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Beyond Tiki, Bilge, and Test / Bilge / Prog Rock!

Post #466637 by tiki mick on Fri, Jul 3, 2009 8:29 AM

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TM

I would have to disagree with you (Civily, of course!) on two counts:

  1. RUSH is definitely a prog rock band, on all counts. They occupy the harder edge of prog rock, but they have all the hallmarks of what a prog rock band is. And I am not just talking about odd time signatures, because If I was, we could include Dave Matthews in there.

  2. With the exception of Can and curved air, yes, you are right...my experience with prog rock is limited, but these were not main stream or highly popular prog rock bands at all. The essential "prog" rock bands, as considered by major music magazines will always be KIng Crimson, ELP, YES, early Genesis, UK and RUSH. These are the bands that had major releases that everyone pre-internet knew about. I don't agree that just because something is popular, that is is the death knell. Listen to later period YES albums like Drama, for example. This was the 80's, and it is still experimental and cool. Check out the track "machine messiah". It's not all pop music with heavy techno-synth aspects. Some of the bands you mentioned are highly obsure. It's like saying that "Weather Report ain't really jazz fusion, check out 'Oregon' if you want to see real fusion".

There are many bands that I also think fit in with the prog rock genre. Led Zep, Pink Floyd, Kansas, styx, etc...all of these bands dabbled with it.

To me, there was a distinction at the time of prog rock that I felt. Prog rock was what I liked. 10CC and Elton John were what the OTHER people liked. Now, I like pretty much all of it. There is very little music I actually don't like, except metal, most hip hop, Jimmy Buffett, jam band scene, modern country, other then that I like pretty much everything. Not myoptic at all!

I stopped listening to a lot of prog rock not because I was only exposed to a narrow slice of it, but because like most music critics, I grew to want good melodies and lyrics that meant something, or were not so much fantasy/sci fi based. Essentially, I grew up. Trippy, deep music no longer appeals to me like it did before.