Happy 50th Tales From Topographic Oceans!

Hi,

I think that DSOTM succeeded because of the light show and combination of the band with the lights and the various films and bits. No other band was doing anything as adventurous and interesting, even though bands like Nektar had what was known as "Light Theater" by a man whose history in the annals of rock music is legendary. But, sadly enough, a lot of the "light show" thing had lost is fun, and folks were less interested in closing their eyes and tripping along, hoping to cheer for their favorite hit or piece of music. AND, it should be mentioned that PF was doing these in a glorious QUADRAPHONIC sound, that no one else was even trying, except maybe The Grateful Dead that had the best sound system of all bands EVER.

All in all, it was at this time that the "show" lost a lot of its design and ideas, and most bands just stuck to the worst lighting shows possible, not to mention the cheapest and to make it look like the music was better than it really was. In fact, it often hid how bad the music was!

But somethings stick to your imagination. Seeing Gentle Giant do an encore with all members switching roles, so everyone played drums, guitar, keyboards, you name it, for me made it all so much better. You knew the musicianship in GG was superior to a lot of bands, and was worth seeing. I do not know how many times they did that kind of ending to a show, but it was neat.

What brought "progressive" to the front was its incredible touch and the atmosphere created for that moment ... it was a veritable 2001 opening for many rock fans, a moment that you always remembered, specially if you were in LA and got to see the stuff at the Cinerama Dome and then the Aquarius (old) theater. (They were next to each other!).

A few years later, seeing Genesis, was boring. There was no "show" ... it was just an over done thing making it look like all the songs were majestic and important. The "important" part of the band left with PG, and he was able to continue with the thoughts and ideas he had mentioned in the MM interview about his leaving Genesis. He forgot the idea and concept and only did songs since then, and even today, it is grossly over rated and not really great or as important and valuable as things were at the time. 

TFTO, will likely be played by a Symphony in the future in its entirety and will still be appreciated. And hopefully the rock audience with no taste, will learn to appreciate music long after its time, as so many composers have enjoyed for many centuries. I don't think that "songs" will have as long a time span!