How Broad Can Prog Be?

This past weekend, the University of Pennsylvania's radio station played a 24 hour Prog marathon. Everything was from between 1969 and 1979. I'd heard a great deal of it, but some stuff struck me as being off. There was music that I myself would describe as country, free jazz, and even pop without being particularly prog. Is there any semi-objective standard?

For example, drum Machines- Progressive Rock is all about technicality. Drum machines were available as early as the mid-70's in a primitive, extra noticeable form. Can we count music that does this sort of "lazy coping out" as Prog Rock? Or those Short Songs- Prog can be short. But can prog be short with a two verse, chorus, bridge, verse, chorus structure? Pop and Punk follow such patterns, and these things are what made Prog fade away. Therefore, isn't it a litlle bit contradictory to call this prog?

Progressive Rock is more than just a lable. It has a feel. Progressive rock can take the form of a jazz work, an electronic droning, a political satire, or a good old guitar workout, but it always has a certain feel. It's complex, but it's got a warmth to it, it wants to bring you into the magical worlds it creates. Somehow, just way to much prog-related material lacks that warmth. Even cannonical prog does this from time to time- Gentle Giant is a major culprit. I think there's a fine line, but in general, if a peice of music has that feel then it's prog.

Prog Rock Trailers, Prog Rock Films

If you scour Youtube for Prog videos and documentaries, you'll find some interesting trends. There are a number of films out there supposedly on "Prog Rock" that basically focus on just Yes, ELP, Jethro Tull, and perhaps Genesis. Weirder still, I've seen an art rock doc give a full 10 minutes to Roxy Music without even mentioning Tull, Yes, or ELP. Other then the BBC's excellent Prog Rock Britanna, the more minor bands seem to get barely any recognition on film, despite their ability to finally reach a wide audience in the Internet age. Why do the directors streamline?

There always is the film itself, as most directors only get an hour or an hour and a half to tell the story. If you're going to cover Pink Floyd thoroughly, its going to have to come at the expense of Goblin and Catapilla. Secondly, for the films to get to a mass audience, the film will need to stay relatively within the normal spectrum of musical tastes (no Henry Cow or The Residents). Additional, due to narration and interview snipits, it's tough to put in a full length prog rock epic, only a piece can be played. A major factor of success for the most major bands was their ability to make an occasional single worthy cut, which can be translated well to the film arts.

Yet, if you dig deep, there are some nice documentaries out there. Every last little thing the Floyd did has some kind of documentary, and there's some nice Cantebury Scene and Modern Prog films out there. Perhaps this is all just rambling, but I think that some dedicated film makers should get on out there and make some wonderful documentary material on the less lauded Prog bands before the musicians head to the Great Gig in the Sky.

How Krautrock Came to Be

For something often so sparse and inorganic, Krautrock has odd roots. Most of the inspiration came out of the Psychedelic seen of the late 60's, like most Prog Rock. Germany had as much of a counterculture as anywhere at the time, and American and British Psych groups got wide recognition. Where the Krautrockers began to split off (circa 1970) was their incorporation of a distinctly German identity in the music. Having been twice robbed of a national feeling after the two world wars, German youths were ready to forge something new.

Politics played a role in the making of Krautrock. Many of the best known groups and the most obscure tangents were socialist, communist, or even anarchist in nature. While Krautrock genraly de-emphasizes lyrics, this is reflected in the music. Atonal, irregular, and jarring, Krautrock often grates at the ear due to its rejection of many traditional parts of music theory. As a result, Krautrock became amongst the more liberal and anti-establishment of the music scenes of the 70's.

Additionaly, like many other Prog hotbeds (Italy, Spain), the Germans put a bit of their own music heritage into the music. For centuries some of the most revolutionary composers including Beethoven, Brahms, and Wagner were German nationals. This tradition is both upheld and subverted. On one hand, there was a rejection of the old ways to achieve a new form of art, a German tradition. On the other hand, these prior episodes were emotional and romanticist, this time the revolution was far from it. Krautrock, in essence, is a post modern spiritual successor to prior achievements from the country.

The mutli-layered origins of Krautrock often worked in conjunction to make some truly unique music. Though the genre was effectual killed of by Punk in the late 70's, a resurgence in the CD age has benefited the old groups well. Due to the lack of synthesizers and lyrics, Krautrock is amongst the freshest and least dated pieces of classic prog.

Krautrock: Germany's Strange Experiment

Barring the UK, no nation on this earth produced more classic progressive rock than Germany. In addition, their particular brand of Prog rock is quite different from any other, distinguishing itself by the weird. This month, Germany will be the country of honor.

"Krautrock" is a term coined by the British Press and is often rejected by the bands the label applies to. It's not a very specific tag, with a vast variety of artists under the genre. It it's most pure sense, the term means prog rock from Germany, but there is much German prog that isn't Krautrock. There are three main indicators of something fallin into this genre. First, there is a raw, underpoduced feel to the Krautrock albums. Secondly, minimalism, whether in the sound itself or in the composition itself, often features. Lastly, there is a large electronic element to the music. The organic mood of many symphonic prog or folk prog albums will be absent from Krautrock almost without exception.

