Prog Rock! - Bilge - Tiki Central

WD White Devil Member The Interior, Deep South Pacific Joined: Jun 26, 2009 Posts: 766	WD White Devil Posted posted on Thu, Jul 2, 2009 8:14 AM Lucas, I’m guessing you still do, or else you wouldn’t be posting links to it here. And more power to you! It’s obvious most folks here wouldn’t like “that stuff,” but I suspect their reasons are more sociological than musicological. While stylistically worlds apart, I think there are a few parallels between “tiki music” and progressive rock. Both require a definitive level of dexterity and speed to play well. As an example, I heard Josh Gibson of the Haole Kats play the best & fastest version of “Flight of the Bumblebee” at Hukilau 2009 I’ve ever heard. Keith Emerson (of Emerson, Lake & Palmer for the deprived) has incorporated that riff into his keyboard solo since the late sixties. Many of the old-guard proggers were teens when the surf music craze was at its height. Greg Lake (again of ELP) grew up on Hank Marvin & the Shadows, and has cited their music frequently in interviews. On the rehearsal program of his two-DVD set “Greg Lake Live,” he breaks out into “Apache,” and has been photographed innumerable times in the last two decades wearing hula shirts. Whether it’s a live Polynesian floor show a la the Mai-Kai, or a seventies Yes extravaganza, both phenomena can boast a high level of drama in presentation. Both openly acknowledge the entertainment value of spectacle. Both require a sense of tongue-in-cheek humor and a sense of kitsch to fully appreciate. Without it, both Tiki and prog would seem to be pointless and really sad. Both are equally derivative of older musical disciplines that both the general public & mainstream music critics might regard as passé and possibly politically incorrect. And while I can’t say I want to hear a Mellotron-soaked rendition of “Quiet Village” any time soon, I can boast that I like both “tiki music” as well as old-school progressive rock. Fans of both schools will tell you that not everyone “gets it.” Those few of us who are fortunate enough to “get” both are doubly-fortunate. Dissing one or the other doesn’t enhance your enjoyment of the other, it just means you’re missing out on something that a lot of other people can’t be peer-pressured out of appreciating. So come out of that prog closet, man. There’s nothing cool about embracing silly musical prejudices for the sake of preserving somebody else’s lack of appreciation.

Lucas, I’m guessing you still do, or else you wouldn’t be posting links to it here. And more power to you! It’s obvious most folks here wouldn’t like “that stuff,” but I suspect their reasons are more sociological than musicological. While stylistically worlds apart, I think there are a few parallels between “tiki music” and progressive rock.

Both require a definitive level of dexterity and speed to play well. As an example, I heard Josh Gibson of the Haole Kats play the best & fastest version of “Flight of the Bumblebee” at Hukilau 2009 I’ve ever heard. Keith Emerson (of Emerson, Lake & Palmer for the deprived) has incorporated that riff into his keyboard solo since the late sixties.
Many of the old-guard proggers were teens when the surf music craze was at its height. Greg Lake (again of ELP) grew up on Hank Marvin & the Shadows, and has cited their music frequently in interviews. On the rehearsal program of his two-DVD set “Greg Lake Live,” he breaks out into “Apache,” and has been photographed innumerable times in the last two decades wearing hula shirts.
Whether it’s a live Polynesian floor show a la the Mai-Kai, or a seventies Yes extravaganza, both phenomena can boast a high level of drama in presentation. Both openly acknowledge the entertainment value of spectacle.
Both require a sense of tongue-in-cheek humor and a sense of kitsch to fully appreciate. Without it, both Tiki and prog would seem to be pointless and really sad.
Both are equally derivative of older musical disciplines that both the general public & mainstream music critics might regard as passé and possibly politically incorrect.

And while I can’t say I want to hear a Mellotron-soaked rendition of “Quiet Village” any time soon, I can boast that I like both “tiki music” as well as old-school progressive rock. Fans of both schools will tell you that not everyone “gets it.” Those few of us who are fortunate enough to “get” both are doubly-fortunate. Dissing one or the other doesn’t enhance your enjoyment of the other, it just means you’re missing out on something that a lot of other people can’t be peer-pressured out of appreciating.

So come out of that prog closet, man. There’s nothing cool about embracing silly musical prejudices for the sake of preserving somebody else’s lack of appreciation.

Post #466351 by White Devil on Thu, Jul 2, 2009 8:14 AM