PROG LESSON 101

first we need advanced instrumentalist to bring us
latter century folk to what was mainstream...case in
point.......
Ry Cooder - Jazz (1978), Ry was considered the top
guitarist in the blues/folk studio artist and was used
extensively by the Rolling Stones. Jazz was a look
back to pre-radio music as it was prior and during
the 30's and 40's, into post WWII america. This is an
outstanding recording and should be in any
progressive rock junkie or late 60's psychedelic rock
freaks library.

Eric Clapton's misadventures producing his classic
461 Ocean Blvd draws almost as much from Ry
Cooder's roots as it does from JJ Cale's early
career, which Clapton used as blueprint for over 10
years of his output.

Wynton Marsalis also contributed his studies of Jelly
Roll Morton in his best effort, Mr. Jelly Lord, vol. 6, a
tribute to the New Orleans 1930's sound. This is
great stuff folkes and calls back to a time when it
was the heart of the musician that counted and not
the money.

Many, many musical styles and artist were heavily
influenced by the black artists that produced these
musical efforts. Randy Newman's 12 Songs with Ry
Cooder on guitar is another worthy classic as is
early Leon Russell and Little Feat. The Kinks -
Muswell Hillbilles from England is a classic of this
early style(probably their best along with Arthur, from
a british prespective);

Blood, Sweat and Tears -3 and Chicago - 2 are
previous to the great albums that England produced
during the early 70's from ELP and The Who which
show their influences

Edited by DallasBryan

Soulman wrote: I definetely think new prog rock bands shouldn't take the majority of their influences from one musical genre, like metal, jazz, punk or prog rock itself. It should be a culmination of influences that a prospective prog musician should take upon. I think the musicians of early prog bands lived in an interesting surrounding. They were surrounded by blues and rock and roll music, sometimes influenced by jazz, and forced to do classical music. They've been able to be influenced by a raw form of musician and a very sophisticated form of music. Also they were able to discover how to make intricate melodies. The laziness and impatientness shown in the newer genres of music, seem to show how we have evolved music. Especially with hip-hop or techno, where the desire to actually take the arduous task of playing their own instruments it swept away. There needs to be a definite change to the more traditional in music. I feel like music is evolving into some lazy and repetitive form of music.

Actually, I don't think it's accurate or useful to judge today's new music by the standards that we judged prog in the seventies, which included instrumental expertise. The various mediums that exist today to create sound are radically different and a new criteria by which we judge its practicioners will need to be developed.