This still leaves room for a great deal of variety. This is Krautrock:


As is this:


The first kind, exemplified by bands like Neu!, Kraftwerk, and Popol Vuh, is what I call "Soft Krautrock", and beat Brian Eno to the creation of Ambient Music by a good 6 or 7 years. The latter by bands like Gila, Amon Duul II, and Guru Guru, is "Hard Krautrock", which is more guitar driven. To complicate it, a great number of the bands did some of both.

Some of the most wacky, avant garde, and silly progressive rock came from Germany. With just three album reviews, I can just barely scrape the surface of all the wonderful music the country has to offer.

Synthesizers

There's a bunch of synthesizers that Prog bands used back in the day. But what's the difference between them?

First off is the Moog synthesizer:


This one has a very artificial, almost Atari-esque sound to it. It's a perenial progressive rock favorite, as it fits right into the space operas and sci-fi themes often found on the concept albums.

Next is the ARP:


Similar to the Moog in sound, the ARP is a better sequencing synthesizer (repeated patterns), while the Moog functions much better as an ordinary keyboard. They both have their advantages.

Another major synth is the Mellatron:


Pionered as early as the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper, this synth is the lead choice for Prog Electronic musicians, for it's etherial qualities. Some models were designed specifically to replicate orchestral sounds. This video isn't a great example, but it also sounds more organic than ARP or Moog.

There is also the Hammond Organ:


This is the most well known to the general public, with the "Take me Out to the Ball Game " Vibe. Not quite as frequently used in prog as the others, but still a good name to know.

The Artwork of Progressive Rock, Part 2

When things really got going for Prog illustration in about 1972, there were many wonderful designs with varied topics. The album covers emphasized form heavily, as many highly mathematical and geometric patterns adorned the album sleeves. This didn't actually take hold with many of the biggest bands, but is common with Krautrock sleeves, accompanying the jagged music. When they weren't mathematical, there were some very interesting selves, such as the see through hand X-Ray cover of Faust's self titled album.

Paintings, instead of photographs, became the norm. From Amon Duul II to Genesis to PFM, the paint and brush was very in vogue. In the pre-photoshop age, this was the only real way to truly express the visions of fantasy and wonder many of the Prog rockers had in mind. While many of Hipgnosis's studios famous Pink Floyd Covers were photographs, many of their outside jobs were painted. Of course, the king of Progressive rock painters was Roger Dean, who's Maxfeild Parish -esque landscapes brought light to many bands, most notably Yes.

Speaking of those landscapes, nature was a big topic of interest on the album covers. There's a very high percentage that emphasize the outdoors, have the band pictured outdoors, or have landscapes as their focus. Water in particular was a favorite. Additionally, outer space and astronomy themes were rather common. If progressive rock had official colors, green, blue, and black may very well be the choices.

As the era drew to a close, the album art calmed down somewhat. There images became starker and more subdued in color, although the imagery was defiantly still there. As the 80's as a whole relied much more on the old photo of the band or singer tricks, this form of Progressive Artwork went underground for a while. However, by the mid 90's, a resurgence in the progressive inspired album sleeve came about. To this day, a number of notable artists draw upon the late 60's through mid 70's album art for inspiration and direction.

The Artwork of Progressive Rock, Part 1

A large part of Progressive Rock's character and finesse comes from the album sleeves that go along with it. This month, we'll be taking a look at what goes into those album covers. A cursory glance at a group of prog albums will reveal a few patterns. For one, there's either going to be an abundance of color or very little color at all. Secondly, nature plays heavily into the artwork. Last but not least, unlike pop genres, little emphasis is placed upon the name of the group or the album title on the cover.

Much like the music itself, the panache of the prog cover traces back to its mother genre, late 60's psychedelic rock. As well chronicled in Strom Thorgoson's Classic Album Covers of the 1960's, around 1966 there was a sudden explosion of vibrant, experimental and colorful album covers which replaced the boring, run-of-the-mill endless array of men in suits that had dominated 50's and early 60's covers. Just look at the difference between the covers of Early Rolling Stones albums and the holographic Their Satanic Majesty's Request and you can see that sudden burst of energy in action. The new art matched the new music with its sense of daring and adventure. Then, it disappeared just as suddenly as it came in around 1968 or 1969, with covers going back to the basics. This is a little harder to explain. I think it might have to do with the return to minimalism of the Beatles and the Stones covers in 1968, since they were always trend setters.

Prog artwork took a bit longer right out of the gate. Dark colors or heavily altered photos or cartoons of the band donned a lot of the albums in the 69-71 period. However, there were many exceptions, including King Crimson's Medieval and Mythological themed Lizard and In the Wake of Poseidon, as well as some psychedelic throwbacks. One of the most interesting is Van Der Graff Generator's H to He Who am the Only One, with it's time on strings theme. It was during the next couple of years following that things really took off, with Roger Dean landscapes and Hipignosis studio photographs making their powerful statements.

