Let's Talk About Progressive Rock

[Waddo Soqable]

12 minutes ago, Dad3353 said:

 

Sounds a lot like Pentangle, or even Steeleye Span. 

Steeleye Span eh.. 

 

[Oopsdabassist]

I LOVE prog...grew up on it......not so keen on playing it though, I'm much happier holding down a solid groove rather than dusty end noodling a la Chris Squire or Geddy Lee

[Waddo Soqable]

17 minutes ago, Oopsdabassist said:

I LOVE prog...grew up on it......

I'll come further out of the closet here with the confession that I was in fact at art college in the 70s and was, not surprisingly, exposed to a fair amount of this.. 

[Franticsmurf]

46 minutes ago, Waddo Soqable said:

I'll come further out of the closet here with the confession that I was in fact at art college in the 70s and was, not surprisingly, exposed to a fair amount of this.. 

My mate, the drummer mentioned in my post above, was the product of an art school and he was the most prolific writer of tunes during our prog phase. He was the keeper of the time signatures, too. He was a better drummer than I was guitarist and I gained a lot from learning to play his songs, which I transferred to bass when I saw the light many years later. I even had a twin necked guitar and used it on stage.

 

It's good to be with people who understand these things and don't judge. 🤣

[fleabag]

2 hours ago, Dad3353 said:

 

Sounds a lot like Pentangle

 

Another fine band. Not least because they had the brilliant Danny Thompson on URB.  I admit to owning some Pentangle

[Dad3353]

6 minutes ago, fleabag said:

... I admit to owning some Pentangle

 

Good man..! 

[Waddo Soqable]

It's all coming out now.. The very first thing I ever played to a live audience with something resembling a band was our version of "21st Century Schizoid Man" (King Crimson) 

My contribution being wrought upon a very cheap 'n nasty Woolworths/Tesco short scale bass.. 

[fleabag]

3 minutes ago, Dad3353 said:

 

Good man..! 

 

I know it's a Prog thread but i cant help posting a bit of Danny on bass.  Such a special man.  Track written by vocalist Jacqui McShee

 

 

[Waddo Soqable]

Veering off a bit in that direction then.. One of my favourite pentangle songs

 

 

[Cosmo Valdemar]

Prog's my favourite. It's where most of my favourite albums, bass players and bass sounds can be found.

 

It's such a broad description though, there's very little musical similarity between Pink Floyd and Yes, for example.

 

[Dad3353]

12 minutes ago, Waddo Soqable said:

Veering off a bit in that direction then.. One of my favourite pentangle songs...

 

Here's the Sandy Denny rendering...

 

 

Backstory..?

 

'A beautiful and moving song. Richard Thompson said it was about the deaths of his girlfriend, Jeannie Franklyn, and the band’s drummer, Martin Lamble in a van crash in 1969. The bruised and beaten sons is a jocular reference to Martin’s drums. Jeannie was a successful dressmaker which explains the reference to cutting of cloth. Drinking the light is probably some sort of ceremony, perhaps marriage, and swearing a year probably refers to the standard feudal Morganatic trial marriage contract of a year and a day. Thompson appears to be lamenting that Jeannie can no longer make a commitment to him or any other mortal but she perhaps jocularly suggests the only one of them now available to her is Martin who also lies dead beside her. Then the cold North wind beckons the minstrels back on the road.'

Edited January 17, 2023 by Dad3353

[paul_5]

51 minutes ago, Waddo Soqable said:

Veering off a bit in that direction then.. One of my favourite pentangle songs

 

 

Great to see some top-flight folk beard-fettling at 1' 35". you don't see it much these days.

Edited January 17, 2023 by paul_5

[Len_derby]

If you’re a certain age and went to live gigs progressive rock was pretty hard to avoid. During my first couple of years going to concerts (72-73) I remember seeing King Crimson, Gentle Giant, Faust, Camel, Hawkwind, Barclay James Harvest, Stackridge, Blodwyn Pig, Man, Deke Leonard, Budgie, Back Door. All in a provincial backwater. I wonder who I saw that I can’t remember 🤔.

 

Progressive was a pretty broad church. Something for everyone, I reckon.

[Dad3353]

2 hours ago, Len_derby said:

... I wonder who I saw that I can’t remember 🤔.

 

Soft Machine and Gryphon. 

 

(... plus the Edgar Broughton Band, several times, naturally ...)

Edited January 17, 2023 by Dad3353

[steantval]

My hand is up, seriously into the early prog in the 70’s.

 

Here are the bands I was into at that time -

 

The Nice

ELP

Yes

Camel

PFM

Egg

Badger

Manfred Mann’s Earth Band

Khan

Family

Brand X

Genesis

Caravan

Supertramp

Focus

Greenslade

Styx

Rush

Pink Floyd

Journey
Darryl Way’s Wolf

Mahavishnu Orchestra 

 

[SteveXFR]

I can't stand a lot of the earlier prog, it seemed like it was complicated for the sake of being complicated and then there's Hocus Pocus by Focus which had yodelling which is unacceptable. 

I do like a lot of modern progressive metal though, bands like Intronaut, Tool and Meshuggah who make complicated music which has cool bits and sounds interesting 

[wateroftyne]

1 minute ago, SteveXFR said:

I can't stand a lot of the earlier prog, it seemed like it was complicated for the sake of being complicated and then there's Hocus Pocus by Focus which had yodelling which is unacceptable. 

