Prog Rock Artists Masterpiece List

Yes - Going for the One

Edited by Moogmoods - January 16 2015 at 09:47

Raff wrote: Cactus Choir wrote: Guldbamsen wrote: I was thinking about choosing Stand Up over A Passion Play in my list. Such a great album and the one that really got me hooked on Tull. Very nice choice indeed. .....but BOC's Spectres? Really? I'd take any of the first ones over it with Secret Treaties being my fave of the lot. Some of my choices may be a bit contentious - some might even say "naff" - but that's personal taste for you. Spectres seems to have a bad rep with a lot of BOC fans but I think it's full of memorable tunes, the production is great and I love Buck Dharma's guitar work. I like their early "Black and White" albums but the production on them always sounded a bit thin to my ears.  My husband (aka Micky) is a big fan of Spectres, which is in my opinion a much better album than Agents of Fortune. Then again, even mediocre BOC albums are way better than a whole lot of other things.

richardh wrote: TFTO seems a particularly contentious album. The scope of ambition dwarfs just about everything but I suspect Wakeman's slightly bitter comments did much to kill the respect that album obviously deserved.

missed this earlier as I was in a hurry to get out the door to work.

I think the point has been made by many Richard, I know I tried to hammer it home in my review of the album, that album is ..was.. the highpoint of the 70's progressive rock movement.  It was, for the lack of a better work. Art. Aural Art if you will and what is main purpose of art. To stimulate and provoke.  No album EVER, prog or otherwise did that the way TFTO did.  Some consider it the among the worst albums ever done, some consider it among the best ever done.  That in my mind speaks volumes, the shear contentious of it, about just what kind of masterpiece it was.

The lack of respect? 

By half wits and non thinkers.  One does not like to like the art to appreciate it. 

At least Willie loved his hash......

Aussie-Byrd-Brother wrote: Tom Ozric wrote: I do indeed have many albums what I consider as 'Masterpiece' status - however, there's a handful that for me, personally, that exceed the 5 star level........here's a few........ ANGE - Le Cimitere des Arlequins ASH RA TEMPEL - S/T ATOMIC ROOSTER - S/T CAN - Future Days CARAVAN - In The Land Of Grey And Pink CURVED AIR - Air Cut HOELDERLIN - Rare Birds Man, I have been playing that self titled Ash Ra nonstop lately! Had it ages ago, let it be for a while, now I can't work out why on earth I `let it be' for so long! Damn, Tom, I would probably personally place `Caricatures' JUST ahead of `Le Cimitere...'....but I'd be happy for them to both slug it out for my attention! Heh, `Rare Birds'...I've had the CD for months (and the `Clowns' one) but never listened to it! I'm still so satisfied with the self titled and lovable old `New Faces' that I haven't felt the need to move on yet!

Hey Bro !! You read my incomplete list - yeah, Caricatures on par with Cimitiere.......
..........and with Ash Ra debut, Traummaschine is just the *perfect* drift away piece.......(without chemical enhancements......)
...........and more seriously, 27 Club takes me a lot further than most albums I've listed .......
Just can't explain what it is - this Magenta album floors me into the ground/Kosmos/stratosphere/wherever.........it just 'does it' for me........not just Christina's vox/looks either. Reed and Fry also amaze me.......and Andy Frost on drums..........just beyond perfect.......
..........if 'Seven' is better than 27 Club, then it looks like a straight-jacket will be in order for me..........

