Five best albums for someone brand new to prog

Hi,

Tough choice for me.

I remember the class we took in our senior year that was about music and painting, and we had Jensen's History of Art as one of the incredible texts and guides, but when it came to music, the teacher once suggested that it was hard to discuss music periods sometimes. Like a "period" was defined by one or two composers, and that was all we knew. And he said that most of us would never know or mention anyone else other than Beethoven and Tchaikovsky as "Romantic" ... because we probably didn't know anyone else.

The age of recording and the incredible ability to show us music that no one could ever conceive, or the age of publishing that was massive in the 1950's and 1960's ... made for a lot of ideas and discussions.

I tried to "list" me some choices, but ... for me, it felt like they were all from different times and places, and while they might fit a definition like we have for "progressive", some of them are a completely different time and place, and maybe not a good choice for a generic idea.

I probably would not try to suggest that it is this or that. I've fared better by allowing the new folks to find things on their own, which is by far the best way to find and learn about anything. Being told, school like, is fine, but almost all of us, ended up shaking a finger or two at our school and many of the folks in it ... well we did in the 60's that's for sure, and our "class" of jerks and idiots never even tried to create a 10 year this or that, or a 25 years this or that, to give you an idea of the incredible disconnect for that class at Madison's West High, and how the teachers and administration of it, worked on destroying so much, and not appreciating anything.

It's hard ... and there are a lot of things I want to mention ... and I probably would start with The Doors' Riders on the Storm and that album ... and then ... I think some Tarkus ... and I definitely would select KC's first. After that I go to Germany, France, Italy ... and at that point things kinda get ... spread out too much and difficult to discuss.

I have never met anyone, who ask me about any of the music I have on LP or CD ... and many family folks and their relations know it and never once asked me ... what is this like, or that? And the Space Pirate Radio folks were only wanting to know what some stuff was, because they were collectors (I'm not a collector!!!) of sorts!

I've tried a couple of times, to play things here and there for others, and got some off the wall comments ... like the one that was the one that gave a whole generation its artistic appreciation (so to speak!) ... when after 5 minutes of the Ozric Tentacles, Warren went ... "where's the lyrics?". Ten years later, his kids were on their little mp3's or Ipods, and what were they hearing ... boom boom boom boom boom ... and I made the mistake of asking what their music was saying ... and one kid said ... you wouldn't understand! I can hear Mike Rutherford's comments now in my head!

It's a dead end ... and remember that since 1974, along with Guy Guden, we were pushing a lot of "imports" and "foreign" music. But one thing that we did not believe, was the folks around the radio station saying that no one will ever hear that stuff ... because it wasn't a hit.

They were wrong! And "wong" (Firesign Theater)! And the stuff is well remembered and has a lovely caring group of folks like all of us here.

The more things change, the more they stay the same?

I don't buy into the idea that one needs to be eased into prog via prog-lite. As mentioned earlier, it really depends on the person's taste in music prior to their exposure to prog. For me, that was hard rock / heavy metal and anything full-on and heavy. So, me easing into prog meant getting used to relatively light and somewhat folky music. When I was a fairly young teenager, I fell in love with "21st Century Schizoid Man" that was sometimes played on the radio station I listened to. It wasn't until a few years later that I discovered the album. The rest of the album did take a bit of getting used to. Weirdness in music doesn't really bother me, although it really does depend on the type of weirdness. For a long time, I only enjoyed The Residents on their own terms, and it was only fairly recently that I began to enjoy them as I would other music. I am more likely to be attracted to dissonant harmonies and strange soundscapes than chaotic rhythms (or bland consonance). I think I would have immediately fallen in love with "Pawn Hearts" regardless of when I first heard this album. And I don't think I'll ever learn to truly enjoy "Trout Mask Replica".


Five prog albums that worked for me quite early:

Pink Floyd - Dark Side of the Moon
Supertramp - Crime of the Century
Hawkwind - Warrior on the Edge of Time
Jeff Beck - Blow by Blow
Emerson, Lake and Palmer - Brain Salad Surgery

My entry into prog was 'Meddle' but I deliberately left that off my list as my view of it is very personal.