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phonewind

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Topic: First Prog Album
Posted: November 01 2016 at 10:05

Moving Waves by Focus changed my life.

Dean

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Posted: November 01 2016 at 10:24

Ah, oi see. Your first Prog album.

No worries, the Search function on the forum is a bit of a pig, so allow me: www.progarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=106240

Originally posted by Dean, <span style=: rgb248, 248, 252; font-size: 11px;>30 March 2016</span><span style=: rgb248, 248, 252; font-size: 11px;> </span>

Dean, 30 March 2016 wrote:

The first album I ever bought was Move by The Move (the band maybe proto-prog but that album ain't) when I was 12 - it cost me 5 shillings in 1969 because it didn't have a cover. [Back in the day record stores would only put the covers in the bins and kept the discs themselves behind the counter to stop nefarious folk helping themselves to a five-finger discount, but some still pilfered the covers leaving the store with a few coverless albums to sell].

The next was two years later (coz we wuz poor and buying albums was an extravagance we couldn't afford): Every Good Boy Deserves Favour by The Moody Blues and I'm calling that Prog Rock even if it is a bit Prog-lite.

Soon after that I got a Saturday job in Woolworths and with the wages burning a hole in my pocket I quickly expanded my horizons. The first full-blown honest to goodness Prog album I bought was either The Least We Can Do Is Wave To Each Other by Van der Graaf Generator or Elegy by The Nice. Ownership of those two albums granted me access to the "cool kids" clique at school and that's where I was first exposed to the delights of Pink Floyd and became an unrepentant Floyd-fanboy.

However... because they were cheap and contained some excellent music I bought quite a few label samplers (Nice Enough to Eat, Bumpers, Age of Atlantic, Rockbusters and the Dandelion Sampler EP) and several budget albums back then (notably Phallus Dei by Amon Duul II, Camembert Electrique by Gong and of course Relics by Pink Floyd).

/edit:

¹ I soon tired of the school "cool kids" clique because I found them to be oddly narrow-minded and somewhat overly judgemental. Most of them were older than me and were heavily into American music that didn't appeal to me a great deal but mostly I struggled with their perception of what was cool and what was not. While through associating them I got to hear weird stuff like Zappa, Tonto's Expanding Head Band and White Noise liking Led Zeppelin or Uriah Heep was frowned upon (both were considered to be 'sell-outs' and only good for teenie-boppers), yet Sabbath and Purple were okay. The crunch came when they deemed previously acceptable Tyrannosaurus Rex albums to be unacceptable because of T Rex. If that was what it took to be cool I was happy to be uncool in their eyes because I'd much rather listen to Hot Love than Hot Rats.

² Even back in the 70s physically buying albums was not a young person's first exposure to good music. Rather than YouToob and illicit file-sharing we had late-night radio (John Peel's Top Gear etc.), The Old Grey Whistle Test on the telly and of course playground album swapping. The first time I heard Tangerine Dream was on the radio, several years prior to them signing to Virgin. Before the Compact Cassette became affordable (and therefore popular) we had ¼" reel-to-reel tape recorders and needless to say, many of the albums I'd borrowed from the school "cool kids" clique...

³ Compilation albums are not regarded particularly well on this site, which in the modern Now That's What I Call... climate is understandable. But back then they were a good way to hear music that you wouldn't otherwise hear. Prime among these were Label Samplers that showcased all the artists signed to a particular label, many of the albums I subsequently purchased were first heard on these samplers.

What?

WeepingElf View Drop Down

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Posted: November 01 2016 at 10:46

More interesting than the OP's question "What was your first prog album?" is the question "Which album was the first on the market to be considered prog?". I have no good answer on that question. It is not easy to say when prog started. Some people say In the Court of the Crimson King was the first full-fledged prog album, but there certainly were albums that can be considered prog before, such as Days of Future Passed by the Moody Blues. Even Sgt. Pepper's ... has some degree of progginess.

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timothy leary View Drop Down

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Posted: November 01 2016 at 11:03

^ here we go

Larkstongue41 View Drop Down

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Posted: November 01 2016 at 11:34

I had already listened to the whole Pink Floyd catalogue and Si on Avait Besoin d'une Cinquieme Saison, but I consider In The Court of the Crimson King to be my first prog album ever. It's when I got this one that my musical interests exponentially started to grow, that I discovered prog rock and that I listened to music the way I do it now. You see, I had been a hip-hop fan most of my life so I had a somewhat different approach to music when I listened to, say, Pink Floyd at the time compared to the approach I now have since Court. Just like OP said, this album literally changed my life.

Edited by Larkstongue41 - November 01 2016 at 11:35

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DeadSouls

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Posted: November 01 2016 at 11:36

In the Court of the Crimson King.