I do like a lot of modern progressive metal though, bands like Intronaut, Tool and Meshuggah who make complicated music which has cool bits and sounds interesting 

Ha ha… I feel the exact opposite 😄

[Barking Spiders]

Thing is where do prog rock musicians figure on the sh@g-a-groupie scale and what is the hot babes:males in audience ratio?

 

SAG scale: Go home alone to bedsit with Dominos pizza------------------------------------------------------------------> go back to hotel suite with at least half a dozen 20 year old  groupies and a couple of sacks of charlie

 

I'm thinking there are no prog musicians at the right end while if you're in Motley Crue you're probably likely to have fallen off it

 

[Newfoundfreedom]

9 minutes ago, Barking Spiders said:

Thing is where do prog rock musicians figure on the sh@g-a-groupie scale and what is the hot babes:males in audience ratio?

 

SAG scale: Go home alone to bedsit with Dominos pizza------------------------------------------------------------------> go back to hotel suite with at least half a dozen 20 year old  groupies and a couple of sacks of charlie

 

I'm thinking there are no prog musicians at the right end while if you're in Motley Crue you're probably likely to have fallen off it

 

 

To be honest. The first part of the scale sounds far more appealing. Might go a bit mad and put pineapple on. That's enough adventure for me. 

[Kitsto]

I grew up in the 70s so Yes, Floyd, Genesis, Tull, Crimson and ELP were standard fare. I couldn't get on with Soft Machine or Hatfield & The North (maybe they were more fusion?). I was aware of Gentle Giant and Greenslade but somehow never listened to them properly. One of my favourite bands was Strawbs and it was odd how they got labelled prog as if folk + rock = prog. I liked Supertramp but didn't consider them prog. Realise now I maybe should have done (at least on Crime). Have recently been re-immersing myself in Yes Album, Fragile, Close To The Edge, Yessongs (played live that music has even more power) and Six Wives. Crumbs how great those albums were!  

Edited January 18, 2023 by Kitsto

[Ricky 4000]

7 hours ago, SteveXFR said:

yodelling which is unacceptable. 

 

Agreed. Yodelling is never alright. 😕

[Skinnyman]

1 minute ago, Kitsto said:

I grew up in the 70s so Yes, Floyd, Genesis, Tull were standard fare. I couldn't get on with Soft Machine or Hatfield & The North (maybe they were more fusion?). I was aware of Gentle Giant and Greenslade but somehow never listened to them properly. One of my favourite bands was Strawbs and it was odd how they got labelled prog as if folk + rock = prog. I liked Supertramp but didn't consider them prog. Realise now I maybe should have done (at least on Crime). Have recently been re-immersing myself in Yes Album, Fragile, Close To The Edge, Yessongs (played live that music has even more power) and Six Wives. Crumbs how great those albums were!  

Pretty much this 😁

 

Strawbs were and still are one of my favourite bands (still going strong and producing new music rather than just rehashing their back catalogue unlike some one might mention…) but I was never sure about the “prog” title. 
 

More obviously prog favourites were Camel, Mike Oldfield, Gentle Giant, Yes, Marrilion, King Crimson and Genesis in roughly that order.

 

There were others, of course, but these were the ones that I stuck with and still listen to today. 

 

That said, I could never get into Van Der Graaf Generator or Greenslade - not sure why, they just never captured my attention. 

[Kitsto]

Yes, Camel did The Snow Goose which I liked (for some stupid reason Camel and Caravan seemed to coalesce in my mind back then). Agree about Van Der Graaf - liked parts of H To He but that was it. Glad you mentioned Marillion - saw H at my local filling station (I live in Bucks) a few years back and have been getting into them lately - they really are a great band.

 

EDIT I first came across Tubular Bells - long, long before it became big - because the coolest guy in my class at school used to listen to Zappa, Beefheart and Hendrix and thought Zep (my favourite band back then) were 'stupid'. He was also known to be the cleverest boy in the entire school. One day he came back from the record shop in town with Tub Bells under his arm. Had he listened to it? No. Why had he bought it then? 'Because with the number of instruments this bloke [Mike Oldfield] claims [on the back of the album] to have played, it must be good'. He was also a fan of the Bonzo Dogs so the fact that Viv Stanshall was on it probably swayed him. He was also into the Softs, Hatfield and Henry Cow. Happy days.

Edited January 18, 2023 by Kitsto

[Frank Blank]

8 hours ago, SteveXFR said:

Hocus Pocus by Focus which had yodelling which is hilarious and brilliant. 

FTFY

[pfretrock]

On 17/01/2023 at 17:00, Dad3353 said:

 

Here's the Sandy Denny rendering...

 

 

Backstory..?

 

'A beautiful and moving song. Richard Thompson said it was about the deaths of his girlfriend, Jeannie Franklyn, and the band’s drummer, Martin Lamble in a van crash in 1969. The bruised and beaten sons is a jocular reference to Martin’s drums. Jeannie was a successful dressmaker which explains the reference to cutting of cloth. Drinking the light is probably some sort of ceremony, perhaps marriage, and swearing a year probably refers to the standard feudal Morganatic trial marriage contract of a year and a day. Thompson appears to be lamenting that Jeannie can no longer make a commitment to him or any other mortal but she perhaps jocularly suggests the only one of them now available to her is Martin who also lies dead beside her. Then the cold North wind beckons the minstrels back on the road.'

Thanks for the backstory Dad, I've often analysed Sandy's lyrics as it is often about someone. Never thought or read of this just enjoyed her voice. Poignant.