Grateful Dead

No, I agree completely.

Micky doesn't need subjectivity or objectivity to get himself ideas.  I'm not (as you say) "ruffled", I'm stoically pointing out that specious comments are "alternative facts" even if they appear to be supported by subjective anecdotal evidence. 

And just as Micky has become a self-caricature of the people's [keyboard] rebel he thinks he once was, I have adopted an over-the-top self-parodying tone throughout this thread to highlight the absolute silliness of the assertion that The Grateful Deaf would have been added in a flash if they had been English. Jim(forest) picked-up on the tongue-in-cheek humour in my posts here and I hope you will eventually, ['...an Appalachian zither from a hole in the ground' : how many clues do you need?].

The implication that there is an inherent and ingrained anti-American bias here at the PA (I couldn't care less for "outside") is secondary to that but is just as silly. I'll openly admit to disliking non-Prog Americana with a passion, there is a finite limit to the amount of southern fried electric cowboy music sung through the nose that I can listen to that is determined solely by my reaction time to hitting the "off" button on the radio. Fortunately none of that is Progressive Rock so my whining about it is not only irrelevant, it is also never an argument I could seriously use as reason for objecting to an addition - additions here are not based upon personal predilections (despite the sour-grape claims that they are). Nationalism aside, and I don't see anyone complaining the dearth of non-Italian bands in RPI, it could simply be that those US bands from the 'classic period' were either (a) a parallel development of Psych that was unrelated to Prog Rock or (b) just not very good. I vote for (a) myself regardless of how subjectively good or bad the music is or isn't.

And all this without rising to the blatantly obvious baiting "a bunch of hacks in charge of additions" remark. [But if Micky would care to indicate where he would like his new arsehole ripped, I'll see what I can do to oblige] 

Fair enough ... 

But then, the US is probably three, four or five times bigger and larger than all of those countries together. So the numbers are ... not being exactly interpreted correctly.

The US, for all intents and purposes, with their differences, from East to West, could almost be separated into 4 or 5 countries when it comes to defining music in America. The GD is not a good representative of the NY scene, or anything in NY is not a good representative of the SF/LA scene either ... and neither is Nashville!

Just for starters.

If anything, the GD could/should get some credit for the very long cuts and the extending of the trips, which I think a lot of European bands heard and enjoyed many times. Did these become an influence ... is another story and would require more study, and it's possible ... in FEELING, but not likely in journalistic strictly speaking progressive terms!

But we don't discuss feelings any more! They are not journalistic!

Is there a section here about the definition of prog? I've never found an in-depth, musicological discussion here, but haven't really spent too much time looking. I've read a couple of academic (or pseudo-academic at least) books on progressive rock and find it interesting how they try and categorize it. Playing in odd time signatures seems to be a pretty important criteria - again, Rush, Yes, Genesis, King Crimson. Improvisation not so much, and yet it was an integral part of KC. The folk music element was essential to KC & ELP - maybe the Grateful Dead were an American version of that? 

But ultimately, I wouldn't categorize the Grateful Dead as "prog" - to me, they are one of those bands that transcend genre. 

Yeah, you'd have thought so, but with only 711 artists listed Germany isn't quite the Prog Nation it would at first seem to be.  

As for Prog per capita:

Once again, I merely present the numbers, how anyone interprets them is entirely up to them.