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| Foam-O-Graph© - Often Bettered, Never Imitated! |
You'll know pert n' pouting Paul Anka from his quiff-tossing performances on T.V.'s Dick Clark's Dick Clark's Bandstand, but did you know he's also an afficionado [high wind in the workplace - Ed.] of the latest pop "trend" to drive the nation's teens wild? That's right, fight fans - I'm talkin' 'bout the now sounds of "prog" rock!
Say yes! to undanceable time signatures! Say yes! to songs about elves! Say yes! to queasy Mellotrons and side-long elpee tracks with "movements" just like in classical-type symphonies! Say yes! to men dressed as vegetables singing in unnaturally high voices! Say yes! to audiences of schoolboys pumping toxic sebum and confused hormones!
None of which has any relevance to Paul's first Portmanteau Of Prog, Byzantium, who fall bang into the middle of that broad and popular category of rock music known as "uncategorisable". Paul explained himself in a recent Foam-O-Fone™ call to th' IoF© [screen grabs above - Ed.].
FT3 Paul! Th' Ankster! Ankman! How's it hangin?
PA Swell, Farq!
FT3 So! Byzantium - prog or not?
PA Well, they generally get filed under prog, although they cover a lot of musical ground not-
FT3 (cutting in) Who's your friend? Guy with a 2001-type pod for a head?
PA What?
FT3 Guy smoking a pipe there. Got a camera. Him.
PA (looking around) You're kidding, right? A joke?
FT3 Oh. Okay. Moving right along. So kinda prog but not. These guys.
PA Exactly! Just like this portmanteau is more of a steamer trunk than a traditional portmanteau.
FT3 Euh ... can't see knitting pattern guy, huh?
PA (backing away) Hey! Is that time? I have to let you go, Farq! Moviedom's teen sweetheart Annette is swinging by to plan tomorrow's pool party!
FT3 Annette? Wow! Can I-
(signal cut)
These guys is of interest.
ReplyDeleteShould youse bums be desirous of listenin' their albums, today's Mass Debate is your favorite prog rock rekkid.
It would behoove us to exercise a little patience wit' th' loadups, on account which I found a slew of xtry trx what I yam by way of taggin' onto their respectives.
Da palooka wid da pipe, he dat one legged whistler Ian Anderson o' Jinglethro Till ?
ReplyDeleteTarkus from Messrs Emerson,Lake & Palmer gets my vote for Progtastic hummable ditty.
My least favorite subgenre of Rock. When did the label Prog Rock come into the vernacular? Back in its heyday (69-75ish?), no one called it that.
ReplyDeleteFavorite rekkid: "Foxtrot" or "In the Court of the Crimson King"
Is "Wish You Were Here" considered Prog Rock?
I'm pretty damn sure we were using the term in '69, Babs. Maybe '68. It was definitely a thing in the inkies (the weekly music papers) - heads were into prog, man. Maybe it took a while to cross the Atlantic.
DeleteJust looked it up - The Nice's Ars Longa Vita Brevis ticks all the prog boxes - or enough of them - and that's from '68. From a internet:
Delete"Progessive music was a term used as early as 1967 in the British rock press. I moonlited in a record shop as a student then and was allowed to label up a new section Progressive Music around 1967 or more likley 68 - as I keep saying on PA progressive rock is more likely to be a commonplace term in the early 70's - Canned Heat and John Mayall then the Moodiy Blues were consigned to that section first, as reminder of how important blues was to the genre. Wowie Zowie The World Of Progressive Music (see the first entry of the Various Section in PA) got into the section in 1969 along with the first albums by Krimson and Renaissance."
Interesting.
DeleteMy memory is that most people, radio included, called it Classical Rock (ELP, Yes etc.) or Space Rock (Pink Floyd, King Crimson etc.)
Prog rock is a very wide and miss-used label, I think most Floyd fans would be scared witless by the first Crimson LP from 1969, and yet by 1981 a new Crimson arrived that sounded nothing like the 1969 version, and were probably not prog at all anymore. Van Der Graaf Generator were nothing like Yes.
DeleteAs for Byzantium I don't know what they were.
I've got to agree with Babs here. Also my least favorite subgenre of rock. Of all the bands so classified, I have been able to listen to a few by Amon Düül II all the way through, probably Phallus Dei & Carnival in Babylon. I guess my favorite, though, is Wolf City ("green Bubble Raincoated Man" & "Jail-House Frog" hit the right notes for me at certain times. Most prog just seems so pompous.
DeleteI always listened to prog without caring if it was prog or not. Are the Pink Floyds prog? I never thought so, yet many do. Deep Purple were undeniably prog before changing into hard rock clothes. The Moody Blues were once considered progressive, and I suppose they were. But I'll be damned if I can listen to Styx, no matter what you call them.
