Should ELO be added to prog archives?

ELO: NO

ELOY: YES

Of course they should be added, I mean if so many recomend Radiohead, ELO is then just as good (even better IMHO).

_______

Lunar

I think that ELO produced more proggy music (early in their careers) than, say, Procul Harum, or Styx - and definitely more than Uriah Heep, all of whom are far less proggy than Deep Purple or Supertramp - does everyone think that "Dreamer" and "Breakfast in America" are all Supertramp did? "Crime of the Century" and "Even in the Quietest moments" are magnificent prog albums without a Mellotron in sight! And as for the Purps, well, if you think that "Smoke on the Water", "Black Night" and "Highway Star" are their limits, then you haven't heard "In Rock", "Made In Japan" or a dozen other great albums where the music goes way beyond rock'n'roll and well into prog territory. I mean, excluding Deep Purple because they have a strong rock'n'roll link is like excluding Jethro Tull because they have a strong folk link, or excluding Gong because they're too Jazzy.

...so did the Moodies - and I'm not saying that they should be in the archives either...

How silly of ELO to rip off Robbie Williams like that.

Trouserpress wrote:

That's as maybe, Cert, but IMO ELO are simply too simplistic in their approach to composition and arrangement to be classified as prog. So they used strings. So did Robbie Williams. ELO weren't really doing anything that new.

Have to agree 100% with you, as I said a few posts ago ELO played Rock, POP and Disco Music with a few violins and Cellos, the same did James Last and Ray Coniff and that doesn't make the prog.

Even the tracks like Rockaria that try to sound operatic (even if it's a joke) are only some chords and a a guy singing as a So´prano over a classical rock & roll rhythm, the same gose for other good songs like Living Thing, etc, only attacches applied over simp´le arrangements.

Remember Stevie Wonder used massive Mellotron (A 100% progressive rock instrument) and he's not even near to prog.

Iván

I'd like to hear a few "pro" comments from those who voted in favour, as I listened to "Time" and "Out of the Blue" tonight to see if I could hear any prog.

What I heard was great rock'n'roll with an eye on disco(very!), with very clever arrangements and synth/string parts - and even a prologue and epilogue on "Time"; but all-in-all, two collections of 3-4 minute rock songs with flat 4/4 beats. Jeff Lynne's voice serves to underline that - pure rock'n'roll!

"The News" on "Time" had probably the proggiest flavour of all, but was still a 3 minute song with sound effects that didn't really journey anywhere. I think that anyone who hears prog in ELO should have a listen to Boston, Dire Straits or even ABBA: All three have progressive tendencies and all wrote fine music - but not prog.

I had a very enjoyable evening's listening, thanks to this thread

We'll have to agree to disagree then, maani - "Crime of the Century" contains all the subjective "feel" of "real prog" to my ears - and many objectively identifable elements too.

I understand the term progressive pop to include the Beatles and other pop bands whose albums go way beyond the standard collection of 3 minute tunes - even into concept territory, but do not develop thematic material, rather choose to experiment within the confines of a song. This is where Supertramp differ, especially on COTC, where thematic material is developed, tempi shift, and song structures are elongated. Admittedly, COTC isn't pure concept - but neither is ITCOTCK. 

On the other hand, I hear nothing in, for example, Uriah Heep or ELO that is remotely proggy, or even progressive in the strict sense. Now Queen...

ELO IN THE ARECHIVES?

IN A WORD...NO DEFINATELY NOT(OKAY THREE WORDS THEN!!)

like many bands from the late 60s/early seventies they were influenced by the musical"attitudes"of the time and having formed at a time of psychadelic and general EXPERIMENTATION they may have elements of the style that led to what we generally consider to be prog(as many bands at the time (eg Deep Purple in their very ealy days "Book Of Talysin "etc) did)

BUT LIKE BANDS SUCH AS PURPLE they did not pursue that path  and although i partly agree With Jim(GASP!!!) in That some of their early albums had at least a progressive feel(at times)) i would have to be in the no camp

perhaps we could have some sort of "disputed" section!!