Saga vs Triumph

Next to Rush these are probably the two most well known prog/prog related bands from Canada. I almost wasn't going to do it because I wasn't sure if Triumph were in here but they are under prog related so that's good enough for me.  

Edited by AFlowerKingCrimson - February 15 2020 at 14:57

Saga easy, but I do like me some Triumph.

AFlowerKingCrimson wrote: JD wrote: Ok, just to be clear. As a full fledged born in the snow (ok, in May but it was still cold) Let me make this perfectly clear. Triumph is about as prog as Loverboy, Streetheart or Heli. All good rock bands but NOT prog. I mean come on...really THAT being said, Saga is a proggy pop band. I've seen them live in a bar in London ON back in thier early years. They put on a great show. So Saga by a mile. Triumph are still proggy enough to be prog related on here while the others are not. While I'm not an expert on Triumph I do hear prog elements in their music. Over all maybe about as proggish as Zebra(if anyone on here knows who they were).

AFlowerKingCrimson wrote: Cristi wrote: AFlowerKingCrimson wrote: JD wrote: Ok, just to be clear. As a full fledged born in the snow (ok, in May but it was still cold) Let me make this perfectly clear. Triumph is about as prog as Loverboy, Streetheart or Heli. All good rock bands but NOT prog. I mean come on...really THAT being said, Saga is a proggy pop band. I've seen them live in a bar in London ON back in thier early years. They put on a great show. So Saga by a mile. Triumph are still proggy enough to be prog related on here while the others are not. While I'm not an expert on Triumph I do hear prog elements in their music. Over all maybe about as proggish as Zebra(if anyone on here knows who they were). well, this poll should have been in the proto/prog-related lounge. Not too late for someone to move it(I don't have the authority though). I didn't even know they have polls there.

I wish everyone would just have fun with polls/forums and not harp on semantics of where something should or should not be listed or one person's unhappiness with another's method of lisstening to music, etc. There's plenty to argue about just sticking to the topic.

Amen(as far as the nitpicking about prog labels go). 

AFlowerKingCrimson wrote: Amen(as far as the nitpicking about prog labels go).  I'm not really that into putting music into boxes though. I like other kinds of rock(including arena rock) so a little bit of  prog in otherwise mainstream sounding rock never really bothered me. It's not an all or nothing thing for me.

I quite like putting things in boxes, but I tend not to put things in a single box or too tidy a box, more like fuzzy, porous multiverse cubes. I find genre descriptors useful for discovering and describing music. a problem with boxes can be that people box themselves in too much.

progmatic wrote: I wish everyone would just have fun with polls/forums and not harp on semantics of where something should or should not be listed or one person's unhappiness with another's method of lisstening to music, etc. There's plenty to argue about just sticking to the topic.

I share similar sentiments, even though I've felt compelled to explain, say best-placement many times. There are general guidelines, but it can be very inexact. I love good well-reasoned arguments with some depth and breadth, especially when the parties aren't at cross-purposes and seem to be trying to listen to each other rather than win points, but bickering and nit-picking can be tedious indeed. Sometimes a certain negativity pervades this forum, and the worst can be in cases where people are extremely negative about others perceived negativity. To each his or her own tastes and I appreciate exploring different perspectives. It's good to try to keep an open mind, just not so open that one's brains fall out as the saying goes. But I digress.

Edited by Logan - February 08 2020 at 16:14

^ the Prog label is an interesting one for me, partially because there is such a breadth of music under the Prog umbrella, and it doesn't have clear boundaries, and that Prog rather by definition doesn't fit tidy boxes. It can be seen as a progression from rock music (breaking established conventions of rock), non-generic non-rock canonical, and it can bring any style of music into it. It's so diverse. Some Prog is more progressive in this sense than others, and Prog is a rather nebulous label often.

Prog or progressive works best as label for me when other labels are also applied, which is reason why I like the multi-genre labeling system of places like Rate Your Music. I'm more likely to enjoy something labeled Progressive- Psychedelic-Jazz-Folk than Progressive-AOR-Country-Cock Rock, but I may like both or neither or prefer the Cock Rock one. Even if the labeling is sound, and of course I gravitate to certain styles more than others, it's not an absolute given. There's a lot of Prog that I don't like, and a huge amount of non-Prog that I do like. I tend to be an Avant Prog kind of guy, amongst other things, but that hardly means that I would like everything labelled that way in PA. The category itself is diverse. The musicianship, vocals (mostly I have listened to instrumental music as classical music was my first love), production may all be of high quality yet it does not musically resonate with me. What I sometimes find sad sometimes is the people's expectations seems to ruin music overmuch sometimes. For instance, a band or filmmaker tries a new approach and it gets panned for being different, whereas perhaps various critics would have been kinder to it had they not come in with the wrong expectations. I like labels, as inexact as they often are, as general guides for discovery and for describing music to others, but it doesn't tell you the whole story. I like to take albums and other arts on their own terms, but comparisons are only natural. People complain when they all sound the same, when they sound different.... This amorphous boxes tangent might have been a good discussion to have in David's boxes thread.

OK I know Triumph aren't really prog but I just like them more, I've got plenty of time for Triumph and I really don't mind Saga but they just don't provide for me the same quality of entertainment.  I voted Triumph. Triumph are fun, Rik Emmett is one of the greatest guitarists I know of. 

Edited by Enchant X - February 08 2020 at 18:44