Here bio and discography.

http://www.progarchives.com/artist.asp?id=10885" rel="nofollow - https://www.progarchives.com/artist.asp?id=10885

I advice to everyone the albums between Contribution (1970) and Rumplestiltskin's Resolve (1976) and expecially Second Contribution.

http://https://www.progarchives.com/album.asp?id=62251" rel="nofollow - https://www.progarchives.com/album.asp?id=62251

But one wonders then why Al Stewart isn't here in the same category....? IMO Phillips is, at times,  not much more proggy than Stewart's early efforts .

Welcome to one of the great close but no cigar artists - both commercially and artistically I think. I've heard all his albums (and own a few) up to 1978*. There's plenty of great music and great singing on all of them... but unfortunately there's always weak songs and occasionally awful singing as well. There's always some progressive folky rock to be found on every album, so prog-related is perfectly fine by me. I personally don't think he waas particularly good at it and prefer his grand balladeering - or slower songs though. 

*and Trancendence might just be my favorite

Meh. I found him to be very dull in the 70s. I guess listening to really incredible one man shows like Roy Harper spoiled it for me. 

Both were suggested at the same time and the admin team considered both thoughtfully and ultimately decided that Al doesn't make the cut.  I'm not as familiar with Phillips even though I have known of him since 1974 and he got plenty of airplay back then in Montreal.  I certainly liked some of his stuff but never consistently enough to make me a fan.  Still, from what I have heard (and I"ve heard most of Al Stewart's output from the late 1960s and 1970s), I would say Phillips is indeed more prog related than Stewart.  I do consider myself a fan of Al Stewart.  Interestingly, I love best his most commercially successful albums

I'm always interested in locating stand out tunes on mediocre albums and from ten Shawn-titles I got about 25 songs I really like. None of them sound like the uncanny american Jethro Tull, but more like this

Occasionally awful singing? Where?

Is Shawn Phillips dull? Really? His opera (expecially in the 70s) is dull?

I think, for example, the initial suite in Second Contribution (first 4 songs) reaches a peak (for immediacy, inspiration, pathos, arrangement, singing) a lot of prog band can only see from below.

Weakest songs are present in Phillips' albums, yes, but even in Selling England By The Pound. 

In many ways, the choosing of someone like this, into inclusion here, is the kind of thing that does not help the definition of "progressive", however, at the very least, Shawn Phillips deserves to be here, for being himself, and not just a song, and not just something that the top ten darlings love ... he has stated before that he was not interested in labels and he only did what felt right to him, and had nothing to do with a definition or explanation.

Comparing him to Roy Harper, is very strange for me ... I have 15 or more albums by Roy, and have not gotten any of Shawn's albums, despite my having been familiar with at least 4 of his albums in the 70's ... and I was not into his music, simply because I was into the European bombardment of outstanding and great music, which made SP a bit less valuable or important. 

However, listening to it now, it is clear that this is very good, and deserves a listen.

Roy is more about the words and his expression, and I think he would be able to sing his poem even if he did not have a guitar in his hand! And he has said, that many times he can just continue with more words and lines, in anything ... and he shows it in conversation ... he's a non-stop person, and very capable, to add to what he is doing with the guitar.

In this sense, SP is a much more conventional writer, and some of his lyrics are set around the parts in the song ... it's actually hard to find that in a lot of Roy's work as he tends to just keep going ... something that is mostly very difficult to do, unless you have "the feel", which obviously one could say that Roy does have it.

It's a shame that we have to mention SP in the same way that some folks here do, when they think it's not good music ... and this is why I do not like music to be simply a preference, or a style ... it takes away the individuality, and in this case, we don't know what kicks SP ... but we certainly know what kicks Roy!

It reminds me of the discussions, time and again, of the harsh voiced singers ... and people continually comparing Roger Chapman, to Joe Cocker and then Peter Gabriel, or Francesco di Giacomo ... when the value of the content is totally ignored for some kind of sounds like this or that ... and none of them do, anyway because what they sing is not about this or that ... it's about who they are.

SP deserves to be here ... although I would probably just mash him into a folk category, rather than this one ... I have to re-listen to things, but I do not recall his material being that much rock oriented, a lot more than it was folk oriented.

We'll have to agree to disagree then....other than a few long songs there is nothing more 'proggy' (lets not argue that word...) about Philips over Stewart...imo.

