Prog Rockers?

June 22, 2004 9:16 AM

Prog Rockers? It's safe to come out... even if only for a couple minutes. That's it, c'mon. I'm looking for people's opinions when it comes to "desert island" must-have progressive rock album classics from the 60's, 70's, and 80's. Can you recommend a few?
posted by Witty to media & arts (35 comments total)

Care to give us your definition of prog. rock?
posted by five fresh fish at 9:20 AM on June 22, 2004

Well, I thought it best to leave that up to you. I mean the commerical definition, or the most often cited examples would be bands like Yes, Emerson Lake & Palmer, Rush... bands like that. But if you feel there's another angle on this or a hidden gem of sorts, by all means, please tell me. I'd love to hear it.
posted by Witty at 9:25 AM on June 22, 2004

King Crimson - Court of the Crimson King, of course. Also Larks Tongues in Aspic. Err... most Pink Floyd stuff up to and arguably including The Wall.

If you can stretch to the 90s then check Porcupine Tree too. On the Sunday of Life is a awesome waxing.

Other than that - well - I'm not *that* much of a prog fan, truth be told. I'm also unclear where you draw the line between prog and psych (for which I could recommend dozens and dozens of good lps), and am tending to be a bit conservative.
posted by bifter at 9:27 AM on June 22, 2004

Well you've got to have 2112. That should provide your RDA of Rush....
posted by jbrjake at 9:30 AM on June 22, 2004

Yes - "Fragile," primarily for 'Heart of the Sunrise.' Epic!
posted by adamkempa at 9:30 AM on June 22, 2004

Marillion, the album with Kaeligh (sp?) on it. Also, does old Genesis count? The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway is nice.
posted by damnitkage at 9:40 AM on June 22, 2004

Well you've got to have 2112. That should provide your RDA of Rush....
Yes - "Fragile," primarily for 'Heart of the Sunrise.' Epic!

Indeed. Indeed. Got both of those. I mentioned those bands ear lierbecause they're the biggies that even non-prog rock fans have heard or heard of, at least. I thought they would be the best examples with which to define the term. Great picks though, I would have to heartily agree with both of them (Hemispheres, a close second).

As much as I love hearing new music, there's just so much older, classic stuff out there that I haven't really tapped into. This is one of those genres that I feel I've only had limited exposure to... and would love to be turned on by something hidden in the back, so to speak.

King Crimson, while I've certainly heard of them, I couldn't name you one song. So I will definitely check them out.

Also, does old Genesis count?

I would think so, yea.
posted by Witty at 9:45 AM on June 22, 2004

I don't like the "ooh, look at me" type solos that are so prevalent from folks like King Crimson, ELP and Dream Theater. Most of the stuff I like that people would call prog-rock just sounds like pop music to me, but maybe with longer song lengths or "concept album" sensibilities.

That said, here's my prog-rock-lite list.

Supertramp - Crime of the Century
Rush - 2112 or Hemispheres, as mentioned above. Definitely.
Genesis - The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway
Tool (Do they count?) - Aenima or Lateralus are fine
Yes - Close to the Edge, maybe?


Supertramp is always always regarded as prog, it seems, though I confess I don't know why. Again, it sounds like really good pop music to me, but I'll go with tradition and call them progressive.

I've heard Dark Side of the Moon called "progressive" a time or two, though I think that's pushing the definition a bit. (But if it counts, it's on the top of my list, certainly.)
posted by mragreeable at 9:48 AM on June 22, 2004

ELP - Brain Salad Surgery
Yes - Fragile (Second vote!)
Alan Parsons Project - Tales of Mystery & Imagination
posted by internal at 9:52 AM on June 22, 2004

I second Brain Salad Surgery

My name's Chris and I love Prog Rock.
posted by Mick at 10:30 AM on June 22, 2004

Hit up rec.music.progressive. Similar threads come up a lot. I'm not going to tell you to google it, because to whom would it occur to check Usenet, but, you know, google it. Just do a search for "desert island" in that group, or something like that. Or you could read everything posted by "[e-mail]" or "[e-mail]" because he seems to have listened to every even vaguely prog album there is and taken notes.

