Feeling Bored? See what you can do!

 

IN THE BEGINNING there were five members of Charterhouse School who ONE DAY decided to form a band. That band was GENESIS. They were LOOKING FOR SOMEONE to promote and produce their first album when a WINDOW of opportunity came along in the shape of Jonathan King, a DUKE of record producers working BEHIND THE LINES at the time. The album "FROM GENESIS TO REVELATION" entered a LAND OF CONFUSION and MISUNDERSTANDING though when many record stores placed the album in their religious music sections due to the religious-sounding title. The album and first single "SILENT SUN" both flopped, and barely caused any RIPPLES in the music press either, despite Jonathan King CALLING ALL STATIONS to try and promote the album and single on the radio. GENESIS' second single "A WINTER'S TALE" was also met with about as much indifference as A FLY ON A WINDSHIELD by radio stations and barely NO REPLY AT ALL from the music press. Their record company Decca became ENTANGLED in a dispute when it was discovered there was another band in America called GENESIS, but by A TRICK OF THE TAIL, the band managed to keep their name ANYWAY by changing their name to "Revelation" in the United States.

The music business has always been as fickle as a HARLEQUIN, where THE DIVIDING LINE between success and failure depends on a combination of good luck and hard work. Every new band is sailing through UNCERTAIN WEATHER where they can easily be dragged down by the UNDERTOW and SHIPWRECKED by having THE KNIFE stuck into them by their record company or by the music press. THAT'S ALL it takes to finish a band's career. There's NEVER A TIME when it's been easy to make it in the tough music business, but LIKE IT OR NOT, that's just the WAY OF THE WORLD. No astrological WATCHER OF THE SKIES can predict who's going to make it in today's cynical music industry, where the chances of success are about as hard as climbing a WHITE MOUNTAIN of snow before the FADING LIGHTS of DUSK close in.

AFTER THE ORDEAL of seeing the commercial failure of their first album, GENESIS were IN LIMBO and left out IN THE WILDERNESS during a short period of STAGNATION when the band members returned to their studies at Charterhouse. They weren't DOWN AND OUT or TAKING IT ALL TOO HARD though, because making great music was far more than JUST A JOB TO DO for the five talented band members. Contrary to being IN HIDING, GENESIS were just COUNTING OUT TIME in THE WAITING ROOM of THE CINEMA SHOW of life before returning to the recording studio. The band members were confident of THE MUSICAL BOX of talent they had between them and their HORIZONS were positively bright with the general feeling that IT'S GONNA GET BETTER soon. GENESIS were working to a TIME TABLE and they didn't plan on LIVING FOREVER on borrowed time, or waiting around each day until SUPPER'S READY. They were IN TOO DEEP to consider THROWING IT ALL AWAY at this late stage. The band were more than ready to TURN IT ON AGAIN with an INVISIBLE TOUCH of magic with the release of their next album, "TRESPASS". It would be several albums later though before GENESIS were basking in the AFTERGLOW of a successful album release, followed by the DOMINO effect of success breeding further success in the proverbial AISLE OF PLENTY.

 

Thanks! If you like the Genesis story, then you might like this one too, featuring the songs of Pink Floyd.....

 

 

Syd Barrett, the guitarist with Pink Floyd, was a creative genius in his TIME, having written such psychedelic RELICS as "ARNOLD LAYNE" and "SEE EMILY PLAY", where his abstruse lyrics were sometimes OBSCURED BY CLOUDS.  Sadly, his overuse of the psychedelic drug LSD led to BRAIN DAMAGE and mental illness. In A MOMENTARY LAPSE OF REASON, he's rumoured to have walked all the way from London to his home in Cambridge.

It's with SORROW  we remember that Syd Barrett (1946-2006) and Richard Wright (1943-2008) are no longer with us and they're now COMFORTABLY NUMB, having both gone to THE GREAT GIG IN THE SKY. I've never seen Pink Floyd perform live IN THE FLESH, but their music will live on forever.  No Prog-Rock band will ever ECLIPSE the music of Pink Floyd, no matter how much TIME goes by in THE ENDLESS RIVER of eternity.

