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Grumpyprogfan View Drop Down
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    Posted: November 22 2021 at 07:57
What books about prog rock or artists would you recommend? Mine include.

The Real Frank Zappa Book - Frank Zappa 
Contents Under Pressure: 30 Years of Rush at Home and Away - Martin Popoff
Bill Bruford: The Autobiography. Yes, King Crimson, Earthworks and More - Bill Bruford
A Wizard a True Star: Todd Rundgren in the Studio - Paul Meyers
Different Every Time: The Authorized Biography of Robert Wyatt - Marcus O'Dair
Freak When Spoken To The Story of Freak Kitchen - Anastasia Jonsen
King's X: The Oral History - Greg Prato and Kings X
Not Dead Yet: The Memoir - Phil Collins
Soft Machine Out-Bloody-Rageous  - Graham Bennet
Genesis: Chapter and Verse - Tony Banks, Phil Collins, Peter Gabriel, Steve Hackett, and Mike Rutherford with the help of Anthony Phillips
In the Court of King Crimson An Observation over Fifty Years - Sid Smith
Yes: Close to the Edge - Chris Welch
Lifting Shadows the Authorized Biography of Dream Theater - Rich Wilson





Edited by Grumpyprogfan - November 22 2021 at 08:21
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David_D View Drop Down
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That is very interesting thread, Grumpy.

Here's my recommendations:

Edward Macan: Rocking the Classics: English Progressive Rock and the Counterculture. Oxford University Press 1997.

Paul Stump: The Music’s All that Matters: A History of Progressive Rock. Quartet Books 1997.

(this one can be quite a difficult reading)

Bill Martin: Listening to the Future: The time of progressive rock, 1968-1978. Open Court 1998.

(this one, written by a philosopher, might not be easy, either) 

Jerry Lucky: The Progressive Rock Files. Collector’s Guide Publishing 2000.

Charles Snider: The Strawberry Bricks Guide to Progressive Rock (2007)

Bradley Smith: The Billboard Guide to Progressive Music. Billboard Books 1997.

Kevin Holm-Hudson (edit.): Progressive Rock Reconsidered. Routledge 2002.

(this one might be less interesting)

Dag Erik Asbjørnsen: Scented Gardens Of the Mind. A guide to the golden era of progressive rock (1968-1980) in more than 20 European countries. Borderline Productions 2000.

Jazz-Rock. A History (1998) by Stuart Nicholson.



Edited by David_D - November 22 2021 at 09:53
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Lewian View Drop Down
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Ingeborg Schober's "Tanz der Lemminge" is a great book on Amon Düül II, although unfortunately probably only available in German.
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moshkito View Drop Down
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Originally posted by Grumpyprogfan Grumpyprogfan wrote:

What books about prog rock or artists would you recommend? Mine include.
...
The Real Frank Zappa Book - Frank Zappa 
Bill Bruford: The Autobiography. Yes, King Crimson, Earthworks and More - Bill Bruford
Different Every Time: The Authorized Biography of Robert Wyatt - Marcus O'Dair
Lifting Shadows the Authorized Biography of Dream Theater - Rich Wilson
...

Force Majeure - Edgar Froese
Maximum Darkness - Deke Leonard
No One Here Gets Out Alive - About Jim Morrison and The Doors
Marianne Faithfull - The Autobiography

All of these are reviewed in my pages.
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Originally posted by Lewian Lewian wrote:

Ingeborg Schober's "Tanz der Lemminge" is a great book on Amon Düül II, although unfortunately probably only available in German.

