Peter wrote: Do you WANT it to be prog? Then it is, when you listen to it.

This is the single best definition of prog I've ever heard.  Listen to the music, if you want it to prog, then it is for you and that's all that counts

Does this really look like prog?

You forgot the Moody Blues!

And you forgot Revolver!

I also shrug when I hear people claim ITCOTKC as the first prog album. There may be a bit of truth to that looking at the genre from today's perspective, but it also perfectly hides the underlying truth to the equation: that there were so many exciting bands around doing similar things to music. 

Mortte wrote: Revolver is really great, but it´s still a Beatles album. In Sgt they decided to not to be Beatles anymore and you can hear the results.

I thought that the Beatles stopped being the Beatles with Revolver, but my sister thought that they stopped being the Beatles with Help. My Brother thought the Beatles changed with the White Album. Go figure.

chopper wrote: SteveG wrote: Mortte wrote: Revolver is really great, but it´s still a Beatles album. In Sgt they decided to not to be Beatles anymore and you can hear the results. I thought that the Beatles stopped being the Beatles with Revolver, but my sister thought that they stopped being the Beatles with Help. My Brother thought the Beatles changed with the White Album. Go figure.   Well they're all right in a way.

Absolutely Mr. C! The Beatles were always evolving and changing pop music with every album!!

Is the Peter Frampton/BeeGees film version of the album prog?

The.Crimson.King wrote: Peter wrote: Do you WANT it to be prog? Then it is, when you listen to it. This is the single best definition of prog I've ever heard.  Listen to the music, if you want it to prog, then it is for you and that's all that counts

Yes, the perception/reception and fine classification of art (treating it like science, math, or sport--bleah!) is SO subjective.

Unless one is tasked with confining artists and albums (songs and maybe song sections too!) into various blurry, overlapping and multiplying boxes and straitjackets here, then who gives a flying FECK how someone who is not you and can't affect what you hear or feel categorizes it? If you think A Day in the Life dovetails nicely with Supper's Ready, which seques superbly into Strawberry Letter 23, then make your danged playlist and ENJOY, man!! Don't overthink it and pull the butterfly's wings off--you'll kill it! You are the boss of your own stereo, ears, and opinions. You colour, bend, and group it all in your own way as it comes in, anyway! JEEEEEZUS!!!!

If you thought that was good, o Crimson King, I also have a perfect, one-size-fits-all record review that no one can object to:
"Good, if you like it."

Edited by Peter - January 24 2018 at 09:15

Peter wrote: The.Crimson.King wrote: Peter wrote: Do you WANT it to be prog? Then it is, when you listen to it. This is the single best definition of prog I've ever heard.  Listen to the music, if you want it to prog, then it is for you and that's all that counts Yes, the perception/reception and fine classification of art (treating it like science, math, or sport--bleah!) is SO subjective. Unless one is tasked with confining artists and albums (songs and maybe song sections too!) into various blurry, overlapping and multiplying boxes and straitjackets here, then who gives a flying FECK how someone who is not you and can't affect what you hear or feel categorizes it? If you think A Day in the Life dovetails nicely with Supper's Ready, which seques superbly into Strawberry Letter 23, then make your danged playlist and ENJOY, man!! Don't overthink it and pull the butterfly's wings off--you'll kill it! You are the boss of your own stereo, ears, and opinions. You colour, bend, and group it all in your own way as it comes in, anyway! JEEEEEZUS!!!! If you thought that was good, o Crimson King, I also have a perfect, one-size-fits-all record review that no one can object to: "Good, if you like it."

Well played  

What I find disturbing about the obsessive need to classify and bucket-ize prog (and really all music these days) into all these subgenres and arguments over who fits where, is that it leads people who dislike a sub-genre to never even try a band because they've been lumped into Indo-Neo-Eclectic-Post-Math-Folk-Fusion-Prog.  How much great music never reaches our ears because of arbitrary classifications that we pay attention to rather than the actual music itself?  There are many bands on PA who could have been equally at home in at least 3 sub-genres; yet because of the bucket they were put in are likely not exposed to anyone not into that particular bucket.  After a couple of years debate, my band Mutiny in Jonestown finally was approved in Neo, though it was suggested along the way that it could fit in Space/Psych, Heavy, Crossover and Eclectic as well.  From reading the forums, I know there are many people who won't touch Neo with a long stick, and since that's where my band ended up, well those people likely will never give it a listen and judge it on it's merits rather than the bucket it finally landed in and that's sad.

And speaking of "Mr. One Size Fits All", I think this FZ quote applies to enjoyment of not only prog, but all music as well:

“The Ultimate Rule ought to be: 'If it sounds GOOD to you, it's bitchin'; if it sounds BAD to YOU, it's sh*tty."