Roger Dean and Progarchives!

All:

It is with extreme pleasure, great excitement, and a great deal of humility and privilege that Progarchives announces a formal relationship with legendary artist Roger Dean.  You may already have noticed the links to Mr. Dean's site in many places on Progarchives.  And if you visit Mr. Dean's site, you will find a couple of gorgeous Progarchives links on his site.

As many of you know, Roger Dean is the...dean of album cover art.  Among many other things, he developed the now-legendary logo for Yes (one of the two most-recognized rock logos in the world), as well as many of their album covers, and logos and/or album covers for many of Yes' individual members, as well as bands such as Asia, Glass Hammer, Greenslade, Badger, Ad Infinitum, Gravy Train, Uriah Heep and Gentle Giant (the amazing "Octopus" cover).  Mr. Dean has also created a great deal of other artwork featuring his unique style - a blending of fantasy, landscape and/or seascape, and occasional beasts, all in vivid, swirling colors.

In addition to the mutual linking of our two sites, Mr. Dean will be undertaking an interview with me shortly.  Watch for it in the next couple of weeks.

Also, Mr. Dean has graciously provided to Progarchives a complete set of his desktop wallpaper, which one of you - Progarchives' members - will win in a contest to be undertaken shortly.  Make sure to watch for it.

Progarchives is extremely privileged that Mr. Dean chose our site with which to enter into this unique relationship.  And it is extremely important that all of you understand that this relationship could not have occurred without you - the members and visitors.  Because it was not enough that the site was visually interesting, user-friendly, or even comprehensive.  Equally important is that it has an active - and growing - member base, and is fast becoming the most-visited progressive rock website on the Internet.  Yes, the webmasters can take credit for creating and maintaining the site.  But it is you - the members and visitors - who give it vitality and direction.

Progarchives would be remiss in not thanking Ed Prasek, Mr. Dean's representative.  Mr. Prasek spent a great deal of time, energy and effort in proposing, planning, and executing this relationship.  His attention to detail was critical, and his easygoing manner made everything go extremely smoothly.

Lastly - and most importantly - we would like to express our most sincere gratitude to Roger Dean.  We would like to thank him for his interest in our site, for his easygoing manner in establishing this relationship, and for giving us - and the world - some of the greatest album cover art ever produced.  Indeed, every album cover artist for at least the past three decades owes Mr. Dean an enormous debt of gratitude for opening up an area of art that was largely ignored prior to his involvement.  It is not hyperbole to state that Mr. Dean is the "godfather" of modern album cover art, and that the entire genre might have been much different - and far less interesting - had he not been there at the beginning.

So, we thank our members and visitors for making Progarchives the kind of site that would interest and intrigue a living legend like Roger Dean; we thank Mr. Prasek for his tireless patience, energy, and support; and we thank Roger Dean for becoming part of the Progarchives "family," and for allowing Progarchives to become part of his.

Watch for the interview and the contest in the next couple of weeks.

Peace.

Maani
(On behalf of the entire Progarchives Admin Group)

Visit DEAN's website