Mental Imagery in Prog

Prog is a very deep, complex form of art which envokes many
emotions and thoughts. On many occasions I will be listening
to prog with my eyes closed relaxing and will instantly conjure
a very stronge mental image from the lyrics and music, such as
Close to the Edge, I imagine myself drifting around in the
fantasy scapes of Roger Dean, and while listening to Script for
a jesters tear, I get an image of a jester wondering around a
castle courtyard following a princess which he will never
obtain. So, with this what are some strong mental images you
get that are provoked by prog?

When I was 10 or so, I fell asleep while listening to Side Two of "Tubular Bells" through my headphones. Midway through, there is grunting, howling, and just plain evil sounding voices. The record stuck during this part and went on for some time while I was in REM sleep. I awoke scared sh*tless! I did not no what was going on. I have never had such a vivid mental image of any song in the way that I had with this one. I thought some monster was going to kill me. I also picture flying skulls with wings flapping while adrift on a dark, foggy sea while listening to the mid-section of "Echoes" by Floyd.

Edited by ozricman

I picture the apocalypse during Meshuggah's 21-min "I"

Echoes- The whole song makes you see the ocean, but the best imagery part is the mid section, the one i call "abstract music" which features seagulls, screeching guitars and a bass thats a deep background.

This part makes me see somone falling forever in a fierry hell. the screeching guitar is the people in hell yelling from all the torture, the seagulls dont fit in this context, but i suppose if you can see the ocean the seagulls will give you some imagery of that. Rick Wright's part in this section leaves me speachless, he has a very experimental part by him on the organs, and he also does the wind noises. The wind helps me see this person, (lets say Roger Waters, just for laughs) falling through this hell, and the wind is just blowing past him as he falls. Once this section ends and Rick's organs come and the song builds up, it kind of makes me see the person hit the ground and he stops falling, and he's now going up, mabey in spirit.

Also, a more reasonable way to see the second section of echoes would be a lost, submarine exploring the deep sea and "coral caves" in pitch black water, this is during the scary section with sea gulls. The guitar noises could be like somekind of scary ghosts from pirates or whatever, whatever you think is really scary underwater.

Then the section of the song where its the grand build up could be the emerging of the submarine, the submarine is trying to kill like a giant squid on its way up, the squid is tearing the sub apart. The main gunner of the ship is dying,the squid tore his gun and him apart, and he's bloody with no streangth left, he's the only one left to kill the attacking squid because the other gunners have been killed, then when Dave's best guitar solo ever comes I can clearly see the gunner get his last streangth that he has left and hops back up on the gun and shoots the squid. The part where the gunner is killing the squid could be the whole solo if you like, then when its time for the 3rd verse, the ship emerges and there is now hope cus they are on top of the water and can see land. Sorry if it's really long, but I have an overactive immagination clearly.

Oh i forgot... the last part of "a change of seasons" (the crimson sunset) reminds me of THE LION KING..

Tangerine Dream does it for me ... Phaedra  ... creepy horror film images

Edited by felona

Genesis is virtually the only band that conjures up strong images in my mind.Most potent song would be Carpet Crawlers.

"Epsilon in Malaysian Pale" by Edgar Froese of Tangerine Dream conjures up a rain forest for me. Also on part 1 of Rubycon I have the mental image of a shore on which someone is running for his life followed by The Grim Reaper on a skeletal horse who occasionally swings the scythe at him. Perhaps I should smoke some other stuff.

DarHobo wrote: Prog is a very deep, complex form of art which envokes many emotions and thoughts. On many occasions I will be listening to prog with my eyes closed relaxing and will instantly conjure a very stronge mental image from the lyrics and music, such as Close to the Edge, I imagine myself drifting around in the fantasy scapes of Roger Dean, and while listening to Script for a jesters tear, I get an image of a jester wondering around a castle courtyard following a princess which he will never obtain. So, with this what are some strong mental images you get that are provoked by prog?

Ya that was good acid, eh DarHobo?



omg

I'm gettin a glimpse of the Tool guy sucking heself off.....


heh


Well, it's prog, right?


Mental images eh? I'd say for sure the broadway aspects of The Lamb, for sure, I picture a bunch of different things....


Always with Pink Floyd I picture like, medieval times, conjuring relics of the past, using the elements, er, the Force to convince others of how good Meddle actually is.

Then when you pass that level, you sway your arm/hand/finger to tell others about Van Der Graaf.

Damn Sith.


Gaston