Hello progrock readers, here is my review about Proglucky (Ronald Couture) his brandnew book about progressive rock:

 

Title: Essential Mini-guide To PROGRESSIVE ROCK Past & Present

Sub-title: Forty Years Of History 1966 – 2006

Author: Ronald Couture

First Limited Edition

Official release date: June 20st, 2006

 

This paperback version book (seize 15x23 cm) contains 176 pages and the lay-out (except the front and back cover) is in black and white and only features some album cover photos, the rest are words about progressive rock.

The first page is a dedication to Prog Archives collaborators Ian Alterman, Bob McBeath (Easy Livin’), Peter Rideout and Lise Brault and Tommy Schonenberg, Lucas Biela and Greg Walker for their help, then we go to a personal story by Ronald about his experiences with progressive rock, starting around the mid-Seventies with Genesis, a further exploration at Sherbrooke University in Quebec and finally (in the following short chapter) at Prog Archives with M@X (the other founding member of Prog Archives) featuring a word about Prog Archives. Before we go to Contents (Index A/B/C/D/E) Ronald tells something about the making of his mini-guide.

Index A opens with the defintion about progressive rock, how many threads on The Forum are not dedicated to this subject! It’s a short but decent and comprehensive explanation about structure, elements and bands.

Index B is about The Development, written by Frenchman Lucas Biela.

In my opinion this chapter is a bit too short, it’s mainly based upon naming bands with some additional information.

Index C is focussed on The History:

1. Proto-history - 1960’s

A short look on the development and bands (like Zappa, Syd Barrett-Pink Floyd, Caravan and VDGG, I only miss Vanilla Fudge (a progressive Hammond drenchded blend of jazz, soul, rock and classical), a USA band on which Deep Purple, Uriah Heep and Yes pointed at as an important source of inspiration.

2. First Wave – 1970’s

      Here you find fine descriptions from all known progrock bands, not only The Moody   

      Blues, King Crimson, Jethro Tull and Genesis but also Banco, PFM, Eloy and Rush.

3. Second Wave – 1980’s

A very brief look at Marillion, IQ and Pendragon but unfortunately not Twelfth Night, in my opinion this excellent UK neo-prog with their distinctive sound belongs between the other above-mentioned neo-prog bands!

4. Third Wave – 1990’2 to Present

This chapter is about Rebirth: Porcupine Tree, The Flower kings, Arena, Spock’s Beard and New Progressive Metal – Resurgence Or Revival with Dream Theater, Ayreon and Pain Of Salvation.

Then Index D entitled Top 20 Albums - Vintage Progressive Rock & More by Norwegian Tommy Schonenberg. His style of writing is constructive, warm and enthousiastic about albums from both famous bands like Genesis (SEBTP), Yes (CTTE) and VDGG (Pawn Hearts) to Rush (AFTK), Le Orme (Felona E Sorona) and Eloy (Ocean). A pleasant chapter!

Finally Index E – The A – Z listing with thanks to Greg Walker for providing in band information.

Looking at the more than hundreds pages with short descriptions. Sometimes a bit too short, I  even notice the influence of Greg Walker his Syn-Phonic catalogue because in the Nineties I ordered every month many progrock gems! I can find lots of interesting progrock bands from all over the world, from Italy, Spain and Germany to Argentina and Japan. I am sure that this very interesting chapter will please many longing and searching progheads! On the other hand,  I won’t complain about missings bands here like Providence (Japan), Zombie Woof (Germany) and Sensitiva Immagine (Italy) but I surely miss the acclaimed Brasilian progrock band Bacamarte, Spanish progrock gem Cai, the unique Spanish/English formation Carmen and the UK symphonic jazzrock band Colosseum II featuring Gary Moore at his pinnacle and Deep Purple current keyboard player Don Airey. And a few personal notes about two Dutch progrock bands: Cliffhanger is not ‘Marillion meets Genesis’ but UK/Yes/Genesis influenced and Plackband is not neo-prog but mid-Genesis inspired (most members have seen the ATOTT and W&W tour 7 times!).

 

My conclusion:

This book is clearly a mini-guide, made to show you the ‘gateway to Progheaven’ so don’t expect a book in the vein of Edward Macan’s ‘Rocking The Classics’, it’s more an encyclopedia with some additional information about history and bands. Despite a few small failures and missing bands, I recommend this well set up and comprehensive progrock mini-guide to those music fans who have just discovered progrock and wants to read a little bit more about history and bands. And especially to those progheads who wants to explore the progrock universum for the lesser known bands from countries like Japan, Argentina, France or Sweden.

Congratulations Ronald , I am sure you will sell out your first limited edition very soon!

 

 

I will get my thoughts together and put them down on paper, so to speak....

 

 

First, it's a delight to have a book dedicated to my favourite type of music, prog rock. As good as PA is, and the web is a great source of information on just about anything you want to find out about, there is something uniquely satisfying about the tactile pleasure of holding a book in your hand, as compared to merely tapping into the ether. It's easier, more personal, and much more satisfying.

