Tell me about your prog journey
Printed From: Progarchives.com
Category: Progressive Music Lounges
Forum Name: Prog Music Lounge
Forum Description: General progressive music discussions
URL: http://www.progarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=111238
Printed Date: April 26 2024 at 14:26
Software Version: Web Wiz Forums 11.01 - http://www.webwizforums.com
Topic: Tell me about your prog journey
Posted By: KingCrimson250
Subject: Tell me about your prog journey
Date Posted: June 02 2017 at 14:34
|
How did you get into prog? What bands and albums were your initial favourites? What sort of music do you listen to now? What sort of music did you listen to in the interim process? If there hasn't been a change, why not? How do you feel today about the bands and albums that you initially loved? How do they stack up against your current favourites? Tell me about your prog journey! I love hearing about this sort of thing.
|
Replies:
Posted By: Rednight
Date Posted: June 02 2017 at 14:44
|
Oh, I don't know. It's 1976, and the guy across the street has on his turntable things like A Trick of the Tail, Chocolate Kings, and Yessongs. It just kind of envelopes you, doesn't it? ------------- "It just has none of the qualities of your work that I find interesting. Abandon [?] it." - Eno |
Posted By: Larkstongue41
Date Posted: June 02 2017 at 15:06
|
That could be a very interesting thread. I used to listen to hip-hop a lot (the good stuff not the crappy rap most people here have heard). My brother and father listened to great music, mostly classic rock but they were limited to the relatively popular stuff. I grew up hearing a lot of Zeppelin, Floyd, Supertramp, Dire Straits, etc. and being from Quebec, Harmonium. Around 15 I became obsessed with Animals by Pink Floyd on an impulse. I remember listening to "Dogs" compulsively. At the same time I got into MGMT and at 17 I discovered the self-titled Rage Against The Machine album which had a striking influence on my musical taste. It officially marked my transition from hip-hop to rock due to the way De La Rocha almost raps with RATM. Then I got more acquainted with classic rock; all albums from obvious bands like The Doors, Pink Floyd, Nirvana, etc. The Velvet Underground & Nico was very important to my musical development although I did not realize it at the time. One day, again by impulse and with great chance, I got my hands on In the Court of the Crimson King. This album was definitely it. I had around 200 albums at the time and here I am now with 900+. Fun ride. ------------- "Larks' tongues. Wrens' livers. Chaffinch brains. Jaguars' earlobes. Wolf nipple chips. Get 'em while they're hot. They're lovely. Dromedary pretzels, only half a denar." |
Posted By: DeadSouls
Date Posted: June 02 2017 at 16:02
|
How did you get into prog? Natural transition from psychedelic rock, the key bands were Floyd and Soft Machine. What bands and albums were your initial favourites? King Crimson - In the Court of the Crimson King Genesis - Nursery Cryme, Foxtrot, SEBTP ELP - Tarkus, S/T Tull - Aqualung, TAAB, APP What sort of music do you listen to now? Canterbury Scene, Experimental Rock (Avant Prog, R.I.O. and Krautrock), Jazz Rock/Fusion, Avant-garde Jazz "Classic" Progressive Rock albums are still up there too, but not in my first preferences. What sort of music did you listen to in the interim process? Hard Rock and Psychedelic Rock. How do you feel today about the bands and albums that you initially loved? Main reason of my actual personal tastes. How do they stack up against your current favourites? I can't compare them. Let's say, they're classics in my book as the oldies that I still love.
|
Posted By: KingCrimson250
Date Posted: June 02 2017 at 16:43
|
For me, when I was a pre-teen back in the early aughts, I was exploring my dad's CDs and came across that Geneis Greatest Hits album. I decided to give it a go because he'd always mentioned how great Genesis was, and man, did I love it! Land of Confusion, Invisible Touch, No Son of Mine. I jammed out to those for days. My dad always told me "Okay but that's not Genesis' good stuff" but I didn't care. One day we were out at the music store and I saw Selling England by the Pound on sale for cheap and recognized it. "Hey, that's the album I Know What I Like is from!" Eagerly got home and popped it in. Dancing with the Moonlit Knight started up, and it was completely unlike anything I'd expected - and yet, far and away, the best music I'd ever heard. This was exactly what I wanted, and I never knew it until then. I became a Genetic fanatic and started searching the internet for everything I could about them. Discovered that they belonged to a genre called "progressive rock." Looked up other artists in that genre, and suddenly I was discovering Yes, and King Crimson, and ELP, and Rush (JT came later). I still remember my awe when I asked my dad if he'd heard of a band called King Crimson and he took me downstairs and played In The Court for me on vinyl. As I discovered more prog, old and new, I gradually made my way to Frank Zappa. Listening to Frank Zappa got me into fusion, and led to me picking up Bitches Brew and In A Silent Way by Miles Davis. That led me to Kind of Blue by Miles Davis, and from that moment I was hooked. To this day, jazz is by far my preferred genre, and I could go on for ages about it. I even was a special collaborator on JMA back when I had more time. Of course, you can't listen to jazz long before you get to Bud Powell, and you can't listen to Bud Powell for long before you get to Bach. I'll cop to being a fake classical fan in my teens, because I was an obnoxious dickhead and there's no better music to own to make you feel self-important, but here in my twenties I lost any interest in the image or the "intellectualism" of it and discovered that I just completely love the music. Passionately. So many composers were able to evoke such incredible imagery and powerful emotions. Bach is precise to the point that it feels "perfect." Rachmaninoff had an incredible grasp of melody. Mahler filled everything with a harmonic denseness that gave more layers than I'd ever heard in music before. Jazz remains my greatest love, but classical isn't too far behind it. And prog? I still love prog. A lot. It remains, in my mind, a singularly unique sort of music - people who took jazz and big-c-Classical music and filtered it through a context of rock and roll. Albums like SEBTP, Hybris, Larks Tongues in Aspic, and CTTE are gone from my top five, but still find a place in my top twenty. It's a combination of what made the genres it's based on great. It's got the grand ambition and passion for thorough composition of classical music. It's got the desire to invent, innovate, and create on the spot of jazz. And it's got the angst and rawness of rock and metal. Each of those original genres or categories individually carries out these things better than prog does, but prog marries them all into something else, something beautiful. Overall, though, I would say my tastes have skewed a bit towards the fusion end of prog recently. I've also become a bit non-plussed with a lot of prog acts that seem, in my view, to be doing complexity for its own sake. Complexity can take a decent song and turn it into an amazing epic full of unique and inventive things. What it can't do is take a bad song and make it good. Complexity only helps if it's built on a solid foundation, and I do think some bands skip that foundation. Wow, this was long and meandering.
