Review book Bradley Smith
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Category: Progressive Music Lounges
Forum Name: Books and Miscellaneous Reviews
Forum Description: Reviews of prog books, memorabilia, etc.
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Topic: Review book Bradley Smith
Posted By: erik neuteboom
Subject: Review book Bradley Smith
Date Posted: January 07 2006 at 16:45
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BRADLEY SMITH-THE BILLBOARD GUIDE TO PROGRESSIVE MUSIC (Billboard Books, 1997, ISBN 0-8230-7665-2) WARNING: This is a book about ‘progressive music’, not only about ‘progressive rock’! Part 1 (after an honest and clear introduction) contains an overview of progressive music, divided into the chapters “A concise history of progressive music”, “Progressive music as active listening music”, “The social, polictical and cultural context” and “Parallels between progressive music and the world of speculative fition”. The Chapter “Key recordings in progressive music” contains the usual reviews about albums/video’s/laser discs from all the known British progrock bands, the Skandinavian wave (from Anglagard and Anekdoten until Ragnarok and Atlas) and bands/artists like Finch, Ozric Tentacles, Shylock, Luciano Basso, Collegium Musicum, Gotic (not from Portugal but Spain!) and Solstice. But also bands/artists like Algarnas Tradgard (“one of the wildest, most experimental and deliberately psychedelic albums of its era”), Glenn Branca (“a combination of punk rock orchestration with strict classical structures and forms”), Dark (“a world music-influenced guitarless fusion), Fifty Foo Hose (“authentic psychedelia”), Ron Geesin (modern avant-garde music”), Golem (“strange instrumental psychedelic rock”), Michael Harrison (“a decent collection of eight solo piano pieces”), Michael Hoenig (“beloved icon of electronic space music”), Let’s Be Generous (“one of the most significant progressive jazzrock fusion”), Lightwave (“current leaders of electronic music and space music”), Bill Nelson (“one of the leading persons in ambient music”), Guru Guru’s Mani Neumeier (“one of the best progressive drum albums of all time”), David Parsons (“he combines synthesizers with Indian music”), Michael Prime (“the album Aquifers is an excellent example of collage music”), Terje Rydal (“early jazz/rock/chamber music fusions classic”), Peter Schaefer (abstract ambient space msuic”), Teenage Jesus And The Jerks (“a primitive and radical power trio noise rock”), Throbbing Gristle (“an aesthetic realm of pure improvisation”) and Voice Of Eye (“instrumental electro-acoustic music”). If you are up to a challenging and adventurous book and you don’t feel yourself limited to the boundaries of the mainstream progrock, this one is yours! Erik Neuteboom Info: Billboard Books 1515 Broadway New York, NY 10036 |
Replies:
Posted By: Trotsky
Date Posted: January 26 2006 at 22:32
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A friend gave me this book for Xmas about 3 years ago ... Even though I do have a lot of complaints about his selections and opinions ... it taught me a lot ... particularly useful for a symphonic prog fan looking to explore beyond that realm ... ------------- "Death to Utopia! Death to faith! Death to love! Death to hope?" thunders the 20th century. "Surrender, you pathetic dreamer.” "No" replies the unhumbled optimist "You are only the present." |
Posted By: Moogtron III
Date Posted: January 27 2006 at 05:14
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Great book! I discovered White Willow, Sally Oldfield and Renaissance because of that book. I can recommend it too: to all prog fans who have an ear for innovative music. The guy is a purist. No Genesis after Wind And Wuthering (except for some live albums), no Pink Floyd after Animals, and no Yes albums after Relayer (though Going For The One and Relayer are mentioned in an appendix). Only the first four Oldfield studio albums, plus Boxed, Exposed, Tubular Bells 2 (albums + video) and Amarok. A purist, I'll tell you that! The biggest criticism on the book has been, if I'm not mistaken, that he ignored two of the most important contributors of prog: Gentle Giant and Van der Graaf Generator. Apart from that: the best review book I ever laid hands on! |
Posted By: Moogtron III
Date Posted: January 27 2006 at 05:18
| In my last post, between some brackets, I meant Going For The One and Drama (instead of Relayer): I somehow can't edit my last post. |
Posted By: Sean Trane
Date Posted: January 27 2006 at 08:15
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Is there any link with Jerry Lucky's book: Progressive Files. I mean are they complementary are doubling the infos. Which one of those two is better? ------------- let's just stay above the moral melee prefer the sink to the gutter keep our sand-castle virtues content to be a doer as well as a thinker, prefer lifting our pen rather than un-sheath our sword |
Posted By: erik neuteboom
Date Posted: January 28 2006 at 07:58
In my opinion Jerry Lucky's book is more focused on the traditional progressive rock while Bradley Smith also reviews progressive music in more adventurous terms. I would recommend Bradley's book because it matches more with your a bit unususal musical taste, Sean !