The space-themed songs of Pink Floyd SPEAK TO ME with special appeal because one of my passions in life is ASTRONOMY DOMINE. It's nice to STOP for a moment and dream of ONE OF THESE DAYS leaving MOTHER Earth behind and flying ROUND AND AROUND the universe forever. It'd be GOODBYE BLUE SKY as I SET THE CONTROLS FOR THE HEART OF THE SUN. I'd be LEARNING TO FLY with A NEW MACHINE capable of unimaginable speeds in INTERSTELLAR OVERDRIVE. I'd fly with the PULSE jets FLAMING past THE DARK SIDE OF THE MOON towards the FAT OLD SUN and then out into the EMPTY SPACES beyond. Eventually, I'd arrive at the Alpha Centauri CLUSTER ONE star system looking for SIGNS OF LIFE where there are TWO SUNS IN THE SUNSET. I've often wondered IS THERE ANYBODY OUT THERE in the vast universe or is there NOBODY HOME.

I REMEMBER A DAY back in the mid-1960's when landing a man on the Moon seemed about as likely as seeing PIGS ON THE WING. At the TIME, THE DOGS OF WAR had just been unleashed in Vietnam, when the USA took the disastrous decision to MEDDLE in a foreign war in a faraway land. The more recent calamitous decision to invade Iraq in 2003 has resonant ECHOES of the Vietnam War. Both terrible wars bring into stark contrast the POLES APART difference between war and peaceful space exploration.

American Presidents KEEP TALKING about one day landing a man on Mars and plans are now COMING BACK TO LIFE for a Mars mission. I have HIGH HOPES that we'll one day land men on Mars and that will be A GREAT DAY FOR FREEDOM. I'll be LOST FOR WORDS if it ever happens in my lifetime. It'll be ANOTHER BRICK IN THE WALL of space exploration where MONEY is no barrier to scientific discovery. The first men on Mars will be FEARLESS explorers who've made THE FINAL CUT and they won't RUN LIKE HELL at the prospect of ONE SLIP-up leaving them MAROONED on a distant planet.

Thanks to the Internet, we're now living through some of THE HAPPIEST DAYS OF OUR LIVES and Prog Archives is ONE OF THE FEW websites devoted to Prog-Rock. It's just the website we needed to BREATHE new life into the genre, which appeared to be dying out in the late 1970's with the arrival of Punk Rock. It was a case of US AND THEM, with "Us", the prog-rockers, ranged against "Them", the punk-rockers. Prog-Rock is now COMING BACK TO LIFE with a vengeance and there's much MORE than A SAUCERFUL OF SECRETS just waiting to be rediscovered in the wonderful world of Prog-Rock. The choice of music these days is virtually unlimited and it's not a case of ANY COLOUR YOU LIKE as long as it's black. To any of my friends who haven't yet discovered this amazing site, I say WISH YOU WERE HERE with me to enjoy it.

I can hear the DELICATE SOUND OF THUNDER outside and the rain's pounding against THE WALL. I'm a lover of all ANIMALS, and I often wonder how  PIGS, SHEEP and DOGS cope when they're ON THE RUN outside in the middle of a thunderstorm. I love to watch a thunderstorm at nighttime and I'll often open the curtains in order to LET THERE BE MORE LIGHT coming in from the distant flashes of lightning, which are never OBSCURED BY CLOUDS.

 

Thanks. I always begin by writing down all of the song titles first onto a sheet of A4 paper, and then I just cross off the songs one by one as I add them into the text. It's a bit like putting a giant jigsaw together, although I usually end up with a few unusable pieces (or songs) left over.

 

Here's a short story featuring the songs of Renaissance.....