|
Posted By: Kepler62
Date Posted: June 02 2017 at 16:46
| Back in 1973 it was on the radio, in the stores ( where the guy in the record store knew his sh*t ) and my friend's brother was listening to all kinds of crap from England,Germany and other places. Got into Yes, King Crimson, babe Ruth, Genesis and all kinds of imported sruff. Used to be able to get imports at quite a few places in Montreal back in the seventies. Hocus Pocus was even being played on AM radio. prog really belonged to the seventies. I still have all my viny and a ton of cassette tapes even about a hundred or so 8 tracks that I can't play. I'm actually looking for an 8 track player that 's in good condition. |
Posted By: tboyd1802
Date Posted: June 02 2017 at 18:37
|
1977, first year of college, the guy across the hall in the dorm, Buzz, keep playing this weird music. Turned out he was into three albums that became my progressive gateway music: DSOTM, Foxtrot, and A Young Person's Guide to King Crimson. ------------- He neither drank, smoked, nor rode a bicycle. Living frugally, saving his money, he died early, surrounded by greedy relatives. It was a great lesson to me -- John Barrymore |
Posted By: twosteves
Date Posted: June 02 2017 at 21:50
I heard Your Move and then Fragile and never heard anything like that before---with CTTE I thought I had died and gone to heaven musically---then a British friend of mine turned me on to SEBTP----and I heard the yang to Yes's yin and was complete. Of course there were other bands that came along for the ride
|
Posted By: ALotOfBottle
Date Posted: June 03 2017 at 00:35
|
When I was in my early teenage years, I listened to late-60's British psychedelic-esque blues rock a whole lot, Cream, Ten Years After, Steamhammer, early Climax Blues Band, and also lesser-known bands like Red Dirt, Black Cat Bones, John Dummer. Songs rarely got longer than 8 minutes and almost never "took-off" from Earth. I was blown away when I first listened to UFO's Flying: One Hour Space Rock - I had never heard stuff like this before. This went well with my fascination with cosmos, so next was Hawkwind's Space Ritual. Somewhere along the line, I discovered how great Emerson Lake & Palmer, King Crimson, Soft Machine, and Camel were, bands that I had known of, but somewhat discarded for whatever the reason. My initial favorites were the aforementioned Space Ritual by Hawkwind, ELP's first two albums, In the Court of the Crimson King, and Camel's Mirage. Genesis came a bit later. These days, my favorite things are
In the interim process, I discovered loads of symphonic rock, heavy prog, psychedelic and space rock. I still really like to come back to bands that I initially loved. Just don't do it that often, there is so much stuff to discover! Obviously, I like my current favorites a bit more than the stuff that got me into prog in the first place, but all of them occupy a special place in my heart and I will never forget them. ------------- Categories strain, crack and sometimes break, under their burden - step out of the space provided. |
DeadSouls wrote:Posted By: octopus-4
Date Posted: June 03 2017 at 00:56
|
I started using a turntable when I was 3 years old, spending hours listening to my elder brother and sister's discs. Some of those songs are still in my memory and I have spent some time during the years trying to find them back. At the age of 10 I listened to ELP Trilogy and it changed my life. ------------- Curiosity killed a cat, Schroedinger only half. My poor home recorded stuff at https://yellingxoanon.bandcamp.com |
Posted By: Manuel
Date Posted: June 03 2017 at 06:07
|
My first experience with progressive music was in 1972, when I heard Jethro Tull"s Stand Up, and I've been hooked since then. I was quite a prog head for a decade or so. Then I started listening to Jazz, Blues, Classical and other word music, and it really enhanced my listening and appreciation for progressive music. These days I still listen to what is called prog, I guess 70% of what I listen can be considered prog, but I'm into any type of music which I consider worth listening, but I've never been able to get into rap, hip-hop, or any of the contemporary pop artists.
|
Posted By: presdoug
Date Posted: June 03 2017 at 07:29
|
When I was growing up as teenager in the late 1970s, early 1980s, I was aware of progressive rock, my friends would play me groups like ELP, Genesis, Yes, King Crimson, Pink Floyd, and I thought it was ok, but just ok. (I was very much into Heavy Metal at the time) Then, in the spring of 1985, a friend lent me a couple of Nektar, and a couple of Triumvirat albums. The Nektar was quite nice, and I still love that group's music, but the real album that finally won me over to prog was Illusions On A Double Dimple by Triumvirat. I thought to myself, hey, this is the real thing, and I have really been missing out by not immersing myself in this genre. I started collecting 70s prog like wildfire, both well known, and obscure, European groups. In January of 1988, I first heard Passport's album Looking Thru, and that started my love of jazz-rock, and started to collect other European fusion recordings. Also that year, I first heard Dzyan's Time Machine album, and Triumvirat, Dzyan, and Passport became my top three favourite groups, and that continues to this day. Also going on at this time, was my developing interest in classical music, after having seen the movie Amadeus in the summer of 1985. Anton Bruckner became, and still is, my favourite composer, and The Symphony, in general, my fave type of classical music. My tastes developed in the area of Historical Recordings, those recorded before 1960, and to this day, this is my main musical love, even more than prog itself. |
Posted By: AFlowerKingCrimson
Date Posted: June 03 2017 at 13:12
|
Growing up as a little kid in the seventies there were a few albums with interesting covers in my dad's collection. One had a bunch of guys sitting in a room with a mannequin head and a mannequin head on the back cover. I always thought it was kind of spooky. Years later I remember playing that same album(probably early to mid 1983)but didn't really care for it. Then later that year or early the following year I bought the 90125 album(on cassette)and liked it. I guess mainly for "owner of a lonely heart" and some of the other hits. I suppose I was vaguely aware it was the same band that did "the Yes album." Eventually it sunk in and I rediscovered my dad's old album plus eventually got more into them. One of my cousins was into them but also into Genesis and King Crimson. While it was good to make the connection of this kind of music I mostly discovered it on my own. Around 1985(when I was 15) someone(I believe my ex stepmother) gave me a guitar book with Robert Fripp in it. She also gave me a rock encyclopedia book around the same time that mentioned these bands as "progressive rock." I got more into Genesis and then King Crimson and also Rush through one of my brother's friends. Things just sort of took off from there. There was a brief period of time when I was in college(in the mid 1990's)when I sort of moved away from prog for a bit and was more into alternative rock and grunge but eventually I rediscovered prog(mostly through old prog catalogs I had kept)and not too long after that I got online and discovered prog on there. The new prog isn't as good as the old prog imo but much of it is still worth exploring and getting into. This site is a great resource for old and new fans.