I am/was a prog dj (self-link) of sorts. Here is a list of ten albums, in alphabetical order:

The Art Bears - Hopes and Fears (or the recently-released, six-disc Art Box which rules)
Bob Drake - The Skull Mailbox (and Other Horrors)
Fripp & Eno - No Pussyfooting
Henry Cow - Unrest
King Crimson - The Great Deceiver box set (released in 90s, of 70s music)
Magma - Mekanik Destruktiw Kommandoh (or: the Trilogie au Trianon set)
This Heat - Peel sessions (80s)
U Totem - U Totem (from 90s)
Univers Zero - Ceux de Dehors (from 80s. I actually prefer their first album, 1313, but this one tends to get the nod
Robert Wyatt - Rock Bottom


This all is made a lot more difficult since I don't have access to my CDs or the computer with all my music on it. I'd include more King Crimson because KING CRIMSON SI TEH BEST but I wanted a little variety, y'know? Most of these aren't to "proggy" like Yes, Rush or ELP (N.B.: ELP is an embarrasment!). Some more proggy bands you may not have heard of:

Hatfield & the North
The Muffins
Gong (prior to Daevid Allen's departure)
Egg
National Health
The Soft Machine (only Third, really: the ones before it are more psych and the ones after it are more fusion, plus Robert Wyatt left)
Kultivator

Those bands are all in the Canterbury school. If you like Magma (I mean, if you listen to Magma and like them, since you probably haven't already), then you may like these bands, who play zeuhl (it's a long story but that word denotes the kind of music Magma and their followers/imitators play):

Eskaton
Weidorje
Ruins
Koenji Hyakkei
Happy Family
Guapo (there's also a very different band called El Guapo)
Potemkine
Bondage Fruit
Dün
Shub Niggurath (not really that zeuhly but always gets lumped in with the others; they're much more atmospheric and generally creepy. A modern band kind of like Shub Niggurath, based on the one song by them I've heard: The Masque of the Red Death).

The best of those are Eskaton, Shub Niggurath, Ruins and Koenji Hyakkei (both projects of Tatsuya Yoshida, drummer extraordinaire, who played in a Magma cover band. KH is more traditional, Ruins is more punky).

These are the "big six" prog bands:

Genesis
King Crimson
Yes
ELP
Pink Floyd
Jethro Tull

Also: Van der Graaf Generator, Jethro Tull.

Here are some neo-prog bands. Rec.music.progressive types tend to look down on them as unoriginal imitators of things gone before:

Porcupine Tree
Anglagard (they get a lot more respect, actually)
Anekdoten
The Flower Kings
IQ
IZZ

And, uh, there are more but since I've never really heard anything by them and don't pay attention to them they've escaped my attention. I can say that the last two on that list are probably way, way worse than the first four.

A pseudo-style of prog is Rock in Opposition. Chris Cutler (of Henry Cow) organized a festival calling it Rock in Opposition with a bunch of European bands who didn't have that much in common musically, but the label has now been used to describe those bands and new bands that sound like one or some of them (mostly Henry Cow, though). The original RIO bands:

Henry Cow (England)
Univers Zero (Belgium)
Etron Fou Leloublan (France)
Stormy Six (Italy)
Samla Mammas Manna (later Zamla Mammaz Manna; later still Von Zamla; Sweden)

Then three more were added:

The Art Bears (composed of members of Henry Cow)
Aksak Maboul (aka Aqsak Maboul. Their album "Onze Danses Pour Combattre la Migraine" is the locus classicus of a very familiar techno sound. France).
Art Zoyd (Belgium).

Univers Zero and early Art Zoyd have a very chamber-rock feel; one r.m.p. guy doesn't like Univers Zero because he thinks they're a bad Bartok ripoff. Later Art Zoyd gets more and more technological, but never really "techno"—I don't have much from this period so I can't really describe it. The recent album "uBIQue" used an orchestra and is highly reminiscent of the soundtrack to the film Decasia, which was written by one of the Bang on a Can guys (and was also written second, so the relationship of reminiscence is backwards).

Aksak Maboul's second album is really, really awesome. One of the tracks is a tango composed by taking the scores to a bunch of tangos, cutting them up, and then randomly reassembling them.

Etron Fou Leloublan are very French. The drummer, Guigou Chenevier, now has a (much better in my opinion) band called Volapuk. The violinist from After Dinner, an odd Japanese band, joined them a few years ago. I mention that only to mention After Dinner.

I find that my interest in describing the RIO bands is waning, so I'll just point you here, here, and here.

Anyway, there are lots of bands that either claim, or are claimed, to be spiritual descendants of the RIO bands:

Present
Ahvak
Blast
5uu's
Motor Totemist Guild
U Totem (formed of members of the previous two)
Hamster Theatre
Nazca
Thinking Plague
Volapuk
Cro Magnon
Louise Avenue (these last two are a stretch, but you could see them as coming out of early Art Zoyd and Univers Zero, even though, actually, they didn't).

And more that I can't remember. Also, the members of Henry Cow have been in lots of bands, either as guests or founders:

The Residents
Pere Ubu
News from Babel
The Art Bears
Biota (an awesome band)
Massacre
Death Ambient
Naked City
Skeleton Crew
The Fred Frith Guitar Quartet
...and this list could get very long. Most of these involve Fred Frith (whose solo releases are also very good; Guitar Solos is a classic) and Chris Cutler; Lindsay Cooper and Tim Hodgkinson seem to favor one-off configurations. John Greaves left Henry Cow early and played in National Health and made a very odd album called Kew. Rhone. with Peter Blegvad that's very good. Dagmar Krause has released a few albums on her own that I've never heard.

