I originally was going to write this blog last year but I got busy and almost died (the usual.) Anyway I have never been an aficionado of what they call prog rock. I always thought it was rather, smug and showoffy and it lacks the element of fun. Most prog lacks urgency and it has no none of the go for the throat ferocity of a good stones or who song.
To avoid redundancy I am probably going to refer to prog and art rock interchangeably even though I have heard many people refer to the more mainstream practitioners such Yes and the Moody Blues as prog (both who were recently inducted into the rock hall of fame) and the more avant garde practitioners (such as Eno, Roxy Music and Can) as art rock. There is a third category called space rock which tries to capture the sounds of interstellar travel (see Pink Floyd and Hawkwind) which sometimes overlaps with the other two categories. There are also many bands like Traffic, Led Zepplin, and (blech) Journey that have some prog rock elements in their music.
Progressive rock was a distinctly 70s movement prizing complicated instrumental chops and solos, fantasy and/or and fantastical sci-fi influenced lyrics (and often album art), and classical-inspired song structures. The peak years and commercial zenith for the movement was probably around 1969 to 1975 although there are still many prog practioners (like Naysayer and Porcupine Tree cropping up all the time.
I must admit I listened to the Moody Blues “Days of Future Past” many times, and I still think it’s a good though occasionally silly recording although the moodies started remaking the same LP over and over around 1972), and I also quite admired Procol Harum who owed as much to The Band as European classical music. The under recognized Van der Graf Generator, Be Bop Deluxe and Soft Machine also put out some good stuff. Of course I always believed that ELP is was the devil, and Asia is the antichrist.
But I admire King Crimson who did the classic LP, In the Court of the Crimson King, which I think is the greatest prog/art rock record ever (Unless you consider Roxy Music prog). Crimson’s excellent late 70s work such as Red and USA sounds more like avante garde fusion (can you say Mahishnu Orchestra) than Yes or Genesis.
King Crimson came up in the news a lot the lst few years because their classic track, “21rt Century Schizoid Man,” (not to be confused with The Kinks’ “20th Century Man,” or the Doors’ “20th Century Fox”) was sampled by Kanye West in the song Power, The video scored one million plays on YouTube before Fripp even knew.
Also, King Crimson did a last tour which came to Chicago (I missed it) and that incarnation of the band had two drummers. Leader Robert Fripp, the only mainstay of the band had announced he is going to retire (and perhaps spend more time with his wife, the weird post punk chanteuse, Toyah (she is in urghh the music war.)
I also dig/like/appreciate the German bands from the 70s such as Kraftwork, Neu, and Faust (they were a great influence on PIL, most post punk and even Queens of the Stone age), Sometimes those bands are referred to German prog but most rock critics just called them Kraut Rock bands,
Steve Krakow (also called plastic crime wave) and Chicago’s reigning psychedelia expert seems to think highly of Amon dull and caravan so I may have to look into their work. He once did a great sketch of me and he actually made me look good.
Last summer I went to a party thrown for one of my friends, Dennis Frederick of electric medicine fame (he used to work on the Peace Fest), and many of the constantly smoking attendees seemed like they fit into the category of prog/psychedelic musical hippies (complete with the glowing/ tie died clothes). Most of the people there were extremely nice (who has anything bad to say about Brian Imig?) and I even met a man there who professed to make his living worm farming.
Some of the people there got a bit peeved at me when I posted an article from Atlantic which was very critical of the genre with the provocative title, Prog Rock is the Whitest Music ever.) It can be found here.
Here’s one of the more incendiary quotes,” But prog’s doom was built in. It had to die. As a breed, the proggers were hook-averse, earworm-allergic; they disdained the tune, which is the infinitely precious sound of the universe rhyming with one’s own brain. What’s more, they showed no reverence before the sacred mystery of repetition.”
My brother read the Facebook postings and was amused by the volatile responses in the debate. Some people seemed to put criticizing prog rock on the same level as blowing up a building. Since I teach lit (in one of my many almost completely non lucrative jobs) my brother asked me if there was a literary equivalent of prog rock, I did not have an answer then.
Now I that I think of it. Poe’s work has some things in common with prog rock, whereas some prog rockers tend to show off their playing chops (most of these bands are technically accomplished), Poe liked to show off his enormous vocabulary by using the most words possible (one of my old teachers referred to it as overwriting.) I once wrote a poem mocking Poe’s verbosity even though I do love the man’s work (How can you beat Annabel Lee.?)
** This time the person I have designated for years for the coveted position of asshole of the month is the Australian documentary film maker and TV personality, Robert Harold Bredl. What else can you say about a guy who kisses alligators on screen (over 30 times), lifts up the back legs of emus for fun, and eats cooked rat? There should be some distance between wildlife and people and I am all for letting will things stay wild. I almost hope he gets bitten for tempting fate so much. He might be the next Grizzly man.