 

 

The PROLOGUE to this tale begins with a TRIP TO THE FAIR, held annually by THE SISTERS of Mercy charity. The trip led to THE DISCOVERY of the book "One Thousand and One Nights". I REMEMBER the GOLDEN THREAD of the story concerns THE CAPTIVE HEART of SCHEHERAZADE, THE ENTERTAINER of the RAJAH KHAN, a MIDAS MAN of immense riches with a BLACK FLAME burning in his heart. The AIR OF DRAMA in the OPENING OUT of the story tells how SCHEHERAZADE finds the GOLDEN KEY to saving her life is to relate the tale of the 1001 nights. She wins over the JEKYLL AND HYDE nature of the King with her exotic tales, and he shows her KINDNESS AT THE END by managing to SPARE SOME LOVE in his black heart by marrying his PRECIOUS LOVE. She becomes his queen in this dramatic tale of KINGS AND QUEENS and lost INNOCENCE. One of the PEARLS OF WISDOM I learned from the book is that LOVE GOES ON to conquer all in the end when  LOVE IS ALL you need.

I'm a WANDERER at heart and the book inspired me to travel on a SECRET MISSION to the DISTANT HORIZONS of Istanbul ON THE FRONTIER of Asia aboard the ORIENT EXPRESS. It sometimes feels like time is RUNNING AWAY FROM YOU and I was RUNNING HARD like a BULLET  out of a gun in THE RACE to arrive on time AT THE HARBOUR. I arrived just in time to set sail across the English Channel on the OCEAN GYPSY ferry and leave behind the ISLAND of Great Britain. I love the SOUNDS OF THE SEA and it was a beautiful day IN THE SUNSHINE, underneath the CARPET OF THE SUN which glimmered like sparkling PORCELAIN.

Upon arrival in France, I felt like I was BOUND FOR INFINITY, with the most dramatic adventure IN MY LIFE just beginning. CAN YOU UNDERSTAND how good it felt to realise a dream when I'd LET IT GROW in my heart for so long? I still had a long way to go though but at least I was CLOSER THAN YESTERDAY to realising my dream. The FACE OF YESTERDAY was behind me now because this was the DAY OF THE DREAMER. I dreamed of  travelling to exotic places like the ISLAND of KALYNDA, A MAGICAL ISLE with a WATERFALL which sparkles BLOOD SILVER LIKE MOONLIGHT and where THE VULTURES FLY HIGH in their FLIGHT over distant shores. That was about as likely as seeing FAERIES LIVING AT THE BOTTOM OF THE GARDEN though and my dreams vanished as quickly as the flames on a funeral pyre when only the ASHES ARE BURNING.

My real ambition was to eventually travel north from Istanbul to KIEV to experience exotic THINGS I DON'T UNDERSTAND, including those mysterious UKRAINE WAYS. I'd have to be careful to avoid TOUCHING ONCE on the delicate subject of the recent war with Russia though. I was planning  to head to the  northwest of MOTHER RUSSIA where I'd heard the extreme COLD IS BEING like the inside of a freezer. I'd love to see the NORTHERN LIGHTS for the first time with their MAJIK shimmering SYMPHONY OF LIGHT. It'd be like one of those awesome moments when you could sing A SONG FOR ALL SEASONS and CRY TO THE WORLD with joy and shout "CAN YOU HEAR ME now"?

I had a long journey ahead but I was looking forward to being  BACK HOME ONCE AGAIN with my FRIENDS, when I'd be sure to remind them that I THINK OF YOU when I'm away.

 

-------------------------------------------------

 

By the way, I wrote all of these short stories over a year ago before I even joined ProgArchives.

you're gonna argue again? 

It's about music? Do tell... what music is this thread about? 

Again, this is "JUST FOR FUN" territory, this is not a discussion about music, wake up. have some coffee, maybe you'll becone rational, or something. One can only hope... 

the thread creator should have been upset then for me mentioning this should have been in the "just for fun" section. But wait... he is not upset. 

It's you that have a problem. Because la-dee-da... 

this is your answer after accusing me of discouraging newbies?  Good one... 

You are playing with words, that's why it's just for fun" section. 

are you serious? You started in full troll mode, you insulted most people around here, you had misogynistic jokes in your signature, you were kicked out of the politics thread, you laughed at users coming from other cultures (than you), you come up with your own genre definitions and argue endlessly, you mocked non-British prog, and I could go on. 

So I am the one being unfair... So be it.