There's also a Montreal-based scene of what is called musique actuelle (or maybe they don't like that term anymore... I think they don't). I'm not too familiar with it. Miriodor, Conventum, Les 4 Guitaristes de l'Apocalypso Bar, and Rouge Ciel come out of it. Since I don't know anything about Canadian geography, I don't know how much of a connection between them and the Victoriaville festival there is, though Rene Lussier, in Conventum, the FF Guitar Quartet, and Les 4 Guitaristes, is also a noted improvisor of the type they like at Victoriaville.

And then there's post-rock, the prog rock that dare not speak its name and has no balls. Talk Talk's Laughing Stock and Spirit of Eden are very good, as is Bark Psychosis' Hex Kitchen. Mark Hollis (of Talk Talk) released a self-titled album in the mid-90s that's very much in the vein of later Talk Talk albums. Larval's album is ok too.

Things I haven't mentioned yet: Krautrock, "prunk" (prog-punk, mostly not mentioned because I know very little about it, though the Cardiacs are supposed to be very good), several bands I've either forgotten about (e.g. Heldon until just now) or didn't know where to put anywhere else (e.g. Forever Einstein, Area).

Here are some resources:

rec.music.progressive
Progressive Ears. Actually, most of the conversation here is pretty low-grade.
Progreviews. One of the hated Pitchfork reviewers (Dominique Leone, and what I meant was that I hate Pitchfork, not Dominique) contributes here.
Progweed. I think this has been pretty much abandoned.
Cuneiform Records is awesome, and Wayside Music, run by the same dude, is also awesome. (This same guy also runs the avant-progressive mailing list.)

Were I on my other computer with my other bookmarks list I could give you links to more places with samples &c, but I'm not so I can't.

(On preview: Tool & Radiohead, yeah).
posted by kenko at 10:45 AM on June 22, 2004 [1 favorite]

I'd even stretch to the last decent album Genesis ever made (and the only one I ever bought) - A Trick Of The Tail. It's a classic prog/pop crossover.

on preview:
Well, thats a pathetic statement after the essay from kenko. Nice one kenko!
posted by dash_slot- at 10:53 AM on June 22, 2004

is Budgie considered prog-rock? They have really long songs with lots of solos and pretentious titles like "Nude Descending Parachutist Woman", and they fuggin' rock.
posted by dvdgee at 11:05 AM on June 22, 2004

Heretically, my favorite Yes album is the one they made with the Buggles (Trevor Horn and Geoff Downes): Drama. If you don't have this, get it. It's so completely '80s and yet so completely prog. Horn would of course later produce the poppish 90125 for the band.

I know you asked for stuff from the '60s, '70s, and '80s, but definitely do not overlook The Mars Volta's De-loused in the Comatorium, from a year or two ago. The band is basically one half of the remains of At the Drive-In -- the half that wanted to do experimental stuff. It's really amazing because it comes from an entirely different vein of musical tradition than most prog rock -- they consider themselves punk rockers.

If you like Porcupine Tree, which others have suggested, I really like Signify better than almost all their other albums, although all of them are great.
posted by kindall at 11:26 AM on June 22, 2004

"Nursery Cryme" by Genesis would be my desert island pick. When I eventually got burned out on that one, a friend suggested the music of Gentle Giant . Might have to dig out some old vinyl tonight.
posted by Otis at 11:28 AM on June 22, 2004

By the way, the Gibraltar Encyclopedia of Progressive Rock is a fairly exhaustive listing of obscure progressive bands (although I see their entry on Magellan is a wee bit out of date). For the record, Budgie is listed -- with the dismissive comment "Soft hard-rock of mid-70s of no interest for prog lovers." Heh.

It's a lot of fun to browse GEPR, stumble across something that might tickle your fancy just by reading the descriptions, then sample a few tracks using your favorite P2P client. The newsgroup alt.binaries.sounds.mp3.prog is also a good place to sample progressive groups.

Oh. I really like Echolyn's As the World too. Forgot to mention them.
posted by kindall at 11:38 AM on June 22, 2004

Any early Can record.

Amon Duul II: Yeti
posted by anathema at 12:44 PM on June 22, 2004

Frank Zappa could be considered progressive - he was a damned good guitarist at any rate. One of my fave albums is the mildly commercial Overnite Sensation.

Another band whose music I liked back then was Squeeze. Their Singles 45's and Under album is one I'd want on the island. I remember seeing the double bill of Squeeze and the Hooters in '87. Ah, the irony.
posted by SteveInMaine at 12:53 PM on June 22, 2004

Squeeze and the Hooters - that's a playbill I would have liked to see. Squeeze mainman Glen Tilbrook is still gigging, but I would suggest that he would run a mile from a prog rock thread.

