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Discovering prog at a young age is of great benifit because to really be able to plunge deep into the prog-Sphere it takes years to develope. What I mean by this is that prog, being as diverse sounding as it is, really takes time to uncover the variety of sounds and themes it has to offer. Actually, finding a good handful of bands from each sub genre just isn't enough. It's only scratching the surface.
Anyway. As I've already said on this forum, that I owe my dearest Prog discoveries and love for the music in general goes to the honor of RUSH. Being a 17 year old who lived in Toronto at the time, RUSH were not a hard discovery. I found them on the good old radio. Once I heard Subdivisions I was hooked.
I couldn't get over the synths and the drumming on that song. I got locked in.
2 weeks later I think I got into Metallica. Go figure. ;)
Joined: January 30 2004
Location: United States
Status: Offline
Points: 2632
Posted: July 11 2013 at 10:40
I was 11 when my older brother came back from college in 1969 and played me "In The Court." Although it certainly unnerved me to some degree, I was hooked immediately. The next prog album I specifically remember hearing was the Moody's "On The Threshold" (1969). The rest of seminal prog followed quickly thereon: Yes, Genesis, GG, Tull et al.
Joined: March 03 2013
Location: USA
Status: Offline
Points: 664
Posted: July 14 2013 at 15:40
Back in the '60s, my parents filled my brain with all kinds of classical epics, like the 1812 Overture, and broadway musicals, like the Music Man. Much to their dismay, this made me gravitate naturally toward prog.
Among my first albums were Tommy, the White Album, In the Court of the Crimson King, In Search of the Lost Chord, Fragile, and Aqualung.
I recall bands like Yes, Genesis, ELP, Jethro Tull, and King Crimson being identified routinely as progressive in the early '70s.
IIRC, many other innovative bands we now casually call prog were not typically referred to in that way. Pink Floyd was trippy, and the Mothers were just plain nuts (I mean that in the best way possible). Or perhaps that was just the circles in which I was circulating.
This is what happens when you reach the age when you realize that many of your fondest memories never actually happened.
Joined: March 23 2013
Location: Minnesota
Status: Offline
Points: 2029
Posted: July 14 2013 at 16:35
Welcome, RockHound.
I have very similar memories. The 2112 Overture is one I remember my dad listening to. He especially liked organ music. I think he liked some of the ELP he heard through my bedroom door but he wouldn't admit it.
Of course there was no internet, so we relied on a few magazines to categorize music. Genres weren't that important back then.
Trouser Press, Circus, and Creem were the ones I read. Always avoided Rolling Stone. They hated Progressive Rock or anything adventurous.
Frank Zappa was never considered to be anything like the bands that were considered Progressive at the time. It wasn't until the '80's when "Adrian Belew, formerly with Frank Zappa, Talking Heads and David Bowie" joined King Crimson that suddenly there was a connection.
Joined: July 29 2004
Location: United States
Status: Offline
Points: 28
Posted: July 14 2013 at 22:24
I can say when I was infected by "modern prog". Back in about 2000, I read about about a band called Spock's Beard on a Yes Message Board. At that time, I did not know that there was a modern progressive rock scene. I thought that music was dead. I went to my local Borders and they had a copy of Beware of Darkness which I purchased. I remember listening to the first song driving back home and immediately falling in love with the music. I became obsessed with Spock's and bought all of their albums. That led to me Transatlantic, which led me to The Flower Kings. Although The Flower Kings eventually became my favorite band, I will never forget that moment. Eventually I found about about internet prog radio and the rest is history....
Don Cassidy
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Joined: June 23 2013
Location: Finland
Status: Offline
Points: 20
Posted: July 17 2013 at 05:26
I'm quite new on this site so here's my story....
The first time I heard prog was mid-90s when I went to high school specialised in theatre & music. My music teacher (a man at late 40s at the time) was crazy about Mike Oldfield and we practised Tubular Bells along with the other stuff he gave us to play & sing. Generally at that time I went through various musical phases, 80s hair metal, punk, folk (even learned to play a little guitar inspired by Joan Baez), classical, 90s alt rock and the "angry young women" etc. so I developed a very eclectical musical taste. When I started my studies at the Business School I tried almost too hard to fit in because I came from a very different background than most of my friends so I sort of gave up following my natural tastes and settled for the popular for quite a while. When I met my husband 9 years ago we started again to go to gigs together, mostly hard rock & heavy metal that he likes and there's plenty of that available in Finland. As odd as it may be, I have been the one who has then started to search also other stuff than Iron Maiden, Metallica, Stratovarius and the likes (still good bands though...). and I've come across prog from the metal side of it. I guess Devin Townsend, Opeth, Riverside, Anathema and Pain of Salvation were the real eye-openers for me.
