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BaldJean

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Topic: Your top 10 favorite prog albums (studio and live)
Posted: August 20 2021 at 16:24

studio albums:

1) Mother Gong - Fairy Tales (1979). best album ever

2) Peter Hammill - The Fall of the House of Usher (1999 version)

3) Van der Graaf Generator - Pawn Hearts (1971)

4) Embryo - Rocksession (1973)

5) Nik Turner - Xitintoday (1978)

6) Gong - You (1974)

7) Magma - Mëkanïk Dëstruktïẁ Kommandöh (1973)

8) Edgar Froese - Epsilon in Malaysian Pale (1975)

9) Klaus Schulze - Mirage (1977)

10) The Residents - Eskimo (1979)

live albums:

1) Magma - Theusz Hamtaahk Trilogie (2001)

2) Van der Graaf - Vital (1978)

3) Gong - Live au Bataclan (1990)

4) Gentle Giant - Playing the Fool (1977)

5) Short Wave - Live (1993)

6) Guru Guru - Live (1978)

7) Peter Hammill - There Goes the Daylight (1993)

8) Grobschnitt - Solar Music Live (1978)

9) Tangerine Dream - Encore (1977)

10) Traffic - On the Road (1973)

A shot of me as High Priestess of Gaia during our fall festival. Ceterum censeo principiis obsta

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Posted: August 20 2021 at 18:49

American bands only. Not discussed enough on PA.

Studio:
Steely Dan - Aja
Bubblemath - Edit Peptide
Kansas - Leftoverture
Thank You Scientist - Maps of Non-Existent Places
Dream Theater - Images and Words

The Psychedelic Ensemble - The Tale of the Golden King

Echolyn - The End is Beautiful
Frank Zappa - One Size Fits All
Mirthkon - Snacks
Mike Keneally - Sluggo!

Live:
Pat Metheny Group - The Road to You

Frank Zappa - The Best Band You Never Heard In Your Life

Dream Theater - Scenes from New York

Mike Keneally - Guitar Therapy Live

Zappa Plays Zappa

Echolyn - Stars and Gardens

Chick Corea - Trilogy 2

The Bears - Live at Club Cafe

Todd Rundgren - Live in Japan

Spock's Beard - Snow Live

Edited by Grumpyprogfan - August 21 2021 at 07:10

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Posted: August 20 2021 at 20:08

Univers Zero - Ceux Du Dehors

Mike Oldfield - Ommadawn

King Crimson - Larks Tongues In Aspic

Roy Harper - Stormcock

Henry Cow - Western Culture

Vezhlivy Otkaz - Gusi-Lebedi

Pikapika Teart - Moonberry

Cardiacs - Sing To God

Pink Floyd - Animals

Alec K Redfearn & The Eyesores - Sister Death

Live

Nik Bartsch Ronin - Live

Hawkwind - Space Ritual

Magma - Theusz Hamtaahk Trilogie

King Crimson - Great Deceiver

Deep Purple - Made In Japan

Henry Cow - Concerts

Pink Floyd - Ummagumma

Tangerine Dream - Ricochet

Caravan - Fairfield

Led Bib - Vortex Jazz Club

Cardiacs - Maresnest

Edited by Nogbad_The_Bad - August 01 2023 at 05:25

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Posted: August 21 2021 at 04:20

Live

1. ELP - Welcome Back My Friends To The Show That Never Ends

2. Roxy - Music - Viva! Roxy Music

3. Tangerine Dream - Ricochet

4. Manfred Mann's Earthband - Budapest Live

5. Steven Wilson - Get All You Deserve

6. Rush - Different Stages

7. Keith Emerson Band Featuring Marc Bonilla - Moscow

8. Big Big Train - From Stone and Steel

9. Yes - Symphonic Live

X. Marillion - Live From Loreley

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Posted: August 21 2021 at 07:01

For the studio albums I'll refer to my list in that other top 10 thread (I made a top 13, but two of them are live albums...).

