What makes a good Prog song?

Wakey's one of the best things to happen to prog rock in general. He has many detractors, e.g. "Emerson is better," "Moraz was better," "I don't like his capes," etc., but they can't change that.

Progosopher wrote: In no particular order:   Virtuosity.  I like to hear great musician play well.  This even goes back before I truly discovered Prog when Ritchie Blackmore was like a god to me.   Complex structures.  Changes in tempo, key, time-signature, tone, chords, and instrumentation always catch my attention.   Intelligent lyrics.  Words that convey meaning and insight, preferably with a good melody.   Listenability.  While I appreciate chaos and dissonance, too much of it becomes a distraction.  If I cannot distinguish the music from random sounds, I don't care much for it.   Cohesion.  A piece of music, whether a vocal song or instrumental, must come as a whole.  This is especially challenging with multi-part epics.  All the elements must hold together and serve one another.  This also applies to albums as a whole and not just individual tracks.  There is an art to pacing.

Hahaha, it gets worse - he didn't even master Hand.Cannot.Erase Just check the liner notes ;-)

verslibre wrote: Wakey's one of the best things to happen to prog rock in general. He has many detractors, e.g. "Emerson is better," "Moraz was better," "I don't like his capes," etc., but they can't change that.

Kati wrote: guitars, guitar tunes!

Kati wrote: verslibre wrote: Wakey's one of the best things to happen to prog rock in general. He has many detractors, e.g. "Emerson is better," "Moraz was better," "I don't like his capes," etc., but they can't change that. Aww I love Wakeman's many capes, made one myself it came out really bad thus had another one made for me  and no it's not a superman cape grrrrrr no idea why people said this bah. hugs

^Definitely. Rick's the OS, "original stacker." After he programmed an original patch that he didn't want to lose, he secured the knobs and sliders with tape and went and bought another model of the same synth.

I like something melodic , but not too sugary and overly pretentious. I think that makes a very good Prog song as long as we have the right vocalist, which,,my whole problem with Prog has always been with the choice of vocalists, the style, and what they are choosing to sing. Greg Lake was singing the most pretentious lyrics on I.T.C.O.T.C.K. and making them sound out with soul and total dynamic feeling. After hearing him sing , it was difficult for me to accept anyone else and for a very long time ..because most Prog singers didn't project like Greg Lake. Maybe because he was a skilled songwriter and understood how to give the tone of the lyrics feeling. Peter Gabriel had a soulful voice , accomplished the same, but  Greg Lake had a much wider range in pitches of notes and sustaining them at longer lengths.