In the 70's "Dark side of the Moon" was my first introduction to prog. And after it was Genesis, through my sister, and then came Yes with my friends and Rush by myself. After that i went to the New Wave stuff in the 80's, but i was still listening to prog. Then i discovered the neo-pro scene with IQ "Tales from the Lush Attic", "The Jewel" by Pendragon and in the 90's i was blown away by Ronnie Stolt "The Flower KIngs", thinking that Yes was back with a modern sound. Today, i am still not cure after this infection...
Music is the refuge of souls ulcerated by happiness.
<FONT size=2 face=Helv><FONT size=2 face=Helv>
<P dir=ltr>I'm quite new on this site so here's my story....
The first time I heard prog was mid-90s when I went to high school specialised in theatre & music. My music teacher (a man at late 40s at the time) was crazy about Mike Oldfield and we practised Tubular Bells along with the other stuff he gave us to play & sing. Generally at that time I went through various musical phases, 80s hair metal, punk, folk (even learned to play a little guitar inspired by Joan Baez), classical, 90s alt rock and the "angry young women" etc. so I developed a very eclectical musical taste. When I started my studies at the Business School I tried almost too hard to fit in because I came from a very different background than most of my friends so I sort of gave up following my natural tastes and settled for the popular for quite a while. When I met my husband 9 years ago we started again to go to gigs together, mostly hard rock & heavy metal that he likes and there's plenty of that available in Finland. As odd as it may be, I have been the one who has then started to search also other stuff than Iron Maiden, Metallica, Stratovarius and the likes (still good bands though...). and I've come across prog from the metal side of it. I guess Devin Townsend, Opeth, Riverside, Anathema and Pain of Salvation were the real eye-openers for me.
Very cool and interesting story, especially about your teacher being wild about Tubular Bells. ;)
It's also nice to here someone with a classical music background discover prog metal. Most of the classical junkies go straight to symphonic and psyche prog I find. :) anyway. Thank you for sharing.
I think it was always in me from a young age. My mom used to play a lot of Genesis, Yes, Kansas, Styx, and such. But it wasn't until I was a freshman in high school did I realize it. Our band director formed a percussion ensemble to perform Karn Evil 9 Second impression on vibes, xylophones, marimbas, etc. I'm sure we did a mediocre job at it but a quick google of the song made me realize there was a whole genre of 'progressive rock' that I was missing out on.
Joined: June 23 2013
Location: Finland
Status: Offline
Points: 20
Posted: July 18 2013 at 09:44
progbethyname wrote:
josuu wrote:
<FONT size=2 face=Helv><FONT size=2 face=Helv> <P dir=ltr>I'm quite new on this site so here's my story....
The first time I heard prog was mid-90s when I went to high school specialised in theatre & music. My music teacher (a man at late 40s at the time) was crazy about Mike Oldfield and we practised Tubular Bells along with the other stuff he gave us to play & sing. Generally at that time I went through various musical phases, 80s hair metal, punk, folk (even learned to play a little guitar inspired by Joan Baez), classical, 90s alt rock and the "angry young women" etc. so I developed a very eclectical musical taste. When I started my studies at the Business School I tried almost too hard to fit in because I came from a very different background than most of my friends so I sort of gave up following my natural tastes and settled for the popular for quite a while. When I met my husband 9 years ago we started again to go to gigs together, mostly hard rock & heavy metal that he likes and there's plenty of that available in Finland. As odd as it may be, I have been the one who has then started to search also other stuff than Iron Maiden, Metallica, Stratovarius and the likes (still good bands though...). and I've come across prog from the metal side of it. I guess Devin Townsend, Opeth, Riverside, Anathema and Pain of Salvation were the real eye-openers for me.
Very cool and interesting story, especially about your teacher being wild about Tubular Bells. ;) It's also nice to here someone with a classical music background discover prog metal. Most of the classical junkies go straight to symphonic and psyche prog I find. :) anyway. Thank you for sharing.
Haha, although I've studied a little classical singing, I'm far from classical junkie . I find it quite common here though as quite a few Finnish metal bands, most obvious being Nightwish and Apocalyptica, have lots of classical influences in their music.
