ROCKING THE CLASSICS: THE ENGLISH PROGRESSIVE ROCK MOVEMENT & THE COUNTERCULTURE

I am suspicious that because of both Ed Macan academic background and this book's structure, that it was originally the basis of a masters or even PhD thesis - and indeed the hallowed Oxford University Press, best know for it heavy academic tomes, published it. This is a text setting down  ideas as to why the progressive rock movement developed as it did in its early days in the UK, through the discussion of the music, the musicians who played it and the associated artwork, along with  the more recent developments in the genre (at least to the mid 90's) - Djam Karet are praised. However, the serious prog fans and scholars are recommended to read this with some reservations. 

After an general introduction, Macan sets out to demonstrate his argument about the Englishness of prog rock through analyses of 5 landmark prog albums (by Yes, Genesis, ELP, Floyd, etc). The importance of the the artwork of albums and the theatrical sets at live gigs are rightly dealt with. There are good reviews of the different musical approaches and influences, and why these bands "progressed" rock along. The book finishes with a review of the current state of play in this musical genre. Rocking The Classics is not a comprehensive overview of the subject or a book providing any broad history - but doesn't set out to be like this. Instead the author constrains himself to a handful of specifics. One central thesis suggests progressive rock came about because of certain middle class English institutions,(e.g. the Anglican church and its music) especially in the SE of England! Debatable. British may seem small to a Californian but to a Brit this island is comparatively huge, with significant regional differences at less than 50 miles apart. One could argue Yes's success was more about the Lancastrian upbringing of Jon Anderson. In other words, Macan doesn't get agrip of the relevant British social history here, that should have been employed in developing his thesis, which is used elsewhere for instance made the Syd Barrett biography Lost In The Wood, special.

An irony, especially from my viewpoint as a Brit who grew up during this period, is that the early American contribution is hardly dealt with at all. I would have like to seen something about proto-prog/psychedlic scene that laid down some of the foundations, e.g. Vanilla Fudge (who influenced Nice and ELP, and Jeff Beck and therefore Led Zeppelin), even something about the experimental work of the Electric Prunes. The omission of the Californian band Touch, who influenced Yes, Kansas and probably Genesis, suggests the research was less thorough than it might have been. Here and there, statements are made which annoy, e.g. "Allan Holdsworth is a typical Canterbury guitarist" - which I hold as patent nonsense when there was no such being as typical Canterbury guitarists - Steve Hillage, Kevin Ayers, Phil Miller, Andy Summers, Holdsworth and others are distinctly different from one another.

However, for new comers who have ignored the  media tirade against prog and want to know more, this is a reasonable starting point. Also check out Ed Macan as the amateur prog musician - through his two albums under the band name Hermetic Science, where he shows his love of ELP.

3 and half stars.

NOTE: Currently availability is limited, therefore try OUP directly:

http://www.oup.com/us/catalog/general/subject/Music/PopularMusic/PopRockPopularCulture/?ci=0195098889&view=usa - http://www.oup.com/us/catalog/general/subject/Music/PopularM usic/PopRockPopularCulture/?ci=0195098889&view=usa

Why does the possibility that his book was based on his thesis or that it was published by Oxford University Press make you suspicious?

I'm not getting where your coming from on that one...

danbo wrote: I found it to study the culture of the day more than a study of Prog. His hypothesis dealt with middle-class kids merging the classical music learned at school and church and the 60's psychedelia exploding from London and the USA. It's just a small piece of the overall puzzle. I'd like to see an update from Macan with the burgeoning underground prog revolution. The internet prog era...

Concur totally on this and on getting an update.  I thought he did identify the social areas in the Untied States that received prog in the 70's, and still to this day keep prog alive.  Midwest towns like in PA, Ohio, and yes Kansas and Missouri as the Northeast and the urban areas of the West Coast supported prog bands well.

Still with the advent of the internet prog really is branching out and I would like to see his take on that.

