Ian Anderson disses prog

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 The Hemulen wrote:

Not the first time he's made those kinds of comments. He seems to cling to the fact that TAAB was a "spoof" concept album (and often conveniently forgets A Passion Play in the process) as some kind of proof that JT were never a "real" prog band. It's not the concepts that made it prog, Ian, it's the way you wrote, arranged and played the tunes! The lady doth protest too much, methinks.

Yeah, he's actually full of sh*t. Think about TAAB and when it came out in '71. Prog had not really gotten into the full blown excesses that it would be criticized for yet. It's more likely (as others on a different forum have pointed out) that if TAAB was indeed a "spoof" (uh huh... right), it was probably taking potshots at something like Tommy. 

Look at the prog heavies circa '71. Genesis released Nursery Cryme but I doubt IA was very familiar with it as that album made little to no impact in Britain at the time (and even if he was, there's nothing conceptual or bombastic on NC). Van der Graaf Generator were more popular than Genesis at the time (VdGG appeared on the cover of Melody Maker as 'Britain's Most Fashionable Band' in May of '71 -- a big deal at the time to appear on MM's cover) so Anderson would have been aware of them, but VdGG weren't doing concept albums either. Yes had The Yes Album & Fragile out but this was when the group were putting out great albums with little or no fat, before any shastric scriptures invaded the Yes landscape. Crimson had the sidelong 'Lizard' out and it occupied all of side 2, but Ian didn't mention them in his little potshot. Gentle Giant in '71? Not much to tie in with the idea of concept albums from them. ELP had Tarkus out as well as the Pictures at an Exhibition album, but I doubt that TAAB's supposed 'spoofery' was influenced by those albums. 

Just Ian Anderson larking about, probably, and with a bit of revisionist history (which, of course, casts JT in a favorable light and everyone else as being in their dust). 

Edited by bucka001 - November 08 2011 at 10:26

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