|
Posted By: ClaudeV
Date Posted: June 03 2017 at 14:48
| I was 14 in 1978, first bands I discovered were records from my older brother, ELO, Supertramp, Styx, than Pink Floyd, than the great revelation, Genesis. To this day Genesis is still the ultimate band for me, a band that is song oriented not trying to put complicated stuff in the music just to look cool. Then I followed the usual path, Yes, Jethro Tull, King Crimson, Harmonium, Rush. After that, I started to discover the artists that never reached massive success, Gentle Giant, VDGG, Camel, Nektar, Renaissance, Steve Hackett, Peter Hammill. At the same time I discovered European prog, PFM, Le Orme, Banco, Ange, Mona Lisa, Focus, Eloy and the emerging bands from the 80's like Mariliion, Twelfth Night, Pallas, IQ, Pendragon, Mach One, Miriodor. These are just a few names. I prefer music generating emotion and I am not very attracted to stuff that is too technical or stuff made to display virtuosity. I also prefer artists signing in their native language even if I don't understand a word. |
Posted By: UselessPassion
Date Posted: June 03 2017 at 15:52
|
My dad had a turntable and a pretty diverse lineup of albums. One of my earliest and fondest memories is of laying face down on the living room floor being positively obliterated by sound of Dave Brubeck at age 3. It began a lifelong obsession with music (particularly complex music) in aid of recapturing that pivotal moment of conscious awareness. I think almost everything I've done in life has been an attempt to regress back to that state because it was unfathomable bliss. That could've been partly due to oxygen deprivation, but who cares. It worked! He also had some of John Williams' scores (Star Wars was relatively new,) Jethro Tull's Aqualung, Fleetwood Mac and 'best of' classical collections, alongside the typical Glenn Miller stuff that seems to be on every parent's shelf somewhere. I was a 'problem child' so I didn't have much time for music, but when I hit my early-mid teens and gained a degree of independence, my tastes diversified quickly and experimentation became its own reward: from film scores, jazz music, 80s-early 90s metal, synth pop (first crush: Pat Benatar) and even pop country hits, I consumed everything, but at that time I didn't consume music intelligently. Come to think of it, Tool is actually the band that set me on the path to prog addiction. I just loved the weighty material and they were probably the first group I thought about in depth. I met a friend who also liked the band and he got me into Rush and King Crimson. From there, I rediscovered Jethro Tull and all the greats followed. At some point after buying every album Yes had put out at that point, I realized that I was no longer looking in other genres for new music, and when I did, I found them fun but somehow lacking. I knew then I had found my thing, man. ------------- [Hyperreflective paradigm breaking profundity goes here] |
Posted By: Cosmiclawnmower
Date Posted: June 03 2017 at 16:29
|
My older brother brought home lps like Focus 3, Mirage by Camel, Time honoured ghosts by BJH, Friendliness by Stackeridge and 6 wives of Henry 8th by Rick wakeman; a few years earlier an English/ Drama teacher introduced me to Pink floyd, Hendrix and the Moody Blues. My Dad was a closet Jazz- big band drummer who never got to actually drum but introduced me to Gene Krupper and Buddy Rich. Living in the sticks meant there were quite a few longhairs and hippies living around who introduced me to more obscure, wierd and cosmic music.. I had brief time working in music (as road crew) with various bands (some progressive, some not) before settling into a totally non music related career. My tastes have become more and eclectic as ive got older and i think its all those influences which have fed into the pot and after all is what 'progressive' music is all about. ------------- |
Posted By: Jeffro
Date Posted: June 05 2017 at 06:16
|
As a small child, my parents exposed me to the Beatles. I believe my love of Beatles music planted the seed to my eventual love of prog. That seed, however, would take quite a few years to germinate. It wasn't until my family moved to a new town in 1979 that I was exposed fully to classic rock and by extension, prog. Rush became my favorite but I also developed a liking for Yes. There were some Jethro Tull songs that resonated with me as well. That was about it, in the beginning. Rush pretty much dominated the 80s for me. An awareness of other prog wouldn't happen until the late 90s. Spock's Beard became a favorite in the early 2000s. Finding this site really opened up my eyes to the truly obscure stuff. I've since developed a liking for Gentle Giant, pre-Abacab Genesis, King Crimson, Porcupine Tree, Soft Machine, Mahavishnu Orchestra, Mars Volta, and many, many others. ------------- We all live in an amber subdomain, amber subdomain, amber subdomain. My face IS a maserati |
Posted By: AFlowerKingCrimson
Date Posted: June 05 2017 at 10:55
| ^It sounds like you're around the same age as me(teen in the eighties). The eighties were a weird time to discover prog weren't they? :) |
Posted By: Rednight
Date Posted: June 05 2017 at 12:38
|
^I would imagine there was a little less green smoke in the air of the listening dens of the '80s. Was that the case? ------------- "It just has none of the qualities of your work that I find interesting. Abandon [?] it." - Eno |
Posted By: Kepler62
Date Posted: June 05 2017 at 12:53
| You had to have experienced it back in the 70s when it was even on the radio. I even remember hearing Hocus Pocus on AM radio! Back then it was normal to go out and buy the latest Yes or ELP album not to mention all the other less popular stuff. The internet has really killed the fun. I remember buying Focus' Hamburger Concerto new with Guru Guru Dance of The Flames and a couple of others. Went on the train from Two Mountains to Sam The Record Man in downtown Montreal. The Sam's in Toronto was even better. I We would take the train to Toronto from Montreal just to go to Sam's to get all kinds of crazy stuff. Glad I kept all my vinyl from the seventies. Last time I counted was close to 2000 Lps. |
Posted By: dr wu23
Date Posted: June 05 2017 at 13:03
|
Hmm....I started when it wasn't called prog but just different music. I suppose The Moody Blues , Traffic, and Procol Harum, Tull... were the first proggy things...then I discovered Crimson's first (early 1970) and kept looking for unusual music in that vein. Yes...Genesis...ELP...etc. No one called it prog then...it was simply more adventurous music. Around the late 80's I met a guy who turned me onto many obscure second and third tier prog bands I had missed over the years. Since that time I have been searching out similar kinds of prog.....but I enjoy the classic early prog the best...from 1969-1979. ------------- One does nothing yet nothing is left undone. Haquin |
Posted By: The Dark Elf
Date Posted: June 05 2017 at 13:39
|
I had a comment for this thread but f-u-c-k-ing "Captcha" deleted it. Whatever.
------------- ...a vigorous circular motion hitherto unknown to the people of this area, but destined to take the place of the mud shark in your mythology... |
Posted By: Rednight
Date Posted: June 05 2017 at 14:48
------------- "It just has none of the qualities of your work that I find interesting. Abandon [?] it." - Eno |
Posted By: AFlowerKingCrimson
Date Posted: June 05 2017 at 18:16
You guys would probably get a lot out of this site then. About 99 percent of what's on there is from that time period. http://www.vintageprog.com/ There's another good one called "strawberry bricks."