Garion81 wrote: danbo wrote: I found it to study the culture of the day more than a study of Prog. His hypothesis dealt with middle-class kids merging the classical music learned at school and church and the 60's psychedelia exploding from London and the USA. It's just a small piece of the overall puzzle. I'd like to see an update from Macan with the burgeoning underground prog revolution. The internet prog era...      Concur totally on this and on getting an update.  I thought he did identify the social areas in the Untied States that received prog in the 70's, and still to this day keep prog alive.  Midwest towns like in PA, Ohio, and yes Kansas and Missouri as the Northeast and the urban areas of the West Coast supported prog bands well. Still with the advent of the internet prog really is branching out and I would like to see his take on that.

Actually, that was the point I felt he left hanging. The Prog era survived mainly on the wallets of the USA kids who embraced the music and allowed bands to flourish and expand on their craft. ELP would never have produced the excessive BSS without US dollars. Their stardom was both the means and the ends of the mega-dollar prog market.

Dick Heath wrote: bluetailfly wrote: Why does the possibility that his book was based on his thesis or that it was published by Oxford University Press make you suspicious? I'm not getting where your coming from on that one... I suppose the structure it is written - I see a lot of PhD theses structured like this from both the arts and sciences. He is making a number of 'academic' points as a basis of supporting a thesis and Rocking The Classics does have  a central thesis. And curiosity as to why  OUP  would publish this - not their usual area and I don't think they have returned to publishing the more academic books in the field of rock music- if they have, please let me know. But as I said it is a suspicion, and hence an indirect invitation to discuss. BTW why shouldn't somebody study and write a masters or Phd on this subject?

Clearly Macan's text and Bill Martin's Looking Into The Future were first written as essays or as a thesis. The argumentative tone of the book is a good hint for this, but it is not a big problem. Never tedious reading, it can be a bit tough on non-English spaeking mother tongues.

Erik wrote:
I hope to follow with a review too very soon!

Me Three!!! But I'll have to leaf through it because the memory of it is now 8 years old. But I had rather strong opinions on it.

danbo wrote: Garion81 wrote: danbo wrote: I found it to study the culture of the day more than a study of Prog. His hypothesis dealt with middle-class kids merging the classical music learned at school and church and the 60's psychedelia exploding from London and the USA. It's just a small piece of the overall puzzle. I'd like to see an update from Macan with the burgeoning underground prog revolution. The internet prog era...      Concur totally on this and on getting an update.  I thought he did identify the social areas in the Untied States that received prog in the 70's, and still to this day keep prog alive.  Midwest towns like in PA, Ohio, and yes Kansas and Missouri as the Northeast and the urban areas of the West Coast supported prog bands well. Still with the advent of the internet prog really is branching out and I would like to see his take on that. Actually, that was the point I felt he left hanging. The Prog era survived mainly on the wallets of the USA kids who embraced the music and allowed bands to flourish and expand on their craft. ELP would never have produced the excessive BSS without US dollars. Their stardom was both the means and the ends of the mega-dollar prog market.

You two make good points - I lived the same situation from Canada until the end of the 80's with urban communities supporting the prog myth.

However, please remember that the book dates a bit now ( I think it was released in 97) and the internet progboom had yet to happen. All there was back then was Gibraltar EPR >

An update or another book encompassing the issues he left out?

If memory serves, he is currently finishing a book about ELP, the Endless Enigma or something like that. Maybe there will be some useful updates within addressing the prog issues following the "internet progboom". Personally I think the book is excellent. For the record, ,he only dissects four landmark prog pieces (CTTE. Tarkus, WYWH and Firth of Fifth).

Saludos

Real

Sean Trane wrote: The argumentative tone of the book is a good hint for this, but it is not a big problem. Never tedious reading, it can be a bit tough on non-English speaking mother tongues.

