Who do you like the BEST? - Progressive Rock Music Forum

ew

^An Xmas song made you change your mind? LOL

Magma America Great Make Again

Magma snuck in ahead of Weather Report, Can, Henry Cow and ELP. Easily equal favourites.

Flight123 wrote:

Logan wrote:

Clearly ELPs music is still influencing bands and finding new fans, 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).

I became a fan of both ELP and Henry Cow when I was discovering prog in the mid-70s as a teenager. I was pretty much into both bands equally. I was unable to see ELP live until 1992 but fortunate enough to see the Cow twice in 77. Both bands get double respect as they both decided to throw in the towel roughly at the same time (although ELP did not announce their split until 79, they effectively split after Love Beach in 78). Although the Cow did not have the luxury of a contractual obligation album, having been finally ditched by Virgin in 77, they produced the last, great prog album with Western Culture. ELP's group side of Works I came before that but those 20 minutes compare more than favourably with what their other contemporaries were doing at the time. Admittedly, Cow fans were thin on the ground in the late 70s in the UK (although the venue was packed the first time I saw them, not so much the second time) but ELP fans were also under fire from the 'hip'.

A very engaging post, thank you. :) I do wish that I could have seen both ELP and Henry Cow live.

I have nothing really of value to add, so in the words of Led Zep I "ramble on." I was just a nipper in the 70s, so I missed out on the progressive music scene when it was big (even if say Henry Cow and ELP were pretty different scenes). The Cow has always been a pretty underground group, unlike ELP which was filling stadiums at the height of their popularity. I have heard "War" on university radio. The commercially successful, arena filling band that seemed to maintain its hip appeal while appealing to diverse audiences best is Pink Floyd. But then they were not tarnished, I think, nearly so much for being Prog (I distanced them from the Prog movement when I really got into Prog bands in the 80s). They had big shows, but didn't seem to have the same excesses, including bombast and show-offery as ELP.

Just a fanboy passin' through.

Henry Cow
Henry Cow
Henry Cow
And also Henry Cow

Classical music isn't dead, it's more alive than it's ever been. It's just not on MTV.

https://www.soundcloud.com/user-322914325

Magma America Great Make Again

I've gone for the complex compositions of the Cow.

"There is nothing new except what has been forgotten" - Marie Antoinette

It's a toss up between ELP, Soft Machine and Weather Report, and I have to go with ELP.

Godspeed

Can

Magma

Henry Cow

Soft Machine

Weather Report

ELP

the rest

"Larks' tongues. Wrens' livers. Chaffinch brains. Jaguars' earlobes. Wolf nipple chips. Get 'em while they're hot. They're lovely. Dromedary pretzels, only half a denar."

Weather Report!

"A squid eating dough in a polyethylene bag is fast and bulbous. Got me?"

Poll Question: Yer fave amongst these?
Poll Choice	Votes	Poll Statistics
Magma	14	[13.46%]
Soft Machine	10	[9.62%]
Dream Theater	6	[5.77%]
Emerson, Lake & Palmer	30	[28.85%]
Godspeed You Black Emperor	3	[2.88%]
Tool	9	[8.65%]
Weather Report	8	[7.69%]
Can	6	[5.77%]
The Mars Volta	8	[7.69%]
Henry Cow	10	[9.62%]
This topic is closed, no new votes accepted