And although I often prefer studio albums over live albums, there are some very good ones. My favourites:

- Yes - Yessongs

- Yes - Symphonic Live

- Grobschnitt - Solar Music Live

- Ange - Tome VI

- ELP - Welcome Back My Friends To The Show That Never Ends

- King Crimson - Radical Action to Unseat the Hold of the Monkey Mind

- Pallas - Live Our Lives

- IQ - Forever Live

- Pink Floyd - Delicate Sound of Thunder

- Manfred Mann's Earthband - Mann Alive

- Deep Purple - Made In Japan

Edited by suitkees - August 21 2021 at 07:01

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Posted: August 21 2021 at 07:26

Yeah, we just had a top 10 thread, the interesting thing here is the live album list. To qualify for my list, the album has to be the best of a band. (Yes I prefer all these to all studio albums of those.)

Pink Floyd Ummagumma

Genesis Live

Cardiacs All that Glitters is a Mare's Nest (or Live, to tell the truth I only ever play Mare's Nest as DVD)

Hoelderlin Live Traumstadt

Sonar Live at Bazillus

Renaissance Live at Carnegie Hall

Kraan Live

Yes - Yessongs

Curved Air Live

Anyone's Daughter - Requested Document Vol. 1

Edited by Lewian - August 21 2021 at 07:29

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Posted: August 21 2021 at 07:29

Oh man, is this difficult! You want my top 10 studio and live albums now! Let me try to compile something:

a) Top 10 studio albums (prog): Very hard to put these in any order, so don't take this as a ranking, more of a listing; Also, I will include just one album per band because the other way around would not seem so fair to me. Here they are:

1. Steven Wilson - 'Hand. Cannot. Erase'

2. Porcupine Tree - 'Fear of a Blank Planet'

3. Pink Floyd - 'The Wall'

4. Yes - 'Relayer'

5. Marillion - 'F E A R'

6. Van der Graaf Generator - 'Pawn Hearts'

7. Captain Beyond - S/T

8. Steely Dan - 'Aja'

9. Genesis - 'Foxtrot'

10. King Crimson - 'Larks' Tongues in Aspic'

b) Live albums (prog): even harder to compile than the studio albums.

1. ELP - 'Welcome Back My Friends...'

2. King Crimson - 'Radical Action'

3. Frank Zappa - 'Hammersmith Odeon'

4. Transatlantic - 'Whirld Tour 2010'

5. Pink Floyd - 'Live at Pompeii'

6. The Flower Kings - 'Meet the Flower Kings'

7. Frost* - 'The Philadelphia Experiment'

8. Steven Wilson - 'Home Invasion'

9. Between the Buried and Me - 'Coma Ecliptic: Live'

10. Yes - 'Yessongs'

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Posted: August 21 2021 at 07:51

Hi,

The day I can figure out which is better/best, is likely the day that I am done listening to all music on this life!

Even for fun, I'm not sure it is possible.

Some things along the way I have loved in no order. Please don't assume the order!

Pink Floyd early bootlegs -- They all told a story that all the books refuse to look at and Roger continually regards a lot of that stuff as bad and cheap. No wonder he's lost his spark 40 years ago!

Tangerine Dream early bootlegs -- They were outstanding. They were all different because none of the equipment at the time was able to get setup the same twice in a row, and on top of it have to deal with different rooms, and venues and temperatures. One of their live albums was record under freezing temperatures because there was not enough electricity to go around to use even for the equipment!

Grateful Dead bootlegs -- In the early days, things were so far and away different in every thing that one actually wondered how this band could play. But they did and made history. The fact that they can not be "considered" progressive is the most shameful thing, because the only thing that is not "progressive" is that the record companies for a long time refuse to allow what they wanted on an album because it had to reach further than just their own audience to grab better money!

Nektar -- Live at the Roundhouse/Live in NY. With a nice thank you to their album SOUNDS LIKE THIS, this was one of the few bands that sounded exactly like the albums all the time, and if you ever set your ears on that album, you already knew what the band was about live. And it delivered where most bands didn't. With a lot of love for Roye and his ability, to drive a band that far.

Carmen -- In a couple of shows they blew out David Bowie and Jethro Tull who ended up sounding very stuffed and overly important. Sadly, the producer of the band left to handle his bigger clients and broke up the band which was never able to recover after losing its bass player, although I am not sure that was the reason ... I think the fact that this was an LA band that showed how good they were and how ignored they were and laughed at ... probably hurt more than anything else. Lack of appreciation.

