Has the flame finally gone out?

^ Pharrell is hugely talented, make no mistake. Longevity remains to be seen. his work with Nike Rodgers and Daft Punk was especially good.

I was being facetious---we must laugh in the face of adversity. But still Pharrell has good taste.

The Dark Elf wrote: Chris S wrote: ^ Pharrell is hugely talented, make no mistake. Longevity remains to be seen. his work with Nike Rodgers and Daft Punk was especially good. Again, your definition of "especially good" in no way coincides with mine. But to each his own. Let's just agree that wearing a Yes t-shirt on an inane show like The Voice does not in any way translate into musical influence.

I base good on gut reaction and I liked Happy.  Seems like a decent pop song to me.  Other than that I haven't heard anything else.

The flame has only gone out if you think punk killed prog.   If you think no good prog has been made after the '70's.  If you ignore the the new generation of old prog fans that are making new music...


Edited by Slartibartfast - November 12 2014 at 06:10

richardh wrote: twosteves wrote: Flame not out--Pharrell ----hippest songwriter producer of our time was on The Voice wearing a Yes tour tee shirt. You watch 'The Voice'?! Is it any good?! I watch Strictly so I can't say much . At least it has Dave Arch who once played in Greg Lake's touring band. Prog creeping into Saturday nights on the BEEB

If I had heard Art Zoyd's "Le Mariage du Ciel et de l' Enfer" in 1972 after my discovery of Jethro Tull's "Thick As A Brick", I would have most likely told you that it was "Progressive Rock". This is a distant observation into the world of music progressing. If people become discouraged over the last 10 years of "Neo Prog', they can always refer back to the underground  Prog bands of the 80's and 90's. Many of them were not clones of something written in music or someone that wrote it.  

There were select songs by 5 UU's that were good and very much like what would have happened if Yes kept inventing new styles. 

As someone pointed, the environmental and cultural circumstances were completely different. Rock music was the main entertainment and vehicle for cultural expression for the youth of the early 70's. People awaited eagerly for the new albums, went to the shop to buy them, they shared them, listened to them together, discussed them, got stoned together listening to them, studied and discussed the artwork, copied the clothing styles of their musical heroes, hanged posters in their bedrooms, bought the music magazines because they talked about those bands... The bands knew this so they were engaged in a certain form of competition for becoming the most appealing and talked-about, musically and as a cultural and entertainment act.

Edited by Gerinski - November 14 2014 at 02:29

Rednight wrote: As long as bored 15-year-old boys are still around and sneaking into their fathers' dens to discover and pull out that battered copy of Yes' Fragile for a spin, there's still hope...

Jack and his friends were shivering with excitement, anticipation in their secret hideout. They knew the girls wouldn't approve of what they were looking at. But they were young and who cared about those sissies anyway? They stared at the glossy cover of what Jack had found in his father's top drawer. This was it. A prog album.

Gerinski wrote: As someone pointed, the environmental and cultural circumstances were completely different. Rock music was the main entertainment and vehicle for cultural expression for the youth of the early 70's. People awaited eagerly for the new albums, went to the shop to buy them, they shared them, listened to them together, discussed them, got stoned together listening to them, studied and discussed the artwork, copied the clothing styles of their musical heroes, hanged posters in their bedrooms, bought the music magazines because they talked about those bands... The bands knew this so they were engaged in a certain form of competition for becoming the most appealing and talked-about, musically and as a cultural and entertainment act. Those of us who learnt Prog in the 70's can't avoid having our perception of the classic masterpieces linked to those environmental factors, which very probably gives them a deeper dimension in our hearts, and we may feel that although great music is surely made today (possibly even better from a purely technical point of view), some of the magic is gone. But I am not sure if the young generations who are discovering the 70's classics now, free from their original environmental circumstances, agree that they were so much better than many modern great Prog albums. I have discovered many truly fantastic modern albums, but the discovery experience is now much colder, I learn about them through the internet, order them online, I'm usually alone when I receive them and listen to them for the first times, and if I like them the only chance to share them and discuss them is with a few close friends who as myself do not have much time anymore for music, or through the net in places like PA with people I don't even know. It's not "the flame" which is gone, it's the times.

Agree.