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Posted By: moonlapse
Date Posted: January 29 2006 at 09:44
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I came across this book while browsing in one of those clearance
bookstores yesterday - had never heard of it before, and hadn't seen
this thread either. Looked interesting enough so decided to pick
it up for $6.99Cdn. Thought it was interesting that the first album mentioned in the book (I'm pretty sure) was Tales from Topographic Oceans, which as you all know is one of the most controversial in prog. The intro was well written. As mentioned, he did leave out some important bands, but he also did say that it wasn't meant to be a complete reference. However, he gave about 5 pages to several of Kate Bush's albums (and this isn't a slight against Kate, I enjoy her music very much) while giving about a half-page to Camel and only reviewing The Snow Goose and omitting Mirage and Moonmadness and passing those off as more accessible and mainstream. Still a good book, and maybe I'll be lucky enough to find some different music to listen to. Can't go wrong for the price either. |
Posted By: The Rock
Date Posted: January 29 2006 at 10:16
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I have the book. No Gentle Giant,no VDGG,no Soft Machine,no Caravan.... very incomplete IMHO. ------------- What's gonna come out of my mouth is gonna come out of my soul."Skip Prokop" |
Posted By: moonlapse
Date Posted: January 29 2006 at 10:42
| Caravan does get a mention in the book, if you look under Camel. He classifies Caravan as a rock/pop group, along with Supertramp and Alan Parsons, and that's also his overall impression of Camel except for Snow Goose. |
Posted By: bucka001
Date Posted: January 30 2006 at 23:25
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I remember when this came out that I was pretty annoyed that VdGG weren't in there (it seemed to me, at the time, as if someone had written a book on the blues and neglected to mention Buddy Guy). Erik, did Bradley ever make any mention of why he left them out? (He might just hate them, which would be fair enough... I wrote a book on them, yet I have friends who just can't handle 'em) ------------- jc |
Posted By: The Rock
Date Posted: January 30 2006 at 23:43
I suppose he considers Gentle Giant to be just another pop/rock group? ------------- What's gonna come out of my mouth is gonna come out of my soul."Skip Prokop" |
Posted By: Guests
Date Posted: April 23 2006 at 02:57
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This was a very disappointing book. The main conclusion I would draw is the disparity between what people consider prog. This book is NOT a book on prog rock. It's subject is progressive music. A lot of the artists featured would not crop up in a month of sundays on this site. Some I would frankly regard as pop - Kate Bush/10cc and many are modern avant garde or electronic. Progressive by definition but not prog as most know it. His choice of actual prog rock is taken in the large from the list of artists that one always sees bandied around by music critics who are not fans of the genre and who only consider the early, formative days of prog. So we have Genesis, ELP, Yes etc etc etc (yawn). Not that I don't appreciate the 70's period - that's after all when I started listening and buying. It's that there is so much more than that halcyon period of 1970-76.
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Posted By: Moogtron III
Date Posted: April 23 2006 at 05:58
| I think it's a very good book, and yes, he's an enormous purist, Progressive with a capital P, but it's a riddle for me why he left out Van der Graaf Generator and Gentle Giant. He left out lots of other bands because in his eyes they're not progressive enough. |
Posted By: dralan
Date Posted: July 15 2006 at 16:47
| I also picked up this book on a clearance rack for 5 bucks. I really admire Smith's writing style and I enjoyed the introductory overview of progressive music and his unique appendixes. However like most people here I thought there were some glaring ommisions and some rather odd entries as well. Obviously he let his own personal taste dictate his choice of album reviews, including several Klause Shulze, Mike Oldfield, Gong and Rennaisance releases, yet only one from Jethro Tull, Focus, Camel etc. Rather strange. All in all though, an informative and enjoyable read. |
Posted By: lobster41
Date Posted: November 13 2006 at 16:52
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I felt that rather than being a balanced discussion of progressive music, he rather promoted the bands that he liked. I see no other reason to include the five pages (or whatever, I don't have the book in front of me), and one entry to Tull, Camel, etc.
On the other hand, his reviews of the albums included are first rate. For many of the reviews, he includes descriptions of album art and includes that in his overall impressions. The man obviously knows his stuff. ------------- The beatings will continue until morale improves. |
Posted By: erik neuteboom
Date Posted: November 13 2006 at 17:28
That's what makes this book interesting, he knows what he's talking about although it's not always everybody's cup of tea (understatement  ).
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Posted By: Frasse
Date Posted: December 09 2006 at 16:13
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I bought the book while in London five years ago. Back then I was new to progressive music so it's basically my introduction to the genre.
He has left out imho many quite obvious bands and I feel that he concentrates on Space music (must be his favourite genre) but the reviews are well done, something I can read over and over again.
In one of the appendixes he describes some rather strange subgenres of whish I've never heard of before or after.
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