Sport in prog - Progressive Rock Music Forum

Like Nick Mason, I rather like my Sports to be Fictitious.

I love the Electronic/Krautrock series of Kosmischer Läufer albums (or volumes) titled "The secret cosmic music of the East German Olympic Program" and the "story" that goes along with the project.

From https://www.kosmischerlaufer.com/biography/

In East Germany in the early 1970’s Martin Zeichnete worked as a sound editor for DEFA, (Deutsche Film-Aktiengesellschaft), the state-owned film studio. Like many young East Germans of the time he would listen furtively to West German radio at night and became infatuated with the Kosmische Musik or ‘Krautrock’ epitomised by the likes of Kraftwerk, Neu! and Cluster emerging from his neighbouring country. Martin, a keen runner, hit upon the idea of using the repetitive, motorik beats of this new music as a training aid for athletes. He thought it could benefit the mind as well as the body with the pulsing, hypnotic music bringing focus. A ‘borrowed’ prototype of Andreas Pavel’s Stereobelt showed Martin the technology to provide music on the move already existed and could easily be adapted for runners.

After sharing his concept with colleagues Martin was taken from his studio to East Berlin, quizzed by the authorities about his ideas and, fearing the worst, was surprised to find himself put to work by the Nationales Olympisches Komitee immediately. Installed in a cold Berlin studio with the few electronic instruments the state could supply, (Martin asked for a Moog but was refused), he began one of the strangest journeys in music. Known to the government as State Plan 14.84L, Martin and his fellow musicians informally called it ‘Projekt Kosmischer Läufer’ (Cosmic Runner).

For the next 11 years Martin would be spirited to Berlin to work on tracks with little notice. He created hours of music fusing traditional rock instruments with synthesizers, early drum computers, tape slicing and looping techniques he and his engineer formulated themselves. His output included tracks for running at various paces, warm up pieces, ‘ambient’ music to play in gyms during training and pieces for artistic gymnastic routines.

Genesis - Match of the Day
Queen - We are the Champions

While I 100% disagree with the OP on sports, in answer to his question, I'll mention:

Stackridge - Anyone for Tennis?

Cream - "Anyone for Tennis?" (Okay already - not prog. More like poppsych)

Major Parkinson - Baseball

IZZ's song 42 on their Don't Panic album is a tribute to the great Jackie Robinson.

Oh, and baseball does not suck.

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i'm shopping for a new oil-cured sinus bag
that's a happy bag of lettuce
this car smells like cartilage
nothing beats a good video about fractions

progaardvark wrote:

IZZ's song 42 on their Don't Panic album is a tribute to the great Jackie Robinson.

Oh, and baseball does not suck.

Baseball absolutely does not suck. Going through withdrawals right now since my son finished his college baseball career as a starting pitcher. Been a fan of baseball since 1972. Johnny Bench is my all-time favourite player. The exact moment of when he became my favorite was when he hit the game tying homerun in the 9th inning against the Pirates in the 72 NL playoffs. Reds went on to win to beat the Pirates and meet the A's in the World Series, which they unfortunately lost to in 7 games.

Nick Mason's Fictitious Sports

Long live Progresive music!

richardh wrote:

...

Anyway the obvious one is:

Roy Harper - When An Old Cricketer Leaves The Crease

...

Hi,

One of the best things in that album is the fantastic piece ... "The Game, Pts 1-5" ... and there is only one person that played it so much that I had to get another copy of the album ... it's a terrible shame, that "progressive" folks don't always sit through those moments ... and yes, it is not a 4 minute song at all ... and many of the prog purists don't like long stuff ... and you already know what Roy would say about that ... and the same old rock!

Even today, you won't even hear Roy anywhere, except us talking about it here!

BTW, the album had another title ... "Headquarters" ... and I think that was not the English title, which was the Crease thing, as America would not recognize that title much, and would help fans leave it behind ... makes you wonder what the whole world was thinking ... of course ... America without cricket? What a shame!!!! Tongue

Edited by moshkito - 1 hour 27 minutes ago at 01:08

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