DeleteI would venture to call then Shyts.
DeleteTheir name choice has always been a puzzler - it's the river Charon rows you across to hell, right? How can this be attractive to anyone but sad teenage boys? Oh, wait ...
DeleteFor me it's Selling England by the Pound. It's got it all. Nebulous supernatural lyrics, Mellotrons, synths, flutes, and that Peter Gabriel voice that many prog singers try to emulate/imitate.
ReplyDeleteI've always liked Peter's voice, and POV
Deletedon't like labels/ but I guess I'd nominate Van DeGraff Generator H To He
ReplyDeleteWell, no, I suppose none of us likes labels, but at least they tell us if its our size. If I see Finnish Death Metal on a pair of underpants, I know they're not going to fit.
DeleteCaravan "In the Land of Grey & Pink" is the one for me. It gets bonus points for the side-long track, see also: "Tarkus" which comes in a distant second.
ReplyDeleteListened to Plump Girls and If I Could back to back today. Fantastic stuff that never gets old.
DeleteHands down, it has to be Yessongs, with a nod towards Gong's Radio Gnome trilogy (which is maybe more progadelic than straight prog?) and ELP's Trilogy and Brian Salad Surgery.
ReplyDeleteTopographic is the one I reach for when I feel an urge.
DeleteAn album that was unfairly maligned in some quarters in my opinion. I have a fondness for that one too - there are passages of great beauty in those four sides.
DeleteHard to imagine the problem people had with it, now - but I know someone who dismissed it because each side lasted the length of an album side - as if there was something artificial about it. I pointed out that most singles were around the three minute mark, which filled up the side of a 45, but he didn't get the argument.
DeleteAnother "four tune" double album I love is Soft Machine's Third.
Steve Hillage 'L' is a very solid rekkid, definitely progish, I think, and was a favorite when I was at school, and I can still enjoy it today.
ReplyDeleteMr. Hillage getting a lot of traction in my ears recently, esp. Fish Rising and Rainbow Dome Music.
DeleteFavorite prog record for mostly sentimental reasons (treasured dollar bin score) is Angel Dust by Gabriel Bondage (Dharma Records, 1975). Bought it for the album name and cover art (naked chick washed up on the beach), stayed for the epic songs about fall & redemption/spiritual awakening (I think?) and cosmic music (plenty of chimes, mellotrons, soaring synths, sensitive acoustic passages, etc.).
ReplyDeletehttps://www.discogs.com/release/2377011-Gabriel-Bondage-Angel-Dust
Here
Deletewe go, MrDave. PROG ADVISORY - CONTAINS PROG
I've found it holds up but it may just be me. Leans to the folky heart-felt side of prog with lots of dynamics but no pomposity or showing off like a lot of "prog-rock" that just bores me (looking at you ELP). Warning: They may or may not be trying to convert you to some xtian cult but that's part of it's charm (as a non-denominational pagan).
DeleteOooh wait!! Does Soft Machine count??! If so, either of their 1st two albums with Kevin Ayers could also be my favorite at any given minute.
Fun fact: I hate the Prog-Rock connotations so much that anything leaning that way in my library is tagged as Art-Rock/Experimental which I find much more palatable and likely to make it onto my shuffle play.
MrDave, you're right does Soft Machine count? Hatfield and the North, Egg and what about Robert Wyatts 2nd and 3rd albums, this prog thing is a minefield, so Art-Rock/Experimental it is from now on.
DeleteOh and Jethro Tull are Not prog either. Oh I'm so confused'
Anyone got any spare time to watch some Youtube?
Doug Helvering (classical composer?) listens to music and comments about it - very entertaining. His reaction to Van Der Graaf Generator below
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZ5zarocijk
Warning you can loose whole days watching this sort of stuff.
my favorite portmanteau word for professional use--us social scientists are a profoundly, deeply geeky bunch--is "satisficing," a combo of sufficient and satisfying first used, I think, by Simon 1956 (or that is the common citation) to describe a certain type of decision-making process.
ReplyDeleteIma cop I find prog rock and concomitant comrades neither, but that's on me.
Blondie's version of "Heroes" with Fripp on guitar, tho...
My favorite portmanteau word is portmanteau. Because I am smartass.
Deletepart of your considerable charm
Delete*colors beguilingly, locks fingers behind back, rotates toe in sand*
DeleteI love portmanteau band names, especially if musical puns are involved. Camper Van Beethoven might be the best known, followed by Brian Jonestown Massacre and Thelonious Monster.
