But two bands that to me are rather ,ehh ,...I do not really appreciate ,but find somewhat similar.quirky.

Though I love Quiet Zone Pleasure Dome.

But that's about it.Van is my choice.  

I have a bit of the same problem with Gentle Giant, but to a much lesser extent.

Good pick, their most underrated masterpiece. Got to say I love most of them though.

With Gentle Giant, they are a good band.  Nothing really objectionable with them.  I enjoy listening to their albums, but again I just don't really have a history with them so they are again, just another band, nothing special.  Their vocal harmonies are top notch though and Knots is a pretty awesome song...so I guess I've typed myself into voting for Gentle Giant. 

I can't really see anyone calling VDGG pretentious(except for maybe their lyrics)so I'm going to guess that GG is who you are referring to and that you voted for VDGG(the quirky one). 

For all the 70s and 80s, I hated GG. I just could not understand what they were trying to do. Then someone made me listen properly to Free Hand, and suddenly, I understood. I don't like everything they have done, but some of it (Knots, Proclamation, Free Hand amongst many others) is amongst the best prog ever and I listen to them a lot.

VDGG I just cannot cope with at all. They have a fine keyboards player, but Peter Hamill's voice drives me away immediately and their compositions just don't appeal.

And I feel exactly the same about King Crimson. They may be extremely talented musicians, but I cannot stand most of their music and I find Fripp's guitar style to be cold, unemotional and about as pleasant as finger nails scraping down a blackboard.

#2Prog4U 

It was mentioned before, both great bands, but neither spend a lot of time on my turntable.

Same here, love them both.

Yes.That sax does not help, for sure.

Glad you got to like them, eventually .

I have tried and tried and tried GG.It's not happening.

Now I have promised myself not to waste anymore time on them.

There is just so much other great stuff.

wrong---I have tried many times to get into VDGG---but between the singer it sounds like a spoof of what prog from the 70's should sound like---I like a natural voice not a melodramatic put on one---not that it doesnt have some good moments....but GG has a legendary groove with a great bass player (underrated) and some beautiful vocals from both singers. Voted GG...although not a fan of some of their albums.

That's what I initially thought but I see the weird pretentious applying more to GG than VDGG so that's why I came to that conclusion. Anyway, it's all good. We like what we like. For me VDGG just packs more of an emotional punch although GG are one of the best of all time also and made some of the most complex prog without being too avant garde.

I respect your opinion but if you are going to only like or listen to bands who got radio play then you are only going to listen to 6 or 7 prog bands(if that many).  

I think I get what you are saying though but maybe not. It seems that you are comparing them to the first prog bands you got into because they were around the same time. But what about later prog bands like Spock's Beard, The Flower Kings, Big Big Train, etc? By your own admission nothing can be as good as those six or seven just because those are the first ones you heard. At least that's how it sounds to me. There's a lot of good and great stuff out there. Some of it just has to grow on you.

VDGG....some very interesting music and concepts to be sure...if only they could find a  decent singer.

GG on the other hand, maybe my favourite band. 

That's why I like Quiet Zone.Peter's singing seems a little more relaxed and much easier to digest.

 

 

I clicked on Gentle Giant by mistake, thinking you were asking me which band I have a hard time in liking, instead of which band is my favourite.

I use to be on the fence with GG. It took me a while to warm up to them but now I like them, at least some of their stuff.

 

Manuel wrote: I love Gentle giant, and I like VDGG.

Exactly that!

Ray Shulman is the most overlooked bass player in prog rock IMHO. Guy is right behind Squire (he's trailing his cape)!

I'm always concerned when someone makes a post saying they can't get into something or other ... like it's the musician's fault that the person can not "get it", or "understand it" ... or not find the melody that syncs with their heart.

I'm not a fan of Beethoven or Mozart, but I respect their musicianship ... and over the years, they deserve the credit and appreciation they have gotten, and the same goes for GG and VdGG. AND ... KC.

The "different" ones are almost exclusively the ones that are remembered, and it does not have anything to do with how you feel about it ... some music stands out compositionally a lot better than a "format" song that is usually most liked here, despite the comments that I get that smaller songs can also be "prog" ... I was not talking about the size ... it's the form, as there are many "small" songs that are far more "prog" than a lot of other things, that are considered "prog" ...

You may not like Dostoyevsky, or Melville ... but do you really have to bring out a great marching band onto a football field to show that you don't like them? They don't click with you .... NEXT ... 

Both are acquired tastes, and you should keep trying, maybe reaching for filmed performances to understand the music better.

I had bought (used/second hand) Pawn Hearts and Octopus back then (I was +/-14 at the time) , but couldn't get into them. But unlike the stuff I didn't like, which I discarded to make dough & room for other albums, I kept both and I even tried Still Life and Free Hand, cos I knew it was something I diodn't understand, not something I thought sucked.

GG took mr roughly 15 years before I started liking it, oncce I understodd many classical/medieval music.

VdGG was another can of worms: I WTF'd at Hammill's voice and I didn't understand what Jaxon was doing with his sax. When I had my job at the Belgian TV in the very early 90's, I saw both the Godbluff and the Lighthouse keeper videos (filmed/shot by the house), and if I still didn't like Hammill's voice, at least I undetstood Jaxon's sax. Then I chanced on a Hammill solo gig (I mean he was alone) in some flemish anarchist club (Exito 13, I think, and he didn't get paid despite the fact that there were 75 people inside a room only allowed for 25), I finally saw what his singing was about, and I finally had the keys to understand VdGG and PH solo.

Both bands are in my tops today, but neither are for every day spins. I must be in the mood.

 

VdGG are already my favourite band, and I can't see GG ever topping them.