Hi,

This pisses me off so much! Angry
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Henry Cow - The World Is A Problem
Ian

Host of the Post-Avant Jazzcore Happy Hour on Progrock.com

https://podcasts.progrock.com/post-avant-jazzcore-happy-hour/
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David_D View Drop Down
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Originally posted by Nogbad_The_Bad Nogbad_The_Bad wrote:

Henry Cow - The World Is A Problem

Aaallriiight, that is something of a statement! Wink
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I have a few:

The Progressive Rock Files - Jerry Lucky (first edition from 1998)
Billboard Guide to Progressive Music - Bradley Smith
The Music's all that matters - Paul Stump
Listening to the future - Bill Martin
Essential Mini-Guide Progressive Rock - Ronald Couture (founder of progarchives who unfortunately is no longer with us)
Rush Biography - Bill Banasiewicz
Yesstories: Yes in their own words - Tim Morse (also a prog musician who has a page on here for his music)


It's funny how there were about four or five that came out in the late 90's. Those books are probably good for content about the old days but I don't think most mentioned much about the contemporary prog scene at the time. There have been a few that came out in the past 10 years or so but I think it's time for some new prog books. Smile

Although I don't currently own it, I have read Close to the Edge by Chris Welch which was pretty good.



Edited by AFlowerKingCrimson - November 22 2021 at 09:53
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Lewian View Drop Down
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Originally posted by moshkito moshkito wrote:

Originally posted by Lewian Lewian wrote:

Ingeborg Schober's "Tanz der Lemminge" is a great book on Amon Düül II, although unfortunately probably only available in German.

Hi,

This pisses me off so much! Angry

And you're right to be pissed off. Sorry!
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I'm going to try not to duplicate what has been posted above me (forgive me if I fail):

ItalianProg: The Comprehensive Guide to the Italian Progressive Music of the 70's / Augusto Croce (2016)
Rock Progressivo Italiano: An Introduction to Italian Progressive Rock / Andrea Parentin (2011)
The Living Years / Mike Rutherford (2015)
The Musical Instruments of Progressive Rock / Gerard Bassols (2019) - currently reading and almost finished

Magazine format -- these two were interesting because they had interviews from Melody Maker from back in the 1970s
The Ultimate Music Guide: Genesis (2019)
The Ultimate Music Guide: King Crimson (2019)

Have these, but still need to read:
Marillion : Separated Out ... Redux / Jon Collins (2012)
Prog Rock FAQ / Will Romano (2014)
The Strawberry Bricks Guide to Progressive Rock / Charles Snider (revised and updated edition 2017)
Experiencing Progressive Rock / Robert G.H. Burns (2018)
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Also forgot these older ones:
The Extraordinary World of Yes / Alan Farley (2004)
Genesis : Inside & Out (1967-2000) / Robin Platts (2001)
Saucerful of Secrets / Nicholas Schaffner (1992)
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some more from me, as well:

Beyond and before. Progressive Rock since the 1960's (2011) by Paul Hegarty and Martin Halliwell
Mean Deviation. Four Decades of Progressive Heavy Metal (2010) by Jeff Wagner
Krautrock. Cosmic Rock and its Legacy (2009) edited by Nikolaos Kotsopoulos
Kaleidoscope Eyes. Psychedelic Music from the 1960's to the 1990's (1996) by Jim Derogatis
(it's mostly about Psychedelic bands but some Progressive are described as well)


Edited by David_D - November 22 2021 at 13:24
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Originally posted by Lewian Lewian wrote:

Ingeborg Schober's "Tanz der Lemminge" is a great book on Amon Düül II, although unfortunately probably only available in German.

I second this; we have the book.


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Originally posted by Grumpyprogfan Grumpyprogfan wrote:

King's X: The Oral History - Greg Prato and Kings X
Lifting Shadows the Authorized Biography of Dream Theater - Rich Wilson


Ooh, thanks for bringing these to my attention!!  Christmas list startedLOL


Edited by essexboyinwales - November 23 2021 at 06:17
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I've only read Emerson's Pictures of an Exhibitionist.
It was alright but I think most of the stuff was a little bland.
Now, because it's an autobiography, it should be looked at a little differently than an historical type biography, as all autobiography's should.
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Originally posted by AFlowerKingCrimson AFlowerKingCrimson wrote:

There have been a few that came out in the past 10 years or so but I think it's time for some new prog books. Smile

I certainly agree, as I for instance think it would be interesting with some stylistical analysis of the new Prog.


