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How did you get into Prog?

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Cag71 View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Cag71 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: June 05 2018 at 09:59
I grew up in the 70s and 80s, and I always liked bands like Pink Floyd, Moody Blues, Rush, early Genesis, Yes, Jethro Tull, The Who, Talking Heads, Roxy Music, Deep Purple and Led Zeppelin. And then: in a record store I found a various artists compilation entitled "Progression: A Progressive Rock Anthology" with a few very familiar names on it, bought it and my journey of discovery went on from there.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote bankstatement Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: June 13 2018 at 20:13
I didn't experience the "golden era of prog" in the 70s, nor did my family or friends listen to prog. I think most of why I got into it was radio exposure to some prog artists that had somewhat "big" hits, like Yes, Peter Gabriel/Genesis, and Pink Floyd. I liked their more accessible songs so I checked out all of their discography, and stumbled upon prog albums I really liked. I think the moment I realized that I wanted to explore more prog was when I heard Foxtrot by Genesis. I was confused the first time I heard it, since it wasn't what I was expecting from Peter Gabriel or Genesis, but eventually I grew to really love it and I was inspired to explore the genre.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Lewian Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: June 14 2018 at 05:01
At the age of 8 or 9, my mother took me to the cinema to watch the Yellow Submarine film. I absolutely loved it and became an instant Beatles fan, although at the time it was only the Beatles (and some Abba and other stuff that was around at the time). At 10 I thought that I had grown out of it, sold all my Beatles albums and was interested in other things than music, as proper grown up people are. Tongue Worst mistake of my life. Anyway, for  two years or so I didn't miss my music.

At 12 my father played Watch by Manfred Mann's Earthband in the car (he just grabbed a tape that was sitting around there, he didn't even know this was MMEB and told me initially that it was Elton John, who actually was on the other side of the tape; he himself wasn't very interested in rock music although he had a few good albums from a wilder past) and I was totally stunned. This was really the one moment that made me a music lover for the rest of my life. I started to go to flea markets and to find out about all kinds of music that could excite me as much as Watch did; much of it was prog (I discovered Pink Floyd only days later), despite this being the time, 1979, when prog was in general decline. Actually I got into some end 70s/early 80s new wave and post punk music in parallel. They can happily exist side by side.


Edited by Lewian - June 14 2018 at 05:04
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote dreamthr Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: June 25 2018 at 22:36
I was an 18 year old piano / organist, mostly into British rock (Beatles etc.) at the time.

One late night, I was listening to the new AOR station WNEW-FM (NYC). I heard a song that in its background came a sound that was mesmerizing and unknown to me. I didn't get the title of the song or the band's name, as numerous recordings were being played one after another. But I did remember something.

The next day I went to this huge record store in Jamaica, Queens. I went to one of the salesmen, and I sang to him what I heard, hoping he would know who and what it was. I sang "Timothy Leary's dead, no no he's outside, looking in". The salesman told me it was The Moody Blues; the song "Legend Of A Mind" from the album "In Search Of The Lost Chord". Of course I bought the album and later found out that the sound I heard being played came from an instrument called the MELLOTRON. That electronic sound was what I wanted.

Not long after, I didn't buy a Mellotron, but instead was offered the MiniMoog Model D by a salesman in Sam Ash. He said the band "Emerson Lake & Palmer" used it. I didn't know of them either. Then I listened to "Tarkus"; of which I couldn't believe how anyone could sound and play like that. ELP became my band.

Years later in 2006, after collecting many synthesizers and playing in my own prog-rock band, I met Keith Emerson for the first time after his concert at BB Kings NYC. What I first said to him came out naturally, straight from my heart. I said "Thank you for changing my life". He replied, "Thank you for listening".

However, recently I realized that it wasn't Keith Emerson that introduced to prog-rock. It was Mike Pinder of the Moody Blues and his Mellotron.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (2) Thanks(2)   Quote BrianFromOkc Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 01 2018 at 19:20
"Invisible Touch" gets beaten up pretty badly on this site, and that's understandable. But it'll always have a special place in my heart, because it was my gateway into Prog. In 1987/88 I was just getting into rock music, and I saw one of those "Two cassettes for a penny" advertisements in the Sunday newspaper. Invisible Touch (Genesis) and No Jacket Required (Collins) were all over the radio and I liked the singles, so I sent off for those albums.

I was just a kid -- I'd never heard the term "progressive rock". My uncle saw that I'd bought Invisible Touch and he said "Oh, I was into Genesis back in the '70s when Peter Gabriel was in the band". I said "They were around way back in the '70s?! And the Sledgehammer guy was in the band too?!" I started acquiring their discography in reverse order (Mama, then abacab, then Duke...). Then my uncle gave me a copy of The Lamb. I thought "Are these the same guys? What the hell am I listening to? One song runs right into the next, without the music stopping!" For me, prog was definitely an acquired taste.