I agree, I found it a good read - which I confess I've omitted in the first draft of the review but intend doing something now*. The language and the ideas are for adults, but in good, usually concise English (not fanzine level of teen-write here). Anybody writing on prog in the early 90's has to be admired, as one trying to redress the false ideas about the music portrayed by most of media at the time (and since the mid 70's). However, in writing a more academic book on any subject, inevitably others with academic interests in the subject, will read it and be probably thorough in their critical analysis - hopefully constructive.  I remember at the time of first reading Rocking The Classics (btw amazingly found and bought from the shelves of the university bookshop here!!) - and annotating my copy with questions and corrections - I felt if it had been submitted as a PhD thesis, using my University's guideline to PhD examiners, I would have marked the box labelled:

'Passes but insist that minor corrections be made first'.

* At the risk of sounding high brow and pretentious, I believe this section on book reviews, is concentrating together those of us who want to have (sometimes) more serious discussions. Discussions which either reinforce ideas or encourage change/rethinking or add to the originators' views. One reason for me being part of Progarchives is to learn more.

danbo wrote: Garion81 wrote: danbo wrote: I found it to study the culture of the day more than a study of Prog. His hypothesis dealt with middle-class kids merging the classical music learned at school and church and the 60's psychedelia exploding from London and the USA. It's just a small piece of the overall puzzle. I'd like to see an update from Macan with the burgeoning underground prog revolution. The internet prog era...      Concur totally on this and on getting an update.  I thought he did identify the social areas in the Untied States that received prog in the 70's, and still to this day keep prog alive.  Midwest towns like in PA, Ohio, and yes Kansas and Missouri as the Northeast and the urban areas of the West Coast supported prog bands well. Still with the advent of the internet prog really is branching out and I would like to see his take on that. Actually, that was the point I felt he left hanging. The Prog era survived mainly on the wallets of the USA kids who embraced the music and allowed bands to flourish and expand on their craft. ELP would never have produced the excessive BSS without US dollars. Their stardom was both the means and the ends of the mega-dollar prog market.

Well I can see that.  So that means there is a large gap between the late 70's and the early 90's that needs to be addressed. So did prog stall because we as consumers stopped buying it or because it was no longer being marketed?  I think to some degree there is a little truth to both. I think the industry itself pushed the last remaining prog bands into a safer AOR mode away from the more adventuresome music that preceded it in the decade and largely took back artistic content control from the artists. They did so by not signing progressive bands.  Many in the United States died on the vine. On top of it it was hard to find.  While English bands were heavily marketed in the States Italian, French and German bands were not. All these albums could be purchased on import if your local record chain supported that and if you could afford that. By 1977 there was little or no airplay for any of this music to heard depending on where you were in the US.

To get back to it the original thought I had  the funny thing is that the prog markets in the US that were huge in the 70's are the ones still supporting it in the new century.  If you follow most tour patterns of the bands that do full tours you will see them hit the Large cities of the northeast, across Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Sometimes Detroit and Milwaukee, Chicago and the to the West coast playing Seattle, sometimes Portland, San Francisco bay area and Somewhere in the greater LA area. Atlanta and Florida are trying to break into the pattern as they have many transplants moving to those areas.