Edited by David_D - November 28 2021 at 13:48
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Keith Emerson - Pictures Of An Exhibitionist.

an absolute must for prog fans and of course lots of funny prog stories. I would have liked him to go more into post 1974 when a lot of bad things happened to him but perhaps he shied a bit away from that to keep it lighter. 
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Originally posted by progaardvark progaardvark wrote:

I'm going to try not to duplicate what has been posted above me (forgive me if I fail):

The Musical Instruments of Progressive Rock / Gerard Bassols (2019) - currently reading and almost finished


Hi, I'm the author of this one, did you finish reading it? I would appreciate your opinion and feedback about it.

Thanks in advance!

Gerard
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Originally posted by Gerinski Gerinski wrote:

Originally posted by progaardvark progaardvark wrote:

I'm going to try not to duplicate what has been posted above me (forgive me if I fail):

The Musical Instruments of Progressive Rock / Gerard Bassols (2019) - currently reading and almost finished


Hi, I'm the author of this one, did you finish reading it? I would appreciate your opinion and feedback about it.

Thanks in advance!

Gerard

Yes, I finished reading it about two weeks ago. I really enjoyed it. What I liked most about it was the histories you gave for the various instruments. I learned a lot about many of them that I previously only knew a little, and in many cases, never even heard of. I was particularly fond of the section on keyboards/synthesizers because I've always had an interest in them. I like that you even brought in recent developments with DAWs and VSTs. Your enthusiasm for the instruments is clear in your writing style. I understand you wanted to keep the book at a reasonable length, but if you expanded it to twice its length, I'm certain it wouldn't have distracted me from completing it.

The only criticism I can give, other than I wish it was longer, is the occasional English grammar error (I see there was also a Spanish edition, so maybe a translation error from Spanish into English?). But this didn't distract me because it didn't create any misunderstandings and the content was so highly valued that small grammar errors became rather insignificant.

To my knowledge, this is the first book to cover prog rock from this angle. So, it's a unique effort. Your book filled a gap in my knowledge that I didn't know I had and is a very useful contribution to the history of prog rock. Great job!
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Originally posted by progaardvark progaardvark wrote:


Yes, I finished reading it about two weeks ago. I really enjoyed it. What I liked most about it was the histories you gave for the various instruments. I learned a lot about many of them that I previously only knew a little, and in many cases, never even heard of. I was particularly fond of the section on keyboards/synthesizers because I've always had an interest in them. I like that you even brought in recent developments with DAWs and VSTs. Your enthusiasm for the instruments is clear in your writing style. I understand you wanted to keep the book at a reasonable length, but if you expanded it to twice its length, I'm certain it wouldn't have distracted me from completing it.

The only criticism I can give, other than I wish it was longer, is the occasional English grammar error (I see there was also a Spanish edition, so maybe a translation error from Spanish into English?). But this didn't distract me because it didn't create any misunderstandings and the content was so highly valued that small grammar errors became rather insignificant.

To my knowledge, this is the first book to cover prog rock from this angle. So, it's a unique effort. Your book filled a gap in my knowledge that I didn't know I had and is a very useful contribution to the history of prog rock. Great job!

Thanks a lot for the feedback, I'm so glad that you enjoyed it!

Indeed there are quite some books about the genre, the bands, the songs and lyrics... but no other book about prog written from the angle of the instruments, that was my goal, to write a book about prog which was original and different from every other existing book.

I'm aware of the English translation weakness, I'm Spanish and I wrote the book in English myself, I could not afford a pro translator - proofreader. I'm glad that it didn't harm too much your enjoyment of the book!

Just by the way, I assume you got it through Amazon? If so, would it be much asking to post a short review in Amazon? That helps me a lot! But of course it's up to you, no obligations!

Cheers!

Gerard
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