|
Posted By: bankstatement
Date Posted: June 05 2017 at 20:56
|
I don't exactly remember how I got into prog, but I do remember I was a big fan of pop Genesis growing up. I was also a fan of Peter Gabriel. Once I discovered Peter Gabriel was in Genesis, I knew I had to check the earlier stuff out. Foxtrot is one of the earliest prog albums I can remember listening to, and at first listen, I thought it sounded really weird. But I thought it was an interesting sound and kept coming back to it, and it won me over. From there I started really getting into Genesis (which was my favorite band for a long time), King Crimson, and Yes, which I still all love today. I think it was the longer epics that won me over when getting into most prog band. Now I'm more of a King Crimson/avant-prog person, but I still like a lot of the same symphonic prog that I used to as well. Still expanding my horizons too.  |
Posted By: Jeffro
Date Posted: June 06 2017 at 05:21
Yup Definitely an odd time to discover prog. The 80s were probably the all time low period for prog. ------------- We all live in an amber subdomain, amber subdomain, amber subdomain. My face IS a maserati |
Posted By: Jeffro
Date Posted: June 06 2017 at 05:23
I can't speak for anyone else but I didn't need any "enhancements" in order to enjoy music. I had easy access to just about anything I wanted to get but I chose not to. One of the best life decisions I ever made. ------------- We all live in an amber subdomain, amber subdomain, amber subdomain. My face IS a maserati |
Posted By: Blacksword
Date Posted: June 06 2017 at 06:45
|
I made the transition from heavy metal to prog around 1983. My actual first prog album was The Wall in about 1982, but I didn't really know what prog rock was. It was just an album that I heard round a friends house and happened to like. I was intrigued by the fact that the whole album told a story, and loved the way the songs flowed into each other. Then a friend of mine said he thought my tastes were 'too heavy' so he leant me Exit stage..left by Rush, and then Script for a Jesters Tear. Next thing I knew I was listening to Genesis at Knebworth 1978 on the BBC Friday night rock show, and that was that. I went out and bought everything I could by Genesis, Rush, Marillion and Floyd. I graduated onto Yes and various neo-bands and before I knew it, I was a progger and rapidly losing interest in Motorhead, Maiden, Metallica et al...although I do listen to a bit of metal now and then these days. I guess you could take it back to 1978 when I first heard Jeff Waynes War of the Worlds. It had a similar effect on me, aged 10 or so, that The Wall did when I was about 13. ------------- Ultimately bored by endless ecstasy! |
Posted By: miamiscot
Date Posted: June 06 2017 at 08:18
|
12 year old me hears "Roundabout" on radio and proceeds to buy Fragile. Game over.
|
Posted By: Sean Trane
Date Posted: June 06 2017 at 09:08
|
Although I'd been listening to Stand Up and tyhe Hair Musical OST ever since I was six, it wasn't really until the unavoidable Harmonium's debut (spring 74) in Montreal and later on Crime Of The Century in Sept 74, once we'd moved to Toronto that I really plunged into rock music... The record shop next to my school had Supertramp's COTC in the indow ... and because of that intriguing artwork, I just had to listen to the music ... Within weeks or a couple of months, I'd bought DSOTM, ITLOG&P, SEBTP, ITCOTCK, LSOHHB and a few more, like you'd guessed it Aqualung and TAAB. Hard rock would wait afterwards
Mmmhhh!!!... sam was hardly the only record store on the Yonge strip between Dundas & Bloor, including the Vinyl Museum and a Records On Wheels within 25 yards. I would take the Go Train from Clarkson until Union Station and raid all them stores , starting with Record Peddler on Queen St E than walk all the way to Record On Wheels of Bloor than back down. Vortex Records (used only) was my fave...
yup, we (Ontario & Quebec) called that music either Art Rock or Symphob-nic Prog or Jazz-rock... I only heard of prog rock in the 90's in Europe |
Posted By: AFlowerKingCrimson
Date Posted: June 06 2017 at 10:20
I think it's because of the commercial success of Yes, Genesis and Pink Floyd in particular in that decade that enabled some of us to eventually discover the back catalog of these bands . I don't think most people at the time considered Rush to be part of the genre(even their seventies stuff wasn't usually mentioned in the same breath as the English bands). I got into them then also though mainly through my brother's friend.
|
Posted By: A_Flower
Date Posted: June 07 2017 at 08:17
|
Well, I was born in the very late 90s, first of all. When I was very young, I didn't listen to music really. But I liked playing computer games. However, it turned out I enjoyed the music of the computer games more then the game itself. I started downloading it and making mixes for my room. Often, the music was by John Williams and so and such. But you can normally call video game soundtracks progressive. It wasn't until middle school when my parents got me into more normal music. Of course, this being classic rock. I was obsessed with The Beatles. But most Beatles songs I listened to were the experimental ones like I Am the Walrus, Blue Jay Way, Within You Without You, etc. I even formed a guilty pleasure for Revolution 9! After The Beatles I got into Led Zeppelin, and then Pink Floyd. My parents weren't so sure about Floyd for me because they were often associated with drugs (which I personally do not associate with prog, I care strictly about musical intent and not drugs). But no matter my parents remarks, I still got into Floyd. I guess you could say if any song had changed my life, it would have been Echoes. This was basically my first prog epic. I remember it being around the time of my first heartbreak, and I listened to it every night before I would sleep for about two months. I soon realized that I needed to find more music like this. My cousin helped me get into Yes, and soon, my mom got me into Jethro Tull and my dad got me into Genesis. After I found out that all these bands were within the same genre, I knew what my favorite type of music was. I still listen to prog today, now being more modern prog. Now I am older and almost done with High School. I guess my favorite music has now branched out to classical and I like modern indie rock too. But of course, nothing can replace prog. ------------- User Banned for this Post |
Posted By: Barbu
Date Posted: June 07 2017 at 12:17
|
1987: Pain Dallaire: Do you like Rush? Barbu: Never heard. Pain Dallaire: Listen to these, man. (MP/Signals/GUP/HYF) Barbu: All right, thanks dude. ------------- |
Posted By: Dopeydoc
Date Posted: June 08 2017 at 13:28
|
Moody Blues first in 1967 (I was 16 years old), then Pink Floyd in 1968, then Yes, King Crimson... |
Posted By: maryes
Date Posted: June 09 2017 at 18:26
| I grew up listening with my father classical music (Haydn , Vivaldi, Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Ketelbey etc...) and of course the pop-rock music of late 60's ( The Beatles, The Beach Boys, Simon & Garfunkel ) I like both styles. Suddenly I knew "Joy: The Ventures Play the Classics" and the set list with rock'n roll arrangements from classical music. Finally my older cousin, show me Yes, EL&Palmer, Renaissance, Genesis's tunes and " my research of this wonderful music style remaining until now ! |
Posted By: Lewian
Date Posted: June 09 2017 at 18:30
|
I had a phase in which I loved the Beatles aged 9 or so but dropped them
somewhat stupidly. Then in 1979 my father played a tape in the car with
Watch by Manfred Mann's Earthband and this got me totally hooked. I
started buying all their stuff and then very quickly discovered others,
Pink Floyd came second (of course they had Another Brick in the Wall II
in the charts at the time so I they came to me quite naturally), I read
Ingeborg Schober's book on Amon Düül II and my father had some Novalis
