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Member since: 4/29/2006 • Forum posts: 26020 • Last visit: 5/23/2013 12:06:57 AM EST
Location: Atlantais

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I?ve been enjoying music about as long as I can remember. Don?t quite remember back to when I was born in 1965 and would have serious doubts that Zappa and the Mother?s Freak Out! was being played around the house in ?66, but I do have an early memory of hearing Grieg?s Peer Gynt Suite No 1 ?a. I actually didn?t find out the title and composer or the melody that had been in my head until college.

In my early years music was mostly a matter of listening to radio, singles, or my parent?s LPs. I remember Focus, Hocus Pocus getting some airplay and liking it. I was probably 7 or 8 years old at the time. A little time later I heard ELP?s Tocatta, a cousin?s copy. That really appealed to me at the time because I was a big fan of monster movies and science fiction.

My first progressive music albums (vinyl, of course) were Rick Wakeman?s Journey to the Centre of the Earth and The Myths and Legends of King Arthur... I was attracted more to these albums by the concept than the progressive music qualities of the albums. I got them in initial music club order along with a couple of soundtrack albums (Earthquake and Airport ?75), a couple of Redd Foxx comedy albums (raunchy standup, I was too young but I loved it), maybe one or two others that elude my memory.

The Wakeman albums didn?t totally convert me to the progressive music addict that I am today. The summer of 1978 was pivotal though. I had been enjoying Genesis? Follow You Follow Me on the radio, which still didn?t lead totally convert me, it wasn?t really progressive anyway. Also, Chuck Mangione?s Feels So Good helped spark my interest in jazz/rock fusion and jazz.

My first concert was Kansas at the Alexander Memorial Colliseum in June of 1978. It was kind of a big event with my Mom, my brother, a few of his friends, and my best friend at the time attending. My Mom gave one of my brother?s friends a ticket, which he repaid by giving my Mom a beat up acoustic guitar. It pretty much laid around the house unused, but I started to mess around with it a little when no one else was around. One of the first pieces of music I was able to halfway decently imitate was Roxy Music?s The Bogus Man.

Probably getting a little ahead of myself chronologically with the guitar playing stuff. What really got me totally hooked on prog was Genesis? Nursery Cryme and Foxtrot. The particular edition was a cheesy econo combo vinyl release of the two, no original cover art, and maybe lyrics inside (not absolutely certain) that my brother had. Much of what I had been listening to at the time started to go by the wayside. I had Wings? Band on the Run and ELO?s Out of the Blue, but I quit listening to them. All the usual suspects and some less usual pushed them out of the way, Genesis, ELP, Yes, Jethro Tull, Santana, The Dixie Dregs, Kansas, King Crimson, Mahavishnu Orchestra, Gentle Giant, Focus, PFM, Frank Zappa and many more.

The real gem as a music collector in those days was the used $2 single and $3 LP. I worked a part time job at a used and new bookstore while I was in high school which really facilitated building up a music collection. I still have most of it intact and in decent shape. There?s a lot of stuff that are really collection items and I must hang on to and preserve, stuff that hasn?t made it to CD and stuff that has made it that I wish I knew what to do with. Of course one of these day I suspect my music CD and DVD collection will take over this house and destroy us all!!!

Back to the late ?70s early ?80?s, I was really fortunate to attend a lot of concerts: many progressive music shows at venues I was too young to get into like the Agora, outdoor jazz in Piedmont Park , bigger spots like the Fox Theater/the Omni, small nightclubs like the Harvest Moon Saloon. I?ve seen the Dixie Dregs more times than I can count. Soon came college and eventually at 21 I was able to go where I please. There was this brief moment when they were jacking up the drinking age that I was barred from entering the Agora even though I was over 18. I do thank my lucky stars that I was able to see so many good concerts in drinking establishments before I reached 18. I wasn?t there for the booze dammit, just the music.

The ?08?s were my college years (architecture) and really not the progressive musical wasteland that many consider it despite too many of the usual suspects going or having already gone south. (more to come)

Sub-genre Nb of reviews Avg rating 1 Jazz Rock/Fusion 66 3.94 2 Crossover Prog 64 3.94 3 Eclectic Prog 38 3.79 4 Prog Related 35 3.80 5 RIO/Avant-Prog 33 3.67 6 Symphonic Prog 29 3.72 7 Progressive Electronic 11 4.27 8 Psychedelic/Space Rock 9 4.11 9 Canterbury Scene 8 3.75 10 Heavy Prog 8 3.88 11 Prog Folk 7 3.71 12 Neo-Prog 4 3.50 13 Rock Progressivo Italiano 4 5.00 14 Various Genres 4 4.25 15 Post Rock/Math rock 3 4.00 16 Proto-Prog 3 4.33 17 Progressive Metal 1 3.00