Sweet Smoke- Just a Poke

Although Sweet Smoke ended up as exiles in Germany, this band hailed from Brooklyn, and therefore is best considered an American Band. They started up as one of the 1967 slew of summer of love bands, and never really left the genre in their 7 years of existence. However, they did have a nice bit of Prog-Rock in their mix. With a lineup of Andrew Dershin (bass, percussion), Jay Dorfman (drums, percussion), Marvin Kaminowitz (lead guitar, vocals, percussion), and Michael Paris (saxophone, flute, alto recorder, vocals, percussion,) this group put out a nice slice of proto prog with their first of two albums, Just a Poke, in 1970.

This is one of those albums that just has two side long tracks, both 16:34 in length. Depending on whether you have the German Vinyl/CD or the USA/UK/French Vinyl, they are swapped in order. This review is for the former.

Side A's piece is called "Baby Night", which starts with a flute intro and typical psych-pop vocal. This track's defining feature is it's nice bass groove, as well as the extreme amounts of flute that is used. This creates a mood that's actually a bit reminiscent of Native American music, which is a rare move for prog, but a pleasant one. Later on there's some typical late 60's guitar jamming. Not the most complex of songs, this one meanders a bit, but it's got lots of good influences mixing together. A nice piece.

The other side of the record has "Silly Sally", which uses saxophone instead of flute. On here, they go for an ambitious combo of psych rock, prog rock, and jazz rock. The vocals are very much the latter, with a near scat like tone. The guitar plays the same riff over and over for a long part of this song, but it changes in volume. There's many drum solos, some with Latin percussion. Additionally, "Silly Sally" uses keyboards while "Baby Night" does not.

Overall, this album is unique yet somewhat mediocre. Prog Rock was new in 1970, and it's clear they don't really understand the genre and end up falling back on tried and true but somewhat stale psychedelic rock and jazz rock patterns. The saving graces here are the heavy use of woodwinds and the Native American feel on "Baby Night", which prove this album did have some serious creative drive. Still, I feel their other album, Darkness to Light, is the better package.

While it's not going to wow you, this is a great album to see the transition between the Psychedelic late 60's and Progressive early 70's at work. Grade: B-

Frank Zappa- Hot Rats

With a man like Frank Zappa, it's impossible to pick a single album to represent the entire body of work. For our purposes, we'll pick his best regarded and fairly accessible 1969 release Hot Rats. At this point in his career, Zappa has dissolved the first lineup of the Mothers of Invention, and wanted to move on. He did so by ditching his short, satirical bites of sound and opting for a nearly instrumental mix of Early Jazz Fusion and Early Progressive Rock. He has many guests assisting him here, including ex-Mother Ian Underwood on sax and Captain Beefheart on the record's only vocal. Another notable thing about this album is it's one of the first to use a 16 track recording system, furthering the complexity of the music industry.

The first song is the short but sweet "Peaches in Regalia", a jazzy track with horns and guitar distortion. It has lots of little phrases that work together to form an extremely catchy melody. There even seems to be a bit of Indian influence in the rhythm structure. After that, there's the sensational 9-minute hard rock song "Willie The Pimp", which starts off with Beefheart's raspy, gritty vocal (the only one on the album) and a fiddle. From there, things get (more) intense, and Zappa ends up giving us a phenomenal seven minute guitar solo. That's about it. This track is one that absolutely must be heard in its full glory. Rounding out the A side is another 9 minute song, "Son of Mr. Green Jeans". This one is a much more mellow, with more horns ans a jazz rock feel. The track was actually a reworking of the earlier "Mr. Green Jeans" on the Uncle Meat album.

Another quickie starts of side B, "Little Umbrellas." It's got stacks ans stacks of overdubs by Underwood, and is a mellow lounge-jazzy track. Not the album's best, but nice nonetheless. Next up comes another one of the album's long centerpieces, "The Gumbo Variations". For this cut, there's lots of guitar and saxophone doing work, and the mix of jazz fusion and blues rock influences is quite apparent. It meanders over its 16 minutes, but it's got some good structural developments. Lastly, "It Must Be a Camel" plays, and it follows a similar pattern to "Peaches" and "Umbrellas". The most notable feature is the jumps in melody, which create "Camel Humps" in the sheet music.

Hot Rats is a record that goes all over the place. Zappa plays around with all kinds of instruments, melodies, and harmonies, and out of it comes something that is quite unique. While there may be a dud section here and there, almost all of the experiments are successes, with hours and hours of fun for a music theory student to pick apart. Though it's a bit lopsided, with a stacked A side and a just-good B-Side, it doesn't suffer from record fatigue. Defiantly a 7 on the complexity scale. One word to the wise: the CD and Vinyl mixes of this album are different, and there's big debate as to which is superior.

