British Prog is the best??

riversyd wrote: ..just got home from a dinner party and ended up talking to an american guy about prog rock!..so Here we go for why British Prog is best".........GENESIS, IQ, TRAFFIC, FANTASY, PINK FLOYD, GONG, PORCUPINE TREE, FAIRFIELD PARLOUR, THE NICE, HATFIELD & THE NORTH, CAMEL, BIG BIG TRAIN, KING CRIMSON, YES, ELP, JADIS, GNIDROLOG, STRAWBS, CARAVAN, GONG, MORRIS QUINLAN EXPERIENCE, PALLAS, STRANGEWAYS, ROHAN, GALAHAD, ABEL GANZ, ENGLAND, T2, PINEAPPLE THIEF, MUSE, NO MAN, GENTLE GIANT, DIFFERENT TRAINS, PENDRAGON, MARILLION, CARDIACS, STRAWBS, NO MAN, SPHERE, MATCHING MOLE, SOFT MACHINE, QUINTESSENCE, ARK, GRACE, FINAL CONFLICT, ABBFINOOSTTY, ARENA, BEGGARSOPERA, CRESSIDA, SPRING, ARCADIUM, BJH, BLACKFIELD, BRAND X, CITIZEN CAIN, ENID, GREENSLADE, HAZE HENRY FOOL, JETHRO TULL, KARNATAKA, MOSTLY AUTUMN, CRESSIDA, PINEAPPLE THIEF, PRIMITIVE INSTINCT, TWELFTH NIGHT, HAZE, IT BITES,...if any other country can come up with a better list, I'd love to see it!

..just got home from a dinner party and ended up talking to an american guy about prog rock!..so Here we go for why British Prog is best".........GENESIS, IQ, TRAFFIC, FANTASY, PINK FLOYD, GONG, PORCUPINE TREE, FAIRFIELD PARLOUR, THE NICE, HATFIELD & THE NORTH, CAMEL, BIG BIG TRAIN, KING CRIMSON, YES, ELP, JADIS, GNIDROLOG, STRAWBS, CARAVAN, GONG, MORRIS QUINLAN EXPERIENCE, PALLAS, STRANGEWAYS, ROHAN, GALAHAD, ABEL GANZ, ENGLAND, T2, PINEAPPLE THIEF, MUSE, NO MAN, GENTLE GIANT, DIFFERENT TRAINS, PENDRAGON, MARILLION, CARDIACS, STRAWBS, NO MAN, SPHERE, MATCHING MOLE, SOFT MACHINE, QUINTESSENCE, ARK, GRACE, FINAL CONFLICT, ABBFINOOSTTY, ARENA, BEGGARSOPERA, CRESSIDA, SPRING, ARCADIUM, BJH, BLACKFIELD, BRAND X, CITIZEN CAIN, ENID, GREENSLADE, HAZE HENRY FOOL, JETHRO TULL, KARNATAKA, MOSTLY AUTUMN, CRESSIDA, PINEAPPLE THIEF, PRIMITIVE INSTINCT, TWELFTH NIGHT, HAZE, IT BITES,...if any other country can come up with a better list, I'd love to see it!

^ that's highly debatable , I would say The Thoughts of Emerlist Davjack..  but the Nice were British as well, so there you go

PinkPangolin wrote: Now - to start a really contraversial thread! I really don't want to offend any of my American or European mainland friends, but.... I have heard it said that British Prog was/is the best - maybe due to the very nature of British middle-class culture in music (these aren't my thoughts - I'm just saying what I've heard). The Beatles built Psychedelia, leading to Pink Floyd, then there' s Genesis, then there's Yes, then there's King Crimson, then there's ELP, Jethro Tull - the list goes on... Also the American stuff has a tendency to sound cheesy Interestingly, also, it seems to me that today, it is in the European mainland that Prog is listened to the most - eg in Italy, Poland, Germany, France etc.. etc.. (I guess this is another contraversial comment)

What do you (they) mean by "middle-class culture"? Almost everything is middle-class based. Sounds to me a pretty tautological and redundant statement. But anyway, let's avoid philosophy.

Back to the question: as usual in music, it all depends on subjective points of view. Hardly we can debate on objective and rational issues in music, and not only is that a positive aspect, but it's essential to define something as art.
Having said this, I prefer the British and Italian prog scene as a whole, and some individualities in other parts of the world. Does that mean that I underestimate the rest of the world? Not at all, I only mean that I prefer something instead of something else.

Vibrationbaby wrote: So I don`t think any one country has produced the "best " prog. Maybe prog came to prominence in the UK but I think it elitist to say that the UK prog is the "best " .

Yeah what he said. Thank goodness we aren't taking this too seriously.

I've heard music that has knocked my socks off from all the countries mentioned in the mail. I love Crimson, I adore Faust, I'm mad for Echolyn, I dig PFM, I really enjoy The Flower Kings and I'm very keen on Saga (the band - not the over 60's holiday firm).

I've lost count of the times it's been said here by some of the older PA lags but there really is no such thing as good music or bad music, just music you personally like and the stuff you don't. I have however learned of a number of bands from this thread that I had not encountered before and sound very interesting indeed so my iTunes/eBay/Amazon accounts will be receiving an almighty rogering over the next few weeks.


Edited by sigod - July 10 2008 at 11:34

Rocktopus wrote: The only controversial bit is that what you write make you look like a typical englishspeaking cultural ignorant. The close to nonexisting American 70's progscene was comletely irrelevant compared to the vibrant senes of Germany, France, Italy and Belgium. Just like the current UK progscene is one of the least interesting in the world.

So the guy made a typo. I picked out more than one error in your post .

Tasartir wrote: Hmmm, Frank Zappa, anyone?

yeah, me

British prog is the best at its own way, ok, but British artists never did do (and never will) an album as Miles´"On the Corner", that was progressive POPULAR music in USA! or Hendrix, or Zappa.... absolutely different, and miles above more complexity music were made in USA than in UK, imho, although i like Jethro Tull so much; hey, i´m Serbian one and i dont have any reason  to support USA bands/artists less then British or British verse USA. ALSO, Europe were full of very very nice progressive bands too, from awesome Tangerine Dream or Can, from Germany, to Indexi or Tako, from ex-Yugoslavia, but who was/is able to go in these firing dugouts against Miles, or Zappa? there is nobody for that, AND NEVER WILL BE! (IMHO).

If English is your mother tongue and you were of the age to be immersed in the Prog Rock scene, it was tough not to be swayed by all the talent coming out of England. Lets face it, it was incredible. If not the best it surely was the most plentiful. I tip my hat to those that explored what was coming out of other countries at that time though. We like most people are likely to go with what we are exposed to and England was always it seems on the front page.

Why should the location of artists be any factor in the quality of the music? While one's country of origin can be a big influence artistically, it doesn't affect the quality of the music in any way. People like to divide music into "scenes" (Cantebury Scene, New Jersey scene, etc.), but they all usually share common themes and influences in some way.

Transatlantic had a Brit, two Americans (from opposite sides of the country) and a Swede, and they produced some of the best prog of this generation.


Edited by Harry Hood - June 27 2008 at 13:41