Redartz: If you were like me 'back in the Bronze Age', you spent some time (possibly a great deal of time) sitting in your room, headphones on, eyes closed, just listening to some fantastic lp. And not just listening: absorbing, experiencing, FEELING it. The best music lends itself to such activity, it grabs you on numerous levels. Music offers many styles, many genres, capable of appealing to any taste. But one particular genre, Art Rock, seemed ideally suited. to Serious Listening.
Art Rock (or Progressive Rock, or Symphonic Rock: labels and genres can be rather fluid things) arose in the 60's with the experimental work of such acts as the Beatles, Velvet Underground, and even the Beach Boys. Psychedelia also no doubt lent a hand. Albums became 'concepts', the music itself more complex. Yes, it sometimes edged into pomposity or self-indulgence, but the best experimental music led the way to the genre's popularity peak in the 70's.
There were many bands active in Art Rock, some exclusively and others just dabbling. This is the crux of our discussion this time; what were your favorite progressive bands? Which left you bleary eyed? What were the best albums, best songs, and conversely, which were the worst? What later acts do you feel owe a debt to Art Rock and it's practitioners?
To give you a starting point, here are three examples by three of my favorite Art Rockers. All three of these bands filled my youthful headphones often, and indeed still do.
Emerson, Lake and Palmer: "From the Beginning:
The Moody Blues: "Tuesday Afternoon"
The Alan Parsons Project: "The Raven"
Now if you'll excuse me, I'm grabbing my headphones and a comfortable chair...
29 comments:
When I was 17, I went into Bostocks record shop, in Leeds, and bought the 'Yes' album, '90125'. The guy behind the counter, was a long haired heavy metal-type guy - and when he saw the album I'd chosen, he grinned, and nodded his approval(and no, he wasn't being sarcastic!) Why is it heavy metal guys were always the most civilized? I bought the album for 'Owner of a Lonely Heart' - the rest of the songs were quite average.
Does Lou Reed's New York album count?
Phillip
I would have to concentrate on the art / psychedelic rock side of things here as prog rock for me has always meant (largely) pretentious and overblown albums (ie Tangerine Dream, King Crimson etc) which I just didn’t “get” even although I knew they were by very accomplished musicians - although I liked the odd "Yes" album . But I used to listen to the art type LPs below to chillout to or to be “transported” ;
The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars – David Bowie
OK I am a massive Bowie fan and imho musically he could do no wrong (ok we’ll ignore “Never let me down” and a few others from the mid 80’s/90s) To be honest I would also have Hunky Dory, Diamonds Dogs and Aladdin Sane on my list but then it would just be a list of Bowie albums.
Best songs: For me the entire album is a tour de force but Starman and Moonage Daydream are favourites for me.
Comic book link: Although not asked for this album always reminds me of Jim Starlin’s great Warlock series as I was reading this at the time and well Ziggy/Walrlock there is a (minor) link !
The Velvet Underground & Nico - The Velvet Underground & Nico
If ever there was an art rock band then it has to be the mighty Velvets – simply a brilliant album.
Best tracks: Like Ziggy it’s a pretty flawless album but; All tomorrows parties and Femme Fatale are stand out tracks for me.
Comic book link: First time I heard this album Marvel UK was only a year or so l old and it reminds me of those old comics with the paper covers.
Bridge over Troubled Water – Simon and Garfunkel
I heard this was considered and art (school) album so will add it here. I listened to this throughout my Bowie, punk, hard, rock and new wave phases so it has to have had something. It always relaxed me with its mix of poppy tunes and mellow classics.
Best tracks: Everyone is pretty much a classic but Keep my customer satisfied, the title track and El condor paso are favs
Comic link: I used to put this LP on my brothers all mod cons stereo record player when he was out ( he was never happy with me using it and no wonder I used to scratch some of his LPs lol) and used to just read comics mostly US DC and Marvel.
Marquee Moon – Television
Best tracks: Prove it
Comic book link: By 1977 I started to get into small press and underground comics and this track in particular always reminds me of the early fanzine work of UK cartoonist Hunt Emerson and the comic the Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers
There are so many other albums from that time like Thick as a Brick by Jethro Tull, Crime of the Century - Supertramp, Roxy Music, Pink Floyd, Queen, Alice Cooper, Can , Zappa, Zeppelin albums etc. that I used to listen to as well.
