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)

Campo di Marti- Campo di Marti

Campo di Marti were one of the Italian scene's one album wonders. Coming from Tuscany, their lineup was Enrico Rossa (guitar/ vocals/mellotron), Alfredo Barducci (horns/keyboards), Paul Richard (bass/vocals), Mauro Sarti (drums/flute/vocals) and Carlo Felice Marcoveccio (drums/vocals). The band took their name from a train station in thier home town of Florence. This band's self titled album was released in 1973. On it, they play a range of guitar dominated symphonic prog songs, from heavy to melodic to pastoral in tone.

The albums has 7 tracks, all titled "____" tempo with Italian numbers. "Primo Tempo" is the first, and at 8 minutes, is the longest. Banking on hard rock guitars. It goes back and forth between guitar and keyboard driven sections with many speed changes. "Secondo Tempo" is more up the vane of the light, flowing prog, not dissimilar to Genesis. Next, "Terzo Tempo" has lots of guitar fuzz to start off before going into a bass, piano, and guitar heavy symphonic prog workout. This one is the best on the album, filled with emotion. "Quarto Tempo" is a shorter song, and it fills out the A side of the record with lots of keyboards, reminiscent of ELP.

"Quinto Tempo" takes the flutes and turns into a piece that brings up images of the Italian Countryside. It's nice to chill out to, and meshes very well into the earlier, harder songs, a hard feat to do. Afterward, "Sesto Tempo" follows mostly the same mold as "Quarto Tempo", but the band is a little more ambitious here and takes full advantage of the drummers. Last but not least, "Settimo Tempo" ends the album on a cycle by emulating "Primo Tempo" with similar beat and form. It's got a nice groove due to almost Motorik like bass and drums.

This one really impressed me the first time I heard it and has since grown further on me. Campo di Marti is a very versatile work, with several styles going on in different tracks. Yet, they all manage to blend together into an album that is married firmly to the Progressive Rock scene of Italy while distinguishing itself in the process. Even though every member is credited to vocals, they rarely sing, but that only adds to the free form landscapes the band carves. There's a little on here for everyone, and while it might be hard to find, this is one true lost gem.

The only shame about this album is the fact the band did not do any more. Grade: A-

The Minimalisim vs. Complexity Scale

If I had to break Prog down into two categories, there's a nice little sliding scale between the bands that prefer sparse construction and the bands that like to throw in the whole 9 yards. For every Pink Floyd, and Tangerine Dream, for every Soft Machine, a Neu!. This difference bridges many divides in Prog, over many sub genres and nationalities.

This raises the question about which is superior. The general opinion seems to favor the complex over the simple, as bands like Pink Floyd, Yes, and King Crimson remain very popular and respected while Prog electornic seems to slip into obsucrity with each day. Minimalistic art in any form is always hardest to comprehend, as there's not much direction given to the audience. Still, I think that the criminaly underated Progressive Electronic Genre is so wonderfull due to its minimalizim, that trance of sound that exists.

However, it's not for everyone. So, I'm going to introduce a sliding scale of minimalisim to use in my reviews. I've put some groups to use as benchmarks to comapre to.

1- Extremely Minamalistic- Tangerine Dream
2- Minimalistic- Faust
3- Somewhat Minimalistic- Hawkwind
4- Neutral- Genesis
5- Somewhat Complex- Pink Floyd
6- Complex- Soft Machine
7- Extremely Complex- Gentle Giant

My hope is that this can help pin down how "Proggy" an album is, as the more compelx, the more progressive. Over time, perhaps you can get a feel of where you like your music.

Pink Floyd- Animals

Time for yet another wonderful Floyd album. After Dark Side of the Moon and Wish You Were Here, Pink Floyd were on top of their game. Popular the world over, they had great expectations for their 10th album, Animals, released in 1977. At this point, Roger Waters was really starting to take control of the band, their artistic vision becoming his artistic vision. This is the last album where Gilmour, Mason, and Wright had much of anything to do until Waters left. Despite this shift, Animals still packs that massive Pink Floyd punch of Prog splendor. The album is another one of Floyd's good old concept albums, this time a take on George Orwell's Animal Farm with an emphasis on isolation (the overarching theme of all of Pink Floyd's work.) This is also by hard Floyd's hardest album as far as the style goes, especially Gilmour's guitar.

