Let's suppose that you have a time machine for some weird reason, and you are capable of going back in time... you could travel back to yesterday to finish some chores, you could travel back ten years ago, or you could end up in 1960-something and become a raging pothead... possibilities are innumerable.

But the plot we are looking for is the following: You travel back in time in order to join any prog band and you can take any of the band duties: vocals, keys, bass, whatever you feel like.

So, which prog band would you go back and join? And why? What instrument would you play, and would you change the direction that this band was going to?

I think this thread will spawn some very interesting answers; I will need more time to give an answer myself.

I dabbled with the drums a bit when I was a misbegotten yoof, and I wish I had carried on with that. Ditto the guitar. I took guitar lessons, but haven’t picked one up since I was 18, and I regret that.

Personally speaking, then, if I were able to go back, I would love to have been involved with a band, either as a manager, on the road, doing tax and accountancy. That would be great fun, because it would be a way of being with a band without detracting from them.

^That's so funny.

Not funny HaHa, but funny strange. As I was reading the original post I was thinking the exact same thing. But I'd want to be the band manager for sure. Like the mighty Laz I'm a nit quite drummer. Unlike Laz I didn't take guitar lessons. I took accordion lessons, for a very brief while when I was around 12yrs old. Damn that thing was heavy. I quickly moved onto the trumpet at 13, much easier to carry to lessons at the local high school. But as I got into music more I didn't hear much trumpet in the bands I was loving and there was no way I was dragging a piano or organ to lessons and back . I actually asked my music teacher if I could do drums or piano, but there was no piano or drums in the band, Mostly just wind instruments as my failing memory recalls.

So my answer is easy...I'd love to have been ELP's manager. For all the right reasons.

I have absolutely *zero musical talent and never learned to play anything, but I always dreamed of being the bass player in a symphonic prog band.

*even less 'talent' than The Shaggs, but that's a whole other debate.

And I would like to visit the future in 500 years and be the bass player of a stellar prog band, yet unknown. 

On the other hand, if I could travel back in time and magically know how to play an instrument, I think I'd pick Thinking Plague. I would play anything they'd put in front of me. It would just be an honor and I wouldn't try to change the direction they took.

One individual in which I'd like to change their direction would be Scott Walker. I'd try to convince him to drop the cover songs and the flirting with country music from the 1970-1974 period and dive into the avant-garde in 1970. But, who am I to mess with a legend? Maybe he needed to take that path in order to give us the treasures that came out from 1984 onward?

Fairport Convention, then. Maybe fill in on tours for Pink Floyd like Snowy White. You know, casual stuff.

Mind you, I'm not bad on the old 4 string, and if I did the wood-shed like Squire did after his bad LSD trip, who knows?  I'm very happy to live with the fact that I have trod the rock & roll stage in my youth, played with some amazing folks, and have met nearly all all of my prog heroes.

This was exactly how Squire looked when I first saw him, boots & all.   He was like a God.  Plus I cannot sing nearly as well as he did.  So, let's just say we all are lucky that I didn't return the invitation to join Yes.

From what I've read by folks like Steve Vai, Zappa was quite the perfectionist/slave-driver! 

However, the live shows were amazing, I saw him twice.  

My secret dream: an acoustic guitars duo with David Gilmour or, totally different, adding some extra keyboard to Tangerine Dream.

I'll blow a whistle in time; Jamie Muir it or something.

If I got to go back with actual musical talent, then...no, I still wouldn't do it.

I have no interest in being in a band or performing at all.

I'd rather like to have performed vocals on the first 4 Camel albums (well 3 since The Snow Goose is instrumental).

Touring would have been a major problem though, as I have a chronic fear of singing in public, which ended my association with my band at university. 

Since we're in fantasy worlds....

I dabbled a bit with bass, but gave up after a bit because Squire wouildn't leave Yes and Weather Report hired Jaco instrad of me

lazland wrote: Personally speaking, then, if I were able to go back, I would love to have been involved with a band, either as a manager, on the road, doing tax and accountancy. That would be great fun, because it would be a way of being with a band without detracting from them.

JD wrote: ^That's so funny. Not funny HaHa, but funny strange. As I was reading the original post I was thinking the exact same thing. But I'd want to be the band manager for sure. Like the mighty Laz I'm a nit quite drummer.

Rather than being a band manager, I'd rather be a record engineer/producer and record label owner, signing them better bands for recording deals with better percentage deals and have them keep their rights over their music.

Surely one the word gets out, most bands would rush in to get signed and I'd have my pick and be fairly selective about which I'd choose.

Accessorily, I'd also own a couple of mid-sized venues (like the Fillmores) and have them play full concerts in the band's prime, filming and recording their sets then hand them personally (not to their managers) the films for them to exploit the way they would want ...

Aaaaaand while we're at it fantasizing away, I'd also own a few radio stations in key cities, and have the better records play out regularly.

.

wait, do you think you'd do just as good of a job as Tony Banks? 

Well this would be assuming my piano, vocal, and maybe saxophone skills would be up to snuff in all relevant categories (performance, sight reading, improvisation). Much better than they are now. Maybe some day I'll be actually worthy of having been a member. I certainly have the sense of humor for it, as well as a flair for the theatrical and absurd.