Dean

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Posted: November 01 2016 at 11:55

^ someone didn't read the OP Wink

timothy leary wrote:

^ here we go

...and why not, not everyone here was present the last twelvety ten times this came up...

WeepingElf wrote:

More interesting¹ than the OP's question "What was your first prog album?" is the question "Which album was the first on the market to be considered prog?". I have no good answer on that question. It is not easy to say when prog started. Some people say In the Court of the Crimson King was the first full-fledged prog album, but there certainly were albums that can be considered prog before, such as Days of Future Passed by the Moody Blues. Even Sgt. Pepper's ... has some degree of progginess.

Here you go: www.progarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=69508 - there are 600 post in that thread discussing that very subject² and lo et behold it is still open so feel free to chip-in with your tuppenny-worth of never-seen that-before wisdom. (Note: other "what was the 1st Prog album" threads are available).

¹ In the interests of public safety I should warn people that neither topic is quite as interesting as you may be lead to believe, the reality bite is arguments over which album was the first get tiresome really quickly and while it is fun to say what your first Prog album was, reading about other people's isn't as riviting as reading, say "The C Programming Language" by Kernighan and Ritchie, or the list of ingredients on the back of tin of Plumrose chopped ham with pork.

² While it is factually accurate that the thread contains 600 posts, not all of them are strictly "on topic", quite a few misread the title and posted their first Prog album and there is a hilarious bit in the middle where a befuddled numpty got extremely confused about how forums work, oh how we laughed.

Edited by Dean - November 02 2016 at 05:17

What?

phonewind

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Posted: November 01 2016 at 12:03

I think that I opened up a can of worms.

Dean

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Posted: November 01 2016 at 12:15

phonewind wrote:

I think that I opened up a can of worms.

Nah, it's not your fault David, we can be like this at times. Grumpy old men shouting at the neighbour's kids running across the lawn.

However, if you edit your first post in this thread and change the title to "Your First Prog Album" that would save 50% of the confusion. Wink

Edited by Dean - November 01 2016 at 12:15

What?

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Posted: November 01 2016 at 12:25

phonewind wrote:

I think that I opened up a can of worms.

Can of Worms?? I think that was my first prog album. No wait, it was ELP's debut. Never mind.

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Kingsnake

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Posted: November 01 2016 at 13:22

Days of Future Passed.

Edited by Kingsnake - November 01 2016 at 13:25

SteveG

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Posted: November 01 2016 at 14:00

I'm 65 years old. Damned if I can remember. I heard the debut KC at a friends house right after buying Abbey Road by the Beatles. Perhaps Abby Road then. It's second side is prog to me.

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Dean

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Posted: November 01 2016 at 14:17

Kingsnake wrote:

Days of Future Passed.

..so DoFP was the first Prog album you heard and/or bought? I'm impressed, most people start somewhere in the middle of a genre and then pick earlier albums at random.

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someone_else View Drop Down

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Posted: November 01 2016 at 14:25

Relics - Pink Floyd

doompaul

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Posted: November 01 2016 at 14:45

I'm pretty sure it was Aqualung.

Thatfabulousalien View Drop Down

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Posted: November 01 2016 at 14:51

Atom Heart Mother, first album I ever brought

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phonewind

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Posted: November 01 2016 at 15:09

I've been reading down the threads. I think it might have been Thick As A Brick without even knowing it was freaking prog. Back in the days of vinyl. My dad would say turn that goddamned noise down.

hellogoodbye View Drop Down

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Posted: November 01 2016 at 15:13

crimson_smoog View Drop Down

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Posted: November 01 2016 at 15:15

Not really Prog, but introduced me to the genre, "Yes - 90125".

It was, more or less, in 2011 (14 years old). By the way, "Owner of a Lonely Heart" is played so much in the Brazilian rock radio that i listen, so...

Even though, only in 2013 i began to dig Prog Rock and i don't remember the first prog album. Probably it was some from Rush or Yes. But the first album that i worshipped is "Rush - 2112".

Edited by crimson_smoog - November 01 2016 at 15:20

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Kingsnake

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Posted: November 01 2016 at 15:30

My first albums were:

Saga - Behaviour / Heads or Tales
Moody Blues - This is the Moody Blues
Queen - Miracle / Greatest Hits
Jethro Tull - Thick as a Brick
Camel - Mirage
Barclay James Harvest - Octoberon / Turn of the Tide
Alphaville - the Breathtaking Blue

Can't remember wich was my actual first. I was 12 or 13 when I got into buying records. I immediately bought progrock, because I wanted to rebel against the top40, others listened to.
Saga was and still is the most important band to me.

I think it was Queen or Phil Collins that I really first listened to before I was 12.
Guess Greatest Hits by Queen was one of the albums my aunt gave me when I was 10 or so. Together with Hawkwind and Black Sabbath. But I wasn't really ready for that.