To be Continued

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.

Progressive Rock in the Great Cannon of Music

Amongst the general public, artists come and go in quick succession and few have much in the way of decades-long popularity the way The Beatles or The Rolling Stones have. Amongst music junkies, however, there's a collection of recordings that always get praise year after year after year, continually being placed on best albums of all time lists and gaining notoriety. Sometimes there's overlap between the two, as Abbey Road, Blonde on Blonde, Led Zeppelin IV, Master of Puppets, and Nevermind are always there. On the other hand, there's some real oddities that many people have never heard of, like Marquee Moon and just about every classic Jazz album except for about 4. In addition, there's the ones that despite public knowledge of them today, took decades to achive any sort of acceptance, including The Velvet Underground and Nico and Pink Moon.

There's just a minuscule fraction of those albums that are Progressive Rock. While Prog is not music for the masses, and appropriately just a few Pink Floyd Albums, Aqualung, and possibly a Yes album are two are on the popular list. But what about those critics? Surprisingly, the alleged "champions of the non-mainstream" seem to hate the genre if it benefits them.

Taking a look at Rolling Stone Magazine's 500 greatest albums of all time, a whooping 4 albums of progressive rock under the traditional definition made the cut*, three of them by Pink Floyd, and the other being Aqualung (the neo-prog Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness by Smashing Pumpkins was on the list also, if you consider that equivalent). Now, Rolling Stone don't have an ounce of respect in the community of real music fans. Why would they hate Prog? Most of the people who bother to read it won't enjoy the genre, so why point them there when they can have pop? Similarly, internet communities with lots of teeny boppers from generations Y and Z have little to no prog on similar lists.

All is not lost however. Going to another source, the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die, collected by Robert Dimery, is a collection of reviews from various music journalists. A very respectable 32 Prog albums from the classic era made their collection†. Considering they had 50 years to cover and many genres (there's some really mediocre country in that book just to make it look like they care), almost 1 in 30 albums isn't too bad. Music sites with lots of really deep fans also have good turnout for Prog. Rateyourmusic.com has 2 in their top 10 albums, almost unheard of elsewhere.

If anything, all this hubub just confirms that Prog isn't for most people, but for the lucky few it really endears itself and sticks like glue. The only question left is whether sacrificing the other genres to hear as much prog as possible is worth it, but that's for another time.

*(Using a very broad definition of Progressive rock, you can get that number up to 8 with a hand from Kraftwerk, Frank Zappa, and Captain Beefheart.)
†(The large definition makes that 41)

Progressive Linguistics

With Italy month come and gone and France month just around the corner, I've been thinking about langague and how it relates to prog. For a genre with so many international scenes, there's a great variety. There's a little bit of prog in almost every major world language. Therein lies a dilema: how can one understand all of the lyrics on the deep topics Prog rock indulges in?

I'd argue to some extent that it doesn't really matter all that much. For better or worse, English has become the dominant lingua franca of the world. This leads to two effects on prog: either singing in English despite it being a non-native language (common in Romance Language and German Speaking nations), or sticking to instrumentals (Common in the Benelux nations, Scandinavia, Germany, and to a lesser extent France). On one hand, in a genre so focused upon the instrumentation, this is not a problem at all. Many of the great guitarists, drummers, bassists, and keyboardists have come from outside the anglophone world to make great leaps forward in their craft. This theoretic state of "lyrical irrelevance" has done a great amount to spread prog into areas of the world where English is poorly understood.

The Sapir–Whorf Theory in psychology states that an individual's mother language influences their way of thinking an perception of the world. For example, the Pirahã language in the Amazon has no word for numbers above one, just a word for one and many. Tests have shown a distinction inability to perceive and function with even counting amongst these people.

This leads to a conclusion that singing in non-native languages on prog records is foolish. Since the lyrical intent of a song will be thought of in the mother tongue first and then translated, those special thoughts that are shaped by the language will be completely lost. This leads to a loss in the true message. Even sillier is to invent a new language (Magma with Kobain), as then no one will get the message and pretension ensues. Additionally, while a good portion of instrumental prog is intentionally vocal-free, to remove non English lyrics would be a silly practice. Language is a beatiful part of a person's existance, and they should use it fully in communicating thier ideas.

This leads to the question of the prog fans: should you learn languages to understand progressive lyrics? I would say no, not solely for prog. I speak one other language besides English: French. I'd say I'm at an intermediate level after 5 years in school and some outside studies of mine. Ange's Emile Jacotey is the only French language Prog album I have heard in full, and my results with it have been mixed. Parts of it I could get at the first listen, parts I'm slowly translating in my head, and others are going way to fast for me. To really get the fullest from Prog in that language would require basic fluency, which takes an immense amount of time and effort. I have many other reasons I take French however, parce-que je veux utilizer la français pour communication et culture. Rather than wanting to listen to prog and then learning a language, one should want to learn a language and then listen to its prog.