This one is one of those albums that pulls you in and keeps you enticed through many many listens, with some new feature every time. Grade: A+

The Midwest Clump

The United States, despite being the third largest nation in the world, has a pretty noticeable clump for Prog fans. That clump is the American Midwest. It seems like a great majority of U.S. Prog came from the Midwestern United States, which seems a bit strange. Usually, progressive rock was both a socially and politically liberal movement (there's an exception here and there), which would point to the Northeast and the West Coast as the expected Prog grounds. So, why is it that the track of land roughly stretching from Cleveland to Wichita make so much progressive music.

There's no good answer to this question. The only other area of the U.S. where Prog seemed to be a really major scene was the New York Metropolitan area, which makes sense due to the great amounts of political liberalism and the fact that New York City is so cosmopolitan. The Midwest, however, had a great number of conservatives, and also had a much more uniform population of white protestants. Yet, the diverse and very blue West Coast saw little to no action.

I personally think that the fact that a great deal of large cities exist in the Midwest would have led to lots of word-of mouth spreading. A few very good prog bands probably started a trend in individual cities, and it went from there. This seems to be backed up by more specific slices of America, because some Midwestern cites like Chicago, St. Louis, and Minneapolis had lots of Prog rock, but others like Cincinnati, Milwaukee, and Kansas City were silent. Likewise, this may be why Prog caught on in New York City but failed to take of in Philadelphia or Boston. There just wasn't enough people to spread the word in the pre-Internet age.

More to the point, however, the clump is just an oddity. The Midwest made its fair share of good and bad Prog, and the Northeast, South, Mountain West, and Pacific Coast made contributions that were lesser in quantity but equal in quality.

Kansas- Song For America

Certainly the most successful of the American Progressive Rock bands, Kansas hailed from Topeka, Kansas (surprise surprise), and incorporated some of that American heartland into their music for a unique sound. Song for America, their sophmore effort, came to store shelves in late 1974. They featured a lineup of Rich Williams (guitar), Phil Ehart (drums), Kerry Livgren (guitar/keyboards), Steve Walsh (vocals/keyboards), Dave Hope (bass), and Robby Stienhardt (violin). While combination of country music and prog does seem a bit strange, the result is quite interesting, and quite varied.

The album opens with "Down the Road", which really doesn't have much progressive about it at all. It's just straight country rock, and if that strikes our fancy, it's a decent song. Otherwise, you can skip it. The real goods start with the title track. Over the course of 10 minutes, it moves through some symphonic rock structures, but with a strong presence from the violin. The vocals leave a little to be desired, but it has some nice chord shifts and progressions. The following track, "Lamplight Symphony", is the most progressive one on the album. Bass dominates the track, and the keyboard melody reminds me of a alternate reality Genesis. After that, it's time to flip the record over.

Next up is "Lonely Street", which again is little more than a straight up rocker. It's more heavy metal than country rock, though. "The Devil Game " is really just more of the same, and both tracks aren't of great interest to the Prog fans. However, Song for America comes back for the grand finale with all jets on. "Incomudro / Hymn to the Atman" consists of 12 minutes of The American take on Yes. There's bombastic keyboards à la Rick Wakeman, distinctive bass à la Chris Squire, and a general fantasy feel. There's also strangely some 80's sounding synths, and I'm not sure how that happened.

As mentioned before, although always labeled Progressive Rock, I don't see this record as really fitting the mold. While its got some Prog songs, there's tracks on here that wouldn't be out of place on a Lynyrd Skynyrd record. I don't mind Country Rock, but I don't like misleading labels. Then of course, there's the issue that compared to many many other albums in the genre, The Prog tracks are a bit bland, retracing old territory but with violin added.

Not a bad album per se, but Song for America would appeal more to country rock or hard rock fans than hardcore progsters. C- as a Prog Record, B- as an overall record.

Proging the USA

It's time for the 3rd entry in the international scene series: The United States. Unlike France or Italy, the per capita production of Prog in the USA was rather low. As a more conservative nation, the general ability of prog to come to fruit was lower to begin with. However, the prog from the United States is by no means a slouch, as a good mix of bands played rock both in a British-Emulating style and with their own flare.

One of the signatures of American Prog was a tendency towards the weird. The nation's most famous progressive rock icon is the witty Frank Zappa, who created some of rock music's greatest social commentary delivered through whimsical and confusing non-sequittuers. Additional bands like the Residents and the Muffins practiced avant garde music to the tee, creating some of the least accessible but most interesting progressive rock of the period. Other bands, particularly from the New York area, continued the psychedelic tradition of the 60's with a progressive touch, such as Sweet Smoke. Even the great Jimi Hendrix himself was in talks with Emerson, Lake, and Palmer about moving into Prog before his untimely death.

On the flip side of the coin, some of the most melodic and accessible Prog came from the USA. Known for their radio hits "Carry on Wayward Son" and "Dust in the Wind", Kansas led this movement. Their music was a mix of English symphonic prog and American Country music into a unique blend. Other groups like Pavlov' Dog, Starcastle, and even the earliest incarnations of the bland arena rock group Journey were progressive pop leaders.

Until death by Disco, American Prog was a steady presence in influence. While it may not have been as productive as The UK, the quality is just as strong. Like the nation itself, one of the best ways to describe U.S. Prog is "diverse."