Which prog band would you join? And why?

Let's suppose that you have a time machine for some weird reason, and you are capable of going back in time... you could travel back to yesterday to finish some chores, you could travel back ten years ago, or you could end up in 1960-something and become a raging pothead... possibilities are innumerable.

But the plot we are looking for is the following: You travel back in time in order to join any prog band and you can take any of the band duties: vocals, keys, bass, whatever you feel like.

So, which prog band would you go back and join? And why? What instrument would you play, and would you change the direction that this band was going to?

I think this thread will spawn some very interesting answers; I will need more time to give an answer myself.

^That's so funny.

Not funny HaHa, but funny strange. As I was reading the original post I was thinking the exact same thing. But I'd want to be the band manager for sure. Like the mighty Laz I'm a nit quite drummer. Unlike Laz I didn't take guitar lessons. I took accordion lessons, for a very brief while when I was around 12yrs old. Damn that thing was heavy. I quickly moved onto the trumpet at 13, much easier to carry to lessons at the local high school. But as I got into music more I didn't hear much trumpet in the bands I was loving and there was no way I was dragging a piano or organ to lessons and back . I actually asked my music teacher if I could do drums or piano, but there was no piano or drums in the band, Mostly just wind instruments as my failing memory recalls.

So my answer is easy...I'd love to have been ELP's manager. For all the right reasons.

And I would like to visit the future in 500 years and be the bass player of a stellar prog band, yet unknown. 

On the other hand, if I could travel back in time and magically know how to play an instrument, I think I'd pick Thinking Plague. I would play anything they'd put in front of me. It would just be an honor and I wouldn't try to change the direction they took.

One individual in which I'd like to change their direction would be Scott Walker. I'd try to convince him to drop the cover songs and the flirting with country music from the 1970-1974 period and dive into the avant-garde in 1970. But, who am I to mess with a legend? Maybe he needed to take that path in order to give us the treasures that came out from 1984 onward?

Mind you, I'm not bad on the old 4 string, and if I did the wood-shed like Squire did after his bad LSD trip, who knows?  I'm very happy to live with the fact that I have trod the rock & roll stage in my youth, played with some amazing folks, and have met nearly all all of my prog heroes.

This was exactly how Squire looked when I first saw him, boots & all.   He was like a God.  Plus I cannot sing nearly as well as he did.  So, let's just say we all are lucky that I didn't return the invitation to join Yes.

From what I've read by folks like Steve Vai, Zappa was quite the perfectionist/slave-driver! 

However, the live shows were amazing, I saw him twice.  

I'll blow a whistle in time; Jamie Muir it or something.