My music partner and I actually put together a concert of his music at our college. It was great night, turned a lot of people on to Frank. And we did the schtick and everything. Our secret word of the night was "Olé" (the slogan of our mascot, the Gaucho). I'd love to do more concerts like that. I'd send a link to the video, but it's unlisted on YouTube, and will remain that way. If any word gets out to ZFT that's it's gone public, they'll be on our A$$es legally speaking.

 

Sounds like a good idea, but for me, it would be to get Van der Graaf Generator to rethink ALT... to examine the successful parts of Present CD2 in order to create an improved version of ALT.

 

 

AC/DC

because they rock

of course I could. 

(don't think anyone can do what he did during this time frame--so much great perfect tasteful playing)

Okay so this is just PURE FANTASY trip right?

I dunno about prog bands. I mean, it would surely be a helluva adventure to tour with Zappa & the Mothers, or record 10+ great albums in a row with Jethro, or push the boundaries of rock improvisation with King Crimson for 8 months and get ditched. But to be honest none of these are my "dream" scenarios. I think I'd have the best time in a later era, say, 80s-90s, being part of some metal group, i.e. Type O Negative (top pick for mixture of goth, epic, doom and fun), Slayer, Death; or maybe some huge names for ca$h flow and touring all over the globe (tallica, Megadeth, Maiden)...

Okay, let's find a compromise between the two: Deep Purple!

None, really.

I'm into theater and film, and I would want to enhance the whole thing with film and some theatrical things, and I think that the band's members might not like/enjoy that as much ... the one thing for sure, would be that it would make the band "different" and "special" in its own way, and not have to be compared to JT or YES, or ELP ... and while that would likely take it away from PA, in many ways, I don't care ....

You're either into the music itself, or into PA ... and PA is NOT the history of music and what has survived, thus, the desire to do something different is valuable to me ... 

As an example, of all the "live" theater I have ever seen, what do I remember the best? THE NATIONAL THEATER OF THE DEAF ... with its incredible ability to show pantomime within a "story" format and incredible intelligence and creativity. I doubt anyone can even imagine its amazing show! The other? THE ETC LAMAMMA GROUP doing "Carmilla" on a set with a large red couch that turned into a hearse, that turned into a bed and had film in one of its windows as the "set" ... and you saw the landscape go by as the actors acted through it ... it was the most amazing thing that even "progressive" music could not do, and had to resort to pyrotechnics to show its creativity, so the fans would think there is something "hot" in this whole thing ... and for the majority of the bands ... it was just a show! And what a massive BS it was, too!

That's all you had to type. The rest has nothing to do with the object of the thread. And you are correct about the rest of the group not wanting to hear your rants in band practice. The minute you start talking about "hits", there'd be an instantaneous and unanimous ejection vote by the rest of the band. 

Not just the rest of the group 

haerskar wrote: If it was 1972 I would become the tuba player with Gentle Giant on Octopus. Gentle Giant always needed a tuba player.

I vaguely remember there was a strange band in the 70's that used something like a French horn (or similar brass instrument), but I'm darned if I can remember their name now.

Of all the answers, this one, the first one, is my favorite. 

But, I did like to jam. We'd get in a room, tune and do mic checks, flip on all the switches, flip open our beers, turn of the lights, and then push "record" and jam for hours. 

I think I would have soared as an acid-taking member of some commune band like Amon Düül or Ash Ra Tempel, The Grateful Dead or Phish. As for my instrument: I'll take anything you put in my hands except the drum kit (even the Simmons or Roland Octopads are just beyond me); flute, sax, guitar, bass, ChapmanStick, trumpet, synths, MIDI-anything, Fairlight, Fender Rhodes, pipe organ (please: not the Hammond or Wurlitzer), I'm game!

Good call. I would like that still.

Rabhi Abou-Khalil uses tuba a lot, usually played by Michel Godard. here two videos:

Friede and I have been at several concerts of Rabih Abou-Khalil, and they were always a great experience. he is not only a great musician, he has amazing language skills too. he grew up in Beirut and came to Germany at age 21. usually people who learn a language at that age have a heavy accent, but he speaks perfect German without any accent at all (I still have one), and he speaks perfect English and French too.

at his concerts he tells hilarious made-up stories between the songs. so there is a double experience at his gigs

The only band that springs to mind is Sky, with Herbie Flowers playing "Tuba Smarties" on Sky 2 (1980). 

For the electric Guitar : Gong 

Hi,

I had more actors and actresses wanting to work with me than you can imagine ... they knew it would be an experience and then some ... but of course, in rock music ... there is no such thing and most bands and kids are not smart enough to know about anything else but 4 beats ... !

I have Stacia on my Twitter - she's a lovely lady, but doesn't tweet very often. Tho I never did get to a Hawkwind gig back in the day when she was their 'dancer'.

Yes, I can see you in an adaptation of Beckett's Waiting for Godot, which would be instead titled "Waiting for the Band" about a lone character sitting in front of his house waiting for the group to come pick him up for their first gig, but the band's van never comes by.  

The lone actor then soliloquizes about "hits" and the band "knowing nothing but 4 beats" and how they will amount to nothing but being in a genre on Prog Archives. Unfortunately, the play only lasts one night as the audience leaves about 10 minutes into the actor's rambling rant. 

Any chance of you tweeting the voluptuous Stacia and asking whether she would, in fact, be willing to have a threesome with the Baldies? This is the burning question in progdom, and requires answering as a matter of the utmost urgency.

Yes, after "Hyperborea" and the live album "Logos" Tangerine Dream are found wanting.

Well played!