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Topic Closed1 track by 1 band that best sums up prog for you

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A B Negative View Drop Down
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: May 26 2008 at 06:28
Originally posted by BaldJean BaldJean wrote:

"A Plague of Lighthouse Keepers". changes between harmonic and cacophonic passages all the time, has the full range of dynamics, complex riffs (sometimes even 2 completely different ones at the same time), slow and fast passages and a majestic ending


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Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 29 2008 at 17:06
Someone said Gates off Relayer. I'm going to go just one track more to "Sound Chaser." Absolutely nothing conventional about it. Hard driving riffs and basslines complimented by insane, almost spasmatic keyboarding by Patrick Moraz and flawless drumming by Alan White. I honestly have no clue what the time signature is, and even if I did know I'd never be able to play it. It's got a solid Telecaster solo by Steve Howe and a part that almost makes me move in slow motion. Great keyboard solo at the end and it just leaves you with a feeling like, "Damn that was fun." A difficult choice but if I could only give a friend one song to explain prog-rock, I'd go with Sound Chaser.
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 29 2008 at 17:39

Karn Evil 9 3rd Impression. Mostly the epics , or a short one like The Musical Box

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Direct Link To This Post Posted: July 29 2008 at 18:42

suppers ready, not my favourite song, but kind of sums up prog

Trilogy by ELP maybe, Roundabout, not sure
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 01 2008 at 00:35
As per my review of Pawn Hearts I have to stick with A Plague of Lighthouse Keepers from Van der Graaf Generator.
 

It is all that VDGG has come to personify and more. 'A Plague of Lighthouse Keepers' was the first track I had heard from this amazing band. It's unbelievable in every aspect, running for an awesome 23 minutes, it tells the story of an eyewitness who sees the unspeakable as he feels his body fading in a storm while voyaging on a doomed ship. It reminds one of Coleridge's Rime of the Ancient Mariner (check Iron Maiden's take on this poem). The narrator notes “I prophesy disaster and then I count the cost. I shine but shining, dying I know that I am almost lost.” The piano gets faster and seems to be falling down an abyss. There is a brief interlude that reminds one of a ship floating on an endless ocean and we hear the lonely saxophone blasts that resemble bizarre fog horns. You can almost picture the image of a ghost ship sailing through fog and there's a genuinely creepy ambience. The song takes on a darker atmosphere and Hammill begins to use his patented gravel tone to sing of death spectres that scratch on windows, hollowed faces, and lost mastheads that pierce the freezing dark. There are several parts that flash by until the track moves to Presence of the Night/ Kosmos Tours. The saxophone really shines in this section and a weird time signature locks in, with Hammill singing “Why can't I let me live and be free, but I die very slowly alone.” A beautiful hammond sound fills the void and the tempo ignites to a frenetic pace where it spirals blissfully out of control. Then it all ends suddenly and the gorgeous piano reverberates to a melancholic contemplative Hammill who asks “Lighthouses might hold the key but can I reach the door?” It's a lovely moment after all the mayhem preceding, then the next section begins suddenly with Hammill's rasping vocals and short jagged spurts of noise from Banton and Evans, The Clot Thickens. At times the sound seems curiously off kilter, out of tune and rhythm but it all gels perfectly into the tranquil Land's End, “Stars slice horizons where the lines stand much too stark, I feel I am drowning hands stretch in the dark...” And it ends on a rather positive note in a sense where Hammill muses that “it doesn't feel so very bad now” and perhaps “the end is the start... all things are apart.” You can take what you will from the potent lyrics but all is sung with absolute conviction which makes the piece all the more intriguing. It is a ballad of gothic grandeur in every sense that constantly surprises with its complex twisting structure.

 

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Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 01 2008 at 00:54
Originally posted by jimmy_row jimmy_row wrote:

Close to the Edge, round by the corner, Dancing with the Moonlit Knight.
 