flying around, so I started to get into Krautrock and then Electronic
like Tangerine Dream, my best friend was into Barclay James Harvest,
Supertramp, Genesis, Alan Parsons and we exchanged lots of stuff; I got
into piles of things in 1980, Jethro Tull, Can, Yes, Oldfield,
Grobschnitt, Gong, you name it. Also I became a big Eloy fan. Most of these early discoveries are still dear to me. I fell out of love with Eloy and became far more critical of some more commercial end 70s/early 80s stuff that I had liked at the time (BJH and APP are pretty much gone, I hate Genesis after Abacap; on the other I still like quite some Supertramp), but I still love many of my very first albums such as Nightingales and Bombers, Animals, Rubycon. I always listened to quite a bit of other stuff; in recent years I listen more to experimental soundscapes, field recordings and the like. I always expected jazz and classical to gain more ground in my taste but they're still pretty marginal though existing. Somehow prog and prog related stuff still make about 50% of what I listen to. |
Posted By: MIDIManNI
Date Posted: June 11 2017 at 13:22
|
How did you get into prog? I was at boarding school (many years ago) and we all spent a lot of time drinking homemade beer, smoking and listening to vinyl...I started off with Pink Floyd and very quickly got into Yes and Genesis. What bands and albums were your initial favourites? David Bowie - Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars Yes - Fragile, Close to the Edge Genesis - Selling England..., Lamb Lies Down... ELP - Brain Salad Surgery Jethro Tull - Aqualung Camel - Mirage Frank Zappa - Apostrophe What sort of music do you listen to now? Just about everything and anything but mostly Prog or Prog-related... Canterbury, Avant, Neo, Crossover, Krautrock, Jazz Rock/Fusion, Electronic, Ambient Prog, Symphonic, Psychadelic, Prog Metal... I do like some other (more) mainstream artists like Donald Fagan, Supertramp, Al Stewart, Brian Augur Trinity, Theory of a Deadman, Flamin Lips... What sort of music did you listen to in the interim process? Again - everything and everything....Classical and Jazz through Blues and Folk, Soul and Motown, Rock and
Metal...Folk, Punk, New Wave, New Romantic, Electronica... How do you feel today about the bands and albums that you initially loved? Still listen to them with the same passion since they formed my musical "soul"... How do they stack up against your current favourites? Difficult
to compare the bands of my youth with those of today...I reckon that no-one can re-create the sound that is Pink Floyd or Yes but many modern bands do have a similar sound or "feel" to them. I like the Modern stuff every bit as much as the classic oldschool Prog...In fact when I discover a new band it gives me the same thrill as I remember when I first discovered the bands and albums of my youth...
 |
Posted By: WeepingElf
Date Posted: June 12 2017 at 08:15
|
I grew up in a three-generation household, and an unmarried younger brother of my father had his room next to mine, and he listened to lots of rock music. That was in the 70s, so the classics of rock provided the soundtrack to the adventures of my LEGO starships. Later, in school, I had a very modern young music teacher who played to us various versions of the Pictures at an Exhibition, including that by ELP. However, back then I was more impressed by Isao Tomita's synthesizer version. Yet later, my brother introduced me to Pink Floyd, and soon after that, some classmates of mine introduced me to Rush, Marillion and Asia; I also heard of Yes at that time, but did not buy any records of them. It really kicked off in the early 90s, when three key events happened. One was the discovery of Yessongs in my uncle's record collection - my gateway into the fantastic world of classic-era Yes. The second were some guys handing out handbills of a prog fanzine at a Rush concert, according to which two English neo-prog bands - Jadis and Shadowland - were playing in my town later that year, and I attended that show. The third was the discovery of the rec.music.progressive newsgroup on the Internet. Since then, I have always heavily been into prog, and in 2011 I founded a prog round table. Now I am even in a prog band (see avatar)! ------------- ... brought to you by the Weeping Elf "What does Elvish rock music sound like?" - "Yes." |
Posted By: Slartibartfast
Date Posted: June 12 2017 at 11:55
|
My brother was a big rock fan. My mother liked a few groups. My first two albums were Rick Wakeman's Journey and King Arthur. Before that one of my cousins had Brain Salad Surgery and Tocatta really apealed to me. Probably the definitive event was when my mom treated me, my brother, and several of his friends to Kansas in 1978. From there I was hopelessly addicted. I now have over 1600 mostly prog CDs. I also have a nice collection of LPs (I refuse to call them vinyls) and a good collection of DVDs. PROG ON!!! ------------- Released date are often when it it impacted you but recorded dates are when it really happened... 
|
Posted By: dr prog
Date Posted: June 12 2017 at 17:21
|
Didn't like popular music growing up in the mid 80s. I was lucky my dad had a Hammond organ, Rhodes piano and Micro moog in his lounge room though. So I was destined to have high standards for sound and composition. My younger brother played drums in a band and he started listening to the zeps after his band mates showed him. I dug a few of their tracks. Then he brought home some purple and sabbath. I liked them more so bought their albums. Then one of the band members played me some yes and I heard some Floyd so I went out and bought their albums. I rated Yes from 70-72 as my fave band at the time but didn't rate them much after that. My dad played oblivion express and elp so I grabbed their stuff too. Elp were a fave like Yes from 70-72 but not much after. I came across Hendrix, Cream and The Doors and grabbed their stuff. I heard larks, red and debut by crimson but Poseidon was the one that really interested me. By the time I was 21 my brother told me to check out tull. After grabbing aqualung I was loving side 1 but not so much side 2. Then I heard taab so I had to grab all their albums. LITP filled any holes that I found on the early albums. I loved their early and late 70s and wondered what the hell happened in the mid 70s. But those holes were also filled with the great bonus material on the recent remixes. My other brother was into the old movies and got me into Goblin and other soundtrack bands. I found prog ears around 1998 and got into gentle giant, camel, rush etc. Found many other bands since visiting prog ears and archives. ------------- All I like is prog related bands beginning late 60's/early 70's. Their music from 1968 - 83 has the composition and sound which will never be beaten. Perfect blend of jazz, classical, folk and rock. |
Posted By: Blaqua
Date Posted: June 17 2017 at 11:34
|
Pink Floyd's The Wall was my first prog album purchased several years ago and Beatles, Iron Maiden, Metallica and Queen my first prog-related (classification on this site) favorites. However listening to the 70s Genesis, to great songs such as Seven Stones and Cinema Show, hooked me into prog. I always knew their 70s sound was quite different from their commercial 80s-90s sound, but had never given it a shot before the youtube era. |
Posted By: moshkito
Date Posted: June 22 2017 at 07:24
|