When I bought an album based on a song I heard, I would typically listen to the whole thing, not just the hit song. If I found the album solid, I would seek out an earlier one (if existing) listen to that, if I also found that good, I would continue and basically "collect 'em all". It happened to 4 bands, Beatles, Queen, Kansas and ELO. Out of those I considered Kansas and ELO to be the most progressive, particularly the early records, which are my favorites.
Kansas: "Song for America" - great, solid record, their songs had a message to them, but not preachy. favorite tracks "Song for America", "Lamplight Symphony" and "Devils Game".
ELO: On the Third Day - I like the progression that's going on here, Jeff Lynne was never that crazy about being progressive, preferring a more pop sound, but I think this album shows he knows how to jam. I like the entire first side, which strings one song to the next, from "King of the Universe" to "New World Rising".
BTW I would have to add The Move to the list as my ELO collecting got me interested in pre-ELO.
McSCOTTY - Television was one of those bands I remember reading about in Creem, but never listened to, thanks for bringing them up, I'll check out Marquee Moon
So, is this what they used to call Prog Rock? I could never get into Prog, it was a little too cerebral for me (although I do like ELP's "I Believe in Father Christmas" ... great song). Wasn't early Genesis very Prog oriented? "Lamb Lies Down on Broadway" was pretty experimental for its day.
These are some of the Prog albums I listened to a lot back in my teens and early twenties — and they still hold up for me today:
Yes - ‘Fragile’
ELP - ‘Brain Salad Surgery’
Jethro Tull - ‘A Passion Play’ and their ‘Greatest Hits’ album (‘Locomotive Breath’ especially)
Genesis - ‘Trick of the Tail’
I’ve never gotten into the Peter Gabriel era Genesis albums for some reason — not even ‘Lamb Lies Down’ — but I think his first 3 solo albums are all freaking AMAZING.
Pink Floyd — yes, my pals and I DID often get high on grass and listen to ‘Dark Side of the Moon’ in a state of gob-smacked awe — such a horrible cliche, but it was truly a stunning experience — the tracks holds up incredibly well (even without the weed)
Also ‘The Wall’ — though it doesn’t really seem all that Prog-like to me now — it’s too angry to blissfully groove to
The early Styx albums were very ‘Prog Pop’, with lots of faux-Keith Emerson keyboard riffs, etc — I can barely stand to listen to them anymore, they’re SOOOO cheesy — but there are certain tracks that I still enjoy
Hawkwind - Hall of the Mountain Grill — was actually in my early 30s when I discovered this one
Yep, late Move / Early ELO definitely leaned Prog — I still listen to ‘Face the Music’ and ‘Eldorado’ fairly often — but confess I prefer the more ‘Power Pop With Strings’ albums like ‘New World Order’ and ‘Out of the Blue’
The Moody Blues — ‘Days of Future Passed’ I can still listen to front-to-back, i freaking love it to pieces — the rest of their albums, ehh, not so much — a bit too precious and twee — lots of awesome singles tho : ‘Ride My See-saw’, ‘Story in YourEyes’, ‘Question’ etc — my best pal and I listened to ‘On the Threshold of a Dream’ so often on the 8-track player in his car, in a haze of skunky pot-smoke, i can still recite the opening spoken-word section of ‘Lovely to See You Again’ by heart:
There you go, man
Keep as cool as you can
Face piles and piles of trials with smiles
It riles them to believe that you percieve the web they weave
Keep on thinking free….
That seemed SO profound and True when I was eighteen :)
b.t.
I still don't think I get the concept of art rock, lol...
Does Jesus Christ Super Star fit into this discussion? The album is actually the play itself and we would refer to plays as art. I don't think there are spoken words in the play, nor the album really, just the songs. Anyhow, I have listened to this double album all the way through numerous times, and but for the portion of Jesus's death, it is just one great song after another, performed by superb artists... imho.
Not to get all hung up on labels (he said as he began to pontificate about labels) but i’ve always thought the term ‘Art Rock’ applied more to bands like Talking Heads, Television and the Velvets. R.E.M. maybe. Bowie, i guess, at times. I’m not quite sure where I’d put the dividing line between ‘Art Rock’ and ‘Prog Rock’ and what seperates the two genres.