Joined: March 29 2013
Location: WA
Status: Offline
Points: 4596
Posted: July 18 2013 at 11:58
bloodnarfer wrote:
Our band director formed a percussion ensemble to perform Karn Evil 9 Second impression on vibes, xylophones, marimbas, etc. I'm sure we did a mediocre job at it but a quick google of the song made me realize there was a whole genre of 'progressive rock' that I was missing out on.
How about a marimba version of Fripp's guitar part in the middle of Fracture?
Joined: July 09 2013
Location: Essex UK
Status: Offline
Points: 7
Posted: July 18 2013 at 16:47
in 1984.
I was into heavy rock and through that got into Marillion who were lumped in with the heavy rock movement at the time.
That led me into checking out other progressive rock bands such as Genesis, Yes, Pink Floyd etc and it snowballed from there.
I realised that progressive rock has much more to it than straight ahead rock, or heavy rock.
Joined: July 20 2013
Location: United States
Status: Offline
Points: 123
Posted: July 20 2013 at 17:24
I must have been 9 or 10 years old. I had remembered my dad watching Roger Waters do the Wall in Berlin on tape and wanted to listen to that song that said "we don't need no education."
<FONT size=2 face=Helv><FONT size=2 face=Helv> <P dir=ltr>I'm quite new on this site so here's my story....
The first time I heard prog was mid-90s when I went to high school specialised in theatre & music. My music teacher (a man at late 40s at the time) was crazy about Mike Oldfield and we practised Tubular Bells along with the other stuff he gave us to play & sing. Generally at that time I went through various musical phases, 80s hair metal, punk, folk (even learned to play a little guitar inspired by Joan Baez), classical, 90s alt rock and the "angry young women" etc. so I developed a very eclectical musical taste. When I started my studies at the Business School I tried almost too hard to fit in because I came from a very different background than most of my friends so I sort of gave up following my natural tastes and settled for the popular for quite a while. When I met my husband 9 years ago we started again to go to gigs together, mostly hard rock & heavy metal that he likes and there's plenty of that available in Finland. As odd as it may be, I have been the one who has then started to search also other stuff than Iron Maiden, Metallica, Stratovarius and the likes (still good bands though...). and I've come across prog from the metal side of it. I guess Devin Townsend, Opeth, Riverside, Anathema and Pain of Salvation were the real eye-openers for me.
Very cool and interesting story, especially about your teacher being wild about Tubular Bells. ;) It's also nice to here someone with a classical music background discover prog metal. Most of the classical junkies go straight to symphonic and psyche prog I find. :) anyway. Thank you for sharing.
Haha, although I've studied a little classical singing, I'm far from classical junkie . I find it quite common here though as quite a few Finnish metal bands, most obvious being Nightwish and Apocalyptica, have lots of classical influences in their music.
Couldn't agree more and l like both those bands mentioned very much, especially NIGHTWISH. Their last 2 albums I think are incredible and are the most advanced compositions yet. I could not pass up buying special editions for both Dark Passion Play and Immaginarium. Love the instrumental discs where Halopainen's keyboards are heightened with the overall grand orchestration. Also, how do you feel about Transiberian Orchestra?
Joined: June 23 2013
Location: Finland
Status: Offline
Points: 20
Posted: July 22 2013 at 13:49
progbethyname wrote:
Couldn't agree more and l like both those bands mentioned very much, especially NIGHTWISH. Their last 2 albums I think are incredible and are the most advanced compositions yet. I could not pass up buying special editions for both Dark Passion Play and Immaginarium. Love the instrumental discs where Halopainen's keyboards are heightened with the overall grand orchestration. Also, how do you feel about Transiberian Orchestra?
I also have the special edition of Imagenaerum, but for me Once is a stronger album than DPP. It has a few of my all time favorite Nightwish songs, mainly the stunning epic Ghost Love Score... I'm very interested to see how the solo album Holopainen is now working on will turn out.
Haven't heard Transiberian Orchestra before, sounded really interesting though, I'll definitely check them out. Any good suggestions to start with?
Joined: July 21 2013
Location: u.k
Status: Offline
Points: 207
Posted: July 22 2013 at 14:28
I was 15 yrs old.1980.Heard "Games Without Frontiers" on BBC radio.Liked it instantly. Went out later and bought Peter Gabriel 3. Brilliant! Had no idea who he was,asked around, former lead singer with genesis. Few days passed ,got "Selling England" WOW!!! Haven't looked back since!
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josuu wrote:
. I find it quite common here though as quite a few Finnish metal bands, most obvious being Nightwish and Apocalyptica, have lots of classical influences in their music.