richardh wrote: micky wrote: richardh wrote: Just on the subject of ELP there is an argument that none of their albums are masterpieces which is absolute bullsh*t.  None of their albums are perfect. BIG difference. so generally people pick their favourite album by then. Works Volume One was meant to be their masterpiece and the one that displayed them as they really were. Putting aside any issues of taste ( ie most people hate Greg Lake/Pete Sinfield ballads) is there anything actually wrong with this album? big difference IMO again between a good album (and I thought that was) and an 'artist's masterpiece'.  Works was an ELP album really in name only, it showcased the enormous talents of the individuals yet did nothing particular, especially in terms of defining masterpieces as a GROUP. What made ELP great, or when they were great are when the 3 genre defining individual talents were on the same page. Not surprisingly when they were they created music that defined a genre. Works was not that... On the subject of the big five  Selling England By The Pound - don't like Epping Forest.Sorry for me that drags this album down quite a bit Nor Genesis do a perfect album either. Yes that was Genesis making the listener listen to paint dry. A particularly well cultivated talent they had. However  I thought SEbtP was the closest that incarnation got to perfection and creating music that NON fans of the group love, and is close enough to what others think in highly regarding it to safely tab it IMO as the group's masterpiece.  DSOTM - never been a fan of this album ever since I first heard it on 1977. But I've seen it played live by Waters and that was very enjoyable. It is not my favorite my any stretch of the imagination but it was the perfect merger of the two halves of Floyd, the spacey sh*t of the early era and the very much Water dominated later years. TFTO- Its growing on me a lot but GFTO was probably their masterpiece although not my favourite listen to the Ancient a few more times. Learning to appreciate the brilliance of the savagry and beauty of it is key IMO to appreciating the album.  It is a deep dense album and one of those that has a reward that repays the patience some might need to penetrate the density of it. King Crimson - Red bah.  Never have, never will understand the appeal of that album. Oh well. With ELP I tend to think they had their masterpieces: Tarkus (the track not the album) Take A Pebble Karn Evil 9 Toccata Pirates Trilogy (again the track not the album) The Endless Enigma Three Fates you probably get my drift The album Works Volume One does display them exactly as they were and breaks down the component parts of the band and then reassembles it all on the group side. Carl Palmer believed it was their best album although whether he still holds that opinion I'm not sure tbh.  I always found it a bit colourless personally and rated it 3 stars so really I don't think it was their masterpiece. BSS is the closest imo only a hair breadth from perfect if you remove the dreaded 'fun track'.  TFTO seems a particularly contentious album. The scope of ambition dwarfs just about everything but I suspect Wakeman's slightly bitter comments did much to kill the respect that album obviously deserved.

As I would. It was a good album IMO. Not a great one, and definitely not a masterpiece.

I would consider ELP had 4 masterpieces, 5 if you count the live album (Welcome Back) which by far is the greatest live prog album ever done. None of the studio album were perfect but then again Richard, if fansboys and fans had the capacity to dispassionately disect the albums they'd find there are VERY VERY FEW really perfect albums. 

What I would consider ELP masterpieces:
The debut for the reasons earlier. I agree with some, especially a particular prominent internet reviewer that calls side 1 of the album perhaps the SINGLE best album side of prog ever done.  That was perfect.

Tarkus - Sure the 2nd side was not the hammer of the gods that side 1 was, but for what it was. It was pretty good.  For all the sh*t hurled at ELP for being pretentious and yadda yadda yadda,  they had a sense of humor and yes... a long of boogie woogie. I think if they had done a Tarkus pt 2 on the second side, people would have ripped them for that. It is a love 'em or hate 'em group. I enjoy the 2nd side and was a change of pace musically and aestetically from the 1st.  Anyhow, regardless of that. It gets masterpiece for the 1st side alone.

Pictures of an Exhibition.  I think John McFerrin nailed this one, along with countless reviews.  10 pound stones to do that album, another mile marker in the history per se of prog, it doesn't hurt that regardless of how they trashed a beloved classic it is a great and interesting album to listen to.

Of course Brain Salad Surgery is a classic.  Kept only by reaching THEIR defining classic IMO by two glaring weaknesses the debut did not have.  The infamously lyrically bad ballad, and the 3rd impression of K.E 9 which while not bad, just didn't keep with with the shear awesomenous of the first 2. It ended that on a bit of a bum note IMO.

I've not actually heard A Passion Play, so that's another to put on my list! A few other personal masterpieces I forgot to mention are Fairport Convention - s/t (yep another odd choice since nearly everyone prefers the Sandy Denny era), Black Sabbath - Sabbath Bloody Sabbath, and Brian Auger Trinity - Befour.

micky wrote: we have very similar tastes David bonus mcClappies and a few micky points.  docking myself a few for forgetting one of my ALLTIME favorite classic albums.  Doh...  how could I forget Ys.

Edited by Guldbamsen - November 07 2014 at 06:01

Guldbamsen wrote: I was thinking about choosing Stand Up over A Passion Play in my list. Such a great album and the one that really got me hooked on Tull. Very nice choice indeed. .....but BOC's Spectres? Really? I'd take any of the first ones over it with Secret Treaties being my fave of the lot.

Some of my choices may be a bit contentious - some might even say "naff" - but that's personal taste for you. Spectres seems to have a bad rep with a lot of BOC fans but I think it's full of memorable tunes, the production is great and I love Buck Dharma's guitar work. I like their early "Black and White" albums but the production on them always sounded a bit thin to my ears.

Tull were really on a roll when they did Stand Up and it's amazing when you think of all the great songs from that period they left off like Living in the Past, Teacher, Sweet Dream and Witches Promise.