Who do you like the BEST?

Henry Cow 4.me

Soft Machine

It's between Henry Cow and Soft Machine for me. I can't choose which one I like more, but I'll go with Henry Cow, since LegEnd is one of my #1s of all-time.

What's the deal here?  You have listed nearly all my favourite bands!  Can't vote, won't vote...

Really hard, but Magma over Henry cow, Can, Soft and WR.

probably would have voted for ELP but they are surpisingly dominating

voted for Tool

Magma just over ELP with the bovine outfit following at a little distance as third.

I am often surprised at the apparent disdain for ELP who, in the day, were one of the biggest, most gifted and exciting bands ever (beyond prog rock).  I lived through the late 70s hostility to ELP (in part fuelled by the high priests of punk) but its almost as if it is still around today whereas many of their contemporaries have been forgiven and reassessed.

Can... I'm quite used to vote a minority choice and there is some tough competition here but still I rarely see my choice as outrageously underrated as here.

Lewian wrote: Can... I'm quite used to vote a minority choice and there is some tough competition here but still I rarely see my choice as outrageously underrated as here.

At least eight of the respondents have expressed their love of Can here. Like others, I expect, I didn't go with Can, but I was tempted. It's hard for me when a list contains several of my favourite bands.

Another way of doing a poll is by each person assigning points to each band (say 10 points to one), and only write-ins count, and I suspect that Can would be doing better in this poll if that system were used.

Octopus-4 wrote: All those active in the 70s. ELP,Magma,Soft Machine,Henry Cow...I voted for EL&P because they are apparently the least loved on this site

Flight123 wrote: I am often surprised at the apparent disdain for ELP who, in the day, were one of the biggest, most gifted and exciting bands ever (beyond prog rock).  I lived through the late 70s hostility to ELP (in part fuelled by the high priests of punk) but its almost as if it is still around today whereas many of their contemporaries have been forgiven and reassessed.

And yet ELP has a big lead in this poll, partially because I think that votes have become split between the more avant-oriented/ quirky/ experimental groups.

That said, it has seemed that ELP went out of fashion largely in the 70s and never really came back into fashion. Many others that never achieved nearly the same commercial success back in Prog's heyday have been rediscovered or discovered by new audiences and are lauded by the underground scene.

I'm not sure how much its about being forgiven and re-assessed, because I think it's the too-young-to-have-appreciated-Prog-during-its-heyday-crowd that is particularly fueling the Prog revival in interest.

I used to really like the group, but now I find most of the band's music quite unlistenable. Some people say that it represents the worst excesses of Prog. It still has many fans, but also many detractors. Clearly ELPs music is still influencing bands and finding new fan, but it may not be as hip these days as, say, Can and Henry Cow (though I still suspect it has a wider audience than either of those).

Incidentally, to tie the posts about Can and ELP, Can was loved by Johnny Rotten of the Sex Pistols, whereas he had spoken badly of ELP (he did become friends with Emerson later).