prog rock

[_D_S_J_R_]

I think the best early 70's 'prog' went over the heads of the teenage boys who bought and listened to it. Returning to Gong, Yes and King Crimson from this era, I'm appreciating the music more than ever, especially the humorous Pot-head Pixie era of Gong, up until Shamal and the Steve Hillage offshoot albums, which I dearly love - I've always found ELP very accessible, Trilogy being probably the one I return to over and over again.. Other stuff from Soft Machine and Gentle Giant never really gelled with me (I was more Pink Floyd, Deep Purple and Led Zeppelin).

[Fretless]

Soft Machine is my current 'revisit' project and I can definitely say that I 'get' the music better than I used to. Gentle Giant is also a band I couldn't understand at all in my youth but now their albums really impress.

With age comes wisdom (hopefully)

[Lurcher300b]

If you are into early soft machine, I can recommend the Robert Wyatt biog "Different Every Time".

[The Permed One]

I think the best early 70's 'prog' went over the heads of the teenage boys who bought and listened to it. Returning to Gong, Yes and King Crimson from this era, I'm appreciating the music more than ever, especially the humorous Pot-head Pixie era of Gong, up until Shamal and the Steve Hillage offshoot albums, which I dearly love - I've always found ELP very accessible, Trilogy being probably the one I return to over and over again.. Other stuff from Soft Machine and Gentle Giant never really gelled with me (I was more Pink Floyd, Deep Purple and Led Zeppelin).

70's Gong can be divided up into three Styles/Phases. The first two LP's 'Magick Brother'.'Camembert Electrique' + The soundtrack for 'Continental Circus' were nothing like the Gong Trilogy :'Flying Teapot'.'Angel Egg'.'You'... where as the albums after that starting with 'Shamal' with late Pierre Moerlen were basically a Jazz Fusion.. btw Gong were not Prog as Floyd were not.

btw: Dave Permy happens to think the the early Gentle Giant were one of the best ever prog bands, immensely talented musician. Where as ELP were the best

[tomblackford]

I realise they arguably occupy their own genre (Zeuhl?) and may have been mentioned elsewhere in this thread, but can I just throw Magma in there? I picked up a lovely copy of the second album (Phillips early 70s reissue as "1001 centigrade") at the weekend and it just reaffirmed how truly great those guys are. I've recently been blasting Live Hhai too... Just stunning and arguably more progressive (if such a thing is even possible) that almost anything else.

As for the Prog Punk question, might I suggest the first fripp solo album Exposure? Perhaps not strictly punk but I suspect he might have been trying to pick up some of the energy and spontaneity, albeit delivered in a fairly proggy way.

[Fretless]

Fripp influenced - and was influenced by Punk (Johnny Rotten was spotted buying 'Red' in a London record shop, for instance). He worked with the American 'New Wave' bands Blondie and Talking Heads during his time in NY, when he recorded 'Exposure'.

John Ellis of The Vibrators worked with both Peter Hammil (K Group) and Peter Gabriel - on PG3 he plays on several tracks, along with Paul Weller.

The late 70's did find several Progressive acts trying to come to terms with / use the new energy of Punk Rock - Gentle Giant's somewhat maligned 'Civilian' has an oddly aggressive sound. Mike Oldfield 'Punkadiddle' on 'Platinum' (okay, that was a piss-take!). And following this many Prog bands went into a more commercial and poppy direction: Genesis, Renaissance, Camel.

Short-lived (Geoff Mann RIP) neo-proggers Twelfth Night would refer to themselves on stage as 'Punk Floyd'.

Another band who came out of that scene and later gained respect for their talents were XTC. And what about Ultravox! or The Stranglers with their Doors-influenced sound? The music grew and shifted, Punk provided a 'new' burst of energy that fuelled another 'wave' of progress.

I think that the sound and inspiration for Punk can be traced back to The Velvet Underground some 10 years earlier. Certainly a band from the classic 'progressive' era.

[tomblackford]

Great to see Gong here too... Anybody familiar with the <ahem> semi official Paris 1973 and Sheffield 1974 live albums? I think the incredible version of Zero The Hero And The Witches Spell on Live Etc was taken (edited) from the former, and both contain some truly amazing drawn out spacey jamming (that would probably never have made an official release).

Gong bootlegs can be interesting and sometime magical, partly I suspectdue to the varying lineups and developing abilities of the players - Bremen 74 (Laurie Allan on drums) and Oslo 75 (bruford) are particularly satisfying in my opinion

[Fretless]

A thought struck me this morning that one specific individual was responsible for the popularisation of BOTH Progressive Music in the late 60's/early 70's and Punk Rock thereafter.

The man whose choices defined the tastes of generations of music lovers : John Peel.

[joe]

I could never really be doing with prog; I have four LPs that you might place on that brand category (Aqualung by Jethro Tull, Lizard by King Crimson, Pink Floyd's first two). I had to listen to an awful lot of prog at university because so many people liked it, and have never felt the need to re-visit it since.

What opened my eyes was the Velvet Underground double 'Coke bottle' compilation, and Iggy and the Stooges' 'Raw Power'. Thos two albums set the seal on my musical tastes for the next few years

[slinger]

A thought struck me this morning that one specific individual was responsible for the popularisation of BOTH Progressive Music in the late 60's/early 70's and Punk Rock thereafter.

The man whose choices defined the tastes of generations of music lovers : John Peel.

Don't forget Bob Harris on 'Whistle Test' and on the radio, Mike Harding, Stuart Henry (probably my favourite after Peel at the time. Such a shame his career was cut short by M.S.) and Anne Nightingale who all hosted 'Sounds of the Seventies' as Peely did, and Pete Drummond who hosted 'Rock Goes to college' among other things. Tommy Vance and Pete Drummond both hosted 'Top Gear' on Radio 1 which eventually merged with 'Sounds of the Seventies.'
I was, and still am, a huge John Peel fan but there was quite a little clique at Radio 1 all trying to bring us the best music while sometimes having to fly under the radar.

Talking of Peel though, how could I not venerate a man who gave his children names like... Florence Victoria Shankly, Thomas James Dalglish, William Robert Anfield, and Alexandra Mary Anfield