‘Prog’ is maybe trippier, with more emphasis on mellotron / mock-orchestral synthesizers, complex arrangements, with groovy ‘Inner Space’ and ‘Cosmic’ themes, etc. I think of ‘Art Rock’ as being edgier, brainier — Nerdier— maybe a bit cynical, satirical. More ‘hipster’ than ‘hippie’. What we think of as the ‘Indie’ sound came out of a fusion of Art Rock and Folk, it seems like.
I’d say Genesis’ sound was mostly Prog up until their Phil Collins/ Mainstream/ Hit Single era. Although Peter Gabriel was really heavily into ‘Art School’ theatrics, when he was their lead singer, with Avant Garde make-up and costuming and Modern Dance choreography. So —kinda / sorta ‘Art Rock’. I guess? When he went solo, the music sounded much less Prog, definitely leaning toward what I’d call ‘Art Rock’ — his lyrics less airy-faerie/hippy dippy, more ‘grounded’ — often focused on themes of alienation and introspection, with leaner, more hard-edged Rock arrangements.
It’s all so confusing….
And don’t even get me started on the difference between ‘Prog Rock’ and ‘Space Rock’ because I always thought they were the same, but apparently they’re not. And hell, I thought ‘Psychadelic Rock’ was synonymous with ‘Prog’ but most of the songs on those ‘Nuggets’ compilation albums are closer to ‘Garage Rock’ or ‘Proto-Punk’. Shrug :)
But it’s all good! ‘A rose is a rose’ and all that. Don’t let me derail the thread with my petty pedantry. Please continue the discussion of your favorite Art / Prog / Space / Psychadelic / Proto-punk / Funk / Garage / Indie / Synth / Jazz / Fusion / Power Pop / Etc Music without falling down my particular rabbit-hole…
b.t.
No worries, b.t.! I knew going in that this topic would lend itself to a variety of interpretations. Hey, it's music; it's subjective almost by definition! Incidentally, my leanings tend towards your "Prog/Space/Trippy" kind of music, although I enjoy pretty much everything that's been mentioned!
Philip- good observation, sometimes those "metal types" are among the most easygoing.
McScotty- love your comic book links! How many of us have a particular comic mentally linked with a specific song? And Bowie is a prime candidate for that. Great call on Starlin's Warlock. Another such is Frank Brunner's Dr. Strange.
Flamekeeper- you nailed a frequent musical tendency- song to lp to catalog. And so often one finds the best songs aren't the hits but the other album tracks that await like hidden gemstones.
Mike W- totally agree with you about "Father Christmas ". As in Flamekeeper's observation, that was a case in which I liked the song and followed up on it, only to discover the depths of ELP.
B.t.- regarding the Moody Blues, your point comment about their hits is interesting. I've not heard all of their original lps, having jumped on their bandwagon with "This is the Moody Blues" (a 2 disc greatest hits). And that was indeed a mindblowing assemblage of tunes...
Charlie- fascinating, "Superstar" is one I've not heard in so long that I can't even begin to categorize it! Perhaps to grasp Prog rock, or any of this, is to consider whatever music you close your eyes and get lost in. Of course, classical can do this too, so perhaps my definition is lacking...
Great comments everyone!
Some interesting Prog / Art / Pop intersections :
The band Art of Noise began as a VERY ‘Art Rock’ outfit at first —experimental, snarky and playful, with lots of odd percussion and avant-garde studio trickery (digital sampling and tape loops etc). They morphed into The Buggles (remember ‘Video Killed the Radio Star’?) and then merged with legendary Prog band Yes while that band was undergoing some major line-up re-shuffling. The resultant album ‘90125’ was an unlikely but appealing mix of Prog and Art Rock /Synth Pop styles, and became Yes’ most commercially successful album ever.
Around the same time, the super-group ASIA was formed with ex-members of Yes, King Crimson and ELP. The band’s first album featured a mix of heavy Prog stylistics and incredibly catchy Pop-Rock hooks and melodies — and with some of the most empty, banal lyrics you could ever imagine, belted out as if they were Incredibly God’s own lips. Of course, it was a multi-platinum smash hit worldwide : ) . I confess that I find the whole ridiculously pompous thing incredibly ear-wormy. And I’ve always been a sucker for over-produced extravaganzas. The second album is almost as catchy as the first (and just as lyrically vapid!) — though it didn’t sell nearly as well.
b.t.
