When were you infected by Prog?

When I was a kid around 9 or 10(I know) I used to listen to the local alternative rock stations that would play bands like Bush, Nirvana,Puddle of Mudd and Nickleback(yeah I know those post grunge bands are lame especially Bush and Nickleback). Later, I was turned on to Heavy Metal bands like Rage Against The Machine(by my sisters) and Metallica(on my own), this soon evolved into other Classic Metal bands like Sabbath, Maiden, and Priest who have a prog sensibility, ever since I obsessed over Maiden's Seventh Son album I've been hooked onto Prog Rock or Prog Metal, I was always searching for that lost chord something not suitable for the radio and I found it in Rush when I heard the Spirit of Radio(although I heard it on the radio) at where I used to work I have never gone back to the radio, 4/4 is so boring to me and useless after a while that I want to explore weird time signatures like 9/8 6/4 7/4/  7/8 or 5/4. I love Prog from Rush,Pink Floyd, Genesis, Yes, Mastodon, Dream Theater, ELP, VDGG, GG, and many more nowadays I can't live without it. Looking back there has always been a Prog sensibility in my musical tastes

Edited by ProgMetaller2112 - January 13 2013 at 01:01

In the past, childhood through adolescence my hearing was...shall we say distorted and most music genres were intolerable to me.  Instrumental music, mainly New Age with a bit of a rhythm was the only thing I could listen to that didn't hurt.  Badly.  So although my New Age listening was relatively varied, my entry into prog started with Kitaro and Vangelis.

I listened to very little music with actual lyrics, since words sounded and still sound fairly garbled to me (though it's not nearly as bad as it used to be).

Vangelis worked directly with Jon Anderson, and likewise Kitaro did as well on one album (Dream).  And so one day I was watching TV and heard background music with a voice I actually recognized.  So began my listening to Yes and Jon Anderson independently of New Age music, though at that time the sound was still fairly abrasive to me for much of Yes's music.  Journey and Asia drew me with their cover art, too, but I didn't get into them until much later, when my hearing finally shifted *(see sidenote at the end if you want to know how and why my hearing changed).  I believe I listened to Rush at that time, too, a little.  Tracked down a Far East Family Band CD (Japanese prog group that Kitaro started as a member of).  

I didn't have a term for it at that point, not in a community or family of proggers, rather small town where it's either Gospel, Country Western, or Metal that is popular.  It wasn't until I was a grad student and taking Italian classes that the bug finally took over in a big way.  Not with the introduction of English prog, no, but with hearing Italian prog on vinyl.  PFM, Le Orme, etc.  About six years ago.

At the time I had little money, but I had internet access, discovered, rather late, Emerson Lake and Palmer (by way of their connection with PFM), Camel, Renaissance, a few others that they had on CD at the local library. 

Built a very small collection then (yes, the poor college student pirated music which he has since replaced with actual legal CDs now that he can afford it), and now with a decently paying job my collection has grown.  Interestingly, I've since seen other groups I've was drawn to at various points occasionally categorized loosely as prog--Nightwish, Tangerine Dream, etc.  So apparently I was a progger for a while without realizing it.

And in the last year, by way of market saturation with some CDs, and by way of new releases on MP3, I've acquired (for an American) a moderately sized collection of the Italian prog that first got me truly into the genre.

*Sidenote: If anyone really wants to know, it seems that the malabsorption issues that are associated with gluten intolerance can for some people affect neurological function, I found some of the nutritional issues before figuring out th gluten intolerance,a nd at that point some of the hearing issues resolved themselves (about 5-7 years ago, over time).  When I discovered the gluten sensitivity, within six months my hearing all but normalized.  Long drawn out tones still....make me twitch a little, so slow violin playing is uncomfortable and likewise high pitched abrasive sounds, alto sax was up until the last year or so problematic, and during childhood it hurt so bad it made me cry...now it's fine and I'm acquiring a bit of a jazz collection in addition to prog.

My addiction to progrock began in 1971 at the age of 15 with the first time I heard "I've Seen All Good People, I. Your Move II. All Good People"  by Yes on the local FM rock station in Dallas. My interest grew with the subsequent release of "Fragile" and "Close to the Edge" in rapid succession. I had never heard such music before and it intrigued me to no end. Truly a life-changing event. My interests spread out from there to encompass the standard spectrum the top prog acts thru the 70s.

Somewhat related topic:
I saw Yes perform at Austin, TX in 2002 and they were great. It was the Anderson, Squire, Howe, Wakeman and White lineup. Sounded as good as they ever did in their peak days of the 70s. Sad to see so many of the musical heroes of my youth are now quite old, in bad health or already deceased. Makes me realize I'm not too far behind them. SIGH! 