I'm glad I discovered the '80s Genesis first and worked my way backward, because I got to hear the band START with pop, and move INTO prog. I can appreciate both genres (for different reasons of course). I can certainly understand why the older fans, who'd followed Genesis from the early days, would have no use for their '80s stuff. Today I'm a total prog-snob with 700-800 albums, and it's ironic that it began with Invisible Touch. Funny to think about it now.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (1) Thanks(1)   Quote Finnforest Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 01 2018 at 19:32
Shortly after transitioning from mostly pop stations on AM radio to FM rock stations, I dropped the needle on Fragile.  It wasn't long after that I had the whole catalog on vinyl.  Loved it all, although Yessongs was the deal sealer.  Eventually, Topographic Oceans became my favorite. 
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote presdoug Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 01 2018 at 19:42
1985, I'd grown up (sort of) with a superficial awareness of progressive rock; I had friends who had it and played groups like Pink Floyd, ELP, Gentle Giant, Genesis, Yes, King Crimson, and I thought it was ok, but just ok. I was more enamoured with heavy rock/heavy metal at the time. Then a close friend of mine lent me four prog albums, two by a band called Triumvirat who had an album with a mouse in an egg shell (?) called Illusions On A Double Dimple, and one with a mouse under a magnifying glass called Old Loves Die Hard, and two records by Nektar called Recycled, and Magic Is A Child. The Nektar albums were interesting, but what really was a game changer and lit a fire under me like no other album I had heard was Triumvirat's Illusions record. It epitomised for me what real progressive rock was, and I found the album incredibly positive and refreshing, and thought to myself, what an improvement over heavy metal. Instrumentally and vocally, a strong and solid effort that has not worn out it's welcome in all the decades since that spring of 1985. I thought Triumvirat's Old Loves was interesting, too, but not in the same league as Illusions On A Double Dimple. I would end up buying both Triumvirat records in the fall of 1988. Old Loves grew on me after having bought it, and now holds a special place in my music collection; not forgetting Nektar, who I have many records by, have stood the test of time for me as well..
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote verslibre Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 01 2018 at 20:24
Tangerine Dream was my gateway drug into prog. I first heard their music via The Keep on HBO. Not too long afterward, I met a guy in high school was who into TD. Afterward came Jean-Michel Jarre, Kitaro, John Carpenter, Vangelis, Synergy and Kraftwerk. Anything with analog synthesizers blew my mind. 

This same friend introduced me to Tull. Their folk-tinged sound blew my mind in a completely different way.

Then I met another guy whose middle name was Rush (not the political commentator, lol). I encountered ELP via the video for "Touch and Go," which got regular rotation on MTV. I caught Yes' videos for "Owner" and "It Can Happen" the same way. 

As a fan of Dawn of the Dead since seeing it as a kid in '78 (I wasn't even eight at the time, haha), I remembered how cool the music was. So I ordered the LP from Fangoria's mail order dept. Mind. Blown. Again!

It's been a hell of a ride...with no foreseeable end!
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote zwordser Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 02 2018 at 12:10
Originally posted by zwordser zwordser wrote:

I have two stories: One for getting into prog when I didn't know what "prog" was, and another about getting into prog as "prog".

The first Prog/Rush I ever heard was at about age 12-13 when a friend of a friend played a cassette of 2112. The hard riffing with a weird-sounding interposed Bible quote: "And the meek shall inherit the earth" and the naked guy in front of the pentagram kind of freaked me out, and I told them I thought it must be Satanic (grew up in a religious home).  But it wasn't long hanging out with these guys that I was really getting into other Rush, especially Moving Pictures, and I came around to 2112 fairly quickly. Yes 90125 was also a big early-teen music staple.

I'll save the other story for another post.



OK, so here's the "other post" for "prog as prog" (almost forgot about this).

I got a CD of "Classic Yes" sometime in the early-mid- 90's, and listened to it constantly for months, totally  fascinated by tracks like Yours is No Disgrace and Heart of the Sunrise. Still didn't know this was "Prog" at first, but it was in exploring more of Yes's music that came across the term "progressive" to define a genre (don't remember exactly when, tho).

Then sometime around the turn of the Millenium, I started listening to AOL radio. At the time they had an "all Yes" station that I would frequent, which eventually led me to sometimes listen to their "Progressive Rock" station.  At first didn't like a lot of the music, but it was one day that "Mother Russia" came on the air and Annie's voice put a chill (the good kind) down my spine.  This made me listen to the Prog station even more, especially as the short-lived Yes station went off the air, and I began collecting Renaissance's music, and listening constantly.   

