Quintessential Prog Album

I disagree with pickles and ice cream!

So a band without keyboards (let's say Guru Guru) can't be progressive.

A band without a drummer (several folks bands!) can not be progressive!

A band without a bass guitar ... can't be progressive! All those folks musicians are playing sheep dip'age!

A band without a singer can not be progressive! That means we have to listen to inane lyrics and stupid ideas, that are not anywhere near literary quality and have no weight or value in them whatsoever. Try Stairway to Nowhere for a bit!

This, should be about the whole thing, the whole piece of music, not that it has to have all 4 or 5 of those things.

I'm really tired of this "racist" comment about "progressive" music, and how it can not be this or that without having the right color (always funny and weird), the long hair (no curls or braids or _____), or some other idiotic comments that have nothing to do with the composition of the work itself.

So, it can't be a "symphony" without 12 violins, 4 bassoons, 3 piccolos, 2 cellos, 2 flutes, 2 of those large drum things that never get played, several chairs of course, a few women in the orchestra ... women in progressive music ... oh, my gawd, those folks at PA will poo their pants! And a conductor at the front, since RW is too busy playing another synth instead! Maybe the ghost of Mr. Lord will come buy to conduct the thing, but he prefers to play!

The whole definition has become such a joke that it has gotten sick, not musically intelligent at all, and on top of it you get a goon saying that some instruments make "progressive music" ... and it's like saying that the folks behind it are just a bunch of mannequins showing off the new fashions.

 

C'mon folks ... get better and smarter than that! You've been at this a long time and still stick to the same silly definition that is not about music at all ... it's about a couple of bands ONLY!

SEBTP, TLLDOB and TAAB wold also be good selections. 

 Well, SOME Yes! 

Tony Kaye didn't use Mellotron, it was Rick who brought that sound to the band.  Moraz didn't seem to use Mellotron as much as Wakeman, inventing his own version (using laser discs instead of magnetic tapes). It was called the "Orchestron."  

Real Mellotron is a groaning, unpredictable mess that lends a great deal of drama to prog music.  Since the tapes were recordings of humans playing notes on real instruments, one can hear bow inflections, breath and other subtle sounds that give the 'tron a very organic, human sound vs. the synths used by guys like Geoff Downes (ugh!).  

Also, Bruf brought a real jazz-swing to the drumming of CTTE, it remains one of his best works.  The entire band was "on" for that recording, and Eddie Offord did a fine job of bringing it all together.