When were you infected by Prog?

josuu wrote: 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?

I think Beethoven's last Night and Night Castle are decent places to start.
But, like all Trans-Siberian Orchestra albums they are not consistent all the way through, meaning you'll find some mediocre tracks on all albums. I really liked Ephiany off the Night Castle album. It's gold. 10min+ epic.

Ahhh - in college, my roommate Dan had an older brother who was into Genesis. He infected me with UK, King Crimson, Genesis, Styx, Yes, The Stawbs, Marillion.....   It pretty much ruined my chances of becoming a famous pop star....

I'll never forget it.

I lived next to some programmers/coders in Plano Texas when I was in middle school. One of them turned me onto the police and then Utopia which turned into Todd Rundgren. So, in seventh grade we had this kid that was destined to listen to ACDC and Motley Crue all the sudden fall in love with Todd Rundgren and the Police. Made my way to Led Zeppelin after that. That lead to Rush. Rush lead to Yes and Super Tramp. Then came Japan and Can. That lead to Genesis and Peter Gabriel. That lead to Marillion, Kevin Gilbert and Gentle Giant, etc, etc, etc.....

Oh, what a strange and wonderful tip it's been.

I blame it all on Pink Floyd. I have been obsessed with Pink Floyd since I was 14. I had always liked classic rock, folk and metal but was getting bored with it all. Being a huge Pink Floyd fan and interested in anything they did, I started listening to the bands on the same record label, the Harvest label. and that really opened the door to all the stuff I love now like Caravan, Kevin Ayers, Roy Harper, Gong, Steve HIllage, Kraan, Passport, Brand X, Camel, Isotope, Secret Oyster, Egg, Gilgamesh, Khan, PFM, among many others!

Fantastic first post!

RKTolbert62 wrote: My music library now consists of about 5000 CDs and another 1000 downloaded albums (with no duplication) and probably 1/4 of it is only prog. And as for King Crimson, the band that got me hooked? I own every single band album and side project album (including every one of the King Crimson Collector's Club releases) as well as every solo album form each former or present member, as well as their OWN occasional side-project bands. And I thank my old friend to this very day by sending him new releases from his favorite prog bands (such as Nektar) as a gift when they are released.

Quite an impressive collection and history. Welcome to PA!

Hmm, I guess I *really* got into prog when I went to uni and got access to the internet, thus realising that my existing interests in rock (from my friends/dad) and jazz and classical (from my mum) had actually been combined about 30 years previously into some of the best music around! I'd already had Dark Side of the Moon and Zeppelin/etc for years, and had got hold of some Can via reading about influences on post-punk and some Opeth from some friends into metal, but around then I learnt about the Canterbury scene (from some Opeth interview, possibly?) and went out and bought Third by Soft Machine and In the Land of Grey and Pink by Caravan, still two of my all-time favourite albums of any genre, and with that I was finally convinced that 'real' prog (outside of specific krautrock and prog metal groups) was also great. At first I still only really liked the Canterbury scene, krautrock and prog metal, but it wasn't long til I succumbed to the charms of Genesis, Yes, Jethro Tull, Gentle Giant, Van der Graaf, etc. I'm still not a huge fan of much recent prog outside of prog metal, but I'm still discovering...

I grew up with music like Pink Floyd, And most of my friends listen to prog so we share a lot of music with each other. 

My way into prog was Rush, especially the 2112 album. I first heard Rush on a compilation album from "The Spirit Of Radio" which I loved, and then a few years later after I'd sort of forgotten about them, I rediscovered them on an article where I looked up YYZ which led to Red Barchetta and then, as said, 2112. To this day, it's still one of my all-time favourite albums altogether and I'm so thankful I found them