider things with fresh ears and fresh ideas. Sometimes even the wrong material gets evaluated. Not saying that happened here, but people are fallible. We have guidelines, but often those I don't think of as firm rules.

Anyway, there are process that help getting to the next stage, but then we would want an SC to champion it, for it to be properly discussed in the collab zone (forums that you have to be collabs to access, for there to be some level of consensus that this would be a good fit, someone making a comprehensive case to us willing to add it, and then we would seriously consider it. It has been meant to be hard to get into Prog Related often.

Logan wrote: ...At that point I would want a Special Collaborator to make a topic on the band in the Collab zone under Artists/Bands under evaluation. ...An artist's associations with bands is not enough ... we do consider if the artists "solo", or a related band's, music is influenced by progressive rock, is an influence on the progressive rock scenes (or on specific bands/artist deemed Prog) and we do consider the qualities of the music itself. is it adventurous? Is it genre-bending? Is it progressive? Is it quirky, experimental or unusual, can it be likened to music under the progressive rock umbrella? ...To me it makes sense that we can be open to reconsider things with fresh ears and fresh ideas. ...Anyway, there are process that help getting to the next stage, but then we would want an SC to champion it, for it to be properly discussed in the collab zone...

OK, I just wanted to say that, if a SC initiates the topic for PR, then he would have all the assistance he/she may need to the task, all you have to do is call, and be sure all Greg's questions can be properly answered.
I cannot say much more at this point, except Thanks to David, Greg, and Jed for your good disposition to find a way of making this artist available to the PA community.