Most Pretentious Moments In Prog

DamoSuzuki wrote: "THERE'S NO EEEEEEEENNNNNNNNNNDDDDDDD, TO MY LIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIFE, NO BEGINNING, TO MY DEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAATTTTTTTHHHHHHHHHHHH, DEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAATTTHHH IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIS LIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIFE" *BOOM!*

hahahhaha... bravo!

I forgot to mention GY!BE, oh yes...

genbanks wrote: Pretentious. Try to go far beyond  the bounderies that everybody expects about something. In the prog rock not means bad, and sometimes is really  great.   Thick as a brick

I vote for Keith Emerson's Spinning Piano, which I saw in Charlotte in 1975 or thenabouts.  Loved it.

ELP -- The Endless Enigma pt. 2 when the vocals kick in.  Mainly because it is wedged clumsily in between two of their best tracks: Fugue and From The Beginning.

See also 80% of Dream Theater.

Is this bad pretentious? (I assume so.) Or good pretentious? (as many qualify their responses.)

U2 used to be one of those new wave bands that decried Yes and Wakeman especially. Apparently their criticism was born not from what's RW and Yes played but Mr Wakeman's capes. I don't know if such superficial criticism is pretentious but I had the reltive fortune to see a new U2 DVD (in a shop en passant) and Bono is dressed in lots of pink fluoresence. He warbled "Baby, baby, baby...' dull (one note bass lines that make Christopher Squire sound like Satriani) music boomed and the programmed sycophants (my pretentious term for the audience) cried out for more. As someone recently observed The Eade was on a tour and got trapped inside a giant Lemon for half an hour. As life imitates Spianl Tap...

I find little pretentious (but alot very ambitious) in prog rock and other sub genres around it. But when so called working class heroes who decry ambitious rock music and then take the more superficial aspects (do them v.v. badly) then get lauded for this historic hypocrisy; now this to me is pretentious, the very bad sort.

There'a lot in the prog related area I'm not into much - from The Beatles to Dream Theater though I do have one album of each. But this is just ambition. You don't get advanced composition with all that comes with it without ambition. Sometimes things might not work out for some listeners but boy do these bands really deserve the verbal lynching they get? DT getting slayed ... for playing music? I read some critcisms elsewhere of Guns 'n' Roses (not a big favourite of mine, November Rain being an example to me of pretension) but do they get some pasting from people. Wishing Rose is dead? Why? Singing for G n R? Dream Theater getting hate posts? Or the vilification / idolatry of Waters' Floyd' Final Cut PA reviews. Now there's some hate going on there.

Of course all this negativity reaches it's nadir with Dimebag Darrell (Pantera ) being gunned down by some lunatic, same with the more notorious murder of John Lennon.

Probably not quite what the thread was about (pretension not hate) but related here and there. Just thought it might be a good idea to not take some band's recordings so personally if this is the consequence. As FZ said to the guy in the audience (1969 Appleton) who was screaming madly "stop it, you'll hurt yourself."

InClouds wrote: thechrisl wrote: ELP -- The Endless Enigma pt. 2 when the vocals kick in.  Mainly because it is wedged clumsily in between two of their best tracks: Fugue and From The Beginning. See also 80% of Dream Theater. Why does DT get so much hate around here?  I'm thoroughly baffled.  There are certainly much more pretentious prog bands then Dream Theater, that's for sure.

No hate, I like some of their stuff, sometimes.  Just answering the question, tongue in cheek, somewhat.

On a similar note, I've determined that one indicator of pretentiousness is how frequently the words "time" and "eternity" are used in the titles or lyrics.

InClouds wrote: I've been wondering...are we all using the same definition of pretentious here?  Based on what I've read in this thread, it seems to mean different thing to different people.  Personally, I see pretentiousness as a bad thing, yet I've seen repeated mentions of "good pretentiousness".  Can someone clarify what that would be? To call something pretentious is to insult it, isn't it?

thechrisl wrote: InClouds wrote: thechrisl wrote: ELP -- The Endless Enigma pt. 2 when the vocals kick in.  Mainly because it is wedged clumsily in between two of their best tracks: Fugue and From The Beginning. See also 80% of Dream Theater. Why does DT get so much hate around here?  I'm thoroughly baffled.  There are certainly much more pretentious prog bands then Dream Theater, that's for sure. No hate, I like some of their stuff, sometimes.  Just answering the question, tongue in cheek, somewhat. On a similar note, I've determined that one indicator of pretentiousness is how frequently the words "time" and "eternity" are used in the titles or lyrics.

thechrisl wrote: Not 100% true all the time (i.e. Floyd) but it's a pretty good barometer.  BTW I can't take this thread too seriously.  Hopefully no one else is.  I guess it's hard because, for example, the guy who mentioned the vocals in 2112 might make me question my own taste in music because I loves me some 2112.  But I won't let that happen... In my mind there are different flavors of "pretentious".  It doesn't always mean "bad".  It may just mean "cheesy" but good.  In some cases I'd call it a guilty pleasure - something I might let myself enjoy once in a while but don't listen to all the time because it doesn't really move me (maybe I should add "any more"). I'm tempted to use 80s metal as an example in order to get away from specific prog bands.  Occasionally I still love cranking up a classic song by Accept, Motley Crue's first album, maybe some Triumph ("Time Goes By" anyone?).  It feels good for a bit, brings back old times.  But I usually move on pretty quickly. So yeah, I do that with ELP and DT too.