The New Neal Morse Appreciation Thread

When I discovered Neal Morse and Spock's Beard spearheading a Progressive Rock resurrection in the 90's, I was overjoyed.  I heard passionate, brilliant composion and playing from this man, and attention to narrative and meaning in his lyrics.

freyacat, it's true that Neal's spiritual lyrics are way more obvious than Roine's are, but I still think they are not as overtly blatant as many do.  But that's just me. 

[QUOTE=Biff Tannen]freyacat, it's true that Neal's spiritual lyrics are way more obvious than Roine's are, but I still think they are not as overtly blatant as many do.  But that's just me. 

zumacraig wrote: Neal's lyrics are delusional and infantile. Although it seems he's unware, his crusade is quit sinister and takes absolutely no responsibility for it's genocidal end game.

There is too much prog that lacks balls for me. Morse doesn't lack any. His passion and drive is very evident and helps makes the music so exciting. I also like the fact that he works mainly with a 3 peice format in the studio. That gives him plenty of space in the music. Its easy to forget that Neal is one of the best keyboard players in modern prog and could quite easily be viewed as a modern day Keith Emerson.

Listened to `Momentum' twice today, just reaffirms to me that Morse is simply one of the best (if not the best) modern prog artists when it comes to placing just as much emphasis on superb hooks, harmonies and catchy vocal sections as super-prog workouts and extended instrumental flashiness. That album has so much uptempo energy!

`Freak' still doens't do much for me though lol!

richardh wrote: There is too much prog that lacks balls for me. Morse doesn't lack any. His passion and drive is very evident and helps makes the music so exciting. I also like the fact that he works mainly with a 3 peice format in the studio. That gives him plenty of space in the music. Its easy to forget that Neal is one of the best keyboard players in modern prog and could quite easily be viewed as a modern day Keith Emerson.

AlexDOM wrote: richardh wrote: There is too much prog that lacks balls for me. Morse doesn't lack any. His passion and drive is very evident and helps makes the music so exciting. I also like the fact that he works mainly with a 3 peice format in the studio. That gives him plenty of space in the music. Its easy to forget that Neal is one of the best keyboard players in modern prog and could quite easily be viewed as a modern day Keith Emerson. So so so true. I am in total agreement

Indeed. Neal is pretty much the most inspirational musician I am aware of. His albums (solo, TA, SB, even some of the worship stuff) hook me up from the first moments I hear them and lead to journeys of various emotions, wonders and landscapes of thoughts. They have had much healing and positive effect in my life. I can see some of the criticism legitimate (his often repeating concepts, for example), but he rarely leaves anyone cold at least. It is rare today to find a musician whose focus is in the spirit of the music and connecting with people through it and not in technicality, hipsterness, sales, overblown criticism of things etc.

infandous wrote: I have been critical of his lyrics (and not just because they are Christian), but his music is generally fabulous.  No, it's not groundbreaking and he certainly has his "patented prog rock formula" (which I happen to love), but I agree with the other posters that his music is filled with emotion and "feel".  He's a very genuine artist who puts all he's got into everything he does, something I appreciate very much, even if I don't always share the sentiments of the lyrics.

A Morse bashing thread would probably get deleted.  So here we are.  I guess I shouldn't care about what Morse's lyrics are.  I used to be more of a 'live and let live' kind of person.  However, I can't keep quiet when delusion prevails in art, discussion etc.  Dismissing my post as uninteresting and unintelligent is predictable.  I made controversial comments.  If that's not interesting, then what is?  Talking about how passionate Neal is?  Passionately delusional.  He's sticking with the fundamentalism because he makes money off of it.  For many, it doesn't hold up for long because reality is hard to ignore.  Just take a minute and take Neal's assertions about his daughter to their logical conclusion.  Hint, god saved only his kid that day?  What about all the rest of the kids who died that day?  That is where I start not from the assumption that the god of the bible is real and nice.  He's quite an unstable god in the great books.