Hi, There was a journey for me, but it was not about "progressive" or anything. It was much more varied in keeping with my having been in Brazil, and Portugal, and having heard quite different music, than what the US had to offer when I arrived in 1965 .... and promptly heard "Blonde on Blonde" ... and that sarcasm, in the album, really was noticeable and not something that most "singers" even tried. I really thought, and still do, that it was the eye opener for many lyrics all over, even though the folk side of music everywhere, had always been very strong, but in this case, it bust into the area that was not known for intelligent music ... pop radio, or in America, the AM radio band (FM was just getting started at the time, and Madison WI is known to have had one of the first such stations). Before comeing to California, I had already heard Fairport Convention, King Crimson, and many of the English bands, with special attention having been made to The Kinks, The Who, and such, that stood out. "Tommy" was special for me, and many of the songs in it still leave memories and that one of them became the stand out in Woodstock, is not a surprise for me. When I got to Southern California, I went to the European continent, wondering why there was no music from other countries, when in fact, I knew that they existed. It wasn't long before I found "Ange" through my sister who moved to France, and then a year later, via my roomate, the German scene came alive in my mind along with things like Hawkwind, Man, Family, Roxy Music, and an incredible list of artists that has been with me ever since. Amon Duul 2 and Can, and Faust were right there behind it, as was Kevin Ayers and Roy Harper, both poets that I loved listening to and appreciated and still do! I, personally, do not like to use the word "progressive" since ALL MUSIC is a progression in one form or another and every scene for the past 500 years that we are aware of it, has improved on the previous style, or compositional elements. Just like a Stravinsky, Bartok, and others brought about a different look at the orchestra, so did jazz and rock music, when it became ELECTRIC, which to me is the only real difference. IF we take out the electricity, I am not convinced that a lot of it will stand out at all, and it reminds me of Andy Summers on a special for "Behind the Music" playing something without the amplification and modifications and it sounded horrible. Then he said listen to this, and turned on the amplification and voila ... a hit! The Edge showed the same thing in another one of those shows. For me, it never was about a history, since they are ALL a part of the history of music, although many factions these days, will specify that it is all just pop music (just like the M song!!!!!) and not worthy of the discussion. I disagree, as this is the human spirit exercising its beauty through music, and as such it deserves the credit. Regardless! ------------- Music is not just for listening ... it is for LIVING ... you got to feel it to know what's it about! Not being told! www.pedrosena.com |
Posted By: 2dogs
Date Posted: June 24 2017 at 08:39
|
I was going to attempt a proper answer then started thinking about what if, back in 1976 with the first album I bought with my own free will, Tangerine Dream's Ricochet, I had ignored everyone else, not followed the latest music trends, turned around and gone backward to their earlier albums. What if I'd then followed up the subsequent works of the original members, Conrad Schnitzler and Klaus Schulze, Kluster and Cluster, the first two Popol Vuh albums before Florian Fricke joined in on Zeit, the influences and related music that aren't prog either but didn't sneak into PA under the Krautrock tag - Stockhausen, Ligeti, Xenakis, Varese, Pierre Henry, Morton Subotnick (and Limbus 4 who did)? Of course I'd have had no hope back then of finding any of them in the record shops of my town beyond perhaps Phaedra and Rubycon but sitting listening to them all now through headphones on my high quality music player I can conjure up a wonderful dream of shelves of rare and pristine vinyl albums, a cosy reclining chair and a classic hi fi system on which to enjoy them in all their glory without worrying about whether anyone else liked them or not. Maybe I don't actually care so much now about what really happened. ------------- "There is nothing new except what has been forgotten" - Marie Antoinette |
Posted By: Zem
Date Posted: June 24 2017 at 23:58
|
In middle school an online friend of mine made a video and used "Ride the Comet" by Ayreon from 01011001 as the background song. As someone who had the general opinion at that time that I didn't really care for music, I was really impressed by what they heard. I listened to that album religiously for a while and then expanded into some of the other albums before falling off from it. About 4 years ago, I learned a friend of mine from my local game s hop also liked Ayreon and so we listened through most of the albums on a long road trip together. That re-sparked my interested in Ayreon which led me to branch out into the work of the vocalists involved. This introduced me to Dream Theater, Opeth, etc. That made me realize all these groups were considered 'progressive' which led to me listening to more modern prog groups like Steven Wilson, Haken, and more. Then I slowly started to branch into old school prog with Pink Floyd and from there discovered King Crimson, Genesis, Yes, ELP, Gentle Giant, Hawkwind, Rush, and all my other favorites. I also recently started collecting vinyl earlier this year which has allowed me to find even more obscure groups and I now have over 100 records that are all prog. It's funny to think that if it wasn't for that one Ayreon song, I would've never been exposed to the genre I love. |
Posted By: Flight123
Date Posted: June 26 2017 at 03:35
| I was 12 or 13 - a combination of my Dad buying me 'Melody Maker' (UK) and then listening to Alan Freeman's Saturday Afternoon Rock Show on BBC Radio 1 (not 'arf) and getting intrigued by all these wonderful sounding bands. The year? 1973. I quickly ditched Deep Purple and Free for Floyd and Genesis etc. The band that really opened my ears in 1975 was Henry Cow. |
Posted By: The.Crimson.King
Date Posted: June 26 2017 at 12:17
|
Grew up in a musical family (began playing organ at the age of 4) in the 60's with top 40 radio constantly playing and the newest Beatle & Stones albums always on the family turntable. When Sgt Peppers was released the whole musical world drastically changed and rock musicians realized that the old rules no longer applied (one of several reasons I consider Sgt Peppers the very 1st prog album). Then in 1974 I saw a TV commercial for the show "In Concert". They showed clips of Black Sabbath and Keith Emerson's flying piano from the recent California Jam festival. I wanted to be a fan of a band called Black Sabbath and I definitely thought a flying piano was cool! I recorded the Black Sabbath episode on a cheap little cassette player, but somehow missed ELP the next week :-( Spent the next few months getting into Sabbath then found myself in a record store just browsing and I came across Brain Salad Surgery. The artwork...the album title...oh ya, the flying piano! I just had to hear these guys! Played the album literally every day that summer. About the same time I made friends with this Yes fanatic at the local hobby shop. He got me into Yes, Genesis & Tull and started bringing me along to prog concerts with his friends - the first being Gentle Giant opening for Yes in '76. The biggest prog thing happened in autumn '77 when I went to my local record store and said to the guy behind the counter, "I've seen some really cool album covers from this band called King Crimson. Do you know anything about them?" He got this evil smile and said, "hang around for a few minutes...I'll put some on". He played Fracture from Starless and Bible Black at ear splitting volume. That was it...game over...King Crimson became my fave prog band. Learned how to play bass and played in a few prog bands with the guys filling in the blanks and turning me on to VDGG, Rush, Soft Machine, Shadowfax (before they went new age) etc. As prog withered and died in the early 80's I got into
hardcore punk like the Dead Kennedy's, The Minutemen, Black Flag, Husker Du,
DRI, MDC, GBH and a bunch of other 3 letter acronyms :-) Also stumbled
across Zappa's Studio Tan at the local library so began exploring his stuff.
