 Frenetic Zetetic wrote:
^To add to this, I find that most bands of that era just "played rock n roll", and the public came up with the labels after the fact. Yes was doing their version of rock and roll. My father insists nobody called it prog rock and they might as well have been emulating the Stones for all anyone knew.It's really those top tier bands (Yes, Genesis, Gentle Giant, VDGG, etc) that exemplified what we now know and love as prog!
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I was lucky ... from 1974 on I had right next to me, Guy Guden and his Space Pirate Radio (separate thread on this board!), and one of the first things that Guy's show would do for your noodles was to show you how much you were missing if you only listened to those bands ... there was music elsewhere that was vastly different, and deserved the attention it could never have, because folks were stuck in many of those bands.
GG never really "fit" into the big and better known groups, but it was a strong player and staple in Guy's shows, not only his signature show but also the others during the week. The same for VDGG and Peter Hammill, that got a lot more exposure through Guy than anyone else ... COMBINED!
GG had its greatest appreciation in places like Italy, I think, where a lot of rock music was inspired by classical music and a lot of it, had musical qualities that were closer to classical music concepts than otherwise. GG as a composition, would immediately get everyone's attention in that environment, that was not sucked up by the music establishment and the harsh top ten system, that prevents you from hearing anything else, because it can't be good if it does not sell.
Guy's motto (he had many!) usually was ... none of the hits none of the time ... and this allowed a lot of new music to be played, that most folks, even in this board, do not discuss or mention, or if it shows up, its a sort of occasional thing ... and disappears just as fast, because of all this and that about the top three, yet again! And articles that supposedly show how important it is to graph messages in a bottle that are 20 to 30 years old!
The hardest part ... to deal with ... was always the reaction of other folks at the station (a commercial one at that!), when they heard different things ... it only made you wonder ... are you EVER listening to music, or just ... agreeing with your friends so you look cool and can try to take that blonde out to ... !!!!!! I guess that the music loses its value quickly there ... somewhere, right? And 30 years later with grown children and a house ... some folks, STILL, have not "heard" that other music, despite it being mentioned!
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Best Gentle Giant songs for a Symphonic Prog fan
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