Ugh — I really need to proofread more carefully before hitting the ‘Publish Your Comments’ tag. I’d originally written ‘Banal lyrics… belted out as if they were Incredibly Deep and Meaningful’, wanted to change it to ‘Banal lyrics … belted out as if they came from God’s own lips’ but made an incoherent hash of it. Serves me right for being in a hurry.
Hey! Speaking of Faux Keith Emerson synth riffs (weren’t we?) — does anyone remember the band ANGEL? They were a glam/heavy metal band in the mid-70s, they dressed all in white and they had the longest, prettiest hair you ever saw on a male rock n roll band. SO much conditioner! Casablanca Records promoted them as sort of the ‘Anti- Kiss’. Their sound was mostly built around crunchy guitar hooks and heavy John Bonham-style percussion, but with soaring , VERY ‘Prog’, Emerson-esque synths mixed in. It was not always the smoothest combination of styles. The Prog/Metal fusion worked fairly well on a few tracks that featured Medeival / Sword and Sorcery themes on their first few albums, but the dreamy synths usually stood out like a sore thumb on the more typically raucous ‘Party Metal’ songs about drinkin’ and screwin’. They increasingly leaned in a softer ‘radio-friendly’ / pop-rock direction on their last two studio albums, which made for a smoother blend of guitars and synths but they never did have much chart success.
What about STARCASTLE (is that a great name for a super-twee Prog Band or what)? They cloned Yes’ sound so precisely (Jon Anderson’s vocals especially) that it verged on parody. I bought one of their albums out of curiosity (they DID have some really nice album cover art), listened to it once all the way through, chuckling occasionally at the audacious Identity Theft of it all, and never gave it another spin.
b.t.
Charlie:
It’s a 3 or 4 hour drive from L.A. to San Diego (or more, if the traffic’s REALLY gnarly), so for the yearly trek down to Comic-Con, I always have a stack of cd’s in the passenger seat next to me to help pass the time, and the Original Cast Recording of JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR is one of my main Go-To albums for the trip (Jeff Wayne’s WAR OF THE WORLDS too). Double Albums are GREAT for eating up the miles!
Because we all know I can’t help putting labels on things, and parsing musical styles: I wouldn’t classify SUPERSTAR as ‘Prog’ or ‘Art Rock’. But I’ve often wondered what Musical Genre it DOES belong to. It’s often called just ‘Rock Opera’, and while there definitely are electric guitars and a punchy rhythm section in the mix, it’s strangely traditional and orchestral for most of its length. Lots of brass, woodwinds and strings. There are some Middle Eastern motifs in there too, and some R and B, some kinetic jazz / funk. SUPERSTAR (and HAIR, too) may have seemed pretty radical to the grown-ups back in the day, but it’s always sounded very Mainstream and ‘Showtunes-y’ to me.
But what do I know? If Pink Floyd and UFO and Hawkwind can all be considered ‘Space Rock’…
b.t.
b.t.
I really don't have a dog in this hunt, lol. I mean, growing up in Gary, Indiana, the world of "pop" was basically divided up into black folks (R&B) and white folks (rock) so you would know where to look for their album. Though for the life of me I don't know why the record stores then were not just alphabetical for everything, without a need for a category.
The only think I could figure is there may have been some synergy looking for Miles in the Jazz section and you come across another jazz player's album that piques your curiosity and thus a unintended purchase is made? But what if you stumbled over the Moody's while looking for Miles and made that unintended purchase?
I don't know what to say about JCSS though. It has all styles as you mentioned. I call it "art" simply b/c it was a play.
Regarding Hair, I've got that double album too and listened to it dozens of times as well. So glad you mentioned it!
So there you have it! Jesus Christ and Hair! Are they prog art or not? I.d.k.... I just dig them both!
b.t. - can't argue with you there "A New World Record" was my gateway drug and I've always maintained if I was on a deserted island "Out of the Blue" would be the one album I'd want to be stuck with, it amazes me how much work is put into each one.
Agree with you about Asia, I don't know if it's the production, but a little overblown, like each drum hit is emphasized, the vocals are a little too echo-ey. Almost like a Cecil B. DeMille movie, with Charlton Heston playing vocals.
Angel?? didn't remember until you mentioned them, recall lots of spreads in the music mags of the day, yes, very white outfits & very pretty men (complete with fuzzy edges in the pictures), never gave them a listen though.
