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The First Proto-Prog Songs |
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Saperlipopette! ![]() Forum Senior Member ![]() ![]() Joined: December 20 2010 Location: Tomorrowland Status: Offline Points: 2598 |
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Chico Hamilton's magnificent albums during the early to mid 60's are somewhat overlooked. Probably because they weren't experimenting with free form avantgarde jazz. But while Coleman and Ayler blew their horns and jazz out of the mainstream and into the finearts, Chico's quintet, with Charles Lloyd's free spirited, wandering, groovin' compositions and especially the eastern/indian/rockin' sounds of hungarian (electric) guitarist Gabor Szabo... practically invented psychedelia and Jazzrock-fusion. Rick Manczarek must have heard Szabo playing at some point before The End. Here's the title track from 1962's Man From Two Worlds:
Check out Szabo's own composition, the 13 minute+ Lady Gabor (from Passin' Thru same year, same lineup. Bonus on CD version of The Man..) for more in a similar vein.
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NYSPORTSFAN ![]() Forum Groupie ![]() Joined: January 07 2012 Status: Offline Points: 60 |
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All the songs you mention are really great songs but nowhere being near proto-prog IMO. I would agree with Ian Macdonald of King Crimson when he says the Beatles, 'Yesterday', was 'the beginning of
progressive-rock' with its inclusion of strings as an integral part of the
texture, and 'suggested to me how classical elements could be brought into rock
music'
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Smurph ![]() Forum Senior Member ![]() ![]() Joined: January 11 2012 Location: Columbus&NYC Status: Offline Points: 3152 |
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Moondog is fking awesome- I have heard a lot of great stuff come from weird recordings i have found on youtube.
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Jonathan ![]() Forum Senior Member ![]() ![]() Joined: May 18 2012 Location: North Carolina Status: Offline Points: 183 |
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Einsetumadur ![]() Prog Reviewer ![]() ![]() Joined: September 24 2008 Location: Germany Status: Offline Points: 265 |
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Telstar and the other Joe Meek stuff is definitely on my proto list. Really psychedelic stuff.
What else? And, definitely, anything from the Byrds. The first one might be "It's No Use" with a breathtaking, and really brief, guitar solo at 1:20. The strange chromatic 'what I love to live' part with the cryptic lyrics also qualifies. These jazzy licks surely were the blueprint for many proto-prog material from America. Jefferson Airplane sounded a lot like the Byrds on their debut album... Edited by Einsetumadur - February 01 2013 at 10:42 |
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All in all each man in all men
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Svetonio ![]() Forum Senior Member ![]() ![]() Joined: September 20 2010 Location: Serbia Status: Offline Points: 10213 |
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Also, The Ox, composed by John Entwistle (RIP), from My Generation album, 1965; imo, nobody did do a proggy song like this before :
Edited by Svetonio - February 03 2013 at 23:58 |
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Stool Man ![]() Forum Senior Member ![]() ![]() Joined: January 30 2007 Location: Anti-Cool (anag Status: Offline Points: 2588 |
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Shadow Morton (1940 - 2013) RIP produced the first proto prog song
Edited by Stool Man - February 17 2013 at 15:48 |
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rotten hound of the burnie crew
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Prog_Traveller ![]() Forum Senior Member ![]() ![]() Joined: May 29 2005 Location: Bucks county PA Status: Offline Points: 1474 |
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Runaway-Del Shanon
Tel Star-The Tornadoes Good Vibrations-the Beach boys Norwegian Wood-The Beatles Tomorrow never knows-The Beatles return of the son of monster magnet-Frank Zappa and the mothers of invention Astronomy domine(and others from Piper)Pink Floyd excuse me THE Pink Floyd. ![]() The Zombies actually became more proggish but still proto prog with their Odessey and Oracle album. That's the one that had "time of the season" on it(which imo isn't even the best song on the album). |
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BarryGlibb ![]() Forum Senior Member ![]() ![]() Joined: August 28 2010 Location: Melbourne, Oz Status: Offline Points: 1047 |
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We have to be careful here. I am being pedantic but the question is what might be the first Proto-prog song. Song means it has to have "singing". So a number of the tracks put forward don't qualify. But I know, I know who cares?!
I am glad someone (Prog-Traveller) has put Del Shannon's 1961 hit "Runaway' in there. The song itself isn't all that proto-prog but the unusual-for-its-day 26 sec musical interlude (from 1.10 to 1.36) with Shannon's keyboardist, Max Crook playing his self-invented clavione-based electric keyboard, the Musitron, makes this track very different from anything that was released before it. Listen here: If we are allowed to include just music, then The Dr Who theme from 1963 is right up there. Fascinating reading here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doctor_Who_theme_music Funny I always thought that this recording was the first moog synthesizer track ever but it is not a moog synthesizer at all. Here's the theme: Then there is what I believe is really the first proto-prog song. The Byrds "Eight Miles High" first recorded in December 1965 for RCA, which was some 4 months before the better known version was released in early 1966. I understand someone putting forward "It's No Use" by the Byrds but "Eight Miles High is pure proto-prog from go to whoa. What a fantastic song! Here's the 1965 version: And here is the more familiar one from early 1966. They are quite different. |
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ole-the-first ![]() Forum Senior Member ![]() ![]() Joined: January 03 2012 Location: Russia Status: Offline Points: 1530 |
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Edited by ole-the-first - March 02 2013 at 04:35 |
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This night wounds time.
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BarryGlibb ![]() Forum Senior Member ![]() ![]() Joined: August 28 2010 Location: Melbourne, Oz Status: Offline Points: 1047 |
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Sorry ole..I can't hear anything that is proto-prog in this song. Please explain. |
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dr wu23 ![]() Forum Senior Member ![]() ![]() Joined: August 22 2010 Location: Indiana Status: Offline Points: 10215 |
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Lot of interesting choices from bands and people in the very early days there , but to me the so-called proto prog sound came out of the early psychedelic rock bands (65-68) who eventually morphed into prog; particularly the Brit bands.
If we keep pushing the envelope back to some of the early electronic oddities, and other jazz musicians mentioned then we start straying from rock as someone mentioned above and it becomes progressive music in general and not prog rock imho. For me when The Beatles did songs like Tommorrow never Knows, Strawberry Fields, and I Am The Walrus that's as proto prog as it gets....along with all the other psych rock and psych pop bands back then who had many early prog elements in their songs.
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One does nothing yet nothing is left undone.
Haquin |
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ole-the-first ![]() Forum Senior Member ![]() ![]() Joined: January 03 2012 Location: Russia Status: Offline Points: 1530 |
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1. Unconventional song structure. It starts like a lullaby and then building up into the journey of dream. Six different melodies were used in less than three minutes instead of verse-chorus structure. 2. Use of symphonic arrangements. Isn't that enough to consider this song non-conventional and experimental, and so also proto-progressive? |
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This night wounds time.
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dr wu23 ![]() Forum Senior Member ![]() ![]() Joined: August 22 2010 Location: Indiana Status: Offline Points: 10215 |
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Not to throw a monkey wrench into the works but are we talking about proto prog rock or just early proto progressive music in any genre..?
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One does nothing yet nothing is left undone.
Haquin |
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Mirkwood ![]() Forum Newbie ![]() ![]() Joined: March 14 2013 Status: Offline Points: 25 |
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Here are two from the early 1960s:
and one from 1965: |
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