Most Overrated Band of the 'Big Six'

Catcher10 wrote: In this list ELP gets the vote....They spent way too much time and effort trying to create something so big and engaging that it seemed to fail upon each release in someway. There are some great songs, but not great albums. Three talented musicians, just not sure what they were trying to do. Think I will spin BSS right now......

dr wu23 wrote: Catcher10 wrote: In this list ELP gets the vote....They spent way too much time and effort trying to create something so big and engaging that it seemed to fail upon each release in someway. There are some great songs, but not great albums. Three talented musicians, just not sure what they were trying to do. Think I will spin BSS right now......   Well...I think their first one is great and imho the most engaging thing they ever did.

Flight123 wrote: For a band to get nearly a third of the votes in a poll of this kind on PA is slightly irritating given that the site is about prog appreciation.

I am not even close to as big a fan of ELP as is captain micky and heartily gave BSS all of 3 stars.  But I don't understand how it is overrated anymore.  Not on PA, no.  The pendulum's swung the other way so much that it's almost a bit underrated now.  We the prog listeners have been taken for a ride by the anti-prog brigade and ended up believing the vile things they said about prog...or so it would seem.  Because people seem to now avoid ELP like the plague and don't give the debut a fair shot, which is perhaps their most disciplined offering.  If you are saying you can't understand how they could have been so big in the 70s, ok, sure.  But I can't also see for the life of me how Eagles got so popular in the 70s either, so that's a question of changing tastes and doesn't make the band overrated for that reason alone.  

Edited by rogerthat - December 25 2015 at 09:55

Ivan_Melgar_M wrote: micky wrote:  Unless one thinks they were like Genesis and were playing dinner clubs and selling albums to family members when others were taking prog rock to the masses and influencing contemporaries and future groups and making prog rock known to those outside the musically, culturally and intellectually elite. So...Is now Prog a amtter of masses? I thought Prog was against commercialism. But that's no valid point, they were les popular because they were younger, the important issue is the music. And Genesis was creating great music.

come on man.. we've had this discussion many times over many years. You know what I am gettting at.

If you are talking about discerning greatness.. NOT popularity you have to look deep man.  Prog is not nor has ever been against against anything.  What is always has taken is the rare quanities of talent, ability, and excellence.. a damn bit of good old fashioned luck to jump out from a fringe music genre to reach popular acceptance.  It is because of those groups that the common man first came to hear, then enjoy prog rock. If not for those groups, and ELP was foremost among them, then the question is fair to ask. Would prog still be around today or would it have gone the way of lots of other stylistic dablings in music that remain products of their time and never carried on. You know the old saying man.. if they aren't hearing it.. they ain't being influenced BY it.  So yeah..  Genesis damn sure takes a hit. It simply didn't have the wideranging impact that the first 3 did. Of course it did have some impact and definitely earns a spot in the 2nd 3 but it is joke to consider them anywhere close to the Yes/K.C/ELP group.  Even non prog fans know those group.. and know them AS prog bands. Thus they are considered, rightfully so, as the definative prog bands.

Sure ELP isn't popular but even still today they wield immense influence. Not among the flunky denizens of internet forums and taste based thought but among musicians.  Even today I talk to bands today that still consider themselves in debt to what ELP (Emerson) did to break open the music from its staid norms.

Dull gets that nod.. Genesis a close 2nd.  A great many people outside of this site consider the vast majority of Dull's output in the 70's to be very hit and miss... mediocre. Here it is revered.  Are they stupid or are people here overrating it.  Since I'm not stupid.. nor a fan..  I'd say they aren't stupid and yeah.. Tull albums are regularly inflated in their ratings

At least Genesis had the good sense to not feel the need to not release an album every single year. God help us if they had done that.. their albums were already a maddening mix of the utterly brilliant and downright f**king boring.  If they had watered down their limited great output like Tull.. urrggg.. though I suppose like Dull.. all those albums would still be loved and adored. Oh well..  one can't argue.. nor fathom in many cases people's tastes.

that is why talking greatness is always far more interesting. As Ivan knows.. he kiddnapped me for this site from another where we were attempting to rank orog things (groups and albums) based on those obtuse qualities such as impact and influence.

micky wrote: Captain Micky?  Pfff..  that is GENERAL Micky thank you very much.

micky wrote: thanks man... I do try..

ELP = Execrably Leaden Prog

By far the weakest of the six bands listed.

Edited by Geneyes - December 27 2015 at 18:46

Rando wrote: <font face="Georgia, Times New Roman, Times, serif">King Crimson

Would love to see your 'Court' sendup with Obama's face!