I had no idea there was a Neo Prog renaissance happening at the same
time! Made friends with this guy at work in the early 90's who was into
it and turned me on to Marillion, IQ, Twelfth Night, Pallas, In the mid 90's discovered this email list called, "The Gibraltar Encyclopedia of Progressive Rock". Printed out the whole thing and started bringing it with me to record stores and discovered little known gems like Cathedral's 1978 Stained Glass Stories, Split Enz' 1976 Mental Notes, and bands like Asia Minor, Pentwater, Mirthrandir, Devil Doll, Yezda Urfa, Babylon, Celeste, Lift, Spring, Asgard, etc... Also stumbled on the Swedish prog renaissance with Anekdoten, Anglagard, Landberk, etc... By the late 90's I'd mined all the prog veins I could think
of...except... And the search for new prog continues... ------------- https://wytchcrypt.wixsite.com/mutiny-in-jonestown" rel="nofollow - Mutiny in Jonestown : Progressive Rock Since 1987 |
Posted By: Argo2112
Date Posted: June 26 2017 at 14:00
|
For me I guess it was seeing Yes on the 90125 tour in 1983. I knew Roundabout and a couple of other older Yes songs along with the new songs that were playing on the radio at the time( Owner of a Lonely Heart, Changes...) However when I was at the show I started hearing all these songs I recognized but did realize were Yes like Heart of the Sunrise , And You and I , Starship Trooper. ( I know , I lived a sheltered life when I was young!) Anyway, after that I started exploring more Yes and other prog bands like Genesis, Rush, Tull, Pink Floyd... I've been exploring ever since... |
Posted By: AFlowerKingCrimson
Date Posted: June 26 2017 at 21:51
That's a truly amazing story. I love hearing stories like this. I am going to go out on a limb and say you are probably no older than 22? I really like to hear stories about how younger folks get into prog. I know usually it's through the internet(somehow)but I'm always curious to hear who the gateway bands are these days for the younger folks. I get the feeling that aside from maybe Pink Floyd or Rush it isn't going to be Yes, Genesis, ELP, KC or JT but instead will be bands and artists like Ayreon, Devin Townshend, Opeth, Steven Wilson or whoever else is branching out to a wider audience that is still considered prog. Not sure if younger folks are still getting into prog through Dream Theater though.
|
Posted By: Boojieboy
Date Posted: July 06 2017 at 14:28
|
In the late 70s, I got into Kansas, Jethro Tull, Rush, and so on, but they were more straightforward than the "deeper" prog. Another like band member (keyboard player) turned me on to Gentle Giant. Then I was really hooked.
|
Posted By: Zem
Date Posted: July 06 2017 at 16:58
I'm only 20 and it seems generally there is a fairly large age gap between myself and most people who listen to prog. Dream Theater was a huge introduction to Prog Metal for me and helped me get into the genre. Older Progressive Rock, however, is generally lost on my age group. Most of the music never saw extended radio play meaning it doesn't show back up in modern popular culture (except for maybe some Pink Floyd) and most of the music is from European based bands that never had a super large impact here in the US. Also, most people my age don't tend to have the attention span required to listen through progressive rock albums. They'd rather listen to music that is more easily digestible for the most part. |
Posted By: AFlowerKingCrimson
Date Posted: July 09 2017 at 13:14
| Yeah, I don't disagree with most of what you say. I'd say at least 50 percent of prog fans are over 40 with maybe 40 percent being over 50 but it's actually difficult to say exactly. Most younger prog fans do seem to be mostly into prog metal if they are into prog at all. Other than that they like Pink Floyd and Rush but Yes(and the other older well known bands)seem lost on most of them. I would say the biggest age gap though is people in their thirties. There seems to be fewer prog fans in their thirties than any other age range. My opinion is that it's because most people get into music when they are in their teens and that would mean that those in their thirties would have been in their teens in the 90's which is when the fewest number of people were discovering prog(imo)(Dream Theater might be one exception of a band that helped people get into prog in the 90's though). There's even more people my age(40's) who got into prog in the eighties than in the nineties because Floyd, Yes, Genesis and Rush were all still very big in the eighties. In the nineties it was less obvious and with the exception of Rush and Floyd the fanbases of most of those bands decreased in the 90's. All imo of course. |
Posted By: mlkpad14
Date Posted: July 09 2017 at 14:28
Well I'm only about twenty... I listen to only about everything. ------------- https://gamecrazyprofessional.weebly.com/ |
Posted By: enriqueilluminato
Date Posted: July 11 2017 at 18:11
|
I'll tell you how I got started with prog rock: (since I can remember,I always wantetd to watch the TV news channels because of the music they played before the nonsense chatting... that music..yeez!) 8 years ago, feeling bored at home, watching tv, I got to stop zapping and started to watch and listen avidly at that show.. "7 ages of rock", because of the sounds I could recognize... it was the Pink Floyd... it was "Echoes", I mean, I didn't know any damn thing about the latter, but the sounds from that song captivated my mind, and immediately knew it was the kind of music I had always been waiting to discover in a decent way... same day before the afternoon ended, I had come back from my local music store and bought my first ever prog rock cd. PF's Meddle. I was dazzled. I got hooked. A happy lad indeed... and still am, gladly. That's how I got started with Prog Rock
|
Posted By: Stool Man
Date Posted: July 13 2017 at 08:36
|
1972ish, I was browsing through my dad's LP collection and found one with no words on the cover, just a photograph of a cow. (Atom Heart Mother is still my favourite album today.) I got into Pink Floyd immediately, previously unaware that songs could be longer than 10 minutes. After that I wasn't especially into progressive music, but liked a few obvious things such as Tubular Bells and Autobahn. Later I discovered experimental music of various kinds, and started listening to bands not considered prog like The Residents and Throbbing Gristle. Eventually, more than forty years after my childhood incident with the cow, I decided to give prog a proper listen, and here we are. ------------- rotten hound of the burnie crew |
Posted By: SteveG
Date Posted: July 13 2017 at 09:47
How can I tell you about something that only started 45 years ago?  ------------- This message was brought to you by a proud supporter of the Deep State. |
Posted By: Slartibartfast
Date Posted: July 20 2017 at 14:54
|
I actually have this posted already but - I've been enjoying music about as long as I can remember. Don't quite remember back to when I was born in 1965 and would have serious doubts that Zappa and the Mothers Freak Out! was being played around the house in '66, but I do have an early memory of hearing Grieg's Peer Gynt Suite No 1 'a. I actually didn't find out the title and composer or the melody that had been in my head until college. In my early years music was mostly a matter of listening to radio, singles, or my parent's LPs. I remember Focus, Hocus Pocus getting some airplay and liking it. I was probably 7 or 8 years old at the time. A little time later I heard ELP's Tocatta, a cousin's copy. That really appealed to me at the time because I was a big fan of monster movies and science fiction. My first progressive music albums (vinyl, of course) were Rick Wakeman's Journey to the Centre of the Earth and The Myths and Legends of King Arthur... I was attracted more to these albums by the concept than the progressive music qualities of the albums. I got them in initial music club order along with a couple of soundtrack albums (Earthquake and Airport ?75), a couple of Redd Foxx comedy albums (raunchy standup, I was too young but I loved it), maybe one or two others that elude my memory. The Wakeman albums didn't totally convert me to the