Female Prog Artists Recommendations.

Hi,

I never thought of the lyrical content in many "punk bands" as important. Some were more reactionary than others, but in general, I still have the thought that it would not stand up lyrically to a lot of the things we talk about and discuss as "progressive", and in many cases very strong lyrics and content. 

I, honestly, did not get into the punk scene as much as others, since by that time I was already heavy duty into all the foreigners from Europe, Brazil, Japan and the Middle East ... and often found a lot of the punk and other music that became considered "progressive" in England and the USA as not really that good by comparison. 

We didn't hesitate on PFM and BANCO when it showed up at the station and Guy Guden put them on blind ... and it took our local station over a month to consider playing a PFM piece and I don't think they ever played BANCO at all! (The Manticore version, btw). Maybe in the middle of the night when no one was listening, right? It was a similar thing with GENESIS when TLLDOB ... Guy got a copy and went on the air at midnight and played both LP's back to back, and then repeated it again a couple of hours later by so many requests. The rest of the station couldn't figure out which song to play for a month or more, and never really got into the album. They were all too much into the same sound, and the same thing and the same groove to be able to hear and appreciate anything else. And to me, punk became just that.

Dagmar - Voice

Lindsay Cooper - Woodwind

Georgie Born - Bass/Cello

The first two in particular went on to long, distinguished careers on the outer reaches of prog.  Lindsay Cooper sadly passed away in 2013; Georgie retired from music in the early 80s.

Hi,

I'm not sure I would consider TOYAH in the punk group and off her rocker. Her having been a part of theatrical and film productions probably gave what she wanted to do an edge that was not being done, and sometimes the performance side tended to come off like "punk" and it wasn't. But, this is a fine line, and she might like to state that it was punk, but in many ways, punk was "mindless" and her work is anything but "mindless" ... it is very intelligent material, suggesting something that most folks in popular music did not do! 

And, it is always possible, that her ending up with Mr. Fripp helped her continue her idea of what she wanted to do, and I never thought of it as "punk", which I would imagine she would not want to be associated with. I think she would rather be with the "artistes" and then do her thing. She is not that well developed in her films stuff, but likely was too young then, specially in the Derek Jarman films when she was first heard from, although it appears that she already was a part of a band.

A peruse of the RIP thread has also lead me to explore the work of Constance Demby (pioneer of new age and space music), who I wasn't aware of before.