Well, long(er) story short, been collecting prog albums for the last 15 years, and now have hundreds.

But the beginning was Rush-to-Yes-to-Renaissance-and beyond.





Edited by zwordser - October 02 2018 at 12:12
Z
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote AFlowerKingCrimson Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 02 2018 at 13:23
[Pink Floyd, Moody Blues, Rush, early Genesis, Yes, Jethro Tull, The Who, Talking Heads, Roxy Music, Deep Purple and Led Zeppelin.]

Not that it matters(especially since I like all those bands quite a bit)but only about half of them would consistently be considered progressive rock with a few of them being on the bubble.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote enigma Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 02 2018 at 14:42
It started with the live Dire Straits album - Alchemy.
The long, multi section tracks on there (once upon a time in the West, sultans of swing, and especially Telegraph Road) gave me a taste for long tracks that go somewhere, take you on a journey.
From there I got into Marillion (it was early/mid 80’s so fugazi/misplaced childhood plus Grendel etc).
I then borrowed Floyd’s “collection of great dance songs” on cassette from the library (having previously only knowing Another brick pt 2).
It was essentially the guitar of Knopfler, Rothery & Gilmour that appealed.

Vdgg (world record & quiet zone) soon followed....

I also appreciate the longer stuff by non prog artists especially Down in the Sewer by the Stranglers.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Quinino Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 02 2018 at 16:17
My musical awareness to something beyond the usual radio top ten (mostly French chanson at the time - early seventies here in the far southern Europe) had a sudden boost while first listening to Camel's Snow Goose at one of my cousin's friend home.

I then still had only a radio (and a reel-to-reel mono tape), but when sometime later bought my first "pick-up" (turntable, for the younger generations LOL) the journey was initiated with Trilogy, Dark Side and TAAB if my memory serves me well.

But what blew my senses away were in fact Tales and Lamb, when I had sufficient savings to buy them, and the one and only Fish Out Of Water (and Godbluff, I was forgetting)


Edited by Quinino - October 02 2018 at 16:24
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Atavachron Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 02 2018 at 16:36
I was born in it, molded by it.   I didn't hear pop until I was already a man and by then it was nothing to me but deafening.

"Too often we enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought."   -- John F. Kennedy
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote micky Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 02 2018 at 19:14
funny....  I was digging Huey and Lowis and thh News back in the day when this hot blond with large mammary glands and f**k me eyes said .. hey there Michael have you ever listened to Magma...

ahhh.. who.. what. Nah daring..  who are they? Are they from England? I haven't seen them on MTV

Well come to my place lets smoke a bowl and I'll turn you on to something really good


I'm sure not what was the better part of that night... Magma is great.. and prog is innteresting no doubt.. but come on... try doing the horizontal bop while stoned to De Futura... it is an experience. 

 Freaky women rule... 
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote AFlowerKingCrimson Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 02 2018 at 19:17
^ Hey come on, save those stories for April First! :P 
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote micky Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 02 2018 at 19:26
hahahaha
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote AFlowerKingCrimson Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 02 2018 at 19:33
I'm not sure which is harder to believe. The hot blonde with big boobs who liked Magma or you digging Huey Lewis and the news! Tongue
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote The Dark Elf Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 02 2018 at 19:40
Originally posted by SteveG SteveG wrote:

While people, hopefully, mature and move away from drugs (except for the legalized pot craze) I often laugh at the amount of prog listeners that alter their own histories and say they never once listened to Dark Side Of the Moon high.


Ummm...back in 1973 everyone listened to Dark Side of the Moon high. Whether it was on the turntable or not. It just kept playing. Also, watching Rankin-Bass' Rudolph the Rednosed Reindeer high on mescaline will cause the muscles in your face to atrophy into a permanent grin.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote twseel Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 03 2018 at 09:35
I think I've told the story before in a different thread, I might not have my facts as straight now. I was around 14 years old and listening to classic rock radio that my mom put on some times and I loved a bunch of those bands (Dire Straits, Supertramp, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Queen, Muse, Focus). Then one time I was at my aunt's house and her husband had put on some epic, noodly music, and I was intrigued. I asked who it was and he said "it's The Flower Kings, they're 'progressive rock'". Then I got out my computer and quickly discovered all the classic prog bands, then this website, and then I kept digging deeper, through the archives and later the forums to listen to increasingly weirder and more obscure stuff, until stepping back a bit when the logical limits of weirdness and obscurity were to embrace all (well, most) of the strains of prog again.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote AFlowerKingCrimson Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 03 2018 at 13:18
^Do you know what Flower Kings album your uncle was playing?
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