We kick off the album with "Pigs on the Wing, Pt. 1", a 1:25 acoustic little love ballad. It's not bad, but a bit non sequiteur and forgettable compared to what follows. The guitar then leads into "Dogs", who are business-like people willing to sacrifice anyone around them to make personal gain. The lyrics criticise these people for being emotionally devoid and soulless, only to get "dragged down by the stone". This piece is all about Gilmour, who sings most of the vocals, plays the best guitar performance of Floyd's career with hard rock solos to die for, and just seems to command the flow. The others all add in nice little touches to make the song seem straight from distopia. There's lots of distortion of the keyboards to contribute a grittiness to the song. "Dogs" lasts 17 minutes, so the record then flips.

Next up we have "Pigs", who are the moral police. These people try to edit society not by destroying, but by molding it to suit their needs (like politicians, censors, jet setters). This one has more bass guitar which gives it as certain bounce, like a battle. The guitars and drums add to the frey to produce lots of force to back up the attack on the pigs, who are "nearly a treat, but really a cry". Ha ha, charade they are indeed. For the final animal, we've got "Sheep." Rather than attacking them, Waters more mocks them for being the followers who just go along with whatever society tells them, and get slaughtered by dogs as resources. This one is chilling, using a scream-into synthesizer effect, crazy guitar, and thick beat, all in contrast with a lush keyboard opening. In the end the sheep revolt, and if the music is supposed to represent what they had to go through, I can't blame them. "Pigs on the Wing Pt. 2" closes the album the exact same way that Pt. 1 opened.

This is defiantly a change in direction for Pink Floyd. Animals alludes to Orwell's work but does not tie itself to it in such a way as that the interpretation is similar. Rather than being anti-communist, this album is anti-capitalist if anything due to the heavy attacks on The Dogs as ruthless extortionists and the Sheep as hapless consumers. Overall, I think that this one supplements the themes on Dark Side and Wish, and rather than concentrating on the isolation of individuals from other individuals, Animals looks at isolation of different segments of society from each other. Back up all that existential depth with some kick as instrumentation, and we've got ourselves one hell of an album.

While it's farther from the progressive mold than many albums on this blog, Animals manages to trump them in terms of musical might. Grade: A+

Genesis- Foxtrot

Genesis' reputation as one of the big 6 rests on a 4 album streak from 1971 to 1974 with Peter Gabriel as their frontman. The Gabriel lineup was augmented by Phil Collins (Drums, would replace Gabriel in 1975), Tony Banks (Keyboards), Mike Rutherford (Bass), and Steve Hackett (Guitar). Foxtrot, released in 1972, is the second album in this stretch. It builds upon the musical themes the band explored on the previous year's Nursery Cryme.

Foxtrot starts with "Watcher of the Skies", a mid length textbook example of symphonic Prog. After an organ into, the track gets right down to business with a vocal lead. The lyrics here are very open to interpretation, and seem a little sci-fi to me. The next piece is "Timetable", which has almost the same melody but this time is a straight piano ballad with more presence from the other instruments. It's nice and sweet if not substantive. "Get 'Em Out by Friday" then picks up, and it's got Genesis' signature keyboard sound with lots of layers of drums. This track has changes in tempo and in instruments to create lots of Prog Rock intrigue. Afterwards, "Can-Utility and the Coast Liners" continues the trend of subdued, light symphonic prog. Then there's the short 1:41 acoustic guitar romp"Horizons" to wrap up side 1. Now, it's time for the crowning jewel.

The 22 minute epic "Supper's Ready" is generally considered Genesis' crowning achievement by the prog community. It has seven distinct movements, although many have great similarities. Overall, this one is dominated by an incredibly emotional vocal performance by Gabriel and the sonic synths from Banks. There's plenty of nice changes in mood, with guitars here, then some drums there, slow-fast-slow. Most of the lyric content is very serious, written after Gabriel believed his wife was possessed by a demon, although there's a great non-sequitter section about people turning into flowers. When performing this song live, Gabriel was known to wear elaborate costumes, including one of the flowers and the Fox seen on the cover of the album.

There's plenty of great material on offer here. Even though some of the lyrics are dark, the whole album is very listenable with interesting changes in chord and the like, but accessibility too. Many other bands would attempt to capture the ease and wonder of listening to Genesis, but few were able to match their mastery of pitch, tempo, chord, and volume to make magic.

