First Prog Experience

I started listening to prog bands at a very young age. When i was about two, my dad would play his Pink Floyd albums as well as some Yes and other bands. I would also listen to the local classic rock radio station that played these songs and many other popular ones, so i just figured them to be classic rock.

Johnnytuba wrote: My first experience listening to progressive music was tool's Aenema album back in high school.  After that I discovered Rush's 2112 in college.

I have a friend who lives in Ohio who I talk to about jazz and Led Zeppelin a lot. About a year ago I was stuck with classic rock artists like Zeppelin, Sabbath, Jethro Tull, etc. Then my friend sent me a video of And You And I - Yes. I kept coming back to it to listen to it until I went out and bought Close to the Edge. I knew what progressive rock was but I always avoided it. Yes introduced me to a series of other bands and so on. I went to see Yes last July. Great experience. 

Manuel wrote: O666 wrote: I realy want to talk about this topic but I afraid. I'm sure after I write ANYTHING, Some guys attack to me and insult me without any REASON. I like to dicuss and I respect to opposite opinion but I cant undrestand why INSULT? See you next time. Don't be afraid of me. I really would love to hear your experience and I will not be critical about it, since it's quite personal, and if it's something that brought you to be a pro fan, why would I do such a thing as insult you?

In 1981 my friend gave me "The Wall" in my birthday when I was 11. I didn't listen to music like that before "The Wall". I have a musician uncle. He play keyboard and drumms professionally and he worked with Iranian Rock stars in Rock clubs before Islamic revolution. I told him about  "The Wall" and my feelings about that. He gave me "ELP: Tarkus". WOW. Fantastic experience. I never forget that day. "Tarkus" changed my life. I tried to found other progressive bands and artists and my uncle helped me. In Iran after Islamic revolution, Islamic people and goverment  banned western music and arts (unfortunately) . You cant imagine atmospher  in Iran after revolution specially 1980-1990. I found guys who import western music and copying and selling cassettes. They worked undercover and I bought albums and rock magazines like POP and Kerrang undercover too. I risked so much but I Loved ( and Love) PROGRESSIVE music. I arrested twice with cassettes and VHS but I was a die-hard fan. Price of music cassettes was very high and I must worked to found money. My parents specially my dad never undrestand me and he didn't gave me enough money. He was a rich man( My father died in 2004) but money for music NO.NEVER.   

O666 wrote: Manuel wrote: O666 wrote: I realy want to talk about this topic but I afraid. I'm sure after I write ANYTHING, Some guys attack to me and insult me without any REASON. I like to dicuss and I respect to opposite opinion but I cant undrestand why INSULT? See you next time. Don't be afraid of me. I really would love to hear your experience and I will not be critical about it, since it's quite personal, and if it's something that brought you to be a pro fan, why would I do such a thing as insult you? In 1981 my friend gave me "The Wall" in my birthday when I was 11. I didn't listen to music like that before "The Wall". I have a musician uncle. He play keyboard and drumms professionally and he worked with Iranian Rock stars in Rock clubs before Islamic revolution. I told him about  "The Wall" and my feelings about that. He gave me "ELP: Tarkus". WOW. Fantastic experience. I never forget that day. "Tarkus" changed my life. I tried to found other progressive bands and artists and my uncle helped me. In Iran after Islamic revolution, Islamic people and goverment  banned western music and arts (unfortunately) . You cant imagine atmospher  in Iran after revolution specially 1980-1990. I found guys who import western music and copying and selling cassettes. They worked undercover and I bought albums and rock magazines like POP and Kerrang undercover too. I risked so much but I Loved ( and Love) PROGRESSIVE music. I arrested twice with cassettes and VHS but I was a die-hard fan. Price of music cassettes was very high and I must worked to found money. My parents specially my dad never undrestand me and he didn't gave me enough money. He was a rich man( My father died in 2004) but money for music NO.NEVER.    Pink Floyd and ELP was my first Prog experience. Now Progressive music is most important part of my life and my family and friends undrestand me. Atmospher of Iran is very better than 80's and we can buy our fav music . BUT finding Progressive music is difficult yet. If you living in free countries, you must thanks god for this. Sorry for this long story and forgive me because of poor English.

All my respect to you. I don't think any decent person would try to insult you for your story. On the contrary, you are indeed a real prog fan. I had it hard in Central America, since prog was not popular, or even accessible, but I never risked jail time for listening or buying prog, just some of my friends though I was weird or crazy. I must say you are indeed a very remarkable person.

Probably around eight years of age - so, 1981-ish, I discovered my older brother's LP collection that he kept in milk crates, as I suspect many people did. I was fascinated by the cover art, the gatefold sleeves, the lyrics and song titles, the band photos... he had a lot of prog, but only because those bands were big when he was growing up (12 years older than me). He also had lots of other stuff like Kiss, Queen, Elton John, etc. etc...

But it was the Genesis ones that drew me in. Nursery Cryme, Foxtrot, The Lamb, Seconds Out... those are ones I remember staring at for what seemed like hours.

When he moved out a few years later, he left a lot of those records at home, and I became the proud owner of them.

That split-second of the needle meeting the vinyl to reveal the opening strains of "The Musical Box" was the moment my lifelong love affair with prog began.

Mum's a big PF fan so I was listening to them pretty much from the womb. But I didn't starting listening to them willingly until 2006 odd, and I didn't start liking them to 2007.

I found out they were prog around the time I was 16/17, so 2008

And I've only became a prog addict in the last 6 months or so, I was a bit late on music obsession ;)

It was 1973, I  was in high school and had just discovered music in the last year (Zeppelin, Doors, Sabbath, CSNY, early Elton John, Spirit, etc).

Ronnie Pilgrim wrote: Johnnytuba wrote: My first experience listening to progressive music was tool's Aenema album back in high school.  After that I discovered Rush's 2112 in college. Well, that explains a lot!  Kidding. Welcome back, Johnny. Been a while???

When I was younger, I guess around 12 years old, I found a copy of Turn It On Again lying around (a Genesis greatest hits CD). I thought it was pretty enjoyable.

Anyway, a while after I was at the CD store and I saw Selling England By The Pound on sale for a very low price. I recognized it from the hits compilation, which contained I Know What I Like, and picked it up.

I was instantly hooked. This was an entirely new kind of music that I'd never heard before and I was completely blown away by it. Never really went back to that hits CD.