I don't really know the difference between Art & Progressive either, It's just some music is fine as background noise while you are doing something else, while other music needs to be listened to, like Redartz says "with the headphones on".
I can’t quite put my finger on why Asia’s overall sound is so fascinating and ever so slightly off-putting to me.
Pro: super-catchy melodies and ear-worm hooks, with tight, punchy Pop/Rock arrangements — it’s so easy to find yourself drumming along on the steering wheel when listening in your car. The Prog synths are kitschy as hell but also somehow very, very charming — I’d miss em if they weren’t there.
Con : the vapid, incredibly Basic lyrics are problematic enough (although in all honesty, probably no worse than what you get on an average Journey, Foreigner or Babys record) but I think it’s John Wetton’s lead vocals that cause the real disconnect. He just sounds so bloody SERIOUS. It kinda clashes with the dynamic effervescence of the tunes. There’s not the slightest hint of ‘Fun’ in his delivery. And yes, Flame Keeper, I agree about the ‘So Much Reverb’ quality of the vocals — the multi-tracked manly male backup vocals also add to the ‘Too Serious’ vibe. That thick, sober, stentorious sound would be GREAT for singing hymns in church, but kinda jarring for high-energy pop songs with entertainingly dumb rhyming schemes like ‘Just leave it all behind you / It took so long to find you’, etc. :)
But then again — that very disconnect may be a big part of the overall appeal. That strange clash of sounds and styles. If they’d had a more conventional lead vocalist, singing in a more typical upper-register range, they probably wouldn’t be nearly as interesting.
It might sound like I’m bashing them, but I still listen to each of those first two albums at least once a year — and all the way though, not just the ‘hits’ :)
b.t.
This thread is BitBA GOLD just for the ASTONISHING depth of knowledge and insight alone that b.t. has displayed on the topic-at-hand! Holy cats! It is truly a cool thing to witness and marvel at-!
And I am so out of my depth (and exhausted at the moment), that I'm gonna burn my credibility bridge down even as a take a last step off of it, and say my favorite album that loosely fits into this genre will probably always be Klaatu's second one: HOPE.
[The sound you hear is probably b.t. spitting his coffee into his keyboard, followed by forehead-pounds onto his desk. . . ]
I listened to that little pop/sci-fi confection about a zillion times on the ol' headphones as I was falling asleep. It's like a Harvey Comics version of a space-rock group, I'd say.
Honestly, I'm such a pop-music guy that I struggle with the more meaningful works of the more legit artists and groups.
Hey/say--- Is there a place for Jethro Tull in this discussion? PASSION PLAY, maybe? (Which I own, have listened all the way through maybe twice in my life, and thought "that's probably enough".). But-- stylistically that group has very little in common with the others that have been mentioned. Probably not, then.
HB
Do so-called rock operas / sound tracks fall into this category e.g., Tommy and Quadrophenia?
Clearly Charlie is still grasping at this concept, lol. First time I ever heard of it was3 days ago!
It's hard to narrow down what exactly fits in this genre. The immediate bands that come to my mind would be ELP, Yes, and early Genesis, none of whom I liked. I had friends in the 70s and 80s who loved the stuff, but I found much of it tedious with too much over-blown pomposity to take seriously.
Pink Floyd was somewhere well above the others, their best music was almost Beatles level.
How about Queen? I think Prophet's Song and yes Bohemian Rhapsody should qualify as art-rock.(I'm still not sure how exactly to define "prog rock")
And I do enjoy the movie soundtrack from Jesus Christ Superstar, and parts of the War of the Worlds concept album.
The 70s Bronze Age was graced with a tremendous diversity of musical styles and genres.
Now let's discuss the fantabulous fusions of glam, glitter, and proto-punk...
Humanbelly :
You’re too kind! I consider myself a sort of Pop Culture Pseudo-Polymath — I have a little bit of knowledge about LOTS of different subjects, but I’m not an expert on ANY of them. Never stops from from bloviating about ‘em tho :)
Jethro Tull is commonly considered a Prog band, yes. I like A PASSION PLAY quite a bit myself, but it can be a bit much. Also, it’s sequenced as two uninterrupted tracks, one per each side of an LP (originally) — it’s not broken down into individual songs, which practically forces you to listen to the whole thing. I usually end up skipping to my favorite parts as best I can, and RARELY listen to it all at one time.
