A guide to the best (& worst) of prog rock - Progressive Rock Music Forum

Pretty good article, bit off track on some bits and seems to be a bit revisionist but I enjoyed reading it.

Originally posted by Epignosis

No mention of Kansas. Meh.

Did you read the second page?

"Of all the U.S.’ homegrown prog heroes, the biggest has America built right into its name: Kansas. Hailing from the envelope-pushing Topeka scene, Kansas managed—through sheer force of will, chops, and songcraft—to create heartland prog that felt high-concept and working-class at the same time."

Originally posted by ProgSeeker

Originally posted by Epignosis

No mention of Kansas. Meh.

Did you read the second page?

"Of all the U.S.’ homegrown prog heroes, the biggest has America built right into its name: Kansas. Hailing from the envelope-pushing Topeka scene, Kansas managed—through sheer force of will, chops, and songcraft—to create heartland prog that felt high-concept and working-class at the same time."

I did not notice there was a second page. Thanks.

However, I find it strange that of all the songs they could have discussed, they focused on the big three hits. Kansas had fine progressive rock on their first three albums. Calling "Point of Know Return" progressive in the context of the article is kind of weird.

Edited by Epignosis - June 10 2012 at 06:40

Listen to the new Epignosis album for free- it's good for your health

It's alright for what it is, but I don't think we are in any danger of being upstaged as a site LOL

In Lazland, life is transient. Prog is permanent.

I agreed with practically every word of it (apart from the token swipe at Prog's favourite whipping boys ELP)

That was a very good line about how the concept album was both prog's liberator and its jailor. Quite true.

"Oooh prog is amazing, we can do anything! As long as it's a continuous piece telling the story of a character who thinks about serious things in some sort of negative environment with really long songs and esoteric vocabulary in the song titles and with no country or hip-hop elements etc etc"

hmmm, not sure about how they turned the whole neo-prog movement into basically 'marillion the exception'. It's not like I expected a mention of IQ etc, but still.

breathing, eating, defecating, screwing, drinking, spewing, sleeping...

Their assessment of Gentle Giant is way off. The band can be accused of many things, but lack of consistent identity is not one of them. They progressed over the years, sure, but the albums were always easily identifiable as vintage GG.

Good article otherwise though.

Originally posted by ProgSeeker

Originally posted by Epignosis

No mention of Kansas. Meh.

Did you read the second page?

"Of all the U.S.’ homegrown prog heroes, the biggest has America built right into its name: Kansas. Hailing from the envelope-pushing Topeka scene, Kansas managed—through sheer force of will, chops, and songcraft—to create heartland prog that felt high-concept and working-class at the same time."

I never really thought that Knasas was that important ... by that time, the radio in LA and Santa Barbara was already full with Pink Floyd, Yes, ELP, The Who, and Led Zepellin, and the nice thing about Kansas, is, that it was a really nice RADIO-SONG that pretty much fit anywhere ... and made for a nice sequence ... but so did many other bands, whose stuff was more interesting and were not getting the play. Heck, I thought Charlie Daniels was not only more interesting but actually better than Kansas. And that fiddle is better than most classical players you will EVER see in yor life!

All in all, though, I really think that so many of these bands owed a lot to the American Psychedelic scene ... that is not getting any credit anywhere ... for it's very experimental nature. Those were the days when The Grateful Dead used to play 4 and 5 and 6 hour shows ... and you can bet that nothing lasted 4 minutes or 5 minutes ... like most of the radio stuff that we talk about ... makes you wonder who taught what to whom ... and no one here has ever mentioned or talked about those things ... which were copied in Europe and put to use in many different forms and expressions.

Kansas was nice ... but there were a lot of others that were nice, too ... that did not get the airplay and they deserved it!

Edited by moshkito - June 11 2012 at 09:07

Some old holy curmudgeon said from his holy trinity of a chapala ... none of the hits, none of the time ... is always better sex for your and your lover!

www.pedrosena.com

Originally posted by ExittheLemming

Spam exorcism a success (best not to quote the varmints methinks Wink

Thankee! I didn't think of that factor, in the heat of armed combat.....I'm fairly certain that the PA High Command has ways to deal with his lot. Don't see much Spam around here.