Garion81 wrote:   Well I can see that.  So that means there is a large gap between the late 70's and the early 90's that needs to be addressed. So did prog stall because we as consumers stopped buying it or because it was no longer being marketed?  That is to me the prime reason why it failed to go on. I think to some degree there is a little truth to both your first proposal is that a lot of the people who bought YEs and ELP were the ones buying Beatles and Stones in the 60's and bought U2 and Poice records in the 80's and maybe Nirvana and RHC Peppers record in the 90's. They were not specific prog fans - they just bought whatever was thrown at them> and there was a time for prog . I think the industry itself pushed the last remaining prog bands into a safer AOR mode away from the more adventuresome music that preceded it in the decade and largely took back artistic content control from the artists. They did so by not signing progressive bands.  Many in the United States died on the vine. On top of it it was hard to find.  While English bands were heavily marketed in the States, Italian, French and German bands were not>>> Actually you have a good point, but the US had a special point in helping the UK groups since this was not only English speaking countries but also very close allies dating from the WW II days. Plus the fact that French, Italian and Germans bands also had to have green cards to work in the States, therefore had to be  granted the permission to work (and promote those records to be ditributed widely)  by some obscure administration powers - remember thast this was the cold war too and that many of those French Italian and German groups had rather very leftist views, which I am sure did not sit well with the US administrations. UK groups were not really political (at least in their music)- and may have done wisely to avoid the subject. All these albums could be purchased on import if your local record chain supported that and if you could afford that.In Toronto, you had special Import record stores or had to deal withsecond hand dealers to import them>> not cheap either. By 1977 there was little or no airplay for any of this music to heard depending on where you were in the US.

Do we really need Macan to keep the debate or can we actually do it by ourselves?

ken4musiq wrote:   I believe that Macan is a drummer/percussionist who teaches at of the Redwoods in N. California. This book was a labor of love. .

I think he is into the precussion of vibes, xylophone and/or marimba. However, on one of the Hermetic Science albums, he  plays his  piano transcription of Tarkus - you can hear the cicadas in accompaniment.

I think to some degree there is a little truth to both your first proposal is that a lot of the people who bought YEs and ELP were the ones buying Beatles and Stones in the 60's and bought U2 and Poice records in the 80's and maybe Nirvana and RHC Peppers record in the 90's. They were not specific prog fans - they just bought whatever was thrown at them> and there was a time for prog . I think the industry itself pushed the last remaining prog bands into a safer AOR mode away from the more adventuresome music that preceded it in the decade and largely took back artistic content control from the artists. They did so by not signing progressive bands.  Many in the United States died on the vine. On top of it it was hard to find.  While English bands were heavily marketed in the States, Italian, French and German bands were not>>> Actually you have a good point, but the US had a special point in helping the UK groups since this was not only English speaking countries but also very close allies dating from the WW II days. >>>

I don't think it is fair to say that people who listened to prog then moved to U2 and the Police because they bought whatever was thrown at them.  Prog got really boring after 1979 and the top Brit bands were trying to simplify their writing for the power pop audience.  But Talking Heads, The Police, Joe Jackson, The Clash  and others were doing some interesting music.  I purchased it because I loved it and it was good.  I would have gone on buying prog records but the truth is these bands got out of touch with their audience.  This is what punk was saying about rock in the 1970s.  It had been founded as a way to connect with the audience; but now it was just as corporate as any other commercial music; it was not reaching the youth of the time.  Fripp had said that this is why he broke up KC circa 1975.  KC was one of the more exciting acts of the 1980s but they were influenced by Talking heads and had Adrian Belew. 

A lot of it had to do with the conglomeration of the record industry during the early 1970s.  Sudddenly, control of the recording industry was centralized with monopolies owning radio stations and labels.  They could also force stations to  play easily marketable tracks or else pull the advertising for the soup company that was part of the conglomerate and that advertised on a specific station.  I once heard an promotion person say that the reason why music was marketed to people under 25 was that they were 33 percent of the market. She did not think to ask if maybe people 26-55 were anther 33% and over 55 the other 33%.   In addition, playing a ten of twenty minute track by one artist once is equal in time to hearing a Madonna track four or five times, so the idea that the tracks were too long was just bogus.

Another excellent prog book (in some ways better than Macan's) is Paul Stump's "The Music's All That Matters."

In his book, he looks at all the forces at work that contributed to the demise of prog, and after reading his book, you really get an appreciation of all the factors that converged to bring an end to the golden age of prog rock, because theirs not just one reason (not just Punk, or "the industry" etc.)

I enjoyed Macan's book a lot, too. I especially like his interpretations/analysis of those four prog classics.