Klaatu! Totally forgot about them. I remember seeing ads for their first album in CIRCUS and CREEM magazines, i think. And wasn’t there some kind of P.R. stunt, the band members’ names were kept secret or something, fueling speculation that they were some other famous band performing under an alias? Like Stephen King pretending to be some guy named Richard Bachman. Or maybe that was just an unfounded rumor, I don’t know. For some reason, I want to say people thought they might actually be THE BEATLES. But I’m probably wrong! Anyhow, I never did try any of their albums. I’ll have to go on the YouTube to try them out.
Charlie:
I checked out Wikipedia’s main entry on Progressive Rock earlier today, and I thought the first three paragraphs of the article were actually pretty helpful, concisely defining what the genre is about. Beyond that it gets pretty complicated in a hurry, describing various Prog off-shoot branches and hybrids, much of it I’d NEVER heard of before. Interesting up to a point, but really, those first three short paragraphs are probably all you need to get a clearer picture of the concept.
As for The Who, I’d say ‘Who’s Next’ and ‘Quadrophenia’ probably sound more Prog overall than ‘Tommy’, because of the synths. The intros to ‘Baba O’Reilly’ and ‘Love, Reign O’er Me’ sound VERY Prog to my ears.
v mark :
Yeah, what ABOUT Queen? Experimental musical structures, complex arrangements, unusual lyrical themes, ornate ‘over-production’, a general aura of excess and self-indulgence, etc — all straight out of the Prog Playbook :) The only thing missing are the synthesizers. But even there, on their earlier albums at least, the boys were trying like hell to create unique sounds that most other bands would just use a synthesizer for, with elaborate overdubs, innovative guitar techniques, studio trickery, etc. The liner notes always had a line boasting ‘NO SYNTHS!’ , up through ‘Jazz’. After ‘The Game’ and the FLASH GORDON soundtrack, they did incorporate synths into their sound (but frankly, I always felt they didn’t use the synths nearly as creatively as their earlier ‘fake synth / studio tricks’ methods).
Anyhow — I don’t think they tend to be categorized as a Prog Rock band, but the two songs you mentioned (and most of the stuff on ‘Side Black’ of ‘Queen II’) definitely lean in that direction, at the very least.
b.t.
AAAAaaaand, I’m back.
According to Wikipedia, Klaatu were a Canadian duo, and later trio, who for whatever reason decided to leave their actual names off the credits of their albums, attributing all the songs to just ‘Klaatu’ . Some music journalist found their music VERY ‘Beatles-esque’, thought something was fishy about the artists’ dodging the limelight, and to seal the deal, they were on CAPITOL RECORDS (gasp) and speculated in print that they were a secretly re-united Beatles. The story ‘went viral’ — kinda— by 1977 standards — and like magic, their first record started inching upward on the charts. So Capitol Records issued a cannily vague non-denial/ denial to keep the story going, as long as it helped sell records. Cheeky!
One last thought about Queen: Redartz mentioned ‘Headphones’ in his original post, almost as a pre-requisite of the Quintessential Prog Sound. If ‘The Prophet Song’ — with its epic Sonic Mind-f*** section, Duelling Freddies hopping back and forth from Left to Right and overlapping/harmonizing with each other like some unholy version of ‘Row Row RowYour Boat’, and with Brian May’s echo-plexed guitar bombs kicking off the final apocalyptic instrumental orgy — BLAM(blam)! …… BLAM(bla)BLAM(blam!) ……. BLAM(bla)BLAM(bla)BLAM(bla)BLAM(bla)BLAM(blam)! — if that isn’t the Ultimate Headphone Song, i don’t know what is :)
b.t.
Well, I've never thought of "art-rock" as a genre, more as a general term for bands with a particular kind of (self-consciously) creative ambition.
So while it fits some 70s artists that come under the "prog" heading - King Crimson, Van der Graaf Generator, that kind of thing - I've also seen it used for the sort of stuff I used to listen to when I first started buying records regularly, like Joy Division, Pere Ubu etc, and more recently for dweebs like Radiohead.
Anyhow, rather than go on about labels - and trying to keep to the spirit of the post, which was basically about the pre-punk 70s - my fave three were/are:
Captain Beefheart - "Trout Mask Replica"
Can - "Future Days", "Ege Bamyasi" and "Tago Mago" (sorry, couldn't decide which album I liked the most)
We all know Germans made the best records in the 70s, ja?
