Was prog actually popular in the 70s??

Dean wrote: dr prog wrote: Aussie-Byrd-Brother wrote: bucka001 wrote: I just looked and Dr Prog is from Melbourne. No idea what the climate was like there. Probably the hot-bed of endless prog bands that it is now...... Good old melbourne I'm in the dirty old west part of St. Albans lol. What part u live at? There was an idiot troll from Melbourne you might know who had multiple accounts here so he could manipulate the charts and make ill-informed posts - Progmonster2008 his name was, though he was also known as Progman2010, Progologue and Yesthro - we banned him of course, like you do with idiot trolls from Melbourne.

Cool story bro

Dean wrote: Cool my arse. It is extremely uncool.

Everyone is so sensitive lol. Harden up

Vibrationbaby wrote:  I think it was on EMI Harvest same label as Triumvirat. Never heard it or even saw a copy anywhere. It is rumoured that he committed suicide in his car.  Wonder what it's going for on eBay?

I'm not sure. I got my copy (yes, on EMI Harvest) from Craig Moerir's Records on the net.
    And yes, sadly, Koellen committed suicide while in his enclosed garage listening to a cassette of his solo album in his car with the engine turned on on the evening of May 3rd, 1977. A great artist whose life was cut way too short.

Edited by presdoug - August 07 2013 at 08:34

The.Crimson.King wrote: When Tower began selling/renting videos they carried some great music stuff no one else had.  I bought an ELP video called "Pictures At an Exhibition" which had photos of the band from the '74 Cal Jam performance on the cover but was really a video release of the '71 ELP concert film "Rock and Roll Your Eyes."  Also bought King Crimson's '84 concert film "Live in Japan" there. Ya, in SF the big Tower Records was on "Columbus and Bay" which I think is near Fisherman's Wharf.  Took a drive up there once and it was really great.

Oh..How can I forget! Columbus & Bay! Like I said, during the mid-70's I was living in SF attending San Francisco State but even living there was a trek to get there. Yeah, you're right it was way down by the F-Wharf.  There was Grammophone on Polk, but it  was no threat to Tower Records, and it had a boring & stuffy feel to it. Funny years later the Virgin Records Mega-Store opened on Market/Stockton. I never made it there, but that even closed down I think in 2010.

Yeah Tower had great videos, the best. Too bad your ELP video was another concert instead of the Cal Jam. Was it a bootleg? Cause Tower did sneak in a few bootleg videos, here and there, the kind where they just paste some psychedelic pic on the box. I bought one Genesis bootleg '73 concert and it was terrible, no video quality, audio was worse! The box was better to look at! No more bootlegs for me. Did you ever find a '74 Cal Jam video of it? In the final week of Tower Records with everything slashed 1/2 price, I bought "Inside Genesis (1970-1980)" a two DVD set with booklet. It was a critical review of their music album by album, the first disk on the Gabriel years, the second disk the Collins years.

Going back to the title of this thread, if Prog was popular in the 70's; a definite yes. Especially for those of us (lucky) who were there living and experiencing it when it was happening. And here we are in 2013 and its still happening. To all the younger Proggers here, all I can say is yes, we were there when it started, and it was popular and it still is.

Vibrationbaby wrote: What a waste. I had an air force buddy who committed suicide.  How much did you pay for the album? Cd or vinyl? Just listened to a few tracks on youtube.

I paid $15.00 US, i believe, for an lp copy. It has not appeared anywhere on CD, yet. It almost was remastered to CD along with the Triumvirat catalog in 2002, but EMI Koln were downsizing, and they let go the guy who was pushing for Helmut's solo to be put on CD, and that seems to have been that.
        I am so sorry to hear about your friend.

Edited by presdoug - August 07 2013 at 18:15

I went to the Columbus Tower frequently in the 70s and 80s--  loved it but they had a bad rep of resealing warped or damaged vinyl and selling it as new.   I kinda miss it though, they did have the best selection in the country for new releases.    I also remember picking up Steve Vai's Flexible in '86 at the Sunset Boulevard Tower in L.A.

I was in high school from 1972 - 1976. We did not use the terms progressive rock or prog rock back then. There were also emerging branches of other rock genres: heavy metal; southern jam bands; the british blues sound to name a few. They were all popular, especially if they toured and generated a buzz. So my best answer to the OPs query is that is was popular, but no more so than the likes of The Allman Brothers Band, Black Sabbath, or Humble Pie. 

Edited by Ronnie Pilgrim - August 11 2013 at 17:32

Dean wrote:  which is probably why there are no 70s Prog bands from Southern Texas.... and so very few from the USA.

http://www.progarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=94116

Edited by The.Crimson.King - August 11 2013 at 22:56

presdoug wrote: Vibrationbaby wrote:  I think it was on EMI Harvest same label as Triumvirat. Never heard it or even saw a copy anywhere. It is rumoured that he committed suicide in his car.  Wonder what it's going for on eBay? I'm not sure. I got my copy (yes, on EMI Harvest) from Craig Moerir's Records on the net.     And yes, sadly, Koellen committed suicide while in his enclosed garage listening to a cassette of his solo album in his car with the engine turned on on the evening of May 3rd, 1977. A great artist whose life was cut way too short.

But that's just speculation really. I don't think you're going to sit in your garage with your own music blasting with your car engine running. Unless you're on something. It's really weird when people commit suicide especially when there's no note. Even when there's a note for that matter. Well I can understand why someone like Erwin Rommel committed suicide. Hitler gave him choice. My friend committed suicide over gambling debs. A guy down in Pennsylvania just killed his 8-year old son and then blew ghimself away.. I dunno. I guess we have to let the Sigmund Freuds figure this out.

Edited by Vibrationbaby - August 12 2013 at 15:04