DeleteThen there's Artimus Pyledriver, REO Speeddealer, John Cougar Concentration Camp, Kathleen Turner Overdrive, Elvis Depressedly, and Ringo Deathstarr.
Not a portmanteau, but my son's friends are in a band with a great name: the Callous Daoboys. I advise against checking out their music unless you like "screamo" -- a subgenre that's a pun in itself, and sounds like prog turned inside out.
'Brain Salad Surgery' with an honourable mention for 'Larks Tongues In Aspic'.
ReplyDeleteOr maybe 'Godbluff' having the next dance with 'Going For The One'...
I put this piece up to encourage me to tweezer out the xtry trx on my hard disc and graft them onto the albums, but it hasn't happened, and I'm fooling myself if I think it will. Some tasks are now beyond me - hang gliding over Mt. Fuji, moving the pile of sand the builders left, and this.
ReplyDeleteIt's good stuff, frequently more country/folk rock than prog. Great singing, decent tunes, deft musicianship. Interestingly - to me, anyway - is that Chas Jankel is on board - him out of The Blockheads (one of the many superannuated groups that slipped unnoticed into New Wave, like The Police and Blondie, with hippie roots).
Byznuss.
Topics of discussion including Steve Hillage & Paul Anka? Could Nektar's "Remember the Future" Lp be dissected next please?
ReplyDeleteGo ahead. Really.
Deleteprog's prob:
ReplyDeletetoo-long hair
ditto songs
forgiven= mcdonald & giles
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LMff9CM7yPU
KC starless & bible black
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-05Yvvz8XY0&list=PLXhfRoiJBIiutFt5GN8_tsxHJVKRdE2qm
selling uk per lb...
ge, check out the long hair on this band, with the sound muted they look like proggers, but, well check it out, the guy with the biggest hair worked with Paul McCartney.
Deletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XktInhZH4v0
hey small woild! i bought a music man bass from that bassist-singer in NYC in 1980s
Deletewow, that's amazing.
DeleteOne of the things I love about prog is how ridiculous some of it is, but there was often superb musicianship and some great melodies. As a teenager I only had a few albums, and the prog ones you could spend hours looking at the often great artwork (Yes), and hours trying to work out what the lyrics were about (Yes), and believing it was fantastic.
ReplyDeleteAbout 1979 a lot of my friends were into punk, and I was persuaded to go to see The Ramones, I just did not get it. However some uk punk didn't seem like punk at all to me (Stranglers). One, Magazine sounded like prog, check this smasher.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nImOq_eWHEM
Enjoying that mucho. Missed out on these guys, must catch up.
DeleteThe Stranglers were fans of The Doors as well as garage rock bands like the Music Machine, The Seeds, The Troggs, and Question Mark and the Mysterians.
DeleteMagazine was a band of accomplished musicians and eggheads, unlike most of their punk peers. Television was a bit prog in terms of the long songs, poetic lyrics and skillful solos. The Ramones were their opposite: nasty, brutish and short (except for Joey, who was 6'6").
I recently red a book where the CIA used loudspeakers and a song to disperse a terrorist mob. Paul Anka singing (You're) Having My Baby.
ReplyDeleteThe duet with Odia Coates? AAAAH!
DeleteRE: Favorite prog rock record
ReplyDeleteToss up between Yes' "Drama" and The Porcupine Tree's "The Incident"
So yeah, I'm more comfortable on the hard rock edge of prog...Jon Anderson's fairies and hobbits can become grating after a while...
OBG, great choice with Drama, fine album.
DeleteAnyone got any spare time to watch some Youtube?
ReplyDeleteDoug Helvering (classical composer?) listens to music and comments about it - very entertaining. His reaction to Van Der Graaf Generator below
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZ5zarocijk
Warning you can loose whole days watching this sort of stuff.
Enjoying the Byzantium, Thanks Farq. Feels more in the CS&N vein (which ain't a bad thing)
ReplyDeleteI do enjoy the Prog, certainly the professional mainstream successful albums, and much of the second tier stuff, even if overtly "influenced" by bigger bands (Triumvirat, Starcastle, Le Orme, for example). If the band doesn't have any particularly good singers, that's a problem, though (e.g. Gentle Giant). Instrumental ability and the knack for musical hooks and melodies (which Yes lost soon after Fragile, IMHO) can compensate somewhat if they don't have 3 mediocre singers kinda shouting in unison instead. I'm just about to start complaining about Paul Kantner here, so I think I'll go find a beer, put on some music, and get into a weekend frame of mind.
ReplyDeleteshould mention GGiant OCTOPUS esp
ReplyDeletehmmmm --is prog basically a UK phenom??
can i not name any US greats?