Grobschnitt -- Two live albums, although we did not hear the second one until almost 20 years later, but SOLAR MUSIC LIVE with at least 2 or 3 different versions is an amazing listen, and it is cleaned up so beautifully. ROCKPOMMEL's also got a live redo later that is excellent but ignored by a lot of the fans because it is TRIP MUSIC and not anywhere linked to just another song for your ears!

Return to Forever -- Always great on the live shows, and I am not sure that there is one show better than the other with or without a violin. It didn't matter. They still could blow out anyone!

King Crimson -- Way too well rehearsed and refined and their shows belongs in the category of "classical music" where every note and detail is well known and directed properly for the music to stand up and look as great as it ever did 30/40 years later, and sometimes even better! As a friend said after the concert (he knew the name but not the music!) ... it puts a new meaning on what music means!

Magma -- Way too well rehearsed to do a bad show. Some stunning performances, and in my book they are better live than in any album.

Edited by moshkito - August 21 2021 at 20:31

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Posted: August 21 2021 at 07:53

The Short Wave album Jean mentioned is very little known but brilliant. Short Wave were a short-lived Canterbury all-star band consisting of Hugh Hopper on bass guitar, Pip Pyle on drums, Phil Miller on guitar and Didier Malherbe on saxes and flute. They never made a studio album, only this live album.

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Posted: August 21 2021 at 08:13

^ Oh, that makes me think of that other one-off and splendid collaboration album: Kevin Ayers / John Cale / Brian Eno / Nico - June 1, 1974 (listen to it here). Not mentioned, but he is on it too: Mike Oldfield...

Edited by suitkees - August 21 2021 at 08:14

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Posted: August 21 2021 at 12:43

In no particular order

1. Morsefest 2015 Neal Morse

2. SMPTe Transatlantic

3. The Yes Album

4. Wish You Were Here Pink Floyd

5. The Similitude Of A Dream - Neal Morse Band

6. Mirage Camel

7. Jesus Christ The Exorcist - Neal Morse

8. Dark Side Of The Moon

9. Argus Wishbone Ash

10. The Whirlwind Transatlantic

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Posted: August 21 2021 at 20:35

suitkees wrote:

^ Oh, that makes me think of that other one-off and splendid collaboration album: Kevin Ayers / John Cale / Brian Eno / Nico - June 1, 1974 (listen to it here). Not mentioned, but he is on it too: Mike Oldfield...

Mike was all over Kevin Ayers as a teenager.

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Posted: August 21 2021 at 20:46

moshkito wrote:

Mike was all over Kevin Ayers as a teenager.

He played bass in Kevin's band The Whole World before Tubular Bells

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Posted: August 21 2021 at 20:55

There are few live albums I really enjoy. To fully appreciate a live performance, you have to be there at the concert. The experience I have with many live albums is that they often lack the production subtlety of the studio recordings. I very much prefer to listen to studio records with my headphones on so that I can enjoy all the details.

There are of course exceptions.

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Posted: August 21 2021 at 21:03

The Anders wrote:

There are of course exceptions.

Some bands live work is their definitive document, I'm thinking of Hawkwind, Deep Purple, King Crimson.

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Posted: August 22 2021 at 03:38

The Anders wrote:

There are of course exceptions.

but studio versions can be overproduced , I think ELP (bar the debut) fell into this trap and also Yes at times (how good is Relayer live compared to the studio version? - Yesshows and Symphonic versions)

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Posted: August 24 2021 at 12:39

Nogbad_The_Bad wrote:

Some bands live work is their definitive document, I'm thinking of Hawkwind, Deep Purple, King Crimson.

True. There is also the Allman Brothers Band of course.

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Posted: August 24 2021 at 13:42

I could never make a top ten studio album - or top 50, 100... whatever. Its just impossible. But because I care very little about listening to live albums at home, if its without original material (or radically different from the studio version), this is an easier task for me. I'm including jazzfusion albums I personally consider PA-relevant:

Can - The Peel Sessions

Magma - Retrospektïẁ (Parts I+II)
Kollektiv - SWF Sessions Vol. 5
Tangerine Dream - Ricochet
Ahmad Jamal - Freeflight
Philip Cohran and the Artistic Heritage Ensemble - The Spanish Suite
Miles Davis - Live-Evil
Tangerine Dream - Encore
Herbie Mann - The Wailing Dervishes
The Necks - Piano Bass Drums

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