 

Erik has given a thorough description of the books' contents so I'll limit myself to my subjective thoughts about it. I've no idea about the cost/difficulties of producing a book but this is a quality product, which is great given that one assumes there is a going to be a fairly limited demand for this. The only colour is on the cover, and the only pictures are those of the covers of Ronalds Top 20 and some other albums, but that doesn't detract.  Its well laid out, the top of each page having a clear heading to tell you where you are.

 

There are five sections or "Indexes" - A, a defintion of prog rock, thoughtfully and well written; B, the development, which sort of summarises what's to come in C, the history, which for a beginner or someone like myself, a keen enthusiast who wants to know more, makes interesting reading - some I did know, some I didn't. Most of this section is dedicated to the "first wave" of the 1970's, but personally I found the "proto prog" section the most interesting.

 

I did think the section on the "third wave" - 1990 to present - could have been more expansive; we get to hear of Dream Theater and Spocks Beard, but no mention of The Mars Volta or Tool.

 

Next, Ronald's top 20 albums, though its not clear from the acknowledgement whether the reviews were written by him or by Tommy Schoneberg. I won't give away any more of the top 20 choice away but its an interesting mix of albums some of which the author clearly loves, some he respects/ admires (there is a difference!), and then there's one major album in particular that Ronald feels he can't leave out, but clearly he isn't that fond of. Which one? Go buy the book to find out......

 

The final section of the book, the one that most pages are given over to, is an A - Z of prog rock bands with a (very) brief description of their particular attributes. Now I'm loathe to criticise but here, for me (the enthusiast who wants to know more, remember?), I would like a little more information on each entry. It does give the style of the band, but it's difficult to scale the importance of each artiste, what the timeline of the band was, and where to start listening. I personally would have liked to see info like (I'll pick Yes as an easy example) the entry giving me the following information: 

 

Date - 1967 - now;  

Key members: Anderson/Howe

Start with: Close to the Edge.

 

Sometimes, the one-liners against each entry are a little too obtuse, unless you already know of the act.

 

(By the way I should say that the "key" bands like Yes are discussed in some depth in the History section)

 

Anyhow my comments shouldn't detract from the need for every prog-head to go out and buy this essential addition to his library, and at a very reasonable price.

 

Last thought; I had no idea a band from Japan would ever consider calling themselves "Flied Egg". Brilliant!!!!

 

I very much enjoyed the early sections - I didn't necessarily agree with every word, but then that's the point, so no criticism for me there.

 

I do feel that these early sections could do with some input from a trained copy editor with English as a first language.  Some of the phrases used are a little odd, and some of the lanuage used is conversational rather than what you'd expect in professional prose.  Some may quite enjoy this informal approach, but I didn't quite so much and I think it needs looking at.  This is not a complaint about the content - just about the style.

 

The final section is a wonder of knowledge and research, and a lot of work has clearly gone into it.  The comments are VERY inconsistent, though.  Some of the points are excellent - for instance the entry about Magenta gets the description just about right whereas the description for ACT (for instance) "Great Prog!" while being very complimentary, tells us nothing.  Also, there is no key to this section.  Many band and names are in CAPs in the description, implying that they will be cross referenced, yet many aren't. (no entry for It Bites, for instance, or Patrick Moraz) Now I realise that this is a work in progress, but if so, why publish it? Are we expected to buy the book again in 6 months?

 

Sorry - minor rant there, but to make this section more useful, I'd standardise this section, by having:

 

BAND NAME AND NATIONALITY

PERIOD ACTIVE

DESCRIPTION OF MUSIC INCLUDING SIMILAR BANDS

DISCOGRAPHY

 

I think it's important NOT express an opinion about quality, since you run the risk of damning those that you don't enthuse about with faint praise. You COULD maybe have a star rating based on how "essential" the band are. This isn't vital, though. 

 

I'm very pleased that someones had a bash at bringing this up to date, though.  A good book, which will, I'm sure be a great one in future editions!

 

Stephen  

I do hope the reaction to this book has been good, because Ronald deserves praise, and we deserve a second edition at a future time.

Sadly I have the impression that despite the ambition and encouragement to produce it, the sales haven't been what's expected. Say it isn't so....

 

ps this book is till my "loo time reading". Much to the annoyance of my good lady.....

 

http://www.movimentiprog.net/modules.php?op=modload&name=Sections&file=index&req=viewarticle&artid=554&page=1 - http://www.movimentiprog.net/modules.php?op=modload&name=Sections&file=index&req=viewarticle&artid=554&page=1

 

           Perhaps she will meet Mrs. Gullit in Miami while shopping with the

           credit cards of Ruud Gullit who had sent away his wife because he

           likes the daughter of the local pizza owner . This was Prog Archives

           Soap Time, part 1....

 

           By the way Angelo, the average shopping facilities in Aruba are better than in

           entire Brabant  !