So you think you're Prog...

[walker]

then you should carefully review this comprehensive Prog outline:

http://www.cracked.com/funny-2359-progressive-rock/

Note that Yes gets its fair uppence midway through, including a rare live picture of Steve Howe playing a Rick 6-string.

[ajish4]

One of my favorite quotes.........."Progressive rock is like the anti-socialite of music" That's GREAT! I'm anti-social at heart, so it was a match made in heaven!

[johnallg]

Cute.

Let's see.... Ancient Dimension... Electric Totem.... Destiny Machine....

[jimk]

Mushroom Sword....Intergalactic Spinach....The Expendable Taco Project.....the band names are better than the music.

[FretlessOnly]

The band I'm in now is firmly neo-prog. We'll annoy you to death, but not for more than 6 minutes at a time.

[walker]

I've got dibs on 'The Galactic Tripod.'

I love the tag for the YES photo: "Progressive rock band, Yes, pictured being better musicians than you."

Also note the photo of Chris Squire as the backdrop behind the 'Progressive Rock Science" chart.

[ram]

I think I'll try 'The Solar Toaster Totem'.

One thing I have to take exception to the fact that YES was omitted from the list:

Key Bands - Pink Floyd, Rush, Genesis, King Crimson

That gives me pause as to the legitimacy of the whole piece....

[walker]

The Yes omission IS a pretty glaring error; I noticed that, too. How could they even think to list Rush without listing Yes first???

[walker]

What is also mind-blowing to me is that ELP ever did an album called 'Love Beach' and sported their dongs quite brazenly. Who do they think they are? Journey???

[wayang]

This is hilarious, and pretty much well deserved...the 'great moments' in Prog remain great in my mind, but as with everything else most of it's utter **** (asterisks mine). One aspect that wasn't really addressed is that many of the biggest Prog bands realized at some point that the Big Circus that is Rock-n-Roll was leaving town without them, and they started to try to 'get down' in order keep their seats on the train. Was it an artistic and commercial mistake? You tell me...bands like Yes, like 'em or not, did certain things incredibly well, but they were never going to be able to 'rock' like Cactus or Humble Pie, nor should they ever have tried. A side-by-side comparison of any Steve Howe guitar solo from the early days with the g*d-awful attempt at being Dickie Betts in the middle of Going For The One is reminiscent of a before-and-after analysis of a lobotomy patient.

I enjoyed the comparison of Pink Floyd (anti-capitalism) and Rush (pro-capitalism)...it's probably the finest point the 'authors' of this piece produced, and explains why I can still listen to Floyd. Having said that, I do have trouble with one of the statements made: "It (Prog) is the only rock genre in which the term "flute solo" has any meaning". I thought about that for about 30 seconds and came up with this list:

Along Comes Mary (The Association)
Goin' Up The Country (Canned Heat)
Spill The Wine (War)
Undone (The Guess Who)
Can't You See (Marshall Tucker Band)
Rainmaker (Traffic)

I wouldn't call any of them Prog, but...oh, well...I agree with most of the rest of the analysis...especially placing King Crimson in the neutral territory between 'butts' and 'dongs'...again: probably why I still respect them today. And, might I add, the first band I was in (1974) was unashamedly Prog...and, along with all the heavy stuff we played, we actually performed 'Hocus Pocus'. It's a notorious 'joke' tune, but you'd better have the best drummer in town if you're going to attempt it...and we did.

The bottom line: this is the best 'take' on Prog since Derek Smalls got trapped in the fiberglass pod during Rock-n-Roll Creation...

[walker]

Insightful analysis, Dane. The one point of contention I have is Yes' ability to rock when they wanted to. 'Drama' has some pretty heavy moments, as does 90125. (God help me, I almost said "90210") And before the "ship sailed" they had some particularly rocking moments on Fragile (Heart Of The Sunrise, South Side Of The Sky, Roundabout) Quite a bit of rocking material on the first three albums as well, but this is all subjective for the most part. I agree with your assessment of Steve Howe's mangling of GFTO. It would have been nice to hear him play a chord or two here & there instead of the incessant wailing of that slide. And Sound Chaser... (sigh) don't get me started on that.

[walker]

More rocking Yes moments come to mind...

sections of 'Gates Of Delirium' are pretty intense, same with 'Ritual', Parallels, On The Silent Wings Of Freedom, Release-Release (an oft-forgotten Yes great)

[wayang]

Quite right, Mark...I would be very mistaken to assert that bands like Yes 'couldn't rock'. Of course they could, but it wasn't their primary strength when one considers the amount of musical innovation and 'atmospherics' that was their hallmark. I just mean that to abandon those aspects in favor of trying to compete with bands for whom 'rocking' was paramount was a mistake...(IMHO, naturally). For example:

"Aw, bust them rocks, baby..." How (Howe?) you gonna beat them guys at the one thing they excelled at?

One of the saddest moments in 'Prog' history was the inclusion of the tune 'I Betcha Thought We Couldn't Do It' on Gentle Giant's 'The Missing Piece', ostensibly to demonstrate that they could play some dumbell rock if they wanted to...but that's not what I listened to GG for. It's not that I thought you couldn't, fellas...I just hoped you wouldn't.

[ram]

I think i agree with most of what has been said - I'd like to add that some of the bands mentioned did live versions that rocked and had extended pieces - Your's Is No Disgrace comes to mind. As to some of the leads mentioned -while not my fav moments in the grand Howe expierience - some of the stuff they were trying to do would be likened to trying to paint the lines on a road that hasn't been built yet.

The article was fun but not really an in depth piece. Actually I think the dialog in this string hasbeen more thoughtful than alot of the piece.

Mark, I do like Sound Chaser ... not so much musicaly but the drums and guitars going at each other... and maybe because that is the tune they opened with when I first saw them live....

[wayang]

Tom...I like Sound Chaser, too...it's a bit chaotic to our western ears, and maybe takes some getting used to. (A friend I recommended Relayer to when it came out said at first he couldn't sit through it...it sounded to him like 'fighting cats'. He loves it now...)

Some folks I've talked to about Sound Chaser found the 'vocalizations' incongruous in a rock tune...many believe that Anderson is doing some sort of demented South American 'Cha-Cha'.

Au contraire; he's referencing this: