When were you infected by Prog?

For me it was Rush. My family moved to a new town in 1979, when I was 11 years old. My new neighbors were big Rush heads. I hated it at first, but as I started to hear more, it grew on me. Soon, I was taping Rush songs off the radio. They've been my favorite band ever since. I've only recently started to really branch out to more prog. Another favorite of mine is Spock's Beard. Just a great band before Morse left.

The first time I felt I was truly "infected" would have to be my freshman year in high school (2009). I was in my biology class and as it was leaving I plugged in my headphones to listen to Yes, a band I had just been introduced to. I immediately chose Roundabout and although it wasn't the first time I heard it, something about that moment stuck with me and I gained so much respect for each musician in Yes that I knew this was a band I'd come to really adore. And I did. They're my favorite

Well.. around 2003-2004 I was a hardcore fan of Judas Priest, I was 15 years old and my neighbors around the same age were fans of Zeppelin, Black Sabbath and AC/DC. We used to hang out a lot and always listen to this 4 four bands in almost a cyclical manner. I really liked the live version of Dazed and Confused... 26 minutes of a blues-rock jam? Awesome! But one day... One of my neighbors comes with a copy of Pink Floyd Animals, turns the volume up and pushes the play button on track 2: Dogs.

At 16, I rented The Wall from Blockbuster video in the summer of 1987.  I loved the animation.  I was getting Rolling Stone magazine, reading mostly about Prince, The Cure, New Order, and other post punk alternative music.   But I came across their 20th anniversary of the Summer of Love and Sgt Pepper.  I was intrigued.  That fall, the Momentary Lapse of Reason tour took off, and I couldn't go because it was a school night.  I asked one of the many Floyd shirt wearing classmates how it was, and she said she couldn't describe it.  She loaned me Dark Side on cassette if I recorded my vinyl copy of The Wall for her.  She told me not to listen to it until I put on headphones.  I was not ready for that sort of panning, a psychedelic assault on a sober kid!  I was hooked, and started spending lunch money on Floyd albums until I had them all, including Waters solo.

I think the allegory of the virus is a valid one because the taste for a musical genre grows inside us like a disease and we might take some time to notice it. It's not like "on the 21st of May, I started to like Prog rock". 

Edited by claugroi - April 04 2014 at 16:43