Now That's What I Call Prog 1971

Hi,

There is only one main reason for my disliking "lists" ... it is the commercial aspect of it, even though we can make sure that all in the  list are not commercial and deserve the credit as this or that. In general, "progressive" came about because those folks all ignored any listing and any top of anything ... and I feel that is one of the most important parts of "progressive" ... meaning moving forward, and not the same as anything else ... and we can easily verify this by how many "unknown" and "obscure" bands we keep finding, and most of them were so wild and different as to be appreciated, now, finally.

Logan wrote: I do know that I discovered various Krautrock before I had discovered much Prog.

This is a bit strange for me, because a lot of the connections to what became "krautrock" was a scene that included theater, film, and many other ideas and spoken arts. For example, we can hear in Werner Herzog's special Klaus Kinski in front of an audience, in what could be considered a confrontation, but was (more than likely) an "acting exercise" ... an experiment, that many folks went on to use and create. Thus, eventually, it is easy to see how a particular interpretation in music became known ... but a funny thing happened on the way ... I found Fassbinder improvising a lot, and then I was listening to an old Space Pirate Radio Show (1975) just last week, and it was playing Amon Duul 1 ... and guess what I found? Bits and pieces that ended up in YETI. It makes a huge difference when you hear that since it suggests that the desire to create something else, other than just being ripped and having a powwow ...  and this is, how many things are "born", germinating elsewhere, that sometimes we do not see right away.

But I was already aware of some things ... Werner Herzog (from 1968 ... and filming rock music) and then Wim Wenders (from 1970 and close to a lot of musicians who end up in his films uncredited.) But a lot of the material that was "improvised" also had a lot of inspiration from a lot of theater that did really well in Europe, with things like "The Living Theatre" and many others doing live staging without "any walls"! And like we can see in the film about Klaus, there were also several folks travelling the academic circles doing voice stuff that was very interesting, though rather odd ... but by the time you hear AD2 and their way with vocals, you know where they learned it and immediately decided that one of their abilities was going to be the oddball vocals ... which I found far out ... it only validated a lot of theater and film and how its influence had spread!

I had never made the connection, or used the word "progressive" until my time here on PA, because for me ... all the arts are ALWAYS a progression of some sort, and for us to state that something is more progressive because of a guitar going crazy, for example, is just plain silly.

But when all that music came around, it only helped the rest ... but sadly as soon as the English and the Americans got in, the world faded and was no longer original ... the saddest thing about history and some of its distortion of content. England may deserve some credit, but they were not exactly "experimental" as many others were .... and this is where the "progressive" statements and definitions are really messed up in my book, but ignoring the idea, and replacing it with a FORMAT! The most bizarre thing that "progressive" folks at the time, did NOT want ... guess where we are 50 years later?

There is one thing about "voice" and "vocals" that England deserves credit for ... listen to Richard Burton or Lawrence Olivier, and they are so into making sure you KNOW what the word was and the sentences were. By the mid 60's the West End was already experimenting, and Peter Brook even did a Shakespeare in a kid's playground, which really blew folks out, but the acting and folks in it, were too damn good and made it work, and then just a year or 2 later, Marat/Sade came about ... and you can see all the acting exercises an advanced class will ever go through, but all this was not exactly clear in rock music until a few years later, when it went full "psychedelic" that one book (on Anita P.) says it was mostly because of her colorful scarves! (hahaha!!! love that one!) ... and the diction became important and Mick Jagger made the idea of "vocal" become even stronger, although very different from Jim Morrison, for example. Jim was "film" ... Mick was more "theater" which fit better in rock music ... film required a strong background that the Doors helped with, but for the Rolling Stones to work, Mick had to be stronger and better and it is said that he learned it in the film "Performance" which was partly directed by Nicolas Roeg and feature some outstanding acting, or one could easily say that Nicolas knew how to show Mick Jagger on a stage and he's had that strength ever since ... it wasn't just a song anymore! But you ought to LISTEN to Marat/Sade ... instead of watching a filmed play which is great but not as exciting ... as how your imagination is going to react to the acting by Ian Richardson, Patrick Magee and Glenda Jackson, and a presentation that blows up your imagination like most plays never will for you! "What became "progressive music" in our book ... did just that ... with the same strength and touch ... and feel ... and sadly it is not quite as visible today because rock fans have alienated the rock music from the arts altogether. And lost its soul because of it!

Fair enough; for me my sole criteria is inclusion in the PA database. Besides, if an actual company were to put out a Now That's What I Call Prog 1971 compilation, you know they wouldn't pass up the opportunity to include Bowie to make it just a teensy bit easier to market

HI,

These were in my collection by that time already. JT (Aqualung) should be here also I thought.