A mile.
posted by dash_slot- at 1:07 PM on June 22, 2004

The ones I'd consider indispensible get a little "*"

Brian Eno : *"Here Come the Warm Jets", "Taking Tiger Mountain (by strategy)", "Before and After Science",
*"Another Green World"
Steve Tibbets, *"UR"
John McClaughlin - *"Shakti"
Brian Eno/David Byrne, *"My Life in The Bush of Ghosts"
Gong, "Angel's Egg"
Mike Oldfield *"Tubular Bells", "Hergest Ridge"
Fred Frith, "Gravity", "Speechless"
Bowie, *"Scary Monsters", "Heroes"
Talking Heads, "77", "More Songs About Buildings and Food",*"Remain in Light"
Devo, *"Are We not Men?"
Kevin Ayers, :"June 1, 1974"
Peter Gabriel, especially *"3", and "Security"

Oh yes, I forgot :

Robert Fripp, "Exposure" - worth it especially for it's legendary rendition of Peter Gabriel's "Here Comes the Flood" (sung by Gabriel w/piano and minimal background accompanyment)

And many of the other titles/authors already cited.
posted by troutfishing at 1:14 PM on June 22, 2004

Silver Apples - Silver Apples, Contact
Neu! - Neu!, Neu! 2
Can - Delay
posted by badstone at 1:24 PM on June 22, 2004

I don't know if these are defined as prog, but they seem prog to me. And they are great!

Klaatu - Peaks
Styx - Kilroy Was Here
Jeff Wayne - War of the Worlds

Space is also a good French prog band.
posted by skylar at 1:59 PM on June 22, 2004

Given what I see above described as prog, you might as well include Kansas and Boston, as well as Yngwie Malmsteen, Joe Satriani, Steve Vai, Joe Petrucci, Steve Morse, Tony MacAlpine and Eric Johnson.

Anyway, my favorite prog band is BeBop Deluxe, especially their album "Sunburst Finish".
posted by mischief at 2:26 PM on June 22, 2004

RICK WAKEMAN ON ICE!

apologies to quonsar and evanizer
posted by anathema at 2:53 PM on June 22, 2004

you might seek out a largely forgotten swiss prog band "Happy The Man" if only for the song entitled: Steaming Pipes

I'm thinking its out of print but not to hard to find on the p2p nets, and well worth the effort.
posted by Fupped Duck at 2:54 PM on June 22, 2004

mahavishnu orchestra & King Crimson. Throw in some of Zappa's instrumentals, like "Hot Rats" and that should be it.
posted by mkelley at 3:11 PM on June 22, 2004

Happy the Man is American.
posted by kenko at 3:40 PM on June 22, 2004

(oh, and troutfishing, the Tibbetts album is "YR", not "UR".)
posted by kenko at 3:41 PM on June 22, 2004

I'd like to second Otis's mention of Gentle Giant. Octopus is the album I'm most familiar with, but most of the stuff of theirs that I've heard has been pretty amazing. Definitely on the more esoteric side of the spectrum though.
posted by boltman at 5:54 PM on June 22, 2004

Supertramp - Crime of the Century

How could this be considered prog? Please! More like neanderthal era alt-rock, Ur Radiohead.

Surprised that no one mentioned the group side of ELP's Works Vol. 1. Fanfare and Pirates are two of my ATFs.

Kenko, I think your depth of knowledge shown in this answer is approaching danger level, go listen to some Britney and Xtina, m'kay?
posted by billsaysthis at 9:22 PM on June 22, 2004

Yes: Tormato
Focus: Hocus Pocus
Jon & Vangelis: Short Stories
posted by obloquy at 12:15 AM on June 23, 2004

WOW... awesome responses and plenty to work with too. That's a lot folks.
posted by Witty at 12:57 AM on June 23, 2004

Anglagard - Hubris is probably my desert island pick. Epilog is also good.

Apart from the obvious prog candidates, I have in my collection:
Fates Warning, Dream Theater, Threshold, Galactic Cowboys (prog metal)

Arena, Grey Lady Down, Pendragon, Shadowland (neo-prog)

Marillion have tried to get away from that prog label, but Misplaced Childhood and Brave are two of the finest prog albums ever recorded.
posted by salmacis at 3:16 AM on June 23, 2004

For some reason users of Albumwrap are big prog fans. You can find most of the more mainstream titles mentioned here on Kazaa by using the search term albw along with the album title. (or without the title, if you've got time to browse) Then you need to search for Albumwrap to unpack all the tracks.
posted by stupidsexyFlanders at 6:16 AM on June 23, 2004

Flanders--wazzat?
posted by kenko at 10:13 AM on June 23, 2004