The WHO - Some progressive elements? - Progressive Rock Music Forum

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acheron

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Joined: September 12 2005
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Posted: March 21 2006 at 17:52

I consider 'quarophenia' and 'tommy' to both clearly be concept albums

i think The Who is more prog than a lot of bands on this site personaly

The Wizard View Drop Down

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Posted: March 21 2006 at 18:26

The Who=The greatest Rock'n'roll bad of all time. They influenced prog. No dought about that. I sent a request to get them added as proto-prog, but haven't gotten a response.

ken4musiq

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Posted: March 21 2006 at 18:40

Emperor wrote:

Proggers, open your eyes abd ears!

The Who was the band which released the 1st Rock-Opera in the world!

The Who have performed the real multipart suite for almost 10 minutes (A QUICK ONE SUITE), their next album was already the conceptual one (1967) and their 4th release was Rock Opera TOMMY (1969), which is absolute early Progressive (Not Proto-Prog, just Progressive!)... I even don't speak about WHO'S NEXT and their greatest (IMO) masterpiece QUADROPHENIA (which is the perfect Progressive record)!

I hear a lot of Quadrophenia in the Lamb Lies Down on Broadway so I think it influenced the Genesis album. I think that there are progressive elements to The Who, like someone mentioned the Riley influence, the opera and large scale concept albums. By and large though, they are a straight up hard-rock band. I think an avenue worth exploring is the R and B roots of rock and how prog wants to move away from them. It seems the more R and B something is, the less prog it is. Also the more it moves away from popular song structures, esp. aaba and abacab, the more prog it becomes.

Peter

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Posted: March 21 2006 at 18:52

This "progressive" word BLOWS!

The presense of (highly subjective) "progressive elements" should justify the inclusion of hundreds, (if not thousands) of hitherto unlisted artists. Ermm

Will the madness never cease?

whatever....

Edited by Peter

"And, has thou slain the Jabberwock?
Come to my arms, my beamish boy!
O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!'
He chortled in his joy.

clairvoyant View Drop Down

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Joined: February 26 2006
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Posted: March 21 2006 at 19:46

The Who is not prog.

They arent.

stechell

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Joined: July 30 2005
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Posted: March 21 2006 at 20:08

Don't understand. Everybody discuss whether The Who deserves to appear as a Proto Prog band, but The Beatles , Radiohead , Queen (???) and Iron Butterfly !!! have enough merits to do so.... something's wrong somewhere..

I think Tommy, Quadrophenia, and Who's Next are more than enough reasons to consider them as a Prog influenced band or Proto Prog. As a progger, I think these albums may completely fulfill any progger's expectations.

These guys deserve our attention..

Fragile

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Joined: June 27 2004
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Points: 1125

Posted: March 21 2006 at 20:20

The Who are a great rock band but they are not progressive.If a band dips their toe into the world of prog briefly do we then consider them prog? surely not.If so I want Wishbone Ash in here.

Dirk

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Location: Netherlands
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Posted: March 21 2006 at 21:15

stechell wrote:

These guys deserve our attention..

I agree with this.

If he Beatles are a Prog related band then the door is at least opened to the following
well known bands:

Led Zeppelin: From their fourth album on they were clearly more progressive then the Beatles.

Creedence clearwater Revival : Cosmo factory with "I heard it on the Grapevine" and some
                                                other instrumental oriented tracks.

Neil Young         : Made some very good tracks in which there is quite a bid of
                          progressive(?) guitar noodling (Down by the river comes to mind)

As for concept albums , the Who made Tommy , the Kinks Arthur.
Concept albums are one of the features of prog rock.The Beatles have never made a true
concept album except the second side of Abbey road.

All five of them are IMO as much or more progressive then the Beatles.

There are many others.

I think the Beatles (and maybe Queen etc..) are included because they are very good and have been very important for the evolution of pop music as a whole. I don't think they are prog though.

Other bands some of which i have listed were just as important for the involving of pop music.

IMO I think it's better to concentrate on newer real prog bands and discuss the above mentioned bands on other sites.

It's just an opinion though

.

Edited by Dirk

¢¾Old¢¾Hen¢¾ View Drop Down

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Posted: March 22 2006 at 08:31

Cluster One wrote:

Just finished listening to "Who's Next". And although it is obvious this classic rock band are not traditionally considered 'progressive', this album does have some progressive elements on it. In particular 'Won't Get Fooled Again' and maybe 'Baba O' Riley'.

Am I completely off base here?

Does anyone else see any progressive elements in THE WHO's discography?

Maybe they kinda .. ventured into it during the 70s seen as Progressive rock was the 'thing' in the 70s :) Their 60s stuff is very Mod-like though :)

I love Keith Moon soooo much ...

He's a cootiepie ...

I never knew Pete wrote most of their songs.

~*~

.Fear.Is.No.Excuse.

Chicapah

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Posted: March 22 2006 at 09:23

I have been entertained and amazed by the Who since the 60s so you'll find no argument against them being included in this forum. However, I consider them to be proto-prog only. Their influence across the musical board is obvious but because they relied so heavily on guitar-based rock I don't consider them to be a truly prog band in my understanding of the genre.

"Literature is well enough, as a time-passer, and for the improvement and general elevation and purification of mankind, but it has no practical value" - Mark Twain

¢¾Old¢¾Hen¢¾ View Drop Down

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Posted: March 22 2006 at 09:30

Yeah, you're right. They probably decided to go Prog because a wider audience would listen to them. Just like Phil Collins and his later Genesis.

DAMN YOU COLLINS!!!

~*~

.Fear.Is.No.Excuse.

¢¾Old¢¾Hen¢¾ View Drop Down

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Posted: March 22 2006 at 09:32

Hehe .. wasn't it Keith Moon (cootiepie) who said to Jimmy Page, your band will go down like a led zeppelin ... ;)

~*~

.Fear.Is.No.Excuse.

The Wizard View Drop Down

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Posted: March 22 2006 at 19:30

Moonie is the best. I worship him.

BTW, I'm listening to Live at Leeds right now, and can't but to 'air-drum'.

¢¾Old¢¾Hen¢¾ View Drop Down

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Posted: March 23 2006 at 07:27

~*~

.Fear.Is.No.Excuse.

oliverstoned View Drop Down

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Posted: March 23 2006 at 08:35

Guests wrote:

Cluster One wrote:

Just finished listening to "Who's Next". And although it is obvious this classic rock band are not traditionally considered 'progressive', this album does have some progressive elements on it. In particular 'Won't Get Fooled Again' and maybe 'Baba O' Riley'.Am I completely off base here? Does anyone else see any progressive elements in THE WHO's discography?

I have 'who's next'

pretty good album,there were so many musical styles at the time,you can't actually put an accurate label on any bands music...Some call Pink Floyd ''Progressive'' i think not some how....Same with the Who...They do have the odd moment on these later classics...Do love the way Pete townsend hooked up his Hammond to the ARP '2600' synth...Sounds fantastic..