do you like the "dark side" of the discography?

I find "The Final Cut", "Pros and Cons of Hitch Hiking", "Stormwatch", "Heavy Horses", and "Catfish Rising" to be great records. Not sure about many of the others mentioned, though.

I even like "Under Wraps".

Burn the witch.

Edited by Zombywoof - April 29 2012 at 18:12

I like some of the "other" such as:

Absolutely. I think long songs and odd time sigs are too often expected from prog fans, when in reality some of the best prog albums dont even have a long song on them (dark side of the moon, crime of the century, days of future passed) just to name a few.

RoyFairbank wrote: Almost every Prog band has a less appreciated part of its discography, which can range from ignored eras to unpopular works to simply less known or available albums. ... This is mainly the product of the longevity of Prog bands across different musical epochs and the ups and downs of artistic lifetimes.

presdoug wrote: Usually, what is considered "the dark side" of a group ends up being something i don't like.   Some cases are untried, when i have not heard the music, like with ELP-never heard Love Beach, or In The Hot Seat, so can't pass judgment-what i have heard of Black Moon, i like (and i saw them on that tour) one of the only groups whose "dark side" i have ended up embracing is Triumvirat, with their last two pop rock albums A La Carte and Russian Roulette, but both were initially a hard sell for me-it took decades before i liked them, but now i definitely do

Well, I dunno about those two abomonable Triumvirat piles of sh*t. Skeet shooting material as far as I'm concerned. I only bought Russian Roulette to if it was possible to get any worse. What is beyond belief is that both of them were releaed on CD.

As for Love Beach when it was released in Nov '78 we skipped school to wait for the record store to open. There's nothing wrong with it realy( well, maybe the cover and title ) But ELP were called into the president of Atlantic Records Ahmet Ertgun's office and given the "suggestion" to do something a bit more watered down which they did ( what's wrong with Canario ? ). You have to understand that they had taken pretty much everything over the top by '78. At least they continued to play the older material in concert and correct me if I'm wrong, I don't think anything off Love Beach was played live. I still throw it on the turntable from time-to-time.  Rolling Stone Magazine said doing the dishes was a more creative act  than creating Love Beach.

EDIT : The Carl Palmer band Occasionally played Canario.


Edited by Vibrationbaby - April 30 2012 at 13:06

Vibrationbaby wrote: presdoug wrote: Usually, what is considered "the dark side" of a group ends up being something i don't like.   Some cases are untried, when i have not heard the music, like with ELP-never heard Love Beach, or In The Hot Seat, so can't pass judgment-what i have heard of Black Moon, i like (and i saw them on that tour) one of the only groups whose "dark side" i have ended up embracing is Triumvirat, with their last two pop rock albums A La Carte and Russian Roulette, but both were initially a hard sell for me-it took decades before i liked them, but now i definitely do Well, I dunno about those two abomonable Triumvirat piles of sh*t. Skeet shooting material as far as I'm concerned. I only bought Russian Roulette to if it was possible to get any worse. What is beyond belief is that both of them were releaed on CD. As for Love Beach when it was released in Nov '78 we skipped school to wait for the record store to open. There's nothing wrong with it realy( well, maybe the cover and title ) But ELP were called into the president of Atlantic Records Ahmet Ertgun's office and given the "suggestion" to do something a bit more watered down which they did ( what's wrong with Canario ? ). You have to understand that they had taken pretty much everything over the top by '78. At least they continued to play the older material in concert and correct me if I'm wrong, I don't think anything off Love Beach was played live. I still throw it on the turntable from time-to-time.  Rolling Stone Magazine said doing the dishes was a more creative act  than creating Love Beach. EDIT : The Carl Palmer band Occasionally played Canario.

I should mention that there was an unexpected gateway to my liking the last two Triumvirat albums, and that was hearing songs from each performed on a live recording called Live in Germany in 1980. The music has a bit more bite to it live, and the band seem to be having a great time, and that was what turned my opinion of A La Carte and Russian Roulette around. I never really "understood" those albums until i heard the band live on record at that time period. Unfortunately the live album is hard to find.


Edited by presdoug - April 30 2012 at 17:40

ColonelClaypool wrote: I much prefer On The Sunday of Life, Voyage 34, Insignificance, Yellow Hedgerow Dreamscape and everything else from the early days of PT rather than In Absentia, Deadwing, FOABP and The Incident.

Vibrationbaby wrote: presdoug wrote: Usually, what is considered "the dark side" of a group ends up being something i don't like.   Some cases are untried, when i have not heard the music, like with ELP-never heard Love Beach, or In The Hot Seat, so can't pass judgment-what i have heard of Black Moon, i like (and i saw them on that tour) one of the only groups whose "dark side" i have ended up embracing is Triumvirat, with their last two pop rock albums A La Carte and Russian Roulette, but both were initially a hard sell for me-it took decades before i liked them, but now i definitely do Well, I dunno about those two abomonable Triumvirat piles of sh*t. Skeet shooting material as far as I'm concerned. I only bought Russian Roulette to if it was possible to get any worse. What is beyond belief is that both of them were releaed on CD. As for Love Beach when it was released in Nov '78 we skipped school to wait for the record store to open. There's nothing wrong with it realy( well, maybe the cover and title ) But ELP were called into the president of Atlantic Records Ahmet Ertgun's office and given the "suggestion" to do something a bit more watered down which they did ( what's wrong with Canario ? ). You have to understand that they had taken pretty much everything over the top by '78. At least they continued to play the older material in concert and correct me if I'm wrong, I don't think anything off Love Beach was played live. I still throw it on the turntable from time-to-time.  Rolling Stone Magazine said doing the dishes was a more creative act  than creating Love Beach. EDIT : The Carl Palmer band Occasionally played Canario.

Alitare wrote:  ... I actually like The Final Cut more than the Wall. Neither of these are my favorite Pink Floyd album, though. But hell, I like The Final Cut more than Animals (by a very small point!)

I think (of course), that many of the "dark" discography titles cross into "Top 40" "Pop" music. "Power Pop" is how I would define it. I am open to songwriting and the craft of it. The titles from the "dark" discography also cross into a "Rock" songwriting style. With Blue Oyster Cult ..you have a wide variety of songwriting styles. You have songs like "After Dark" and "I Love the Night" which contain harmony vocals that are very planned out and rehearsed. The band has been connected with the "Metal" genre...yet they have an influence of the MC5 and harmony vocals that are sometimes reminiscent of structure within "Beach Boys" harmonies. Some of the Prog bands such as 80's Genesis and Yes played more straight up "Rock" combined with a "Power Pop" melody like B.O.C.  At first I was completely turned off by the Love Beaches and 90125'S , then later I realized it was to an extent..like listening to more "Rock" than "Prog". Abacab packed dance floors in the 80's. Because it had a driving 4/4 beat throughout. It had the mechanics of excercises in the center section so...that meant that an average rocker would stuggle covering the song. It contained about that much prog within it. Just enough to make the song difficult for the average professional musician to play.