Prog on the Radio

fandango wrote: ^^^it strikes me that the good folks of the US have a considerably better taste in music & knowledge of rock than we do over here....where the majority of the population will have forgotten that half of those gems ever existed...

Yes, there are some exceptional classic rock stations around the US. We have one in Chicago that'll play classic Genesis, Starship Troopers, an extended version of the single Thick As A brick..i.e...additional material from that song so that it spans about 10 minutes length, the longer version of Tuesday Afternoon, and in the middle of the night they have a show on called sanctuary which will play longer pieces like The Low Spark of High Heeled Boys, In-A-Gadda-Da Vida(17 minute version), In The Court of The Crimson King and sometimes even Echoes.

Unfortunately they cover WAY too much Eagles and Sprinsteen.

maani wrote: chopper: Right you are.  But apparently, the ignoramuses () who comprise much of the pop culture listening audience either don't know that or simply don't care... Peace.

That's what I figured maani, but you would think at least some of them would have seen the songs played live and wondered who was playing the keyboard part. Oh well. At least the number one is good.

maani wrote: chopper: Right you are.  But apparently, the ignoramuses () who comprise much of the pop culture listening audience either don't know that or simply don't care... Peace.

.....I think you two both need a reality check by coming to live in the UK for a little while...over here, the main stream media seems to be so image conscious that it sees anything remotely proggy as an embarrassing legacy of our idiosyncratic past....

...which is why we meet, huddled together in the hours of darkness to exchange CDs, alwys risking the constant fear of being found out and ridiculed....

The Rock wrote: Most so called ''classic rock'' stations are downright boring.They keep it safe,playing the same old songs over and over again,I mean ,how many times do we have to sit through ''Born to be Wild" ?We have one here in Montreal,like most large N.A. cities and it's pathetically boring and predictable.I've made many requests for bands I think would fit the format,but they never play them;Gentle Giant,Wishbone Ash,Caravan,Camel,Steve Hackett,ect...

for the most part I would agree. During peak hours that same classic rock station plays it safe with lots of Eagles, Sprinsteen and bands I wouldn't even define as Classic rock..like REO Speedwagon, Foreigner and such.

fandango wrote: maani wrote: chopper: Right you are.  But apparently, the ignoramuses () who comprise much of the pop culture listening audience either don't know that or simply don't care... Peace. .....I think you two both need a reality check by coming to live in the UK for a little while...over here, the main stream media seems to be so image conscious that it sees anything remotely proggy as an embarrassing legacy of our idiosyncratic past.... ...which is why we meet, huddled together in the hours of darkness to exchange CDs, alwys risking the constant fear of being found out and ridiculed....

I do live in the UK! And my wife constantly ridicules my CD collection.

gdub:

The station here sounds like the one in Chicago: they do play some Yes, Tull, ELP, Genesis, Moody Blues, Floyd, etc., though not as frequently as I might like.  And although they - thankfully! - rarely play Born to be Wild, the do play alot of Eagles, U2 (which is fine with me), and "overplayed" classics.  Still, on the whole, it's better than almost anything else we have.

Peace.

I sometimes hear an ELP song on the radio. Queen is also played very often..

What I was more surprised about, is that prog gets alot of credit in magazines lately. I picked up a mag called "music collector" or something, look at the reviews, and I see two Gentle Giant albums reviewed, both have a 5 star rating!!!
I see prog mentioned often in mags, you just have to know where to look.

Down here in Texas, our classic rock stations play a lot of the southern stuff, eg: ZZ Top, Lynyrd Synyrd, Tesla et al. It's kind of annoying.

But, often I'll hear a good amount of Floyd and Rush. Sometimes Yes and ELP, but not often.

And then when we're really lucky, they'll do a 'pay for play' thing, where you give money to be donated to troops, needy people etc. and you pick a song you want to here. That's where Xanadu, Starship Trooper, Sheep, Toccatta etc. come in. It's pretty cool.