How did you find Prog?

I was born in 1979, at that time there almost no west music in my country (China was closed to the world then,similar to today's North Korea).

I was about 15 years old and my cousin played "In The Wake Of Posiedon" by King Crimson. He also played Frank Zappa-Absolutely Free. I went out 2 weeks later and bought Lizard, ITCOTCK, and Islands. I purchased The Big Ball which was from a series of variety albums that were available through mail order on the inner sleeve of most warner bros record purchases. This was how I discovered that Fleetwood Mac were a straight up underground blues band, Beaver&Krause were pioneers of the electronic music scene, Wild Man Fischer, Gto's were signed by Zappa etc; There was some garbage on the album as well but it introduced me to more of a wide spectrum of music where as the record stores were limited to carry such artists. Unless you could find a Mom and Pop shop that specialized in imports, you were screwed.


Of course mail order from Mr. Brian Gatland in England seemed a good alternative to record store shopping. But when I received Earthbound I was put out a bit. I tried to compare it to the sound of a toilet flushing. It seemed pretty comparable. I then discovered David Bedford and Mike Oldfield and they were very spacey at the time. This all happened between 1972 and 1974. Meanwhile back in my hometown where a person had to climb up a telephone poll to answer their calls, the usual social engagement began. Hey dude! This isn't music! Some kids were open to ELP and Yes which was refreshing. I was in South Jersey however. The prog hate capital of the world it seemed.


I left for the road in 1976 and by 1979 I was on the same circuit as Happy The Man. I picked up their first album and Crafty Hands. In 1980 Wayside Music was born and my pay check went to them and Third Street Jazz and Rock in Phiadelphia P.A. There was also Greenworld on the west coast with the great Archie Patterson and Marty from Jem Records in South and North Plainfield N.J. They both specialized in krautrock imports and my favorite music was now being distributed through pioneer vendors.

It was very difficult to sought after prog titles as you can imagine with no internet.In 1974 I missed my only chance to see King Crimson in Asbury Park. I was deeply depressed so I bought a bottle of wine, listened to Gong and threw Grand Funk Railroad albums into a bonfire.

In 1981 I was on the road again and Steve Hackett was booked one week ahead of us in celebrity clubs and theatres. He cancelled the Brandywine gig in P.A. Then it seemed he headed for England. At that time the music scene in the mainstream media world was changing before my eyes. Prog really became a very private source for many. I use to think: Why can't these artists get decent exposure. I was stupied to ponder over such an issue. Thank God for the most part, they didn't. I am now more than thankful they stayed on the underground. My personal display of idiosyncrasy during my youthful prog days proved nothing. Even though my rebellion against the music business seemed justified in those years it now identifies with no one in particular due to the amount of prog rock history that has since been deleted from the publication industry in general.

I got really into psychedelic rock from blues music, and prog rock was just a natural progression from there.

My mom listens to prog so I grew up with it. Once when I was like 7 years or something a friend asked me what's my favourite bands and said Porcupine Tree and Dream Theater, and he just went 'what?'.

For me, it was slow growing. I listened to Pink Floyd a lot, and got into Yes through Owner of a Lonely Heart. I actually bought a lot of Yes records, including Close to the Edge, Relayer, and Tales from Topographic Oceans, but I just wasn't sure how to understand the long form songs. I was not at the point where I considered listening to music as something that required active participation, so while I thought they were neat (Relayer especially always had me thinking it was the work of a genius) I could not grasp them.

I noticed a few bands I liked being labelled as prog, such as Supertramp, Genesis, and Trans-Siberian Orchestra, and a friend showed me King Crimson, which I enjoyed but could never find in the record stores. Then one year, I got The Yes Album, and I had matured musically enough by then to pay enough attention to realise why it was awesome, and it was a bit more digestible then the twenty minute stuff. Later in the year, I found Fragile, and picked that up. Even though most of the songs were on Live at Montreux 2003, which I had loved, they sounded so good on the album, and the way that the album was lined up, it was pretty much the only CD I listened to for a month, and I started listening to all my other Yes records with it. I started to notice things in them I hadn't before, and I was constantly thinking to myself, whenever I would think about my next musical acquisition, it would have to b something like Yes. There had to be more music that good.

I knew that older Genesis albums were considered prog, so I went in search of those, and picked up Wind and Wuthering, as it was the only one my record store had. Due to crappy selection, for the most part, my prog fix came from my Yes music, Wind and Wuthering, In the Court of the Crimson King, Demons and Wizards, and some random Rush records, until I finally got approved for a credit card. Still starving for more of this music, and now suddenly with access to amazon, my collection grew MUCH faster. I discovered progarchives this May and have been discovering even more new bands since then.

My brother show me the Awake album, THE Awake album from DT and that was it really... funny that my brother don't listen to DT... didn't like their heavy sound, but for me it was really everything that I've dream of and never found... so I start digging, and now I enjoy  Prog metal and neo-prog a lot more than the classics... but enjoy most of the prog... DT was the inception...

I heard Les Claypool's Frog Brigade's cover of Thela Hun Ginjeet on their first live disc and had to discover the band behind the song, and from King Crimson I branched out every which way.

Back in 1985/86, I was a metal head teenager just starting to really get into guitar. I met a drummer (in high school) who played methe first King Crimson song I'd ever heard "Industry/Dig Me"  (on cassette), which opened up a whole new world of music to me far beyond just Metal.

Never ever been interested in Rock music or 'bands'. Had been into electronic music since i was 15 and thought everyone else were 'moshers'. Im 30 now and about 6 months ago I downloaded Pink Floyd Wish You Were Here. That was it...... i now have a couple of hundred albums... AND I LOVE PROG ITS THE BEST MUSIC EEVVEERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR

Dad had old Pink Floyd, Who and Jethro Tull records. They were way more interesting than what I hearing on the radio growing up in the 80's.