progressive music addict that I am today. The summer of 1978 was pivotal though. I had been enjoying Genesis' Follow You Follow Me on the radio, which still didn't lead totally convert me, it wasn't really progressive anyway. Also, Chuck Mangione's Feels So Good helped spark my interest in jazz/rock fusion and jazz. My first concert was Kansas at the Alexander Memorial Colliseum in June of 1978. It was kind of a big event with my Mom, my brother, a few of his friends, and my best friend at the time attending. My Mom gave one of my brother's friends a ticket, which he repaid by giving my Mom a beat up acoustic guitar. It pretty much laid around the house unused, but I started to mess around with it a little when no one else was around. One of the first pieces of music I was able to halfway decently imitate was Roxy Music?s The Bogus Man. Probably getting a little ahead of myself chronologically with the guitar playing stuff. What really got me totally hooked on prog was Genesis' Nursery Cryme and Foxtrot. The particular edition was a cheesy econo combo vinyl release of the two, no original cover art, and maybe lyrics inside (not absolutely certain) that my brother had. Much of what I had been listening to at the time started to go by the wayside. I had Wings' Band on the Run and ELO?s Out of the Blue, but I quit listening to them. All the usual suspects and some less usual pushed them out of the way, Genesis, ELP, Yes, Jethro Tull, Santana, The Dixie Dregs, Kansas, King Crimson, Mahavishnu Orchestra, Gentle Giant, Focus, PFM, Frank Zappa and many more. The real gem as a music collector in those days was the used $2 single and $3 LP. I worked a part time job at a used and new bookstore while I was in high school which really facilitated building up a music collection. I still have most of it intact and in decent shape. There?s a lot of stuff that are really collection items and I must hang on to and preserve, stuff that hasn't made it to CD and stuff that has made it that I wish I knew what to do with. Of course one of these day I suspect my music CD and DVD collection will take over this house and destroy us all!!! Back to the late ?70s early ?80?s, I was really fortunate to attend a lot of concerts: many progressive music shows at venues I was too young to get into like the Agora, outdoor jazz in Piedmont Park , bigger spots like the Fox Theater/the Omni, small nightclubs like the Harvest Moon Saloon. I?ve seen the Dixie Dregs more times than I can count. Soon came college and eventually at 21 I was able to go where I please. There was this brief moment when they were jacking up the drinking age that I was barred from entering the Agora even though I was over 18. I do thank my lucky stars that I was able to see so many good concerts in drinking establishments before I reached 18. I wasn't there for the booze dammit, just the music. The '08's were my college years (architecture) and really not the progressive musical wasteland that many consider it despite too many of the usual suspects going or having already gone south. I always have a great chuckle at vinyl snobbery. I grew up in the vinyl and cassette age. 8 tracks and reel to reels were out there but fading fast when I became a prog nut. I'd always copy my albums to cassette to preserve the vinyl and get the portability. Vinyl scratches and nothing takes away from the music experience like a record scratch. I also used dbx for the cassettes, which would make a copy that sounded as good as the LP, unlike dullby. In addition to recording whole albums, I'd also make assortment tapes. When CDs came out they were a godsend, even despite the fact that in the early days they'd often just put the LP master on the CD and not master for the CD format, a big no no. On a funny note, my first CD version of Marscape was actually transferred to CD by playing an LP, you can hear the needle noise at the quiet parts. I eventually quit buying LPs and making cassettes. I lost all my cassettes and a bunch of LPs I was going to sell in the flood of 2009. I still have two boom boxes that can play cassettes but nothing to play in them. Along comes the age of the MP3 or digital music files. I was reluctant to embrace it at first. I got my first player because it would be a great way to take my music collection with me on vacations. I used to spend inordinate amounts of time figuring out what CDs to load into my carrying case. Having my entire collection accessible on computer and on a portable player (currently use a Zune) is a wonderful thing. And I can still sit down and listen to the CD if I want to enjoy the music that way. So there, vinyl snobs. Update - the Zune finally died. Thanks Microsoft for no longer supporting it. I now keep as much music as possible on my "smart" "phone". heheheh. By the way lots of great new prog artists out there. Ciccada, Djam Karet, Ecovillage, feat Esserela, IO Earth, Mother Tongue, Pandora Snail, Parallel Mind, Perfect Beings, Rainbird, Billie, Staves, The, Tea Club, The, Thieve's Kitchen, The, Big Big Train, Chatoorgoon, Rani, Fractal Mirror, Herd Of Instinct, I Am The Morning, Knifeworld, Djam Karet, Bartsch's, Nik Mobile, Pineapple Thief, The, Dream The Electric Sleep... I should also add that something else is bringing back the you have to sit down and listen or watch and listen and that is the DVD and surround sound. I have built up a good collection of live stuff and had already built up a good VHS collection, which I have transferred most of to DVD. On a final note anyone remember quad back in the '70's? For those that care my collection is holding steady for a while at 1614 CDs (discs and/or titles if box sets have discs in separate jewel cases I give each disc a number) 177 DVDs and or VHS copied to DVD 172 Keeper LPs (more to come) ------------- Released date are often when it it impacted you but recorded dates are when it really happened...
|
Posted By: SquonkHunter
Date Posted: July 20 2017 at 20:44
|
Early 1969. 12 years old. At a friend's house admiring the new stereo rig he got for Christmas. My first exposure to Dallas "underground" FM rock radio. Moody Blues - Legend of a Mind. That was the beginning. Didn't hear much back then because I did not have an FM radio. Fast forward a few years and then I heard The Yes Album. That did it. I was hooked for life. Been a hell of a ride since then. ------------- "You never had the things you thought you should have had and you'll not get them now..." |
Posted By: essexboyinwales
Date Posted: July 26 2017 at 05:11
That pretty much sums it up for me too, although I was 8 when I first heard WOTW and around 14 when The Wall came into my world. It would be many years before I became a "proper" fan of prog, in fact it was The Platinum Collection by Genesis that really opened my ears in the early 2000's, but in between I got into IQ (Menel-era initially), Dream Theater and King's X, without really knowing that I was enjoying "prog". In the early 80's I was loving, well, 80's music (and still do!!), late 80's it was rock and metal mostly, in the 90's I went to Uni and went through grunge and Britpop (what was I thinking with the latter!), before that Genesis best of truly pushed me down another route... These days I still listen to mainly prog, but symphonic metal has also eaten into me, mainly female-fronted, such as the mighty Nightwish, Within Temptation, Evanescence, etc. Plus Devin Townsend Project. Prog on... |
Posted By: Guldbamsen
Date Posted: July 26 2017 at 06:04
|
It all made sense to me one night during a wild night out on the town where a coconut fell on my head. Today I understand prog and additionally pick up radio signals from Fiji. Good times. ------------- “The Guide says there is an art to flying or rather a knack. The knack lies in learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss.” - Douglas Adams |
Posted By: AFlowerKingCrimson
Date Posted: July 26 2017 at 11:43
| I'm particularly curious to hear about how those who are twenty somethings and younger discovered prog. I know it's much easier to find out about prog these days because of the internet but I'm curious about the this band led to that band kind of thing(actually not just with newer stuff but in general). |