 
The Musical Box is a good'un as well.
Thick as a Brick too,
You see where this is going...
 
 
Actually all of the ones mentioned so far that I've heard seem like good choices to me.  For a single piece to "sum up" prog, it would have to cover a lot of ground; hit the soft and heavy, complex and melodic parts with good fluidity.  Genesis and Yes were the best at that IMO, and that's why were talk about them so much.
 
You are on the ball, jimmy_row. I sort of like to add Eruption by Focus, River of Life by PFM, The Golden Void by Hawkwind, Isle of Everywhere by Gong, the entire Red Queen to Gryphon 3 album  and , yes I must say Tubular Bells by Oldfield .
And as a sign of respect to my avatar , "the Bogus Man" by Roxy Music , very prog, very modern , very cool.
I never post anything anywhere without doing more than basic research, often in depth.
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 07 2008 at 07:12
Too difficult.
"Shine on you Crazy Diamond" by Pink Floyd, possibly because it was one of the first I heard, and it made me think of what the so called "Progressive Rock" (that I didn't know) was. 
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 07 2008 at 20:19
Nine Feet Underground by Caravan has to be on the list! Utterly brilliant.
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 08 2008 at 01:34
Sorrow by Lucifer's Friend. It represents everything I am attracted to in music.
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 09 2008 at 12:50
"Dancing with the Moonlit Knight" is prog for me. Everytime I listen to other stuff for awhile and come back to Selling England, I'm just dumbfounded about how it's never been bested.
 
More modern and avant-gard I like Mr. Bungle's "Carry Stress in the Jaw", the only musical appearance of Grampa Simpson I'm aware of.
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 10 2008 at 10:24
I failed to post here few days ago. So in short before the computer gets nuts again.
I think Alifib from Robert Wyatt's "Rock bottom" is the prog tune for me. The slow hypnotic start, the incredible lyrics, the amazing singing and above all - the sadness and the way we can realy feel the pain and sorrow is ............................................................................................... what art realy is.
omri
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 11 2008 at 04:10

Awaken by Yes. If I had to choose one track that represents everything I love in prog it would be that.

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Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 13 2008 at 01:48
I recently heard Porcupine Tree's 'The Sky Moves Sideways - part1' -  That was a great example of prog too. 
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 13 2008 at 14:12
Ritual (Nous Sommes Du Soleil) - Yes
 
I chose this track because like the album from which it comes, it sums up the grand parodox of prog, the good (artistry, virtuosity) and the bad (pretentiousness, indulgence).
"The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. There's also a negative side." - HST

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Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 13 2008 at 19:22
Ritual by Yes is terrific. I especially adore the version on the live Tsongas DVD. Magnifique!!!
 
Another good track to sum up prog is Karn Evil 9 by Emerson Lake and Palmer. Indulgent, pretentious, bombastic, mad time signature changes and bizarre multi movement suite structure - in other words Pretentious Revisionist Organic Genius (P.R.O.G).
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 17 2008 at 09:43
Originally posted by AtomicCrimsonRush AtomicCrimsonRush wrote:

Ritual by Yes is terrific. I especially adore the version on the live Tsongas DVD. Magnifique!!!


I agree withe the version of Tsongas, the good thing is that instead of the horrible mid-section, it has a type of "drum solo". The bad thing of this version are the keys, excluding the magnificent moog. The bass rocks..
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 17 2008 at 12:05
Magma - De Futura (Live)

or

Le Orme - L'Equilibrio
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 17 2008 at 13:45
Originally posted by AtomicCrimsonRush AtomicCrimsonRush wrote:

Nine Feet Underground by Caravan has to be on the list! Utterly brilliant.
 
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: August 17 2008 at 16:29
"The Argus" by Ween

Sums up everything I love about prog in a little over 5 minutes.

"Did You See Me?" by Ween qualifies for the same reasons.


Edited by Harry Hood - August 17 2008 at 16:44
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