I'm 62 so I grew up with the Beatles, Stones , Doors, Jefferson Airplane, Who, Moody Blues, etc and all the other great classic bands of the time but in Aug 1969 I started college at Indiana University in Bloomington IN....that spring of 1970 I was visiting my brother on the dormitory floor below me and we went to listen to music in his friends room next door and he played KC-ITCOTCK......that was it for me..I immediately was hooked and went hunting for music in that style and just eventually got into all kinds of prog rock.

OK, I'm new here, just discovered the forum.

I was 14 in 1974 and I was into Slade, T.Rex, Sweet etc. My older sister would tell me on a regular basis that I would grow out of this and would start to listen to 'proper music'. One day, in early 1975, her boyfriend gave me his copy of Argus by Wishbone Ash. This album set me on my way and to the type of music that I would like for the rest of my life, for which I shall be eternally grateful. (Even though her boyfriend turned out to be a total sod) Looking back on all this, however, I think Slade and Sweet were excellent bands. I saw Sweet at a Rock Against Prostate Cancer gig near Devizes last summer, and they were brilliant.

I remember it well. I was at my dad's house, we were putting records on, and then Wish You Were Here came on. I still remember how amazing the opening synths of Shine On sounded to me.

When I was 12, I heard ELP's "Lucky Man" on the radio and the synth solo got me.  Didn't get my first prog album until 3 years later when I bought "Brain Salad Surgery" then "Welcome Back My Friends to the Show that Never Ends".  Tull's "Minstrel in the Gallery" was next and I was on my way 

I learned about progressive rock when I was 16-17 I think, through internet. before that I had never heard that term before.

My first obsession with music happened at about age 5 , maybe 6 when I heard Peter Baumann's Transharmonic Nights. Listening to that album was among the strongest music expreiences I've had. Maybe it is enhanced by experiencing stuff more vividly when you are just a kid. But no other music had the same effect. I would just stare at the LP cover while listening.

But I wasn't actively exploring music as a kid, I just responded to whatever I heard, a lot of stuff I heard through my brothers .  I had a cassette with favourite songs, mostly pop oriented with synth elements. Scotch -  "Primitive Man" became my favourite song for some time. It's italy disco but their biggest imfluence was actually progressive music. My brother introduced me to Jean Michel Jarre which I heard at 8 or 9 years old, which I liked , although not quite the same as the Baumann album. But I loved "Ethnicolor" which I had on cassette, 11 minutes, dark and very sci-fi-ish. I also liked some classical stuff like the 4 seasons and an album with Hugo Alfvén.

I had a period were I was crazy about A-ha and the Hunting High and Low album, about 11 or 12 years old. I wasn't too fond of the happier song "Love is reason", but otherwise it's a pretty dark album. I also liked Howard Jones after being given "Human's Lib". I liked stuff by sisters of mercy and The Mission,  which my brother listened to. The other brother listened to Saga among other stuff and I only caught some of it but some melodies stuck in my head. But I wouldn't get into Saga until I was 14-15, by finding a cassette in the kitchen table drawer with "Silent Knight" recorded on it. I played it everyday. I was obsessed with it. Then I moved on to the other albums. Started playing drums and Saga inspired that a lot. When I was around 16 I got the opportunity to look up Saga at the internet in school. I wasn't even expecting to find anything for some reason, and was surprised to find a fan page and many  fans of them.

 I saw Marillion being recommended as a similar band, which didn't turn out very similar but I liked it. Then I heard about progressive music and found GEPR (gibraltar encyclopedia of progressive rock). That's when I started exploring music more by free will rather than responding to stuff I heard around me. Bought a hifi-system, and got into 70's music, Camel, Genesis, Gentle Giant, Magma and other stuff. This coincided with the time when commercial radio exploded somewhere around -96 or -97 I think, hits oriented radio channels with commercials and crazy jingles which to my horror became extremely popular. I had always believed you could hear all kinds of music on the radio, but it became apparent that in general only singles and hit songs are played, and whole genres are not represented at all on radio. But that was what people wanted, which was very saddening. For example, no one new about Saga, and that's because it was never ever played on radio or in public places. So naturally I ignored contemporary music and culture.

That's my story of getting into prog but in the 2000's I became addicted to internet radio and got into other stuff that I had been missing , a lot of goth related music but also dream-pop, shoegazer, post-rock and indie. But everything I like usually have some progressive elements, showing some ambition for the sake of the music.

Most of the stuff I've liked in the past I still like now. I don't like A-Ha and Howard Jones nearly as much though , but Saga is still a big favourite.


Edited by wilmon91 - May 14 2013 at 16:46

Stage 1: Classic Rock and Rebellion