Foxtrot delivers in all the areas that Prog albums should, and has very little to complain about. A true masterpiece of the progressive area. Grade: A

8 Prog Songs that Became Radio Hits

Supposedly doomed to remain obscurities, from time to time a Prog song managed to push through that shuffle of R&B grooves, Bubblegum Pop, Hard Rock, and Singer Songwriter fare to make a dent on the billboard charts. Event today these songs will come up on Classic Rock stations right before Bruce Springsteen and after Billy Joel. Here are the standard bearers that got converts to Prog in 1974 just like they're still doing in 2010. This list uses the United State's Billboard 100 for its chart positions.

Pink Floyd, "Money"
Although the entirety of "Dark Side of the Moon" gets airplay in the modern day, Money remains the most popular song. From the opening bass riff through the kick as guitar solo, this song oozes with fun and is the first exposure to Progressive Rock for many. Top Chart Position: 13

Pink Floyd, "Another Brick in The Wall"
While it might not be as progressive as "Money", it certainly has the accessibility. It's perhaps the only Prog single to sell one million copies in the U.S., with over 500,000 in most European nations. Top Chart Position: 1 (in 10 Countries)

Yes, "Roundabout"
Yes had quite a few songs that made a chart impact, but they were criminally edited down. Top Chart Position: 12

Emerson, Lake and Palmer, "Lucky Man"
Although it wasn't actually a bit hit at the time, this song gets played all the time on classic rock radio. Smooth and simple, it has widespread appeal. Top Chart Position: 48

Jethro Tull, "Aqualung"
There's a reason that this song's guitar riff is the most famous in Prog. It was one of the few that the average Joe heard. Top Chart Position: 7

Focus, "Hocus Pocus"
Although initially thought of as a novelty by the band, this song's sheer lunacy was enough to make it a hit. Despite the yodeling. Top Chart Position: 7

Kansas, "Carry on Wayward Son"
This is another one of those times a band did a pseudo Prog song and got a big hit out of it. While Kansas defiantly was a little less complicated then the standard Prog fare, this song is good nonetheless. "Dust in the Wind", however, is not remotely Prog enough to get a mention on this list. Top Chart Position: 11

Genesis, "Follow You, Follow Me"
The point where Genesis began to become a pop band. It was included on a mostly Progressive album, though, so I'll count it. Top Chart Position: 23

Gentle Giant- Three Friends

Gentle Giant is by far the most cited Prog band that's not a household name. With an intricate style employing extensive vocal harmonies, strange chord combinations, and use of a plethora of different instruments, their music embodies all of Prog Rock's core elements. Formed by Three Shulman brothers (Derek, Phil, and Ray) along with Kerry Minnear and Gary Green, they all played a variety of instruments from guitar/bass and organ to xylophone, viola, and trumpet. They wanted a permanent drummer, and this spot changed constantly in their early lineup. For their 3rd album, Three Friends, in 1972, Malcolm Mortimer held down the drummer's chair.

This album is a concept album, about three friends who grow up together and are incredibly close, but as they age they take separate paths and no longer see eye to eye. With the creatively titles "Prologue", the album begins with a a keyboard solo and lots of wah-wah distortion. the song also features tons of vocal harmony and some cool bass. Afterwards comes the relaxed "schooldays" which subverts its complexity in quiet. However, the keyboard and bass parts go through some cool time progressions, and Phil Shulman's singing here is very strong. As the friends promise to wait for each other forever, they grow up and each get a song. The first one becomes a blue collar laborer laborer and sings "Working All Day" about doing just that. This song is sung by Minnear, and is the heaviest track to emphasize the sludge and grime of the factory. Lots of bass and guitar about here in a pretty traditional Symphonic Prog structure. It gets a bit repetitive after a while, but has a nice rhythm.

Friend #2 became an artist, and sings "Peel the Paint" about all of the little details it takes to make great art (and how menial the work of others is). This song is a festival of guitar playing, and it goes all over with the notes. This artsy chaos is quite hard to follow, but has lots to offer. The last friend becomes a rich white collar executive concerned with reputation and sings "Mister Class and Quality". Oddly, this track seems like a mix of the last two. There's also a splash of violin in there. The album ends with a title track that is almost choral. It is only 3 and a half minutes and goes by quickly.

At a short 36 minutes, Three Friends defiantly lacks in quantity and needs to deliver in quality. While the songs here are good, complex, and certainly progressive, they lack a key ingredient. Passion. Gentle Giant has gone so over the top with the intricacy that the soul of the music is pretty diminished. While this style is going to be pretty pretentious no matter what, they succeeded in creating that spark on some of their other albums, but not this one.

Three Friends has plenty of Prog's brains, but just not enough of its heart. Grade: C