Englishness and English Phlegm in Prog

Nogbad_The_Bad wrote: Having grown up on Teesside and in Newcastle I'm with Dave (and Dean)

I would like to believe it is not really about being with anyone. Obviously, everyone has their own opinion and so I'm really delighted for us to be able to share different opinions, discuss, learn (in my case) in a polite and affable manner. That's one of the great things about Progarchives forums.

Sean Trane wrote: Dean wrote: malsader wrote: Not meaning to digress from the main topic of the posting, but I have to correct you on the matter of "Britishness". Britain is not England Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Britain is just England Scotland and wales. The term The United Kingdom refers to England Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, hence the correct term being: The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. The name Great Britain is actually the Greek term for the largest island in the island archipelago of the British Isles, the next largest island they called Little Britain ('mikris Brettanias') which we now call Ireland. Since this is an island grouping defined by geography and not an arbitrary scribbling of lines on a map drawn by kings, princes and generals the island of Ireland will always be British... Didn't the Greeks call the main island Albion, because of the white cliffs of Dover, seen from the continent?

I used to live in Deal and work in Folkestone, so I went through Dover every day. Actually, the white cliffs are green when you get up close to them due to mould and algae. ;-)

Top Gear got lot of phelgm la britannia

It is probably no coincidence that prog emerged in England of all places. But I don't think "English phlegm" - whatever that may be! - played a major role. I conjecture that the following factors were involved:

1. England was the place where rock and roll matured - and returned to America after the Payola scandal and several rock'n'roll stars disappeared in jail, the army or the realm of the dead, giving way to Brill Building pop until the Beatles and their ilk invaded.

2. England, with composers like Tippett and Britten, was the last stronghold of tonal classical music in the second half of the 20th century in the free world, resisting against the serialist paradigm that had taken over on the Continent and in North America by then. This enabled English rock musicians to draw on the tradition of tonal classical music without seeming to fall out of time too much.

3. Related to the above, the influence of Anglican church music on progressive rock has been pointed out by various scholars.

4. In England, romanticism had married with progressive political thought, while elsewhere, it had been more or less highjacked by the right. Everywhere else, the left was technocratic. This was something that strongly influenced the ideology of progressive rock.