Can you remember the first ever prog rock band you

YES!!!

I remember now (but it wasn't Queensryche). As a teenager in the nineties I listened mostly to classical music and classic rock (inspired by Tour of Duty). A classmate let me hear music from Megadeth, Pantera, Queensryche and Dream Theater. Bit too metalic for my taste at the time. Although I did like Erotomania from DT's Awake. Then I had to go into hospital for toncil surgery and recovered for 2 weeks. First week I couldn't bare much more than listening music and that's when Awake really clicked. Few weeks after that, I discovered Savatage's Gutter Ballad. So, Dream Theater and Savatage are the first prog bands that got my love for prog going.

Progishness wrote: Pink Floyd.

The first Progressive Rock band I heard and liked was King Crimson. I believe it was in 1971. The album was In The Wake Of Poseidon.....an album often compared to In The Court Of The Crimson King in a poor attempt to repeat it. I could never really see it that way obviously because Poseidon was my introduction to K.C. and not the Court and for me it was like hearing a new style of music . Their style in the early days was sinister and poetic. Their ballads were dramatically pretentious. At age 15 this is what I loved because it brought me escapism.

I went overboard collecting every Crimson album and their off spring. I bought Centipede Septober Energy solely on the fact that it featured ex Crimson members and that Bob Fripp helped produce it. I spent years searching for a bootleg recording of Abracadabra..an album that Fripp recorded with a witch communicating with the dead. A total preposterous notion. The way the album is described I'm not sure if I'd like it.

When Mort Garson recorded occult albums they were done well. The pieces were extremely creepy , but they were musical and contained melodies over top of creative ideas that are appealing to this day.

Islands, Lizard, and Court I bought immediately and I began listening to all 4 of the early albums. I was lost in their music and at age 15 it was overwhelming and impressionable like I stepped into another world not unlike the primrose path of mental cohesiveness...a dark new world where things do not seem like they should be...but then again..they never were.

Psychedelic Paul wrote: I agree with both of your definitions:- Proto Symphonic Crossover Prog sounds like the ideal all-encompassing genre to describe The Magnificent Moodies and it could equally apply to Procol Harum too.

Paul - It's settled then, Days of Future Passed is a proto-symphinic rock album. I can live with that. My first prog-rock band that I got into their music was Argent, and I am claiming that they are one of those true, real, full blown progressive rock bands. Each Argent's album has few compositions written by Rod Argent that can be considered as progressive rock. Russ Ballard's songs, not necessarily prog. That was probably in early 1972. My first "true" progressive rock band was Genesis after hearing for the first time "Nursery Cryme" few months later. I heard few other prog-rock albums before that, ITCOTCK, debut ELP, Yes, but I was too young to understand them.

Edited by enigmatic - January 22 2023 at 12:24

Genesis : Foxtrot

That's a hard one. It depends what your definition of "like" is, and how loosely you want to define prog as.

I suppose I can say Pink Floyd was my first exposure to prog, through my father playing it in the car as a child, but nowadays I dislike them for a plethora of reasons (some of which is why I refuse to listen to them), and back then I wouldn't say I really like them either. I mean the Beatles had their proggy moments, and they were the guest band I really ever got into (normie moment I know). Kansas and Boston, on the other hand, are bands I've had on regular play since 2011 (when I was 13 y/o, btw) and I do like them, but I've always been rather a casual listener of them. Then in high school, I began listening to early Queen and Metallica. I would say they're the first bands that got me into the realm of prog. Of course there were other prog singles I liked them, too, such as Avenged Sevenfold's "Save Me" and Symphony X's "The End of Innocence" - those are probably the first two prog songs I truly, actively liked that were not hand-me-downs from my father.

Starting at university, one of my dormmates was heavily into Rush and he got me into Rush, too. Around this time I purchased a turntable, and one of my first albums was Avenged Sevenfold's "The Stage." Rush is how I actively knew about what prog was, and I'd say the A7X was my gateway into the genre. A few weeks later, I discovered Tool (who in retrospect I really wouldn't call "prog" tbh), which is what REALLY got me interested in the prog scene. Later that year I found Symphony X's album "V - the New Mythology Suite," and from there, there was no looking back.

So I'd say my answer is either Kansas, Queen/Metallica, Avenged Sevenfold, Rush, Tool, or Symphony X.

I guess the proper answer is Kansas. They were the first.

Edited by bardberic - January 21 2023 at 13:28

AFlowerKingCrimson wrote: Anyone who wants to separate the Moodies from the progressive genre just isn't living in reality. Progressive rock is a very wide umbrella folks. At the very least DOFP was proto-symph prog and the Moody Blues themselves were also proto-prog/ proto-symph prog. It's a very good album regardless of what you want to call it. Progarchives calls them crossover prog so I suppose they have the last word. They might be the first crossover prog band.

Mine was Genesis when my sister borrowed a copy of Nursery Cryme from a friend of hers. The second LP I ever bought was Genesis Live which I think was a budget £1.99 at the time.

Anyone who wants to separate the Moodies from the progressive genre just isn't living in reality. Progressive rock is a very wide umbrella folks. At the very least DOFP was proto-symph prog and the Moody Blues themselves were also proto-prog/ proto-symph prog. It's a very good album regardless of what you want to call it. Progarchives calls them crossover prog so I suppose they have the last word. They might be the first crossover prog band.

Edited by AFlowerKingCrimson - January 20 2023 at 22:09