1-2-3

Looking back over previous posts about the subject of this band and the question of them being the First Progressive Rock band. The answer now seems conclusive - Yes (and ELP and King Crimson). All were indebted to 1-2-3, as Sky TV's recent documentary "Trailblazers of Prog Rock" confirms. Interestingly (and perhaps appropriately), the focus was on 1-2-3, not the later incarnation, Clouds.  Many recent major publications have also vindicated (and validated) the band. It's only taken forty years! 

Yes, "indebted" could indeed be said to be too strong, and your post contains a fine balance perhaps missing from my own. The only thing I'd point out is that (unfortunately) the Clouds' recordings are not indicative of what 1-2-3 was like, other than "Sing-Sing-Sing" (from "Up Above our Heads", the 2nd album). Other than the rough recording of "America" from 1967, there's nothing else on record. Nevertheless, there is no doubt that 1-2-3 were playing a version of what Prog became two years before it happened, and the award you suggest is more than fair, as is the qualification that "Prog was an evolutionary process". 

They indeed deserve recognition, as many other prog or proto-prog bands of the era, that are hardly know today. 

They reformatted in '64 as 1-2-3, so they were absolutely in existence and active before the Nice.   Seems to me there is little doubt of their personal impact on British rock, but the question is were they 'The trailblazers of prog rock' ?   Maybe, maybe not;  How much trail must be blazed before something becomes what it became?   And who were they taking inspiration from?   When fully audited it is fairly clear they were not a prog band and maybe not even the nebulous 'protoprog' band, and so cannot be credited with anything other than what they actually did.  

What is clear is that rock itself is progressive, was and is a malleable art form, and appears to always have been in a chrysalitic state of development.   All rock was progressing or has progressed past its initial stages and though Rock 'n Roll persisted as a singular entity, rock as a style is not bound to itself and was a simple enough and young enough form to allow such internal metamorphosis.




Edited by Atavachron - February 09 2017 at 20:20

Conclusive my arse. 

Sky Trailblazers was good, apart from Noddy Holder's commentary. But great to see Clouds getting due credit, but forty years too late.