Story of your first prog album

Difficult to say, I grew up with prog being played around by my family. Even what do we mean by "Prog" then becomes relevant (should I consider The Who's Tommy? or The Nice albums?), but I would say that the fist proper prog-rock album that I really keep on my mind as the first to impress me was ELP's Tarkus, when I was around 6 or 7 years old. Or maybe Jesus Christ Superstar if you consider that a Prog album (I do). I only learned about King Crimson's ITCOTCK some years later, maybe around 1975 when I was 9.

Edited by Gerinski - January 11 2012 at 15:50

I'd heard the song "Comfortably Numb" in the film The Departed and really loved it. I was listening to Pop-Rock at the time, and had gotten a compilation CD of Staind. On the disc there was a live acoustic of "Comfortably Numb," and so for about a year I foolishly thought it was a Staind song  

I'd heard of Pink Floyd and found Dark Side of the Moon in my parents CD collection. However, instead of listening to it, I did a bit of research on Pink Floyd. When I found out "Another Brick in the Wall, Pt. 2" and the real "Comfortably Numb" were both on the same album, I immediately bought it. The Wall.

The next morning was a lazy Summer Sunday. The sun was streaming through the windows and the bird were chirping. I often go to bed listening to music, so my iPod was lying next to me. I put my headphones on, picked it up, and scrolled through. I decided I'd listen to The Wall.

By the end of "The Trial," my eyes were swelling, a single tear came streaming down my cheek, and I couldn't stop thinking, "he tries so hard, he tries so hard." Needless to say...

It was a real gradual move into prog territory for me, hard to pinpoint any particular album.

But I think the floodgates opened up when I was reading the liner notes to Camel's "Snow Goose" CD (I'd been a Camel fan for years, but the CD had just come out) and saw references to all the Canterbury bands.  One by one, I collected anything I could find by Caravan, Soft Machine, Hatfield, etc etc.. "In the Land of Grey and Pink" was a huge hit on my turntable around this time.

From that point, the more I read about prog, the more I realized just how many bands were out there to discover.  It wasn't just Camel, Genesis, Yes, and King Crimson any more!


Edited by HolyMoly - January 11 2012 at 16:13

Interesting, my first albums were Camel too!

Edited by progprogprog - January 11 2012 at 16:52

Mine was something by Dream Theater (maybe Six Degrees), back in 2003. Maybe Opeth? I had already been enjoying Iron Maiden and Metallica's longer, more complex stuff from the 80s.

Fell in love with Tales of Mystery and Imagination, then Thick as a Brick. Awwww yea

I love your avatar, JJ!  Where can I get some more of that?

During my childhood my father and brother would often play on the turntable three Pink Floyd albums: Wish You Were Here, Animals and Meddle (that's about the only progressive thing on vinyl my parents had, unless you consider Kraftwerk's Radio-Aktivität a progressive album).

Close to the Edge in 1971 (in Baghdad-Iraq) during a very dark and period for me. I escaped to it's landscapes from Iraq's dictatorial regime which had targeted my family. I did not know what that musical style was called. I told me friends, "it's kind of rock but more complicated and heavily classically influenced". A few year later, still in Baghdad, I

My first prog album. I was 12 my dad recomeded if I like complex music (I was playing really weird jazz stuff on the piano and covering Elton John songs in strange ways) that I should check out a band called RUSH. "They were a weird band in the 70s. They are Canadian. They were fairly underground but a lot of musicians like them. And the drummer wrote the lyrics and they were usually about knights fighting in battles and very cryptic." is what he told me. I went out and I asked the guy at the local record store if he had any RUSH and he walked me over to the RUSH area and I asked him what their best album was. He told me 2112. I trusted him and I bought it. I was not really a Metal fan before but the slight heavyness did not distract me. I loved the record.

My first prog song that I can remember was Bloody Well Right by Supertramp. I was on a long car ride  when I was 3 or 5 and my Dad's mixtape was playing. A song came on with a great intro and it progressed a lot. I liked it but I couldn't really express that. It was not until I really got into music and albums that I heard it on the radio and I asked my dad what song it was. I went out immediately and bought Crime of the Century.