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

King Crimson- Larks' Tongues in Aspic

King Crimson is always best remembered for In the Court but right along side that masterpiece stands 1973's Larks Tongues in Aspic. By this time guitarist Robert Fripp was the sole remaining member of both the Original King Crimson and the most recent lineup. After mutating from Sympho-Prog to Jazz Prog, Fripp decided to reinvent King Crimson as a Hard Prog band. To do so, he recruited Bill Bruford of Yes (drums), John Wetton of Family (Bass/Vocals), David Cross (violin), and Jamie Muir (mixed percussion) to create the new sound. As with the prior member Peter Sinfield, lyricist Richard Palmer James is credited as a member but does not play on the album. The results of this experiment were something nearly as revolutionary as the first record.

The album starts out with the first of a two part instrumental Title Track, divided up into 13 and 7 minute segments. Marimba opens the album in a very low key and peaceful way, before a section of menacing violin takes over. Then, out of nowhere, one of the most bad ass riffs in rock music period drops on you like a brick, only to withdraw just as suddenly. From there, things go nuts with all kinds of percussion, guitar and bass riffs and assorted effects rapidly changing melody, harmony, tempo, chord, and timbre. This is pure musical chaos, and is strikingly beautiful. Then, it all calms down and fades away. "Book of Saturday", the next song, is a prog quickie, it's just a nice melodic rock song (with lyrics this time), calm after the storm of sorts. Afterwards, we have the great "Exiles", which revisits the Medieval themes seen on the In The Court and Lizard albums. This time, however, it is more subtle and soundtrack like, fleshed out wonderfully by Cross's violin. This piece is, in my opinion, the best of Crimson's entire career, which is a very big accomplishment.

Side B opens with "Easy Money", the last of the 3 tracks featuring Wetton singing. As you can probably guess, this song attacks money and greed in society. As far as the structure, it's not all that progressive, though its lack of a chorus means it's firmly not pop. The guitar dominates the instrumentation with some repeated riffs. Afterwards comes "The Talking Drum". If the album has a weak spot, this is it. While not bad, the endless percussive rhythms that are the entire song do get a little tiring sometimes. Last up is "Larks' Tongues in Aspic, Pt 2." This section has more structure than the first, but is just as insane and aggressive. Here, the guitar and drums just smash up everything in a barrage of notes.

Between the two parts of the title track, King Crimson mange to do so many different progressive things in the hard rock context it's incredible. Once again the leaders, this album is the first step towards the eventual rise of Prog Metal. In addition to that, there's some subtlety and melody that juxtapose and work wonderfully together. Larks' Tongues in Aspic is one of the most intelligent and creative prog albums I've ever heard, and to these ears it trumps even In the Court of the Crimson King by the thinnest of margins.

Overall, this is a phenomenal piece of experimentation and rhythm, and shows many of Prog's great extremes without sounding jumbled or overwrought. Do not miss this one. Grade: A+.

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."