Yoko Ono - "Approximately Infinite Universe"
-sean
Sean. Great call in Can especially "Future Days".
I'm totally lost with so many music labels of which I think prog rock covers quite a large cut of musical styles but for me at it's core was always bands like Tangerine Dream, Yes etc. Art rock always felt to me like what was later called indie rock that's why I added Bowie and Velvets as art rock there was very little like music like this out there at the time. It's now classic rock but then it was fresh and experimental but still accessible back then( well it still us imho compared to most new stuff)
Yeah, I completely agree Paul. I nearly chose Bowie's "Low", the first vinyl lp I ever bought with my own money (although I did get a couple of cassettes earlier, like "War of the Worlds").
That and "Heroes" are now considered classics, but back then they weren't just outside the mainstream - even compared to earlier Bowie - but critics hated them and they weren't popular at all. Which is why I could afford "Low" when I was 14, as there were a lot of second-hand copies around(;.
It used to be hard to find Velvets lps too, and especially the Nico solo albums from that era like "Marble Index" and "Desert Shore" which are fantastic (Germans again!)
Anyhow, having done what I consider "art-rock", I decided I should enter more fully into the spirit of the post with some actual prog.
Goblin -
"Suspiria" Also one of my fave film soundtracks.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=pins1y0XAa0
Aphrodite's Child - "666"
Early 70s Greek double lp concept album by the young Vangelis' band with Demis Roussos. I have not made any of that up. You can hear the whole thing in its awesome entirety at -
www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4T_z6ajrM8
Far East Family Band - "Nipponjin"
Seeing as Paul mentioned Tangerine Dream, I was reminded of the album early member Klaus Schulze produced for this Japanese band in the mid 70s. "Tonight Klaus, we will be Pink Floyd"... admittedly I didn't hear it til a late 90s reissue, but it has a quaint period charm thats endearing.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=azfdut-Bd-c
Oh dear, thats three... no space left for any French records. My embarrassing familiarity with frogprog will have to wait for another time ("I got that album for the Philippe Druillet sleeve, honest!")...
-sean
sean:
Yes, Goblin’s ‘Suspiria’ soundtrack album is great. I love their ‘Profundo Rosso / Deep Red’ score too.
I like Tangerine Dream’s ‘Sorcerer’ and ‘Thief’ soundtracks a lot. ‘Sorcerer’ is really spooky — I bought the album on a whim when it first came out but have never seen the movie! Really should rectify that one of these days.
‘Heroes’ was my first Bowie album. I don’t think the single got much airplay on the radio in our area — but i saw him perform it on a Bing Crosby Christmas Special and was mesmerized. Bought the album the next day.
b.t.
"Profondo Rosso" is a good one too b.t.; "Dawn of the Dead" is ok, but after that Goblin get a bit too Italo-disco for me.
I'm not so much up on the Tangs after the first few albums, so don't know their film scores. On the more kosmiche German music of the 70s, have you heard Popol Vuh? They did some great scores for Werner Herzog - the first I heard them was when I saw "Aguirre, der Zorn Gottes", which has a fantastic opening scene thats really enhanced by their music -
www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-jLqRnHYXE
-sean
sean:
I’ve heard OF Popol Vuh, but never actually heard the music.
(Note to Self: bands to check out on YouTube: Klaatu, Popol Vuh, Aphrodite’s Child, Can, Van der Graaf Generator)
(Also: stop playing Asia’s ‘Go’ over and over again)
b.t.
At least no-one's mentioned "Hocus Pocus" by Focus b.t.
Thats a hard one to stop playing over and over (usually to keep checking that really is what you heard the singer do).
-sean
I love that song, yodels and all! Best sequence in BABY DRIVER, too.
Reminds me of another mostly-instrumental Prog-ish hit single: Apollo 100’s ‘switched-on’ version of Mozart’s ‘Jesu - Joy of Man’s Desiring’. Which reminds me of Sky’s kick-ass rendition of Bach’s ‘Toccata and Fugue’. Which reminds me of Trans-Siberian Orchestra’s awesome Prog Christmas albums.
b.t.
Hey, would Deodato's "2001" count as some sort of prog or prog jazz or something?
I dearly love that piece.
V mark:
I knew there was another instrumental pop hit from that approximate time period that I was forgetting. Yeah I dig it too. ‘Prog or prog jazz or something’ sounds about right :)
b.t.
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