Got to chime in on this one while I'm having a good day. I don't think that anyone, at this point, cares to argue what constitutes prog or prog related and just feels like 'yeah, whatever' when something new is added to PA's discography. What I think bothers people is when similar artists like Phillips and Stewart are not both added. These are very similar folk based artists, the only difference is that Phillips was not as commercially successful as Stewart, at least for a little while when Stewart had his 70s heyday. For what it's worth, I think that both should be listed here. 

But seriously......many of these inclusions are as subjective as hell...both Stewart and Phillips are similar in a prog vein. And some of the bands that are on PA are even less proggy than them.....

;)

Yes......which is why I have brought up several times to let the regular members here vote on it...after all we make up the forum, listen to the music, and post about it...but only a handful can decide what goes on the list? Really...?

I don't favor putting things to a forum vote for the same reason that I don't favor seeing another Genesis vs Yes poll.  This shouldn't be a popularity contest.  

A lot of work goes into being a collaborator on this site, and none of it paid.  It's not simply participating in forums.  In fact, one could be a very valuable collaborator without participating in forums.  Look at the work that went into creating the Shawn Phillips bio by JamesBaldwin, not to mention the work in adding a bio for much more obscure artists.  If you want to participate more in decision making and really maintaining this site as one of the go to sites for prog information on the web, I don't doubt there are opportunities to be a collaborator.

I like Zero also and Love Chronicles and Orange are also good.....imho more interesting than most of (if not all) Phillips work. Of course ..that's subjective.

;)

Heh Ken,

 I know this is off topic but imho it's not a 'popularity contest' to ask the regs what they think. After all everyone here is allowed to rate albums so why not allow some input  on what bands get included.

There could be a weighted vote where all board ballots carries a group vote number and the bulk of the votes would be based on the collabs.

Just a thought....but imho a valid one.

I agree, well-said!

For the category: SP comes from folk, true, but we cant consider his music prog folk. It seems to me his folk sometimes sounds like classical music, chamber folk, as Logan says. But when he wants to compose a suite, with prog style and arrangement, he prefers to write an hybrid between blues, soul and funky.

Yes, Donovan relevance. He was one of the most original and sophysticated arranger of his era: folk, 

blues, jazz, vaudeville etc. He wasn't helped by his producer like Beatles did.

The question is: Phillips claims he co-wrote with Donovan a lot of songs for Fairy Tale, Sunshine Superman, 

Mellow Yellow. Where can we feel Phillips' hand (like author and arranger) in that albums?

Or: were Phillips' folk ballads influenced by Donovan?

For the record: I've got no issues with Shawn Phillips added to prog-related. Its easy to hear why and he might as well been added to prog-folk imo. So welcome to him. I don't know why I felt like having all these opinions about his actual music just here. He has "always" been a frustrating listen I guess - and this is after all a music discussion board.

Btw: I don't think we should add anyone for just being themselves and not just a song or a top ten darling who's uninterested in labels though. If that was the case most of my treasured artists outside of the progressive rock realm should be added. Hello Andrea Belfi, Hector Zazou, Anthony Braxton and Sun Ra - goodbye Muse, Queen, Ambrosia, Golden Earring etc... fine by me really but what would be the point of that? 

 

Peace, out. Until some future date.

 

Edit: * Especially a collaborator who is a virtual one man show.

I kinda think that Donovan was more of a record company darling, than he was a real composer. His material is too uneven, and sometimes, I get the feeling that his lyrics were just adding a few words here and there to make a song, and really ... had nothing interesting or valuable to say, for the most part. It was more about the whole image than it was anything else.

SP, and others I'm sure, probably wrote a lot of stuff for Donovan, some of which he was able to do and some of which he wasn't able to do ... and I, personally do not think that Donovan is that important ... other than some image of what the hippie days were like in those days ... for an hour anyway!

Over the years, I would say that SP has shown a lot more and better work, than Donovan and a couple of his "hits"! Or as Grace once said ... I don't want to be some geriatric old bitch singing the same song when I get old! Well, at least you know that SP would do more than one thing ... and what's D gonna do?

Here you can read my first three reviews on SP's albums.

Contribution:  https://www.progarchives.com/album.asp?id=62250" rel="nofollow - - https://www.progarchives.com/album.asp?id=62251

Furthermore:  https://www.progarchives.com/album.asp?id=62238" rel="nofollow -